[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.Jack favored him with her most withering look.“Now, Trag, you know very well it's a woman! You guys attract them like flies.” Glancing over at the corner where Trag had been stationed and noting the grumpy expressions on the women's faces, she added, “Which I see you’ve been doing yourself.Found a mate yet?”“No,” Trag replied.“Met lots of nice girls, but none I want to live with forever, so I keep looking.”“Trag was always a wanderer,” Cat remarked.“Hard to please, more like,” Jack muttered under her breath.“You should take a trip to Earth, Trag,” Jack suggested aloud.“Just walk down the street naked and then take your pick of the ones who follow you.”“That sounds very romantic,” Trag said with a snicker.“You didn’t say you were looking for romance,” Jack pointed out.“But if you think you’re finding ‘nice girls’ in places like this… well… I guess I can’t help you.”Jack glanced over at the women Trag had been sitting with and decided that they all fell into the “lover for hire” category.She wondered briefly how much it would cost to get one of them to have some of Trag's children, but then decided that she didn’t want Zetithians growing up in that sort of environment.Earth would be much better, but so far, she hadn’t been able to persuade Lerotan to take Trag there.Actually, Jack had an idea that, being an arms dealer, he couldn’t go there, so she didn’t press the point.Landing regulations on Earth were pretty tough.Shifting her gaze back to Trag, she tweaked his cloak and added, “ ’Course, you look like you’re hiding most of your attributes under an awful lot of camouflage these days.” The only skin she could see was his face and hands—and they had seemed a little chilly to her.Trag shivered.“You try living on a sizzling rock like Darconia for twenty years and see how you feel when you leave!” he grumbled.“I don’t know how Ty stands it! I feel like I’m freezing my nuts off all the time—no matter which planet we go to!”“Well, I’m sure you’ll adjust,” Jack said kindly.“But I don’t suppose you’ll be walking around naked for a while—on Earth or anywhere else.Guess you’ll have to get a mate based on personality alone.” Trag had plenty of that, she knew.Lerotan decided it was time to make his move.“Hey, Jack,” he called out.“You know that guy you asked me to check out?”“You mean Sylor Halen?” she said casually.“Yeah,” he said.“I think I can help you on this one.”“Good boy, Leroy!” she said with a winning smile.“I knew you would.”Lerotan smiled and motioned for her to come closer.“And now for the deal.”Jack knew he wouldn’t give up the information for free.“So, Leroy,” she began.“How do you feel about a sponge that makes its own soap?”“Don’t think I need that,” he replied, stroking a bare Davordian thigh.“These women take great pleasure in keeping me… clean.”The Davordians looked so smug Jack wanted to slug them, but went on doggedly.“Well, then, how about some new boots? My Shoemaker in a Box could crank out a new pair in no time.”Lerotan shook his head, smiling wickedly.“Got plenty of boots.”“Well, hell, Leroy!” Jack exclaimed in exasperation.“What the devil do you want?”His grin was now diabolical.“Chocolate.”Drummond got the call from Jack and immediately contacted the tracking team.“Hey, Zerk!” he said.“Need you and the boys to look up Sylor Halen again.”“Aw, c’mon, Drummond! That guy is gone!” Zerk insisted.“I don’t know how, but he must have pulled his implant or something.Every time we went to pick him up, he wasn’t there!”“I’ve got some new info on him,” Drummond said.“He's not pure Vessonian.Seems he's got a little Treslanti in his bloodline.”“Which means he can disappear,” Zerk said slowly.“Damn! No wonder we could never find him! We kept checking periodically, and we went all over the place trying to locate him, but no luck.I’d about decided his implant was sending out a bad signal.”“Well, now you know the reason,” Drummond said.“Where are you showing him now?”“Hold on a minute,” Zerk replied, checking the sensor array.“Hmm, looks like he's at his original address.”“Can you get there real quick?”“Nope,” Zerk replied.“We’re a little tied up at the moment.Just picked up a belligerent Teonite who doesn’t want to leave our charming little planet, and it might be a couple hours before we can get there.”“Well, I’ll head out myself, then,” Drummond said.“Bonnie needs to know about this.”“Better be careful,” Zerk advised.“He could be right there in front of you, and you wouldn’t see him—believe me, I know.” Zerk shuddered slightly.He was as tough as any tracker, but an invisible enemy gave him the willies.“I’ll give Bonnie a call and warn her first.” Drummond knew that Lynx was probably in more danger from Sylor than Bonnie was, but Drummond didn’t want anything happening to him, either.Bonnie had been happier with Lynx than she’d been in a very long time, and Drummond didn’t want anything to change that.He made the call right away, but couldn’t reach her because, as luck would have it, Bonnie's glitchy comlink was on the blink again.Recognizing the scent, Lynx was instantly on the alert.Sylor was in the vicinity, but exactly where and with what intention, Lynx couldn’t tell.He’d gotten several rats that evening—they liked to come out at dusk, and Lynx's keen vision had no trouble spotting them, just as he should have been able to spot Sylor.He considered hunting him down by his scent trail alone, but knew that Sylor would realize he was being hunted and leave.Lynx didn’t want that; he wanted a confrontation.This cat and mouse game they were playing had him primed for a fight—and now that he had something to fight for, he was more than willing to engage.Leaning against the feeding pen fence, he fed the rats to the enocks, letting them tear off bits of the meat while his eyes scanned the area.If Sylor moved, he would see him—but only if he happened to be looking right at him at the time.Lynx wondered just what mechanism the Vessonians used to disappear and decided that they must be capable, not of disappearing, but of projecting their surroundings to the viewer rather than their own image.This would explain why wearing clothing didn’t affect the ability—Ulla had been wearing a sleeper when she did it, and Sylor must have been capable of doing the same thing.Just then, Kipper trotted over, and Lynx remembered that the dog would know Sylor—possibly being able to see him, or somehow know where he was.He should have asked Tisana to tell the dog to point him out, but it was too late for that now.The Jolly Roger's crew had been gone for about two weeks, promising a return visit in a few months [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]