Part 21 (1/2)

While I'd been gawking at Triton, I'd missed noticing that we had company on the beach. Two people had come down from the dunes, and they'd obviously seen the wolf pack. Up on the dry sand a man and a child stood staring at us. He looked around thirty, the little girl was maybe six, and they shared a sandy-haired, freckled Norman Rockwell kind of face that marked them as dad and daughter. They both wore jeans and the heavy jackets of locals, not tourists. At first I wondered if they were actual people or more Chaotic projections. I cast a quick ward, which had no effect on either of them.

When Father Keith stood up again, they apparently decided he was approachable, thanks to his holy-orders robe, most likely. They walked over to join us, though they stayed about ten feet back from the lolling tongues and white teeth of our pack.

”Uh, excuse me,” the man said. ”We were just wondering what kind of dogs they are. They're pretty big, huh?”

”Yes.” Father Keith looked completely fl.u.s.tered. ”They're uh um-”

”Caucasian Lion Hunting Dogs,” I broke in. ”A very rare breed in this country, though there's plenty of them in Georgia and Kazakhstan.”

”No wonder I never heard of them.” The man smiled, but the little girl clutched his hand tighter still. She leaned against him with the same gesture that Samantha had just displayed with me.

”They won't bite,” I told her. ”But you're right to hang back like that.”

”Yep,” her dad said. ”Never go right up to a strange dog. You know, I didn't realize that there were lions in that part of the world.”

”There aren't anymore,” I said. ”They were hunted to extinction a long time ago.”

”There used to be lions all through the territories around the eastern Mediterranean.” Father Keith could never resist a chance to teach. ”In what's now Iraq and all around the Black Sea as well as Turkey.”

”That's right!” the man said with another smile. ”I saw some pictures once of an old wall or something.”

”The a.s.syrian lion hunt reliefs, probably.”

The man nodded, a contemplative gesture.

”We'd better go,” I said to Father Keith. ”It'll take us a while to dry them off enough to get them back into the car.”

”I'm glad that's your job, not mine,” the man said. ”They're sure big. And pretty dirty.”

With a pleasant wave, he and his daughter walked on past, heading for the water's edge. We went in the opposite direction, stumbling across the soft sand toward the rise of dunes and the Great Highway.

”Lying is sinful,” Father Keith said, ”but I'm glad you're so good at it.”

”Thanks. Let's just hope he doesn't look the breed up on the Internet.”

When we got back to the building, the first thing I noticed was that wretched Chaos symbol, blatantly back on the wall. The second thing was even more ominous. Ari was sitting on the front steps, simmering. That is, his arms were tightly crossed over his chest, his mouth was shut tight, and his eyes-glaring doesn't begin to describe it. When he rose and came down the steps, the wolves cl.u.s.tered around me in defense and growled.

”Uh-oh,” I said. ”I think I'm in trouble.”

Ari managed to remain civil while I introduced my uncle. He even went upstairs to fetch some old towels so we could clean the wolves off. Once we'd gotten everyone back into the SUV and on their way home, I scooped up the towels and hurried up the steps ahead of him to the downstairs flat. He followed me into the front room, shut the door, then stepped in front of me before I could escape.

”I told you to stay inside,” he said.

Before I answered, I tested the flow of Qi. At the moment, at least, he had his rage under control.

”Oh, come off it!” I said. ”I didn't feel the slightest touch of ASTA or SAWM. If I had, I'd have stayed home.”

”Oh? What if you'd felt them when you were already on the beach? How fast could you have reached safety?”

”No one was going to threaten me with the wolves right there.”

”I noticed how they protected you, yes, but what if someone had a sniper's rifle? He could have killed you from several hundred meters away. The wolves might have brought him down in the end, but it wouldn't have done you one sodding bit of good.”

”Well, okay. I overlooked that.”

He snorted. The flow of Qi stayed steady and normal.

”But are you angry,” I said, ”because of the danger, or because I didn't follow your orders?”

”Oh.” He considered this seriously. ”Both, I think.” He paused, then shrugged. ”I'll go get the hose. When I got back from the gym, I found that Chaos mark waiting. I asked the neighbors about it, but they insisted they'd seen nothing.”

”That's really odd.”

We trooped outside again. I glanced at the downstairs neighbor's window, but they'd closed the drapes. So had the upstairs set. The Chaos symbol looked smug.

”Huh,” I said. ”Stenciling the thing on like that would have taken a while.”

”So you'd think.” Ari considered the apartment house with narrowed eyes. ”None of them look like the type to have done it, but I wonder.”

After I threw a couple of wards at the symbol, and it had stopped sizzling, he washed it down with the hose. I wiped the resulting smears off the wall with the old towels.

”Give me those,” Ari said. ”I'll take them down to the launderette if you promise me you'll stay inside while I'm gone. Upstairs. Away from windows.”

”Okay, it's a deal. I might even get domestic and cook something. Aunt Eileen stocked the refrigerator for us.”

He mugged shock and took the dirty towels.

That evening I called Michael and told him that I had the baptismal certificate. He responded with a whoop of triumph, or at least, I took the whoop to be triumphant. It's hard to tell with whoops.

”That's only step one,” I said. ”We've got a long haul ahead of us.”

”Well, yeah,” Michael said. ”But Aunt Eileen said I could bring her here now, so she wouldn't have to turn any more tricks. But she said you have to agree.”

Even though I would have preferred to have all the paperwork in hand, I shared my aunt's desire to spare the girl more trysts with radioactive customers.

”Okay,” I said. ”But look, you can't go on having s.e.x with Sophie in Aunt Eileen's house.”

”I know that.” He sounded so indignant that I knew he hadn't thought of it till that minute.

”Just making sure. And why the name Chekov? You didn't get that from Star Trek, did you?”

”Yeah, it's the only Russian name I could think of.”

”Why Russian?”

”I was thinking about all the rads Lisa-I mean Sophie's been exposed to. What if she needed to see a doctor one day, and they noticed?”