Free Flinx in Flux by Alan Dean Foster Page A

straightlining from here to orbit, if you’ll help me.” She nodded in the direction of the window. “They’re out there right now, wondering how I got away. Hopefully back along the river.” Her hands paused, and her cheerful expression abruptly darkened. A little terror crept back into her voice.
    “You , said I left a long trail from the river onto the beach where I crawled out. They could find that. They’d know I was still alive.”
    “I didn’t know you’d been kidnapped, so I saw no reason to take the time to obliterate it. But don’t worry. Even if they find it and interpret it correctly, the next thing they’ll do is start searching the immediate vicinity with a heat sensor and image processor.”
    “They’ll see your crawler’s tracks, too. They’ll consider that I might’ve been picked up.”
    “They have to find the place first. You clean and relaxed?”
    “More or less.”
    “Then how about some answers to my questions? Let’s start with who you are and why these people find you so intriguing.”
    She started toward the window. Halfway there she thought better of exposing herself to the outside, privacy shield notwithstanding, and pivoted to head toward the dresser as she spoke.
    “My name you know. I’m a division chief for an expanding enterprise. These fanatics picked me because I’m uniquely talented.”
    For an instant Flinx went cold, then realized she had to be speaking of some other kind of unique talent.
    “It’s a fantastic deal for somebody my age, just starting out. I supervise a dozen specialists, most of them older than me, and I own a piece of the profits. I mean, I knew I was better than anybody in my field when I was doing my dissertation, and I’ve proved it subsequently, but it was still an impressive offer. So naturally I jumped at it.”
    “You have a high opinion of yourself.” He tried not to make it sound like a criticism.
    It bothered her not at all. “Justified in the lab.” She was talking easily now that they were on a subject she was comfortable with. “It’s exciting stuff. I wanted to be out front. I could be making even more money elsewhere. Doing cosmetic work on New Riviera or Earth. You know, I had a chance to go to Amropolous and work with the thranx. They’re still better at micromanipulation than any human. Some of their work’s more art than science. But I don’t like heat and humidity.
    “This bunch that grabbed me, they’re extremists of the worst sort. I’d heard about them before—everybody reads the fax—but I didn’t think they were any different from half a hundred groups with similar aims. Shows how little anybody knows. There was this young guy—” She looked away from Flinx. “—he was plated. I mean iridescent, like a tridee star.”
    “Good-looking.” Flinx spoke emotionlessly. “Go on.”
    “We went out a few times together. Said he was with port authority, which is why I hadn’t seen him around. Couldn’t get through company security, so we met outside. I thought I was falling in love with him. He had that ability, you know, to make you fall in love with him. He asked me to take a stroll topside with him one night. It was pretty calm upstairs, so I said sure.” She paused.
    “You’ve got to understand that it was real exciting intellectually where I was working, but socially it was plasmodium. Just about everyone was a lot older than I, and frankly, none of them were much to look at. Physicality still plays an important role in interpersonal relationships, you know.”
    Tell me about it, he thought. He was not happy with the turn the conversation had taken, but he had nothing to add.
    She gave a little shrug. “Anyway, I think he drugged me. He was one of
them,
you see. The next time I saw him, he didn’t look so handsome anymore. Physically yes, but his expression was different. It matched his companions’.”
    “Species?” He was thinking of the AAnn’s relentless assaults on advanced human