Felix and Carlisle looked at where their car had been brought round to the foot of the stairs. There was more than one way they could disappear.

  “We can catch a cab,” Carlisle said, and led Felix down the stairs farthest from the vehicle.

  “Or a bus,” Felix suggested, “from outside Casey’s.”

  Casey’s was on a busy thoroughfare about five blocks away. They could reach it by walking down the bustling shopping strip and crowded streets.

  “Casey’s,” Carlisle said, and they strolled down the stairs together, Felix resisting the urge to run.

  Two blocks later, they paused in front of a chocolate shop.

  “Are they still there?” Felix asked.

  “I’ve hit the beeper,” Manx said. “Bus is too far away.”

  “How long?”

  Behind them, the three men, two women, and large, dark van that had shadowed them from a block out of the institute, surged toward them.

  “Time to go,” Carlisle said. “And we’re dirty, by the way.”

  “Uh, huh.” Felix had already worked out they’d been bugged. She just hadn’t figured out when.

  Fortunately, the crowded sidewalk and heavy traffic slowed their pursuers enough for Carlisle and Felix to step out of the chocolate shop alcove, hurry past a nearby noodle shop and duck down an alley. Carlisle muttered something under his breath, and Felix bent closer to hear him.

  “Six.”

  Pause.

  “Five.”

  Pause.

  “Four.”

  An engine revved behind them.

  “Three.”

  Felix looked back, and saw the van and its escort turn into the alley.

  “Two.” Carlisle laid a hand on her upper arm, wrapping his fingers around it.

  An engine roared from the other end of the alley.

  “One.” Carlisle began to run, dragging Felix with him. “Move your arse, Jay!”

  Felix moved, running blindly with him—straight at the garbage truck coming down the alley toward them. Behind them, confusion broke out, but it didn’t matter. Felix concentrated on her headlong run at the truck, steeling herself for the sudden avoidance she was sure Carlisle had planned.

  They were a meter off its bumper with the truck driver shouting vitriol, but not bothering to slow down, when Carlisle veered right, yanking Felix after him. He pulled her tight against his chest and spun so that he stood between her and the alley as the truck roared past. It was barely clear, when he released her and pulled her into the alley behind it.

  “Not far, now, ma’am,” he said, as he jogged toward the far end. “Pick up should be waiting.”

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  But Felix wasn’t listening. In the few strides they’d taken, she felt transported back to the battlefields of Aquapearl. The buildings towering above them could have been rock-laced canyon walls, intersecting a belt of feregaw trees, the piles of garbage maslaw bushes, the rats… well, there were rats on every world. The fact that these were covered in fur instead of iridescent blue and green scales succeeded in reminding her where she really was. It didn’t succeed in damping down her need to take cover. She dragged at Carlisle’s hand.

  “Don’t make me carry you, ma’am,” he said, pulling harder to get her to the end of the alley, and the silver-grey Mercedes waiting there.

  Felix caught sight of the sunshine reflected from the car roof, the open sky above, the corner with its promise of another store-front alcove, and leapt forward. Part of her was still on Aquapearl, and she couldn’t tell how many there were, or how close they were to striking.

  The yawning shelter offered by the Mercedes’ open door had her bolting ahead of Carlisle, all thought of store fronts and alcoves forgotten. With a curse, Carlisle bolted after her, pulling the door closed as Felix reached under the driver’s seat in front, searching for the weapon she knew was concealed there.

  “Get this thing in the air!” she screamed, and the driver forced his way back into the traffic flow, while the man beside him, looked around wildly for the threat.

  “Ma’am!” Carlisle shouted. “Ma’am!”

  Wild-eyed, Felix looked past him, peering back at the alley, scanning the skyline and cliff-walls, the gun moving with her eyes, her finger light on the trigger as she sought the lizardine attack force she’d sensed in the alley.

  “I’m sorry, ma’am,” Carlisle said, and slapped her gently at the base of the neck.

  “What…” Felix began, but there was an odd taste in her mouth and the world was already beginning to blur. Carlisle’s hand on the gun as he disengaged it from her grip was a fading memory.

  * * *

  “Oh, God,” Felix moaned. There was a herd of elephants stampeding through her head and it tasted like a water buffalo had peed on her tongue.

  “Easy, ma’am.” Carlisle’s voice was gentle, his hands firm as he helped her sit and wrapped her palms around a mug of warm, sweet-smelling liquid.

  “Drink,” he said. “You’ll feel a lot better.”

  “You drugged me,” she said, her memory slowly clearing.

  “You were having an episode, ma’am.”

  “I thought…” Felix began, then paused.

  What had she thought? That she was still on Aquapearl? That she was under attack?

  Frowning, Felix lapsed into silence, sipped the drink she had been given. After a moment, she asked, “Did I shoot anyone?”

  “No, ma’am.”

  “Did they see me?”

  “No, ma’am. Driver was pretty quick on the extra tinting.”

  Felix started to relax. Last thing they needed was a hundred civilian witnesses to a government agent waving a gun and screaming. The antidote in her cup was working, clearing her head and removing the taste from her mouth. It did nothing, however, for the growing nausea in her gut.

  “Carlisle.” Her voice wavered.

  He helped Felix to her feet, and guided her to the bathroom.

  “I’ll wait out here, ma’am. You call if you need me.”

  Damn the man, Felix thought. He knows exactly what he’s given me.

  It took close to half an hour for her to purge the rest of the drug from her system, and Felix sat on the floor for a long moment before shakily climbing to her feet and crossing to the sink. And that was when she sensed him again. Spinning away from the sink, she was about to shout when a battle-gloved hand engulfed her jaw and the unmistakable muzzle of a lizardine firearm jammed itself into her stomach.

  Felix heard a click, and then the painfully clear sound of someone throwing up.

  “Oh, God,” she heard herself moan, and realized she was listening to a recording.

  “I will not harm you,” Mika said, low so he would not be heard above the recording.

  Felix nodded. In spite of the weapon in her gut, she knew it was true. If he’d meant her harm, he could have taken her down at the institute or in the alley—the recording launched into a new round of misery—or when she was throwing up.

  The pressure in her gut eased, then went away.

  “You still have it,” Mika said, as the battle suit blurred and became visible.

  Felix blushed, felt the sadness that came whenever she remembered, ducked her head.

  “And whose fault is that?”

  “We searched high and low for you,” he said. “Your parents—”

  Felix straightened, snapped her gaze to his.

  “My parents had every right. Mammal, reptile, our chromosomes were never meant to be mixed.”

  “They were trespassers.”

  “They didn’t stand a chance.”

  “The mix has served you well,” Mika observed. “Without it, you would never have been able to hunt us so effectively.”

  “I’m a freak.”