Part 29 (2/2)

”Seems to be,” he agreed. ”I'm looking for a particular friend.” He rested his hip on the bar stool. ”I'll bet you know everyone here.”

She looked straight at him. ”I don't know you.” ”My name is Dana Ikoro,” he said.

Turning away, Amber pressed a b.u.t.ton. Ice clattered into a cooler behind the bar. ”I've heard the name,” she said.

The hairs on the back of Dana's neck stirred. ”Where?”

”In here,” she said. She cracked her thumb knuckles. ”From the Net crew.”

”What did they say?” Dana asked, trying to keep his voice casual.

She gazed at him from beneath the bird's nest tangle of hair. ”They said that some Hyper named Ikoro had been picked up by the Narc Control and funneled to the Net. And that he ended up as meat for Zed Yago.”

Meat. Yes. That he had been, and was. Dana's throat soured. ”Did they say anything else?”

”They said they thought he was a Starcaptain.”

Dana said, ”That's true.”

Her eyes, which were green as Pellin's gra.s.s, searched his face. ”And the rest.”

Old woman, he thought, if you pity me....”The rest is true, too.”

Her face did not change. ”Welcome to The Green Dancer, Starcaptain.”

”Thank you,” Dana said. ”I'm looking for Tori Lamonica.”

Amber ran a hand through her hair, not improving it. ”I know her,” she said. ”She comes in here.”

At their table, the woman with the red feather in her hair and the girl in blue glitterstick were glaring at each other. Suddenly the girl said loudly, ”Well, you can just s.h.i.+nny, if you feel _that_ way about it!”

”Excuse me,” Amber said. She ducked from behind the bar and went to the table. The girl in glitterstick-blue was standing.

There was a whispered argument, finished when Amber jerked a thumb toward the door. The woman in red stalked out. Amber returned to the bar. ”Want some lunch?” she said.

”Sure,” said Dana, fumbling out his credit disc.

Amber thumped the flat of her hand on the bar. ”Lunch time!” she said.

People at the tables stretched and rose and came to the bar. The girl in glitterstick yawned and came around the end of the bar. She went in the back; in a few moments she emerged with three plates of food on each arm.

Amber put a plate in front of him. The seaweed looked overcrisp, but the fish smelled -- and tasted -- fresh. Dana put his empty gla.s.s where the bartender could see it. After a while she refilled it.

”Buy you something?” he said.

She snorted. ”Think I'd drink my own liquor?” Closing her hand suddenly around his gla.s.s, she took it away and dumped out the wine. Before he could protest, she filled it with a darker liquid. ”Try that.”

He drank. The wine was smooth and dry, not cheap. ”Thank you,” he said.

”Lamonica comes in evenings,” she said. ”If she comes in tonight, I'll tell her you're looking for her.”

Dana wondered if Tori Lamonica knew he had been taken by the Net. He decided she must. ”I'd appreciate that,” he said. ”Tell her that I'll come back tomorrow night.”

She said sharply, ”I want no trouble in the bar.”

”There'll be no trouble,” Dana promised.

The girl in glitterstick sauntered to the bar and took the stool beside Dana. ”Amber, may I have a drink?” She smiled at Dana, and her voice went up half an octave. ”h.e.l.lo?”

Dana grinned at her. ”Sorry,” he said, ”I'm s.h.i.+nnying.” He drained the gla.s.s of good wine before heading toward the door.

Outside in the street he stood, breathing deeply, while sweat rolled down his arms. Dust blew down the narrow roadway. He wondered who the girl was; she looked too young to be a Hyper. Amber's daughter? Some star-crazed kid? Maybe she had taken antiagathics and was really two hundred years old. He rubbed his eyes with both hands. Somehow he had not realized before that, even if -- no, _when_ -- he managed to escape, the information about what had happened to him on the Sardonyx Net would never leave him.... From star to star, sector to sector, it would follow him around; in every place he drank, he would hear his own name, and then Zed Yago's, and people would stare.

f.u.c.k, he thought. d.a.m.ned infertile son of a syphilitic goat -- he thought in Pellish. He walked from the building, wis.h.i.+ng that he could stay, sit on the barstool, drink Amber's wine (even the cheap stuff) and tell glamorous lies. But he had to go back. He made himself stop swearing. If he let himself grow too angry, one day it would come out at the wrong time.

The moment he entered the Yago mansion he knew that something was wrong.

As he returned his sunshades to the hall rack he saw that Rhani's were not there. He went to the kitchen. Amri was sitting on a stool, eating chobi seeds.

”Is Rhani home?” he said.

She jumped like a startled cat. ”Oh. No. She went out.”

”Alone?”

Amri nodded, and her bland face grew troubled. ”Yes. Corrios said she should wait for you but she said she didn't want to.”

Dana groaned. ”Did she say where she was going?”

Corrios entered. ”Tuli's,” he said.

Tuli's. That was the gla.s.s shop in the market square. He remembered the package. ”When did she leave?”

Corrios glanced at the wall clock. ”Half an hour ago.”

”Maybe I can catch her,” Dana said. ”Why the h.e.l.l didn't you stop her?”

he said to Corrios, but the big man only shrugged.

”How?”

Don't open the door, Dana thought savagely. Hide all the sunshades. Lock her up.

Seizing his sunshades, he loped to the front door. At least, he thought grimly, if Zed comes home, he'll find us both gone. He cast his mind back to that first confusing day, trying to recall their movements through the streets.... They had gone from the little landingport to the market square. He hurried down the steps. Twice on his way he thought he saw her and crossed the street to find he had been chasing a stranger. Once, for five minutes, he got lost. At last, he found the square. It was easy to pick out Tuli's shop window: it s.h.i.+mmered.

As he started across the square, he saw her. She was moving quite slowly through the throng of shoppers. Her hair was loose; sunshades hid her eyes, and she was wearing the gold pendant that Zed had given her.

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