Free Watcher's Web by Patty Jansen Page A

lingered, but most onlookers
had gone back to work.
    Doors were
open at the bottom of the installation’s central pillar. Jessica
could see wire cages inside, with lots of balls that glowed like
radioactive caviar. A group of females were wearing gloves and
loading those balls into bags, which others carried towards the
river.
    The air was
humid, heavy with the minty scent from the females’ bodies and the
wet smell of mud. A breeze caressed Jessica’s skin like soft
fingers. The most beautiful thing in the universe. Gone was the
burning, the pain, the madness and the recklessness. Gone was the
web and the man’s voice and the stranger in the restaurant. With
the heat that had fled her body through the web, the anger had
melted away.
    How had this
alien female done that? Because when their minds connected, there
had been no doubt: Ikay had done something to drain off the
pressure, something none of the doctors she had visited on Earth
had ever been able to do.
    Jessica stared
at Ikay and the remaining onlookers as if, for the first time,
really seeing them.
    Yes, they were
the same type of creatures as the ones who had been following her,
the ones who had taken Brian and killed the others. Those men still
stood motionless at the ridge, mere silhouettes against the
darkening sky. A group of hunting females waited halfway between
them and the wall. Why the men should let themselves be stopped
when they had fire-spewing weapons was a question Jessica couldn’t
answer, but the fact was they didn’t come closer and so it seemed
for now she was safe, at least from them. And if these females had
plans to kill her, they could have done so a hundred times
already.
    A wave of
fatigue rolled over her.
    “I’m sorry to
be so rude, but would you have something to eat?” Jessica mimicked
eating.
    Ikay
repeated Jessica’s mimicking, speaking a single word that sounded
something like okkik, with
short vowels and deep guttural “k” sounds.
    Jessica
nodded, but at Ikay’s blank stare repeated the gesture again.
“Please?”
    Ikay beckoned,
and led Jessica away from the wall, waving the last aproned workers
back to their jobs. The two Amazons followed, still looking
wary.
    At the gap in
the wall another Amazon waited. This one was much younger, her body
graceful with female curves and supple, striped skin. Large,
long-lashed doe-eyes met Jessica’s in a questioning look. A
gorgeous, feminine creature, even in the way she held her
knife.
    Her voice,
young and childish, rang like a bell.
    Ikay
pointed at the chest of the black-haired Amazon and said a single
word that sounded like “Alllll.”
    The Amazon’s
name?
    Jessica
tried to repeat the word, but couldn’t produce the thick “l” and
said, “Alla.”
    The
Amazon’s glare met hers. Her tail swayed at knee level. It probably
meant mildly
annoyed.
    Ikay
moved to introduce the older woman with the leopard spots. This one
took Jessica’s bastardisation of her name into Maire without any emotion, gazing into the
sunset.
    On the other
hand, after hearing Jessica call her “Dora”, the young Amazon let
forth a barrage of snorts and gurgles that sounded like she was
choking. It seemed this was their version of laughter. Jessica
chuckled, launching Dora into another set of snorts.
    Alla gave her
a cold look, and spoke a few harsh words.
    Ikay
waved around the small group and said something that sounded
like, “Pengali.”
    So that’s what
they called themselves, Pengali.
    Jessica
repeated, “Pengali.” And then pointed at her own chest. “I’m
Jessica. I’m human.” Well, that sounded stupid.
    Ikay raised
her hand and wagged her finger. “Poh-poh-poh-poh—Anmi.”
    Whatever. As
long as they gave her something to eat.
    A well-worn
path led from the power installation to the river bank. Yellowish
brown water flowed sluggishly past a line of about ten dugout
canoes, tied to each other, into which the working females were
loading their bags of glowing pearls. A delivery