Odd Girl Out

Both of which were still going strong. Peering through a narrow gap between the bystanders, I saw two Fillies and a burly middle-aged Human seated at a table in the center of the main room. The Human was arm-wrestling one of the Fillies while the other alien looked on, a dilivin bottle and set of shot glasses neatly lined up on the table in front of him. Both Fillies, I noted, had turned their chairs around and were seated on their knees and shins in normal Filly style.

Behind the Human, a third Filly and two more Humans stood watching the action. One of the Humans was holding a notebook and pen, the other was cupping a fist full of coins. Apparently, book was being made on the various contests. All three Fillies were wearing the distinctive layered tunics and flared hats that always reminded me of Genghis Khan's thirteenth-century Mongolian warriors.

Fastened around their waists at their backs were the belt bags Oved had mentioned, five bags per Filly, each long enough to hold a dilivin bottle. Clearly, they'd come prepared to make a night of it.

The rest of the tables had been pushed back, leaving a small open area around the main event. I pushed my way through the rows of spectators, ignoring the growls and complaints that followed me, until I reached the inner edge. Just as I eased between the last two men the Human slammed his opponent's hand to the table. Through the mixed roar of triumph from the winning bettors and groans of disgust from the losers, I gave the room a careful scan.

Three of the Fillies, as I'd already noted, were standing prominently in the center of the room. The other three Oved had mentioned were nowhere to be seen.

Were they even now with Bayta and Rebekah?

'There you are,' a throaty voice said.

I looked back at the table. All three Fillies had turned in my direction and were gazing at me down their long faces in a way that reminded me of an old man in a dit rec drama peering at fine print through the reading section of his bifocals.

They were definitely Filiaelians. No one else in the galaxy looked even remotely like that. And yet, as I studied the somewhat shorter lengths of their faces, the shapes of their scalloped ears, and the colors of their bristly facial hairs, I was struck more by the differences between them and Filiaelian norm than by their similarities to that standard.

And if there were that many differences showing on the outside, there were probably even more drastic changes on the inside. Clearly, someone had done some serious genetic work on them.

But for this bunch, altered DNA was the least of their problems. As I looked more closely, I could see the slightly unfocused eyes and slackened jaws and the minor darkening of the distinctive blaze marks on their long faces. Changes that had taken place sometime since I'd first seen them thirty seconds ago.

The Modhri had taken over.

'Here I am,' I agreed. 'Question is, what are you doing here?'

The two Fillies seated at the table reached behind them into their belt bags, each producing two more dilivin bottles. 'For all,' the losing arm wrestler said, reaching behind him to hand his bottles to two of the men in the crowd. 'Enjoy to the fullest.'

There was a fresh roar of appreciation as the second Filly passed his bottles off to his side of the ring. With the free entertainment over, but an even better deal on the free firewater, the audience broke up, the onlookers redistributing themselves into new groups centered around the four bottles.

I waited until their attention was firmly elsewhere, then closed the last couple of meters to the Fillies' table. The winning Human arm wrestler had also joined the rest of the crowd, leaving the half-full dilivin bottle behind. 'I repeat, what are you doing here?' I asked the Fillies, keeping my voice low.

'A strange question,' the Filly still standing said, peering down his long face and comet-shaped blaze at me. 'Surely you know we're here to destroy the Abomination.'

'That wasn't the deal we made at Yandro,' I insisted. 'Or aren't you in the loop yet on that?'

'I'm aware of the agreement,' Comet Nose said gravely. 'I'm also aware of how badly you've kept other such agreements in the past.'

Unfortunately, he had a point. 'So what exactly are you planning to do?' I asked.

Comet Nose flipped his head. 'I?' he asked, stepping right up to me and resting his hand on my shoulder in classic the-car-salesman-is-your-friend fashion. 'I will do nothing.' He slid his hand off my shoulder and down the front of my jacket.

As he did so, I felt him slip something into my outer jacket pocket. I reached up a hand to see what he'd put there—

'Everyone freeze!' a Human voice snapped from behind me.

Instantly, the bar went silent. Keeping my hands motionless, I carefully turned my head.

There were six cops spread out around the wall by the door. All six had their guns out.

All six guns were pointed at me.

I took a deep breath. 'Is there a problem, Officer?' I called.

'Stay exactly where you are, Donaldson,' one of the cops ordered. 'You—everyone else—get up and move calmly out of the way. Calmly, I said.'

I turned back to Comet Nose. 'Neatly done,' I murmured. 'I presume that was the murder weapon you just put into my pocket?'

'Correct,' he said. 'You now have two choices, Mr. Compton. You may refuse to give up the Abomination, whereupon the officers will take you to prison. They will examine the contract pen in your pocket and discover traces of Human blood on it.

'That would probably be bad,' I agreed. 'What's option number two?'

'You give up the Abomination, and this Eye will take back the pen,' he said. 'When asked, he will state you had borrowed it only a moment ago to write a note and forgetfully put it in your own pocket.'

'We made a deal,' I reminded him firmly. 'I handle the Abomination. You stay out of my way.'

'Don't be foolish,' Comet Nose said scornfully. 'You were allowed here to bring the Abomination out of hiding. Now that you have fulfilled that role, you will step aside.'

I could hear boots on wood now as the cops started toward me. 'I don't quit in the middle of a job,' I said. 'You really should know that by now'

'This is not the middle of the job,' the Modhri warned. 'For you, it is the end.'

'Don't count on it,' I said, trying not to think of me being in jail and Bayta trying to hold off the Fillies by herself. The Fillies, and whatever else the Modhri might have available to throw at her. 'You're not getting the girl, period.'

Comet Nose flipped his head again. 'The Human female?' he asked. 'When did I say I wanted any Human females?'

I stared at him. 'You don't want—?'

And then the cops were on me, two of them grabbing my arms and roughly turning me around. 'Easy,' I told them. 'I'll need those arms later.'

'Very funny,' a third cop said, opening my jacket and pulling McMicking's Beretta from my holster. He was older than the others, with lieutenants' insignia on his collar. The plate above his right shirt pocket gave his name as Bhatami. 'Well, well—what have we here?'

'I have a carry permit,' I reminded him.

'I understand Mr. Veldrick has canceled that,' Bhatami said as he tucked the gun into his own belt.

'Mr. Veldrick has no such authority,' I said.

'Perhaps not,' Bhatami said. He gestured to the cops holding my arms. Reluctantly, I thought, they released me. 'We, on the other hand, have all the authority we need.'

'Oh, please,' I said with a snort. 'This isn't about that bogus warrant Sergeant Aksam tried to spoil my dinner with, is it?'

'This is far more serious,' Bhatami said grimly. 'A short time ago we received a tip that you were involved with the murders of two of our officers.'

I felt sweat gathering beneath my collar, freshly aware of the slight bulge of the contract pen nestled in my