Josie nodded as she looked around the tent city. Elaine and Hilda were talking on one

side. They still hadn’t found Jane, so Jack and Mister Warner were doing better with

their thing than she was.

She had flashed some of the women with Doctor Occult and they were in stasis as far

as she could tell. She had to think of some way to get these people on their feet and

moving out of here.

“What do you think, Ear Ripper?,” said Hilda.

“I haven’t done it enough,” said Josie. She frowned at Jane’s second. The blond

woman smiled at her.

“Matilda?,” asked Elaine.

“June found something,” said Josie. “Jack and Mister Warner are there. Apparently

Mister Warner took a hand in things and showed them why he was the champion of

order for so long.”

“Even your children are dangerous,” said Hilda.

“Every kid is dangerous,” said Josie. “The question is how dangerous are they.”

“What do you think?,” asked Hilda. She turned her gaze across the tents.

“I am impressed with the work that has gone in,” said Josie. “How long can you hold

them here before there is a problem?”

“We don’t have to worry about additional food yet because they aren’t eating,” said

Hilda. “We have water supplies we are giving them. They aren’t doing anything. We

have a midwife who is supervising everything, but she says they aren’t doing any

normal functions like sweating.”

“Could they still be infected?,” said Josie. “I can go back up the line and check on our

gardener friend since he knew everything about goblin trees.”

“Massa is here,” said Hilda. “I can get her so you can talk to her.”

“Go ahead,” said Josie. “If we can’t wake them up, all we are going to be able to do

is warehouse them until they die.”

Hilda strode off to look for her midwife. She talked to people who were in her way.

Nods and questions were exchanged as she moved through the makeshift shelter.

“Opinions?,” asked Josie.

“You might have to cast some kind of spell to wake them up,” said Elaine. “It is

unnatural that these women are doing nothing. I would expect they would need to be

cleaned up at least.”

“I’m thinking the same thing,” said Josie. “Did we just stall the problem and bring it

home so it could hit us here? Are these women trapped in their own bodies? I don’t

like any of this and I don’t like the feeling that this is some kind of trap.”

“If there is a danger, wouldn’t the Society say something?,” said Elaine.

“Right before it’s too late,” said Josie.

Hilda returned with a heavy woman with a cloth to cover her gray hair, large hands,

and a small scar on her round chin. She frowned at Josie and Elaine.

“Ear Ripper, this is Massa Oryne,” said Hilda. “Massa, this is Josie Fox, and Elaine

Numera.”

“Madame Witch,” said Massa.

“The Ear Ripper thing is old and I’m not a witch,” said Josie. She frowned at the

taller women. Hilda gave her a Jack grin in return. “Hilda said you haven’t seen any

signs of life in any of these women.”

“They breathe, a check of their eyes shows the eyes moving in their skulls, but they

don’t move at all,” said Mass. “I have never seen anything like this.”

“They were being used to try to perfect a way to grow goblin trees,” said Josie. “We

destroyed the laboratory when we got them out.”

“Goblin trees are a rare thing,” said Massa. “My limited reading indicates all these

women should be dead and coming back to life as monsters.”

“That was my reading also,” said Elaine. “I was a bit surprised when Matilda said

they were a type of monster mushroom.”

“I haven’t heard that before,” said Massa. “A mushroom?”

“A fungus,” said Josie. She went into the nearest tent. She sat down on the ground

next to the cot keeping the patient off the ground.

“What are you doing, Josie?,” asked Elaine. She stood in the entrance of the tent.

“I’m having a Jack moment,” said Josie. She stared at the sleeping woman. This

woman had a hard life before she had been taken from the Shemmarians. Would

waking her up be a mercy?

“That doesn’t sound good,” said Hilda. She looked over Elaine’s shoulder.

“Come in,” said Josie. “I’m still thinking.”

She had the most powerful tool on the planet. She had a brain with forgotten facts that

she could access at any time. She had millions of examples of powers being used to

do the impossible. All she needed was an inspiration.

“The scan with Doctor Occult revealed nothing,” said Josie. “That doesn’t mean

anything. It might have classified whatever is going on here with a natural process.”

“So all these women might still have goblin tree seeds inside of them?,” said Elaine.

“And that would make them a threat to us,” said Hilda.

“Not just us,” said Josie. “Elaine, step here. Hilda, you and Massa, stand beside

Elaine. I have a small idea.”

Josie got to her feet. She stepped back so she could see all four women at once. She

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

wondered if her idea would work as she called on Doctor Occult again. She told the

scan to compare the four women and tell her what she was missing.

The scan registered her targets as pictures down to the core of their beings. Then it

layered on muscle, arteries, veins, the gastrointestinal tract, bones, and flesh. Hilda

and Elaine registered as normal. Massa had several growths around her spine, and

what looked like a tumor on her liver. The comatose woman had streaks of growths

in her brain and along her spine.

The scan said they were all healthy.

She let the persona go. She wanted the watch to be recharged before she actually went

to work. And Massa had to be the first to be worked on.

“All right,” said Josie. “Hilda, Elaine. Could you grab up everyone who is working

on these women. Grab Jane if you can find her. I think I need to have a meeting.”

“How bad is it?,” asked Massa.

“It’s okay,” said Josie. “I just want to talk to you for a moment. You are in charge

here and you are going to have to figure out what you want to do.”

“Josie won’t let anything happen to you, Massa,” said Elaine. “Inside that cranky,

frowny, crunchy shell is a center made of butter.”

“That will rip your ear off,” said Hilda. She clapped the other woman on the shoulder

as she left the tent.

“She won’t rip your ear off,” said Elaine. She left after their boisterous comrade.

“All right,” said Josie. “I think you have been exposed to the goblin tree seed. Are

you having problems feeling things?”

“I had a pain in my side, but it stopped after I started working to help these women,”

said Massa. “Are they a threat?”

“If we don’t stop what’s going on, but we are going to stop it,” said Josie. “I’m going

to show you a couple of pictures. I want to know what you think.”

Josie changed into Zatanna. She produced a picture like an x-ray. The streaks in the

sleeping body were highlighted in red. She handed that over.

She produced another x-ray with the colored markers on it. This one had the tumor

in yellow. She let the persona go.

“What is this?,” asked Massa. She indicated the first x-ray.

“This is the inside of the sleeping woman,” said Josie. “All the marked areas are not

supposed to be there. They are on her brain and spine and might be shutting down the

signal for her to do anything. This one is yours.”

She handed over the second picture.

“I have the same growths on my spine,” said Massa. “What is this yellow thing?”

“It’s a tumor on your liver,” said Josie. “I am going to say you had it before this other

stuff started spreading around.”

“This tumor was why my side hurt?,” asked Massa.

“Maybe,” said Josie. “It might be doing things to your liver which is telling the rest

of you to help it. And I will. Now that I know what to look for, I can fix this today.

Then I can get these people out of here and wake them up and let them get back on

their feet.”

“You want to see if you can fix this in me before you try on someone else?,” said

Massa.

“You’re the only one awake,” said Josie. “I understand if you want me to try on her

first. I would be scared to have someone trying to pull something out of me no matter

how much it was supposed to help me in the long run.”

“What do you want to do?,” said Massa.

“I would like to build a machine that we can move around to pull this stuff out,” said

Josie. “When we do that, things will get messy and you will have to keep everything

clean.”

“Can you do that?,” said Massa. She looked suspicious as such a statement.

“If I can’t, I will call Jack and get something from him,” said Josie. “He did the

original seed extraction with his device.”

“The two of you are the strangest people I have ever seen,” said Massa.

“I always thought I was normal,” said Josie. “Jack is the strange one.”

“I’m sure,” said Massa.

Amazons began gathering at the door. Jane pushed her way to the front. She looked

around. Elaine arrived next, and joined Josie inside the tent. Hilda directed the people

into an orderly crescent around the entrance of the tent.

“What’s going on, Josie?,” asked Jane. She glanced at Massa.

“This is a picture of this woman,” said Josie, handing over the x-ray of the patient. “I

think the growths are keeping her asleep. Show her yours, Massa.”

The midwife handed over her picture.

“She has the same growths, only not so much,” said Jane. She glanced at Massa.

“How?”

“I think these sleepers are exuding something,” said Josie. “I want to try to pull out

all of these growths so your people are safe. First, I have to check everybody.”

“All right,” said Jane. She looked over the group of women. “Is everyone here?”

“There is the second shift,” said Hilda. “They are asleep in their rooms as far as I

know.”

“We can start with the women here,” said Josie. “Then we can work on the sleepers.

I’ll have to work on a way to extract any growths I might find. When I get done with

them, they’ll have to be kept clean and hopefully will wake up so we can start moving

them out of here.”

“The Exchange is searching for the deed for the building you cleared out,” said Jane.

“They are going to send a messenger when they find it.”

“Elaine and I are going to take a run at the owner of the second building,” said Josie.

“The kids were supposed to ask for adventurers to help us move these women and

look out for them.”

“How do you want do this search part?,” said Jane. “I think it will be a bit premature

to wake these women if we have no place to send them.”

“All right,” said Josie. “I can check your nurses before I head out.”

“Can you give us something we can use to check people here?,” asked Hilda.

“Something permanent?”

“Jack is the expert, but let’s see what I can do,” said Josie. “Do you want it here?”

“We should put it next to the house,” said Jane. She pointed out the direction she

meant. “Once we know how many of our women are infected, we can think about

how to clear things out.”

“All right,” said Josie. She wondered how hard it could be to make a scanner to show

problems.

If she could solve this, she would be able to step into Jack’s area of expertise.

“All right,” said Jane. “We’re going to move this riot over to the house. Someone

get the others. We want to do everyone at the same time. Go ahead.”

The group headed out, Hilda talking to one of the women. Josie, Elaine, Massa, and

Jane remained at the back of the pack.

“Do you think you can put a selection board up for us?,” asked Jane. “I know that you

don’t usually do anything like this.”

“I’ll need to think about how we can do this,” said Josie. “I think I can put up

something like an ultrasound so we can look at things in real time.”

“An ultrasound?,” asked Massa.

“Where I am from, medical science has invented things to see through the human

body,” said Josie. “One is an x-ray based on radium that shoots through the body and

can be used to form a static picture like I did for you. Too many will cause problems,

but that won’t matter here for a while if ever. The other is an ultrasound that uses

sound to bounce against the body and produce a picture. Women routinely get them

to check on their babies when they are pregnant.”

“So a sound can be turned into a picture?,” said Jane. “How does that help us?”

“We set up a machine that will take a picture of anyone stepping in front of it and use

it to check for the growths,” said Josie. “Once we know how many of your Amazons

are infected, I can come up with a way to cure that. And once I have a cure, I can use

it on the sleepers.”

“If the second building is too far away, we might have to put housing up for our

people to help these victims,” said Jane.

“I will put up another two bricks of gold to help with that,” said Josie. “Don’t worry

about the money. Worry about the manpower that we need to take care of these

people when we start placing them. We are going to need their names and if they have

a place to go outside the city so we can send them away if we can.”

“Two bricks of gold?,” said Massa.

“When I asked Jane to help us sort through the victims from Montrose, I guaranteed

enough money to do the job,” said Josie. “And I have the means to stand by that. You

guys are directly under our wing, and we need you to help the people we can’t. Jack

and I are stomping out fires, but neither of us can just drop everything for a stranger

who needs constant care.”

“You did for me,” said Elaine.

“You are Jack’s beloved,” said Josie. “You don’t turn away your best friend’s

beloved.”

“And we,” Jane gestured to cover the whole yard they were walking through, “plan

to be at the wedding.”