The Devil's Eye

face away from the sun. 'I've heard about that.' 'It's just a matter of time before we'll have to take the sons of bitches on. Isn't it, Par?' 'Looks like,' Par said. 'They keep coming. Starting trouble.' 'Kilgore keeps telling us,' said the big one, 'we shouldn't get excited. That they won't bother us. But

***

Eventually we pulled up in front of a marker:

BESSARLIK Oldest Settlement on Salud Afar Believed to Be Nonhuman 2,000 B.A.

The place was fenced off. There were more signs: ABSOLUTELY NO CAMPING. And OPEN DAWN TO DUSK. And CAMPING PROHIBITED EXCEPT IN DESIGNATED AREAS. The date, of course, referred to two thousand years before the arrival of the Aquila . The trees were thick, and if there'd ever been a city there, no part of it remained. 'We should have brought a scanner,' I said. Alex shook his head. 'It's another scam.' 'How do you know?' 'I've done the research. This place was pulled together three centuries ago to make money for the locals.' I was getting annoyed. 'Then why'd we bother coming?' 'Because Vicki came. And I'd be surprised if she didn't know the history of the place, too. Chase, it's entertainment. You come and let your imagination take over. That's what it's all about. Nobody's serious about any of this stuff.' We'd arrived in the early evening. There was a boat-rental operation at the end of a pier, and a campground. Along the riverbank were a sandwich shop, a souvenir store, and an inn. This, collectively, was the Hub. A few visitors were walking around, taking pictures. A tourist boat pulled up while we were there. Everybody got off and piled into the inn. We followed and found a young lady watering plants. I got the assignment to ask the questions, since Alex thought my chemistry with her would be better. Had she ever heard of Vicki Greene? 'Who?' 'The horror writer.' She shook her head. 'If you ask at the desk, they can tell you whether she's here.' 'She wouldn't be here now.' I showed her a hologram. Vicki dressed for a day in the woods-baggy white slacks, gray pullover reading UNIVERSITY OF KHARMAIN, and a green cap like the one Downhome Smith wears in the sims.

She took a long look and shook her head. 'Sorry,' she said. We'd made a mistake allowing the people from the tour boat to get in first. So we waited awhile, and finally I got to the service desk. The clerk was a middle-aged woman with a distinct sense that the hotel's visitors were people with too much leisure time on their hands. Unlike her, a busy workingwoman. 'We have a friend who may have stayed here,' I said. 'About five or six months ago. Vicki Greene? Could you look her up and tell me whether she was ever at the inn?' She gave me a polite smile. 'I'm sorry. It's against the privacy laws. We're not permitted to reveal that kind of information without the consent of the subject.' She talked as if that should have been obvious. 'It's important that we find her,' I said. 'I'm sorry. I can't help you.' I showed her some money. 'I'd make it worth your while.' 'If something happened, I'd get in trouble. Now, if you decide you want a room, let me know. Excuse me.' And she turned away. Alex had been listening, and I saw disapproval in his eyes. 'You sounded like a politician.' 'You do it next time.' He looked across the lobby. 'We shouldn't have bothered with this place,' he said. 'Let's go.' 'What's the plan?' 'It's a safe assumption that she wouldn't come all the way out here and stay at an inn.' 'Why?' 'We know she came for the atmosphere. She rented a canoe when she could have flown in.' He shook his head. 'She stayed outside.' 'In the campground?' 'No. And for the same reason she wouldn't stay here .' The young lady with the watering can caught my attention. 'Miss,' she said, 'I couldn't help overhearing. We don't recommend camping outside other than in the official areas.' 'Why not?' asked Alex. She was embarrassed. 'It might be dangerous.' 'Why?' 'Well, people say there's something out there-' 'More advertising,' Alex said. The woman stopped. 'Pardon?' 'It's okay. Thanks for the warning.' The doors opened, and we went out into the fading sunlight. An hour later we were camped just off the northern edge of the preserve. We built a fire and sat poking at it and drinking coffee. 'You know,' I said, 'if we're really trying to duplicate her experience, we've got it wrong.' 'How do you mean, Chase?' 'I can't answer for you , but I think the trip down this river would feel a lot different if I were alone.' 'I know. But I don't think we need to reproduce everything exactly. Just figure out what her frame of mind might have been.' 'Ready to go home,' I said. 'You're not much of a camper, are you, Chase?'

So we fell asleep for the second successive evening under the blue star. Eventually I woke up, thinking I'd heard something. But the night was quiet. The last log was still burning. I lay listening to the river, and the wind, and the quiescent hum of insects. Occasionally, wings fluttered above me, in the branches. I pulled my blanket a bit higher, adjusted the jacket I was using for a pillow, and was about to close my eyes again when I saw a light in the trees. On the other side of the river. I watched while it floated along the bank. It was a gauzy, dull glow, vaguely resembling a long cloak. I woke Alex. 'What?' he said. I pointed. 'Look.'

He half rolled over. 'It's an animal of some kind,' he said. 'Ignore it.' 'It doesn't look like any animal I've ever seen.' 'You're on another world, Chase. What do you expect?'

THIRTEEN

The media show us that supernatural creatures, when they come onstage, are uniformly disquieting, twisted, terrifying. One has only to see them to back away. To be repulsed. The truth is quite the opposite, child. These apparitions that come out of the night, that come seeking body and soul, are in their own way extremely attractive. One might say, ravishing. They are in fact quite irresistible. And that is why they are dangerous.

- Wish You Were Here

As I watched, it floated away from the trees and started across the river. I got up and went to the bank, as close as I could get, and took some pictures. It was a patch of luminescence, a radiant mist. A candle adrift in the night. I activated my link. 'Identify,' I said.

'Range, please?'

'Fifty meters.' I watched its reflection in the water.

'Object unknown.'

'It does not match with any life-form on Salud Afar?'

'Negative. There are various microscopic-'

'Any natural phenomenon?'

'None known.'

It was almost across. I hurried forward, but it was drifting downstream, away from me. It floated over the riverbank and merged with the forest. I watched for a while, until long after it was gone. It was, I decided, a reflection. Or possibly some local machination, another unquiet grave, to entertain tourists. Well, they had me hooked. I went back and put another log on the fire. The river was dark and quiet. I climbed into my blanket, closed my eyes, and tried to laugh at myself. The insects got a bit louder, and somewhere a branch creaked. Go to sleep, Kolpath. The fire cracked and popped. I liked the smell of the burning logs. There was something reassuring about it. I opened my eyes and looked again. Still nothing out there. But I couldn't get back to sleep. I lay several minutes, listening to the forest and the river, and finally I got up, pulled my jacket around my shoulders, switched on my lamp, and walked back to the edge of the river. There was nothing. I wondered if someone in a control room somewhere was having a good laugh at my expense. Callistra had set. The area where the apparition had entered the trees was dark. The only light anywhere, other than that I was providing, came from the misty edge of the galaxy, now rising in the east. It was getting cold. I started back to the campfire. And saw a glimmer in the forest. It was back. I turned off the lamp.

It appeared to be just at the edge of the forest, not quite at treetop level, drifting quietly with the wind while it rose and sank. I thought about waking Alex, but he'd have complained again. He was probably right. Undoubtedly right. Still- When I was a little girl, I had a kitten named Ceily. I used to amuse myself with Ceily by pointing a laser light at the floor in front of her. She loved to chase it, and I used to run the laser around the room and up the walls. Whenever I got it down within her reach, she'd go into her crouch and sneak up on it and try to grab it. I felt a little bit like Ceily that night. I walked toward the light, taking my time, as if I might scare the thing off. The ground was