“I got the idea, Martha, but let’s not delete that warrior part just yet. He’s in the military?”
“You could say that.”
“I could, but you wouldn’t? What’s it called, then, in his country?”
“The men of Sha-Ka’an merely keep themselves in a constant state of readiness, sort of what you might term the national guard, or the national militia, or—”
“I get it,” Brittany cut in. “Not military, but available if needed.”
“Exactly!”
“And where is this country?”
Not just a little chuckling, but nearly thirty seconds of assorted humor sounds came out of the box before Martha said, “Tenacious, aren’t you? But you’ve heard of classified info, haven’t you? Yes, of course you have.”
“Oh, come on, you’ve told me the name of it. I can go find an atlas and look it up myself.”
“You can, but you’d be wasting your time. You won’t find it in any atlas.”
“A country so newly formed it’s not on the maps yet?” Brittany said incredulously.
“Not new,” Martha corrected. “But then, new is subjective. What would be new to you wouldn’t be to him, and vice versa, of course.”
Brittany could allow that there might be places in the world still unexplored. But to have an entire country tucked away in one of them? OK, so it was possible. Actually, Dalden and his people were proof of that.
“Howhave they managed to remain undiscovered?” Brittany asked.
“You could say their—borders—are closed to visitors. No one gets in without permission, and permission is rarely if ever given.”
“Are we even talking about a country? Maybe you’ve got town and country mixed up?”
“Actually, you’re working on assumptions,” Martha told her. “You’re the one who called Sha-Ka’an a country. Dalden never confirmed or denied that.Sometimeshe actually follows my directives.”
The last was meant for Dalden, but it got no reaction out of him. He didn’t look like he was paying attention to the conversation at all. His eyes were closed, his skin still off-color, his forehead damp. Brittany didn’t doubt that his full concentration was still on keeping his breakfast where it resided.
But she knew she’d get no answers out of him, anyway. And as long as Martha was spilling some beans, even if dried-up useless ones, she’d rather keep trying to get at least one whole kernel out of her.
She tried a different tack. “I’m not asking for any great secrets. All I want to know is who I’m helping. There happen to be factions in this world that I’d be completely opposed to, and I don’t want to find out later that I’ve helped one of them.”
“Okay, listen up, because I’m going to break my own rules, but only this once. Sha-Ka’an isn’t a country. Let’s call it a place, and where his people as a whole get their name. His actual country is Kan-is-Tra, and no, you won’t find that on one of your maps either. His town is Sha-Ka-Ra. And none of the above have politics opposed to your people, so rest easy on that score. Now with no other information forthcoming about any of these locations, you’ll agree what you’ve just heard has no meaning for you. Leave it at—”
“Damnit upside and down!” Brittany gave her exasperation free rein. “You can at least give me a region to relate to. Desert, arctic, tropics? Igloos, tents,what?”
“Ah, so it’s the carpenter that’s going nuts with curiosity? Very well, their architecture is pretty impressive, some of it ranking right up there with a sultan’s palace, and no, you won’t find any Sha-Ka’ani in that part of the world,” was added with a chuckle. “Now give it up, doll. If he chooses to enlighten you when this is over, it would be info you can’t be allowed to keep, so all of this is pointless. Whatever he tells you, I’ll have to erase before we go home.”
“Erase?” Brittany gasped. “Are you talking about making me forget somehow?”
“Necessary.”
Brittany was outraged. “Is that how they’ve remained unknown? Anyone who finds out about them gets their memory tampered with?”
“Are we getting disturbed by the concept of self-preservation?”
Brittany hissed, “Messing around with someone’s memories is a dangerous—”
“Not even close,” Martha cut in this time. “Meticulous, exact, no guesswork involved. Only what needs to be removed gets removed. Everything else remains intact.”
“Are you talking about hypnosis?” Brittany asked, her tone only slightly calmer.
