Part 9 (1/2)

”The Hectare do not employ incompetent agents,” she said. ”The longer you take to change your mind, the less advantageous it will be for you.”

”I'll take that chance,” he said, rising from the table.

Jod'e rose with him. ”I think we had better vacate the premises quickly,” she said.

”It will make no difference,” Alyc said. ”If the Hectare want either of you. they will find you and take you. But it will be better for those who volunteer.”

Why was she so sure? She was correct that the first and most sincere volunteers would be treated best; she, as one of the very earliest, would have her pick of lovers, so she didn't need him. But she acted as if he himself would be rounded up immediately, when that was obviously impractical. Lysander didn't have time to ponder; he wanted to get well away from her and this region. Already the serfs were milling, as the majority sought to get out before they were mistaken for volunteers.

He did not look at Alyc again. He had been true to her, but in a devious fas.h.i.+on he felt she had not been true to him. This was a foolish sentimentality, for she had offered him a good position in the new order. He had evidently a.s.similated more of the local culture than he realized.

Lysander and Jod'e joined the throng crowding toward the nearest exit. ”I don't like this,” he muttered. ”Suddenly there's an alien takeover, and we're supposed to cooperate?” He was saying what he knew was on the minds of most serfs, testing her for reaction. It had occurred to him that Jod'e had been conveniently close-indeed, had been close to him throughout. Had she known this was coming? If so, what was her purpose?

”She worked for Citizen Blue,” Jod'e said. ”It won't be safe for you to go there. I can help you get outside.”

The jostling crowd gave them better privacy than could be had elsewhere. ”Why? Why should you bother with me?”

”I've been trying to make a play for you throughout!” she said. ”Now's my chance.”

”I don't buy that. You're beautiful. You don't need me. You know I'm no changeling. I can't convert to bat form and fly away with you. If I go outside, I'll just be a liability to you. Make your own break; I doubt they'll want you. But Alyc may feel she has a score to settle with me.”

”Women do not judge on appearance alone.”

”You've been interested in me, but not because of any encouragement I gave you. I'm not messing with you at all unless I know your real interest. I've already been betrayed by one girlfriend!” This was not precisely the case, but his mission required him to say it.

She glanced at him sidelong. ”Oho! You think I'm another foreign agent?”

”You could be. Exactly why did you come after me?” They had squeezed out the Annex gate and were now in the concourse. Lysander didn't want to be there, either, though he saw no Citizens.

”Crowd's thinning,” Jod'e said. ”Can't talk here.”

”Yes we can,” he said. He grabbed her arm and swung her into an alcove. He embraced her and put his mouth against her left ear. ”Tell me.”

”How clever,” she murmured, her mouth beside his own ear. ”You tell me you don't want my love by getting fresh with me. I remember a similar technique in that first Fox and Geese game.”

”Never again, if you don't stop stalling!”

”Very well. Citizen Troal sent me.”

”Troal! Your employer. Isn't he close to Blue?”

”Very. And we vamps are close to the Adept Trool.”

”Does this have anything to do with the prophecy that Clef told me about?”

”Prophecy?”

She didn't know about that? ”Never mind. So Troal sent you to me as a favor to Blue?”

”Yes, I believe so. You had better kiss me or do something with your hands; someone's looking.”

He slid his hands down her back. He remembered their first encounter, of which she had mischievously reminded him, when he had explored her torso so intimately, thinking it was a mannequin. The memory excited him now; she did have a perfect body. ”Why, when I was already dating Alyc?”

”Maybe they knew what she was.” She s.h.i.+fted against him, bringing more of that body into play.

Suddenly it made sense. If Blue had known Alyc's mission, he would not have said so. He would have sought quiet ways to nullify it. If he really believed that Lysander had a key role to play in the support of the planet, he would have tried to protect him from subversion by an enemy agent. So he could have arranged to send an attractive counteragent in. Unfortunately, Lysander had misunderstood the ploy.

”You don't know why Blue might care about my corruption?” he asked, his hands stroking memory-familiar contours.

”No. My guess is that he really wanted the Game Computer fixed, and not for the aliens.”

He decided she was to be trusted, partly because she didn't seem to know any more than a p.a.w.n in a chess game would know about the motives of the king. ”Then let's get out of here.”

”I know a way out,” Jod'e said. ”Then maybe we can get Phaze help. The aliens may not know much about magic.”

Surely true, for he had been quite unprepared for it. He separated from her and started down the concourse-and stopped.

”Serves you right, lover,” Jod'e said, laughing. For he had gotten too involved in their diversionary activity, and his masculine member had responded.

But Alyc had shown him how to handle that. ”Run; I'll chase.”

She took off, and he pursued her with evident amorous intent. But such was the distraction of the other serfs that they paid no attention, this time. By the time Jod'e brought him to the exit she knew, his ardor had subsided.

They crouched by a machine service entrance. ”Must wait for a robot,” she said. ”Then walk out in its shadow, so the scanner doesn't catch the human form. I'll turn bat and perch on you.”

”Just don't do anything on my shoulder,” he muttered.

She laughed again. ”Speaking of which-did Alyc scratch you, when?”

”When what?”

”Some women get very excited, when. They can claw a man's back.”

”No, she's not that type. No scratches. Why should you care?”

”I felt a bandage on your back, when I was stroking you.”

”A bandage? I have no bandage!”

”Yes you do. A flesh-colored tape. Effectively invisible; if I hadn't been touching you, I wouldn't have known. Here, feel.” She took his hand, twisted his arm behind his back, and brought his fingers to the place. It was at the most difficult part for him to reach alone.

Now he felt it: a smooth section that was not his own skin. ”She must have put it on me, when-I mean, there was a lot of physical activity, and she liked to touch me in the night.”

”I suspect she had some reason to touch you,” she remarked with the hint of a smirk. ”Want me to take it off”?”

”Yes. No. It could be-” He was abruptly angry, as the realization came. ”An identifier. Something an enemy agent would use to mark someone.”

”Then you had better get it off!”

”No. These things-I understand they can be used as beacons. To show where a person is. I don't want her to know I've caught on.”