Free A Talent For The Invisible (v1.1) by Ron Goulart Page A

our invisible man or that beanpole broad show up.”
    “She’s not so skinny, Mac. She’s sort of cute in an odd sort of way,” said Ting. “How are we going to see the …” The gallery door opened and closed. Only silence came out of the painting.
    Setting it away behind him, Conger said, “That would be Avo Enzerto, the old agronomy professor who led the opposition to the junta. I didn’t know he was alive again.”
    “Why do men keep saying I’m skinny?”
    “I haven’t said that,” Conger told her. “They have different tastes in China II.”
    “For my height I’m about the average weight. I don’t want to be any heavier.”
    “Nobody wants a fat secret agent.”
    After frowning a while longer, the pretty girl smiled. “Yes, NSO knew Enzerto was alive, although we didn’t hear about it until a week or so ago.”
    “Do you know where he is now?”
    “Enzerto has sided in with the junta,” answered Angelica. “At least to the extent of working on an experimental food set up the junta is running. Running with considerable aid from us, from the United States government. If only those money people would be a little more curious. We might have been onto this Sandman thing months ago.”
    “Whereabouts are the food experiments going on?”
    “In northern Urbania, I think. They’ve got a series of dome farms out in a stretch of reclaimed swamp. The whole complex is known as Pharmz.”
    “Catchy,” he said. A large dusk-colored bird flew across their path.
    Conger watched it flap safely away into the oncoming night. “There should be a teleport station around here someplace. We can land there and get on to Urbania.”
    “We?”
    His eyes still on the diminishing bird, Conger said, “I’ve decided I like working with you.”
    “It’s those hairbreadth rescues that impress you.” She leaned, kissed him once on the cheek.
    “Why do you think Worth may not be dead?”
    “He’s probably dead. The description of Sandman I got …”
    “A tall gaunt man in his middle thirties. That would fit Vincent X. Worth, wouldn’t it?”
    “Or Sir Thomas Anstey-Guthrie.”
    “Or Omar Kavak.”
    “Who added him to the list?”
    “NSO. Kavak is another tall thin—in fact, some of his former colleagues at the Prague Life Cycle Study Center call him downright skinny—tall thin biologist. He disappeared during a foxhunt in Free Ireland #2, while chasing a robot fox. He could very well be Sandman, since his politics and abilities fit. He’s a better bet than Sir Thomas, we think.”
    “Why?”
    “There’s a pretty good possibility Sir Thomas is living in the Bahamas someplace under the name of Juan Tizol with a very zoftig ex-lab assistant of his. We’re investigating further.” Conger took the girl’s hand. “Vince was a health nut. He’s the one who got me started on jogging and health foods. This is a very small point, but when I searched the villa, the room Sandman has used as a lab, I found a kelp pill.” The pretty girl laughed. “A lot of people use those, Jake. Why at the New Lisbon teleport station you can get them out of a vending machine. A packet of kelp pills and a Portuguese fado all for one escudo.”
    “Yeah, that’s true,” admitted Conger.
    “Maybe,” suggested Angelica, “you’re hoping Worth is alive because you miss him.”
    “I am awfully sentimental,” he said. “According to Jerry Ting.”
    “He’s perceptive. When I first met you I thought you were cold and aloof.” She reached out and made adjustments to the controls. “There. That’ll get us to the closest teleport station.” Putting both her hands on his shoulders, she said, “But I think of you differently now.”
    Conger took hold of her as the hopper banked gently to the left.

CHAPTER 13
    Conger wasn’t sure if the gnats and mosquitoes could see him or not.
    Usually the complex body lotion which rendered him invisible also served as an insect repellent. The insects who inhabited the lush swamp