dust bunny's teeth; a lot of them.
'I don't give a damn about the varmint.' The mugger used the back of his sleeve to wipe his mouth. 'Drop the big purse, lady.'
'Whatever you say,' Elly agreed. She slowly lowered the tote, taking her time about it. 'I have to put it down carefully, though. There's a very expensive relic inside.'
The man's eyes widened with feverish excitement. 'Alien or Early Colonial?'
The guy might be a crazed, dope fiend, Cooper thought, but he knew his antiquities. Probably a Guild man who had spent time underground before he had fallen into the clutches of the drug.
'Alien,' Elly assured him briskly with the air of a professional saleswoman about to display an expensive item to a customer. 'Would you like to see it?'
'Take it out. Real slow.'
'Of course.' She reached down into the tote. 'It's a very fine piece.'
The jittery mugger watched her with a desperate air of anticipation. He was so focused on visions of the pharmaceuticals he planned to buy that he never noticed the small ball of ghost fire Cooper summoned behind him.
The little UDEM drifted toward the back of the mugger's head. Cooper was well aware that what he intended had to be done carefully. He did not want to kill the doper, just knock him out for a while.
Elly started to remove something from the tote.
'Let me see that,' the man said, taking a step closer. 'Throw it over here.'
Cooper let the leading edge of the small ghost brush ever so gently against the mugger's head.
The skeletal figure stiffened abruptly, arms jangling, mouth opening on a silent scream. He jerked violently a second time and then collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
The mugger's ghost winked out instantly as the psi energy abruptly ceased. Underground, the UDEMs were fueled by the ambient power of the catacombs. Aboveground, however, it took a trained hunter to keep one together.
Cooper dissolved his own UDEM. The last of the green light disappeared, leaving only the thin beam of the flashlight.
'Nicely done,' Elly said. She dropped the high-heeled sandal she had partially removed back into the tote and surveyed the fallen man with a slight frown. 'I hope you didn't use too much energy on him, though.'
Cooper crouched beside the unconscious man and checked for a pulse. He found it immediately.
'He'll wake up in a few hours with a bad headache and no clear memory of what happened.' Cooper rose and urged her toward the mouth of the alley. 'Are you okay?'
'For heaven's sake, I was raised in a hunter family, remember? It isn't the first time I've seen ghosts.'
'Just checking. Thanks for distracting that SOB with the story about having an alien artifact in your bag, by the way. He never even realized that I was working ghost light behind him.'
'You're good, aren't you?' she said, giving him a thoughtful, sidelong glance. 'That little ghost was very intricate, very efficient, very tightly constructed. Not many hunters could have generated one like that.'
'I've had a fair amount of experience,' he said.
'You've got more than experience. You've obviously got both a lot of raw power and a high degree of control.'
'Yeah, well, I'm a Guild boss, remember?' he said, trying to keep things light. 'I'm supposed to be good.'
She fell silent beside him. Probably not a good sign, he thought.
At the mouth of the alley, he turned right, steering Elly and Rose toward the intersection. At the corner they all paused and looked back up the street toward the Trap Door. The bar was in the middle of the adjacent block. Directly in front three police cruisers had come to a halt, lights flashing. He could see some cops going through the door. A crowd was coalescing to watch the excitement.
'We're in the clear,' he said. 'My Spectrum is at this end of the street. Everyone is looking the other way. If we're careful, no one will notice us. From here on we walk, we do not run. People tend to notice folks who are moving too fast.'
'Understood. But I suggest we walk at a very brisk pace, if you don't mind.'
'Fine by me.'
They were only a few steps away from the Spectrum when a patrol car glided up beside them. The hard- eyed officer behind the wheel nailed them in the beam of his flashlight.
'Where are you two going?' he asked, most of his attention on Cooper.
'Home,' Elly said before Cooper could respond. 'As quickly as possible.'
'Not from around here, huh?'
'My friend is from out of town. I brought him down to the Old Quarter to show him the sights. We just finished dinner at a charmingly quaint little cafe up the street and were walking back to the car when all of a sudden there were police cars everywhere.'
The officer switched the beam to Elly's face. 'What's the name of the cafe where you had dinner?'
'The Emerald Wall,' she said without missing a beat. She produced a card from the pocket of her coat. 'My name is Elly St. Clair. I own St. Clair's Herbal Emporium. I specialize in custom-blended tisanes, teas, and tonics. If you ever need anything in that line, be sure to stop in at my shop. I know police work is very stressful. I have a special moonseed tisane that can do wonders.'
The officer scowled at the card and then looked at Cooper. 'Where are you from?'
'Aurora Springs,' Cooper said.
The officer looked amused. 'Come to the big city to visit the lady and see the bright lights, huh?'
'That was the idea,' Cooper said.
The officer switched off the flashlight. 'All right, you two, go on, get out of here.' He gave Elly one last glance. 'Is that a dust bunny on your shoulder?'
'Yes,' she said. 'Her name is Rose.'
Cooper noticed that Rose had gone back to doing a good imitation of something that had rolled out from under a bed. Only her innocent blue eyes were showing.
'Heard they can be dangerous,' the officer said, playing the light on Rose, who appeared not to notice.
'That's a silly urban legend,' Elly said. 'The most she might do is nip a finger, and she would only do that if she was seriously provoked.'
'If you say so. Go on, you two. You don't want to hang around this neighborhood.' He gave Elly a stern look. 'Next time you want to show a visitor a good time, I suggest you take 'em to a better part of town. Don't want to give tourists a bad impression of Cadence.'
'Thank you for the advice,' she said.
The officer drove off down the street.
'You heard the man,' Cooper said, opening the Spectrum's passenger door. 'We don't want to hang around here. This is a bad neighborhood. Surprised you'd bring an innocent tourist like me to a place like this.'
'Thought it might give you something to talk about when you went back to Aurora Springs. Not like there's much else of interest going on back there.'
'Not since you left town,' he said.
Chapter 4
SHE GAVE HIM A QUICK, STARTLED LOOK AND THEN, evidently choosing to let the remark go, she slipped into the front seat. She moved quickly and gracefully, but he nevertheless got a tantalizing glimpse of the inside of one softly rounded thigh. He felt his blood heat.
He went to the other side of the car, got in beside her, and rezzed the ignition. Flash rock melted, and the powerful engine purred. He pulled slowly, sedately away from the curb. 'What's the address of your friend's place?' he asked.
