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"Well, it's just like, I mean, I can almost sense stuff inside him. Not like
he's got a mind or anything. Just sorta like vibrations and things. I thought
I sensed something like that just now. I don't think he likes arguing and
dissension. I think he likes neatness and order."
"Sure he does," said Seeth. "That's why he changes his shape every ten
minutes."
"But each new shape is ordered."
Seeth patted her hand reassuringly. "It's all right, good lookin'. This is
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probably more complicated than anything you've ever had to deal with, right?
So it's only natural you'd be feeling a little weird about stuff." When she
didn't object to his patting her hand he tried to pat her shoulder. She
frowned at him disapprovingly and edged away.
"Watch the hands, I mean, like, this is a public place and all. They probably
have laws about stuff like that."
"Like what? You putting me on?" He gestured at the street. "What's public
about this? We're the only chimps in this circus. We could probably do it here
on top of the table and nobody'd even blink. They probably wouldn't even know
what we were doing."
Kerwin probably should have kept his mouth shut, but he didn't. "Give it a
rest, Seeth. Besides, we've got enough of this money-stuff to last us for a
while. We don't need to do any more exhibitions. If we got any kind of
reaction out of these creatures from the sight of your naked body it'd
probably be laughter."
Seeth went for his throat, right across the table. Izmir skittered aside on
his three chair legs while Miranda just sighed and leaned clear. Dishes,
bread, jams, spreads, meat, drinks and alien silverware went flying. None
of it touched her, of course. A few fortunates like Miranda were born encased
in invisible force fields. Stains and slop never soiled them. One of the
miracles of natural physics that even Einstein couldn't explain. Like color
and taste and weak forces, it was right up there with the most esoteric
nuclear theories. The dirt repellers.
A chunk of lobster maybe went flying past her. She didn't even bother to duck.
Might have mussed her hair.
Neither Kerwin nor Seeth had time to observe this unique phenomenon because
the two of them were now rolling across the floor in the company of numerous
individual components of their dinner. A few alien patrons looked on with
casual interest, but soon returned to their own meals.
The only ones who expressed more than a passing con-cern were three very short
insectoids. Save for the obvious intelligence in their faces and postures,
they might have been giant aphids escaped from some barnstorming entomological
carnival. They wore identical, intricately woven capes of black and purple
material, which rose to form high collars behind their heads and served to
conceal most of their bulbous, pear-shaped bodies. Moving gracefully on four
hind legs apiece, they approached the dinner table recently abandoned by Seeth
and Kerwin Ransom.
Kerwin extracted himself from Seeth's grasp and nod-ded at the alien trio.
"Look, dummo. People even shorter than you are." Seeth responded by trying to
flatten his older brother's nose.
Actually, they'd been so closely entwined that next to no damage had been
done.
One of the aphid-things turned to another and buzzed. The other two buzzed
back, gesturing with their antennae instead of their hands. As the brothers
were about to resume their sibling altercation, the aphids calmly picked Izmir
off the floor and ran like mad for the restaurant egress.
Miranda rose. "Hey, they're trying to swipe Izmir!"
The two men separated, eyed each other warily. "So what's it to us?" Seeth was
carefully rearranging his bike chain.
Kerwin headed hesitantly for the exit. "Come on. You heard what Rail said.
We're supposed to guard him with our lives."
"Guard him with your life, clown." He brushed food from his Mohawk.
"We can't let strangers take Izmir like that. He's as helpless as a puppy."
Miranda rushed past Kerwin and out onto the street in pursuit of the
kidnappers. Or were they thieves? It all depended on what Izmir was.
"Can you believe that, man?" Seeth shook his head. "Dumb squeeze."
Kerwin couldn't reply because he was being verbally assailed by the
proprietors of the restaurant. His translator kept up with their rapid-fire
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speech easily. Not that transla-tion was necessary. Someone was going to pay
for the mess they'd made. They had Kerwin up against a wall and were berating
him unmercifully. Several of their accusa-tions didn't translate at all.
Being marooned on Alvin without female companion-ship, however indifferent it
might be, was worse than chasing after Izmir. Seeth tossed a couple of pieces
of plastic ruler at the restaurant's owners. This appeared to placate them
instantly. Then he and Kerwin lit out after the would-be homecoming queen.
They found her staring over a flimsy-looking rail that encircled a bottomless
pit. Kerwin drew back from the abyss, sucking in his breath. Flickering lights
marked the descending levels of the city. It was like staring down into a
vertical infinity mirror.
"Far out," said Seeth.
Miranda pointed. "They went over that way."
They followed her around the pit until the rail ended, whereupon she jumped
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