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Relief and disappointment both seemed premature. Louis stood up and walked toward the couple. Gle
“Hello, Louis.” She smiled at him warmly. “I hoped we’d find you here. There’s been a change of plans. I was in the middle of a discussion with Professor Bloom—”
“Quintus.”
“Quintus.” Gle
“No problem.” Louis meant it. He admired real nerve, and there was no hint of apology in Gle
“Indeed?” Bloom removed his arm from Gle
“Businessman, mostly, for exploration projects. Last trip I was out at the Torvil Anfract, came back via the Mandel system.”
“Indeed?” Bloom had turned to look back up the hill even before Louis answered the question.
Gle
“He’s an absolute genius,” she whispered. “I do hope you understand, but given a chance like this…”
“I said, no problem.” I know that game, sweetheart. You take the one you want right now, but be sure to put the other one in cold storage in case you need him later. “Go and enjoy your di
“Some other time, though, you and me?”
“You bet.”
Gle
“I say. Something you said just now. Did you mention the Torvil Anfract?”
“Sure did. I just came back from there, way out in the Zardalu Communion.”
“That’s the name that the Lang woman mentioned the other evening at di
“Certainly.”
“Was she at the Anfract with you, by any chance?”
“At it, and in it. Right in it.”
“Three days ago, after our di
Quintus Bloom didn’t spell out his thought processes to Louis. He didn’t need to. Louis had the answer to the next question ready, even before Bloom asked it.
“If I were to provide you with a ship, could you fly me to the Torvil Anfract?”
“Could, and would. I even have the ship. If the price is right, I mean.”
The last sentence had come out without thinking, but Louis didn’t try to kid himself. The ‘right’ price? Even if Bloom didn’t have more than two cents, it would be enough.
Daybreak on Sentinel Gate was, if anything, more spectacular than sunset. The air was magically clear, the flowers and shrubs touched with fragrant dew. The birds, awake but not yet in motion, sang a dawn chorus from within their hidden roosts.
Gle
Gle
She was close to home, near enough to see the soft light that she left burning at night by her front porch. Near enough to see that the porch door, which she was sure had been left open, was now closed. Someone had been inside her house. Perhaps they were still in her house.
Gle
She felt the delicious tingle of a desired though unexpected treat. Quintus Bloom had disappointed. He had proved regrettably diffident. But Louis Nenda would not be like that. He was a real out-worlder, a wild man from one of the rough-and-tumble planets of the Zardalu Communion. She had postponed his date, and all that went with it. But he wasn’t willing to wait.
She just loved an impatient man.
Gle
Gle
A great nightmare shape rose up, as high as the ceiling. A pair of long, jointed limbs swept Gle
Gle
“What do you want?”
It was wasted breath, because everyone knew that Cecropians didn’t speak. But the eyeless white head nodded at the sound, and carried Gle
She could flee — Gle
The Cecropian eased her way through the door and crept across to the gray box. Nimble black paws began a complex dance of movement in front of it. The terminal screen came to life, displaying words: SPEAK YOUR HUMAN SPEECH. THIS DEVICE WILL INTERPRET IT.