Odd Girl Out

from the train.

Finally, with two minutes left before the train's scheduled departure, the streams slowed to a trickle and then ended. The Juri bringing up the rear paused as he passed us, and for the first time one of them actually looked at me. 'You wished to begin your trip in peace and quiet,' he said in a flat Modhran voice. 'Now you may.'

'So I see,' I said, the skin at the back of my neck creeping. Had he really just taken all his walkers off this train? For us? 'I appreciate it.'

'Remember our bargain,' he said, and walked off to join his fellow walkers.

I took a deep breath. 'Come on,' I said to Bayta. 'Let's get aboard before he changes his mind.'

Ninety seconds later, we stood at my compartment's display window, watching the group of walkers standing at their inhumanly stiff attention as the Quadrail pulled out of the station. We continued to watch them as the train picked up speed, until we angled up the far end into the main part of the Tube and our view was cut off by the station's atmosphere barrier.

'I'd say the Yandro stationmaster's got some serious rebooking to do,' I commented to the universe at large.

'I don't believe it,' Bayta murmured. She was still staring out the window, even though there was nothing to see anymore except the curve of the Tube. 'Why would he take all those walkers off the train?'

'You heard him,' I said. 'A gesture of goodwill.'

'Of course,' she said with an edge of bitterness. 'Like giving you that necklace?'

I felt my throat tighten. 'It was Lorelei's,' I said briefly. 'He probably hoped he could use it to track down her sister.'

'Only now he's got us to do that for him?'

'Something like that.'

She shivered. 'I don't like it, Frank. This isn't like him. None of this is like him.'

'He does seem to be tweaking his usual style a bit,' I conceded. 'Maybe this Abomination thing has him rattled.'

'You think it has something to do with Lorelei's sister?'

I grimaced. 'I wouldn't be at all surprised,' I said. 'Come on, I'm hungry. Let's see how many non-walker first- class passengers we have left.'

We left the compartment and headed back toward the dining car. Ten minutes ago, I reflected, I'd agreed with Bayta's assessment that the trip to Yandro Station and our failed attempt to lose the Modhri had been a complete waste of time and effort.

Now, I was glad we'd made that effort. Very glad indeed.

Nine hours later, we reached New Tigris Station.

To my complete lack of surprise, Bayta and I were the only ones who got off there. We watched the Quadrail pull out of the station on its way to Earth and the Bellidosh Estates-General beyond, then went to the stationmaster's office to see about getting a shuttle to the transfer station.

Like most other small colony worlds across the galaxy, the low amount of Quadrail traffic at Yandro meant the shuttles worked on an on-demand basis instead of running a continual loop between Tube and transfer station. Here, apparently, demand was so low that the shuttles weren't even left on standby. As a result, it was over two hours before we finally stood at the transfer station's Customs counter, dutifully answering the standard entry questions, and having ourselves and our luggage scanned for contraband.

I still didn't know how my kwi looked on a Customs scanner. As long as no one challenged it, I wasn't inclined to ask.

'And that's it,' the Customs official said briskly as he handed me my lockbox, the final step in the entry procedure. 'Welcome to New Tigris. Are you here on business or pleasure?'

'Pleasure,' I said. 'A friend told us that Janga's Point has some of the best scuba diving in the Confederation. We thought we'd try it out.'

'Excellent,' he said, his eyes lighting up. Not only visitors to his modest little colony system, but visitors intent on spending money. 'I've heard that, too, though I've never had a chance to go there. Now, you do understand that we have only a weekly torchferry service to New Tigris proper, correct?'

'Yes, we know,' I said. Briefly, I wondered how many visitors arrived here expecting the daily service enjoyed by real planetary systems. 'According to the schedule we saw, it'll arrive in two and a half days?'

'That's correct,' he said. 'We do have torchyachts for rent, though, if you don't want to wait.'

'That's all right,' I said. New Tigris's torchferry service was heavily subsidized by the mother world. Torchyacht rentals, unfortunately, weren't. 'I assume you have rooms available while we wait?'

'Absolutely,' he assured me, pulling out a registration form. 'In fact, at the moment we only have one other guest.'

'Human?' I asked, snagging a pen from the cup beside the computer terminal.

'A Pirk, actually,' the clerk said.

My hand froze midway through writing my name. 'A Pirk?' I echoed cautiously.

'Yes, but don't let that worry you.' He glanced around and lowered his voice conspiratorially. 'This one is actually safe to stand downwind of, if you get my drift.'

'Right,' I growled.

'No, really—he doesn't smell at all,' the clerk insisted. 'Damnedest thing. Kind of like when my sister found the one cat in the entire Western Alliance that didn't trigger an instant asthma attack—'

'Yes, very interesting,' I interrupted, laying down the pen. 'On second thought, I think we'll take that torchyacht after all.'

'Yes, sir,' he said, taking the half-completed form from me and blanking it. 'He really doesn't smell, you know.'

'And I'm sure your sister wouldn't mind being locked in a room with a bunch of cats, either,' I said. 'You have a rental form?'

'Yes, sir,' he said, pulling out another form and handing it over.

I glanced at Bayta, noting the stony look on her face, and started filling in the blanks.

An hour later, sitting at the controls of our new torchyacht, I maneuvered us away from the transfer station and turned us toward New Tigris. 'I'd been wondering where our Pirk had ended up,' I commented as I eased the drive up to full power.

'Now we know,' Bayta said, her voice as stony as her expression. 'I hope you're not expecting the Spiders to pay for this.'

'Why not?' I asked. 'Our agreement was salary and expenses. This is an expense.'

'We could have waited for the torchferry,' she pointed out. 'If this girl Rebekah has been all right all this time, another two and a half days probably wouldn't have made a difference.'

'Though at some point in every crisis a matter of hours or minutes does make a difference,' I pointed out. 'But that's not the reason I opted for the torchyacht. Or hadn't it occurred to you that by some standards a non-stinky Pirk could be considered an abomination?'

Her eyes narrowed. 'You're not serious.'

'Deadly serious,' I assured her. 'After all, we don't really know how the Modhri sees things. What would be a triple-A-rated blessing for everyone else in the galaxy might be complete anathema to him.' I shrugged. 'And our Pirk did seem to be watching Tweedledee and Braithewick pretty closely back at Terra Station.'

'You're reaching,' she said. But her stony expression had softened into something merely annoyed. Annoyed, and thoughtful.

I thought about pressing the point again about the torchyacht rental, decided against it. Ultimately, the decision on who paid for that would rest with Bayta's recommendation. If the Modhri was as involved with Rebekah Beach as I suspected he was, there would be no question that this was a legitimate use of Spider and Chahwyn funds. If he wasn't, this might actually end up being a nice relaxing trip for a change.

Like I really believed that.