Realware

"Are you all right, Cobb?" called Yoke.

"Yes," said Cobb shortly. Perhaps he and Onar had argued?

"Captain Pulu's estimates make it that you're one-third done, Yoke," said the King, squinting up at the man on the ship's bridge.

"What are you going to do with all this stuff?" asked Yoke.

"Refurbish Tonga's credit in world banking circles!" said the King happily. "I'm going to ship this load straight to Suva in . Fiji and sell it. Tonga will be in the black for the first time this century. Not that our debt is all that large, mind you; it's well under a hundred million dollars. We've been prudent, but we can never quite get onto the good side of the ledger. This will make me a hero to my people."

"You're going to give every bit of it away?" asked Vaana. She sounded surprised.

"I thought you said half the imipolex would be for the Tongan moldies."

"Strictly speaking, there are no Tongan moldies,' " said the King. "Only a native-born flesh-and-blood Tongan can be a citizen. This isn't the U.S. with its quixotic Moldie Citizenship Act. I have to take care of my own people first. You moldies are only our guests." He held up his hand to stave off Vaana's anger. "You of course can have all the imipolex you require for your personal needs at any time, dear Vaana. And I promise you that once I've taken care of the Tongan national debt, I will try and do something for our very honored guest moldies."

"A promise ain't enough," snapped Vaana, standing up in her full womanly form.

"My people been counting on me to get us a fair deal."

The King shook his head. "My local standing is already shaky due to the gossip about our relationship, Vaana. For my own political survival, I can't be put in a position of seeming to give a too preferential treatment to --" At this point Yoke lost the thread of their conversation because a nightmarish call came in on her uvvy. It was Phil, standing on a beach looking desperate. He'd encountered Shimmer and the aliens in a cave at the end of the island. The powerball was about to eat him.

When Yoke sprang across the deck and pulled Cobb around her, the old man moldie was maddeningly sluggish in his responses. "Faster, Cobb," urged the frantic Yoke. "You have to fly me to the far end of the island!"

"Why?" drawled Cobb. "You're not finished filling the ship."

"The powerball is about to get Phil! Oh, hurry! Maybe we can save him."

"One certainly hopes not," said Cobb with unexpected venom. His voice sounded all different. "But, very well, I'll take you there. It should be amusing."

"What is wrong with you?" cried Yoke, but Cobb gave no answer. Silently he flew Yoke to the island's end as directed.

When they landed on the beach, Yoke quickly popped herself out of the moldie. It was too late. A big warped ball of space had slid onto Phil, and his form was swollen up like a balloon. Even though she knew it was hopeless, Yoke ran toward Phil, calling his name, with Cobb trotting along behind her.

The warped sphere of the powerball snapped loose from normal space--and Phil was gone. A nauseating ripple of distortion passed through Yoke's body. And then nothing. The world going on the same as before. With no Phil. Right at the end he'd said he loved her. Yoke realized that she could have loved him too. Cobb was standing just behind Yoke, looking sarcastic and unhelpful. And down the beach a ways was a hole in the cliff with some of the aliens watching. Yoke could make out the pale glow of Shimmer and the dark snout of Wubwub.

"We have to get back to HRH and the ship," said Cobb. "We're not nearly finished there."

"Whatever," said Yoke, striding down the beach toward the aliens. "Shimmer! You have to help bring them back. I want Phil and I want my mother!" On an impulse, Yoke used her alla to create a flaming wooden torch. "Moldie flesh burns, Shimmer!"

Calmly the pale woman and the dark pig stared out at Yoke.

Did she really have any chance against these superhuman? Not

likely. But she held her little torch up high. "Help me or else!" Before the scene could play itself out, Yoke was tackled from behind. By Cobb. The old man moldie knocked the torch from

her hand and flowed forward, enveloping and immobilizing her.

"We really must be on our way," said Cobb. "HRH wants

us back immediately."

And then they were rocketing up from the beach, arcing back across the island to where the roly-poly aluminum Tongan Navy ship waited. Yoke tried to talk to Cobb, but it was no use. It was as if he'd been hypnotized or turned into a zombie.

"I put a leech-DIM on him," explained the smirking Onar when Cobb split open to disgorge Yoke back onto the deck of the ship. "As long as Cobb's wearing it, he's an extension of me. I slapped it on him while you were busy making the gold and imipolex. I let Cobb take you to watch Phil get eaten because I was curious too. Too bad about that, really. Phil was a decent sort. No mental giant, though. In any case, it's time to get back to work, Yoke. Break's over."

"You heartless prick." Now that she knew what to look for, Yoke could see the leech-DIM on Cobb's back, knotted into his pink flesh like a purple scar. She reached out to see if she could tear it loose, but Cobb's body twisted away.

"Do as Onar says," said Cobb, his voice a slavish replica of Onar's.

"That leech is comin' off right now!" yelled Vaana. She'd become very agitated as soon as Onar pointed out Cobb's leech-DIM. She gave the King's shoulder a shake. "Bou-Bou! You can't sit here and let this skanky white dook put a leech-DIM on a moldie. Tonga's a free zone!"

"Yes, but a free Cobb might take Yoke and her alla away from us too soon," hissed Onar. "Surely even you can understand that, you fat, stinking sex-toy."

"Understand this" said Vaana. Her arm lashed out snake-fast to strike a concussive blow against the side of Onar's head. Onar collapsed like a rag doll, and so did Cobb.

"Oh, you shouldn't have done that, Vaana," said the King, very upset. "I'm sorry about the leech-DIM. Onar talked me into it. Greed, don't you know." He waved both arms, making a broad "calm down" signal to his bodyguards on the bridge.

"The guards may think they have to defend the Tu'i Tonga, Vaana. They're obsessed with the notion that you might harm me."

But Vaana was too agitated to pay proper attention. "You actually gave Onar the okay, Bou-Bou? You told him he could use a leech-DIM?" She grabbed the King and gave him another rough shake. "I thought you loved moldies!"

Up on the bridge the bodyguards were frantically conferring with the captain, and now the whip-ca

"No!" screamed the King. "Vaana!"

With what seemed like her dying effort, Vaana opened her mouth and made a cracked warbling noise. And then both halves of her were still. Ke

Onar began twitching, starting to wake back up, and Cobb was twitching too. If Yoke waited any longer it would be too late. Quickly she made herself a knife with her alla and rolled Cobb over so she could cut the purple scar of the leech from his back. But Ke

"Don't hurt the girl!" shouted the King. "You've done enough damage."

"No weapons near the King," said Ke