HUNTING VARMITS
A WHUFFLING snort in his ear woke Zach Tylor from a sound sleep. He turned his head to find a pig-like snout about an inch from his nose. The snout belonged to Lucy, his semi-guard pet. The scientific name for Lucy’s species was Lupinus Leo. Colonists referred to them as Banded Koodoo. Zach just called her Lucy. Lucy’s DNA said she had both feline and canine characteristics; she had the retractable claws and night vision of a cat and the devotion and loyalty of a dog. She stood eighteen inches high at the shoulders and weighed about sixty pounds, with coarse, oily, red fur, broken by horizontal yellow stripes along her back and tail. She had short, pricked ears and large dark eyes. Spines made of the same substance as her claws ran up and down her spine as a predator defense. Her tail, wide at the base, narrowed to a barbed ball at the end.
She was regarding him with the alert attention that told him she wanted a human to fix what was wrong. The ambient light in the room told Zach it was about an hour before dawn. It was too early for his brood of Sun Risers, the large fluffy birds he kept for their meat, eggs, and feathers, to be awake unless something was bothering them. Since he didn’t hear the restless clucking signaling they were alarmed, he decided whatever had prompted Lucy to wake him wasn’t bothering the Sun Risers.
He slid out of bed, wincing when his bare feet hit the icy floor. The stone left by the aliens who had built his house was smooth, but it was also cold. He pulled on his leather pants and shoved his feet into his high-topped boots. The shirt was from the night before, but he had only worn it two days, so he considered it clean enough to hunt varmints.
Grabbing his night-vision enabled helmet and his pulse rifle, he stepped outside into the inner Bailey. An area adjacent to his living quarters, but inside the high walls made of iridescent stone left by the Aliens. His grandparents had selected it as a prime spot for the kitchen garden. The area had no roof, but the walls were tall enough to keep out most of Lemuria’s larger predators and wandering herbivore herds. Usually, the walls kept his vegetable garden and the bird coop safe from predators. He had built a fence with access to his Elfs and Raffe corrals and sheds on one end of the Bailey. The exterior corrals also had high walls, but the end open to the valley was edged with a more modern contrivance—a shock fence.
Elfs were draft animals, as large as earthly elephants, with long wooly coats that could be sheared and woven into cloth. Both bulls and cows possessed sharp tusks which usually provided all the protection a herd needed. Like the elephants they had been nicknamed after, they also had a long prehensile trunk with long fingery appendages on the end. It served as a nose and occasionally a hand. Their wide ears hung from the tops of their heads and helped protect their eyes and faces.
The Raffe’s were riding animals; tall, spindly legged critters with triangle shaped heads set on their long necks, a smooth, straight back that would hold a saddle if it was fastened on with chest and rump straps in addition to the cinch.
Both herds were quiet, although the Raffes were restless, but they always were. He glanced at Lucy. She was staring at the garden.
Zach stopped and stood still about thirty yards from his garden. Even with the night-vision visor, it required concentration to distinguish shapes. Lucy whined and his hand dropped to her head, a signal to be quiet.
It was more of those bloody Coney Rats. The Coney Rats were the scourge of Lemuria’s farmers. They ran in large family groups and could clear a crop field in a few hours. Smaller than Lucy, the Coney Rats were no match for her individually, but in a horde, they could beat her senseless. They weren’t actually rats, being genetically closer to earthly rabbits. The Coneys had excellent tasting meat, and a strong, thick skin, covered in long fluffy hair which could be scraped and woven into light cloth suitable for summer clothing.
He took aim with his rifle and downed six of the invaders before they realized he was shooting at them. He got six more as the horde leaped for the fence to escape. Their powerful back legs easily allowing them to jump to the top. He got several more as the horde went over the high wall in a wave. The rising sun hitting the top of the wall silhouetted the rodents, making them easy targets.
By the time Zach had collected his bounty, ensured any survivors passed into the ether, and hung the carcasses in his butcher shed under stasis to keep until he had time to deal with processing the meat, the Sun Risers were griping to be let out and fed.
He opened the coop, and a dozen or so balls of fiery colored fluff bounced out. The sheer mass of the Ball of bright feathers on each bird not only made excellent decorative items, but their feathers also made it hard for predators to tell where their plumages ended, and the bird’s body began. Unwary predators often came up with a mouthful of fluff instead of a piece of bird anatomy.
Zach scattered some cracked corn for them and went to turn off the shock fence so the Raffes and Elfs could graze in the area just outside the compound.
He was looking forward to eating breakfast when the com link chimed. Hastily running his fingers through his tangled mane of dark hair, he answered it.
The woman on the other end was Terella van Horn. Among other things, the van Horn’s handled the insertion of new-commers into Lemurian society and had been instrumental in stopping the revolt that nearly captured the portal last year. The van Horns, like Zach’s family the Tylor’s, were one of Lemuria’s Founding Families. Although Lemuria was the first world the town of Laughing Mountain discovered able to support human life, it had been a hard sell until the Alien Ruins had been found. On earth there existed a group of people who believed Aliens had visited earth in the distant past, but they hadn’t found much actual evidence to prove it. Laughing Mountain was willing to sell access to Lemuria if the proposed colonists were willing to never attempt to publish their findings on earth. If Earth’s Portal Authority had discovered the existence of a gate leading to an unauthorized world, it would have destroyed the colony and the town which ran the illegal Portal, so the terms of the sale had included a non-disclosure clause.
Although not as well financed as the planned colonies of Barsoom, Arcadia, and Shangri-La, the Founding Families who made up the first two hundred Lemurian colonists were an organized group of historians and scientists who pooled their money to purchase farming, mining, and communication equipment to send through the Portal. They also invested in seeds for crops and weapons for defense against the large animals already inhabiting the planet.
To survive Lemuria’s predatory plants and animals, the Founding Families realized they needed to learn to work together fusing their interests to become a community. Since the first arrivals, other colonists had trickled through the Portal, and the original society had become somewhat fractured, but the laws and government created by those first families had held up well.
Terella was a few years younger than Zach. She always presented the fresh, button-downed picture of a sophisticated academic. Her white-blond hair was drawn back in a neat twist, showing off her fine-boned face with its generous, wide lipped mouth and dark grey eyes. Today she wore a pale pink blouse, demurely buttoned up to her slim neck and a pair of dark grey trousers. For some reason that prim air attracted Zach; he always had the urge to grab her and physically mess it up.
He wished fervently he had had time to shower and shave before she called. Ruefully, he put the wish aside and got down to business; Terella wouldn’t have called him unless she had a job for him.
“What can I do for you, Miss van Horn?” he asked.
“Are you up for a guide job?” she asked.
‘I might be,” he said cautiously, swiftly calculating the amount of money he had locked up in his hidden safe. If the job paid enough, the extra money might mean he could enclose the lower end of the valley to plant several fields. “Who is it for and how much does it pay?”
Terella smiled at him. He was entirely unaware of the masculine impact he made on women, even needing a shave and grubby from lack of sleep and collecting Coney Rat corpses. His blood-spattered tee shirt clung tightly to his brawny shoulders and chest. Corded muscles in his powerful biceps and forearms stuck out of the sleeves.
“It’s a family of newcomers,” she said. “A Professor and Mrs. Lamont. They have two kids, a boy about thirteen and a girl about sixteen. They want to go out to the Halivaara Wheel by the Scarlet Lagoon.”
Before colonists had arrived on Lemuria, a mapping drone had explored the planet. Topographical printouts of its findings were stored in the Government House Library. There were no recognized trails through the Duranga Savana, the prairie between the town, the Faraway Mountains to the north and the Shimmering Ocean to the south. The Halivaara Wheel had shown up next to the Scarlet Lagoon as several large circles of the Alien’s iridescent material with spokes leading from the center and connecting the outlying circles. Unlike the smaller ruins left by the aliens, an estimate of its size was nearly seventeen kilometers, nearly three times as large as any other settlement found.
If they made it to the Wheel, Lamont’s expedition would be the first to reach it. Despite the yearning to find and explore anything left by the Alien Forerunners, the planet itself had made concentrating on anything but survival difficult. An earlier attempt to reach the Halivaara Wheel in a dirigible aircraft, had come to grief when the vessel was attacked by a pair of Harlequin Dragons. Harlequin Dragons were about half the size of the dirigible, but their attack damaged it, creating a large hole allowing the gas keeping it in the air to escape. It was forced to land before it crashed. Unfortunately, the explorers who had risked everything had no more money to build a second dirigible or repair the damaged craft, so they limped back into Shellgate several months later.
Harlequin Dragons bore some resemblance to the descriptions of those found in earthly myths, hence the name, but they were Avians, with contrasting tiny feathers in patterns of red, black, and turquoise on their heads, necks, wings, and chests.
“How new are they?” Zach asked suspiciously. Bear Leading newcomers through the hostile area to the site could be difficult.
“Pretty new,” Terella admitted. “He’s willing to pay.” She named a price high enough to enable Zach to enclose the field and still have a little left over.
“What’s the catch?” Zach asked. “For that price the guides in town will be falling over themselves to take it on. Why me?”
“Some of them might abandon the Lamont’s in the middle of the journey. He’s—arrogant. I know if you take the job, you’ll stick to it.”
Zach translated this: the man was a jerk who didn’t take orders.
“Uh—huh.” He named a price half again over what she had quoted. They dickered for a few minutes, finally settling on a price that included feed for himself and his animals and paying for a crew to help with the travel and outfit the expedition, as well as a bonus for aggravation.
“I’ll see you in a few hours,” he told her. “I have some arrangements to make here first. If he and I can’t come to an agreement, I get a deposit for coming in to meet him,” he warned her.
“Of course,” she said.
Ten minutes later with his unruly hair tied back and wearing a cleaner shirt, he headed out the door. On the way out he grabbed a couple of smoked meat strips for himself and Lucy to eat on the way.
When he fired up his two-seater airsled, Lucy, her mouth full of meat, jumped aboard.
As an afterthought, he also grabbed the new hooded cape he had recently finished weaving. He was especially proud of the workmanship; he had dyed strands of Coney thread in brilliant shades of blue and green and woven them into a shimmery blanket of color which rippled with movement. He was sure Mrs. Smithers would want it for her daughter Dulcia, whom she was anxious to marry off. He intended to offer it to her in exchange for young Jimmy’s services in taking care of his garden and animals while he was gone.
The Smither’s family were long time neighbors. Her first husband had been Zach’s cousin James. James had been killed by a pack of Crested wolves. Zach considered himself an uncle to the two children Dulcia and Jimmy.
Mrs. Smithers, a slatternly woman with fading red hair, had once been pretty but the years had been hard, and her looks had faded. Now she concentrated her ambitions on finding a husband for her sixteen-year-old daughter. Because she considered Zach an ideal catch despite the kinship issue, he always dealt cautiously with her—wary of falling into one of her matrimonial honey traps.
Today the trap was relatively easy to dodge; when she mentioned Dulcia joining him on the expedition as a cook, he simply said, “I’m sorry, but I only negotiated payment for myself. You’ll have to speak to Terella van Horn about that.” Not true but he knew if he admitted he had already negotiated for a cook’s wages, Joann Smithers would keep the entire amount of Dulcia’s wages for herself.
He dropped young Jimmy off at his farm, grabbed a spare bedroll and more smoked meat and headed back out with Lucy again riding shotgun.
Airsleds on Lemuria were powered by an esoteric energy crystal found only on the planet. A machine blueprint etched on the wall of one of the mysterious quartz buildings had been built by an enterprising engineer named Mikhailovich Gregor. He went looking for the crystals shown on the design and found them purely by chance (he tripped and fell into a cave). The cave showed evidence that it had been mined at one time. He dug a few out and tried them in his new engine. No one was more surprised than himself when the engine produced power. He named the Crystals Lechatelierites but everyone else called them Gregor’s Crystals.
The motor built by the engineer was too large to be portable. However, a Portal Runner who also frequented Barsoom, another of the outlaw colonies saw the design. Upon hearing it worked, he hunted up Gregor and proposed letting the scientists on Barsoom, who specialized in miniaturized robotics, have a go at developing a smaller version.
Barsoom’s scientists were successful, Gregor and the Runner got rich, and versions of the X-T motor were now used to run most of the machines used on Lemuria. The crystal and the Mikhailovich Engine had garnered interest on Arcadia as well, and the enterprising Arcadians were attempting to develop a Portal going directly from their colony to Lemuria to facilitate mining the crystal. There wasn’t enough storage space in the Portal town of Laughing Mountain for the quantity of Crystals the Arcadians want, so a direct gateway from Lemuria to Arcadia made sense.
The sled made the fifty-mile trip to Shellgate, the colony capital, in less than two hours. Shellgate City was the only large settlement on Lemuria. It boasted a population of about five thousand people including residents and transients.

As Zach topped the rise leading into the valley towards the city, he could see the cluster of government buildings and the stone arch in the center square. The colonists had unconsciously copied the Architectural style of the Forerunners. Streets led away from the arch and government buildings like the spokes of a wagon wheel. Shellgate itself was a unique assortment of styles, a mixed bag of prefabricated buildings and native stone or wood. Raffes and Elfs mixed freely on the streets with bicycles, tricycles, and air sleds.Zach stopped at the Red Cat Tavern on his way to the government center. His friend Marley Redfern owned it and would usually keep one of the upstairs rooms free for him if he knew Zach was in town.He was in luck; Marley had a free room. "Jace is cooking up roasted Ibex and we're serving it with a mess of fried tubers and red beans," Marley said. "Try to be here for dinner—you don't want to miss it."Terella had commed Zach on his way into town. “Is there something going on with you and Dulcia Smithers?” she asked,“Good God No!” he exclaimed. “The kid is what—sixteen?”“Her mother seems to think so,” she said, watching him with her head cocked to one side.“Dulcia and her brother are my cousin James' kids. I'm the only family left on his side, so I feel sort of responsible for them. Her mother,” he said with emphasis, “has been trying to marry that poor kid off since she was thirteen!” “Oh, dear,” Terella said. “She wants me to hire Dulcia as a cook. Do you want me to turn her down?”He sighed. “Dulcia is a good cook. She wants to earn enough to escape from her mom. She won’t be a problem. I explained the situation to her the last time her mother tried to get her to crawl into my bed. She was embarrassed, but she did understand I don’t have sex with children.”“She was lucky it was someone like you, not some jerk who would have taken advantage of her.” Terella said.“You’ll have to give Joann Smithers a portion of Dulcia’s wages but set some of them aside for the kid.”“I can do that.”She closed the com as Zach pulled up in front of the Government house. Leaving Lucy to guard the sled, he entered the two-story building. Outside the building had been slapped together with prefab material and it showed. Inside someone had tried to improve the look with paint. Art from local artists was scattered around the large foyer.Zach nodded at the receptionist and went down the hall to Terella’s office.She was perched in her chair behind the heavy wooden desk, obviously attempting to soothe the family of newcomers sitting on a leather covered couch. The man was tall and spare, with a neat goatee and a pair of black framed glasses perched on his beak of a nose. His wife was of similar height and build, with her hair drawn back in a tight bun. She was dressed in a neat suit dress. The two children both wore earth issue clothing. The boy Herve' a lad of about thirteen, was dressed in cargo pants and a tee-shirt in virulent colors. He was a little overweight, with sandy hair and a pale complexion, denoting a sedentary lifestyle. The daughter, Josette, looked about sixteen. She wore a low-cut tank top and skintight leggings. She also wore a pair of flip flop shoes.The newcomers eyed Zach as warily as he did them. They saw a man in his middle twenties, dressed in standard clothing for the colony: a short-sleeved homespun shirt under a waist length leather vest, lined with cloth made from woven Coney hair. The shirt was tucked into tough leather pants, tanned a medium brown, which in turned were tucked into calf length boots. A ten-inch blade in a tightly woven sheath hung from one hip, and a large pulse pistol in a tied down holster hung on the other. He had left the pulse rifle in the sled under Lucy’s watchful eyes. Theft wasn’t that uncommon on Lemuria, but it would be a rare thief who would dare Lucy’s considerable wrath to try and grab anything out of Zach’s sled.“Ah—you made it,” Terella smiled brightly at Zach. “Zach, this is Professor and Mrs. Lamont, and their children, Herve' and Josette. Professor, this is Zachery Tylor, one of our best guides.”“I still don’t see why we need a guide,” Lamont griped. “I’ve seen a map of the area. It’s due north from here. With a good compass, there is no way we can get lost.”“Getting lost isn’t the danger,” Zach said. “Yes, there are hazards on the way to the site you aren’t familiar with,” Terella said.“Can I see the supply list?” Zach asked.When Terella handed it over, he went through it carefully, marking through a few lines and writing more at the bottom. He handed it back to her and she passed it to the Professor, who scanned it with an ever-increasing frown.Zach looked them over while the Professor read his corrections. Many newcomers were under the impression the rules here were the same as those on earth. Most of them also discounted the non-disclosure/non-publish Law about their findings on Lemuria; it was illegal to reveal anything concerning Lemuria or the other colonies back on earth. On Lemuria, the penalty for attempting to violate this law was a long term in a labor camp for a first offense. A second offense rated the death penalty.Even if colonists proved the existence of X-T visitors, it wouldn’t change that law. Lemuria, the Laughing Mountain Portal, and the other Outlaw colonies needed earth to remain in ignorance of their existence. Second and third generation colonists were aware of the penalties for breaking the Non-Disclosure Law, but most of the colonists were so desperately poor they were willing to assist newcomers in their research anyway as it put much needed coin in their pockets.The Professor waived his corrected sheet of supplies at Zach. "These items are necessary," he said. "We need them to operate efficiently.""Those items aren't available on Lemuria," Zach said patiently."Young man, you don't understand. I insist this expedition be equipped with top-of-the-line instruments.""I'm sorry," Zach said. "But unless you brought them with you, it isn't possible to obtain them here." "So, order them from earth. I don't see the problem. I assure you our sponsors will ship them promptly."Zach and Terella regarded the two newcomers with pity. "Did you read the Non-Disclosure Clause in your immigration contract?" Zach asked."Yes, of course, but surely that is only a formality—"He stopped when Zach shook his head no, "I'm afraid it isn't a formality. It's a very real fact." He turned to Terella, "Perhaps you could refresh their memories?"Terella nodded and withdrew two pamphlets out of her desk drawer, handing one to the Lamonts. She opened hers to read the contract aloud. Zach, who could probably have recited the entire short volume from memory, leaned against the wall with his arms crossed and listened in silence.'I, the undersigned, agree to have no further contact with earth or its population in any form whatsoever for any reason.I understand this is a one-way passage and I will not attempt to return to earth or contact anyone there.Moneys received from any earth source will be funneled through channels that do not reveal the presence of the Lemuria colony or Laughing Mountain’s involvement with the colony.Any of my findings gained from exploring Lemuria can only be published in the Colony of Lemuria.'"I have the colony copy of the contract with your signatures on file. I can furnish you with another if you've lost yours."Professor Lamont sat down limply in a chair. His wife had tears running down her face."Richard what are we going to do?" she whispered.Terella went to the file cabinet and took their actual contract out of the 'to be filed' box."According to this, you will continue to receive a yearly salary from earth, so you won't starve. A sufficient sum of money has been deposited into an account in your name to enable you to live comfortably for a year and to equip an expedition to study the alien ruins. If the payments continue as scheduled, they will support you long enough for you to establish yourselves."Lamont looked up sharply. "What do you mean 'if they continue'? Why wouldn't they continue?"Terella hesitated before she said, "Judging from experience, after a few years, Earth organizations who sent researchers here usually stop funding an expedition from which they gain nothing.""That doesn't make sense," Alice Lamont protested. "Why send us here at all if they know we can't report what we find?""There could be any number of reasons for that Mrs. Lamont," Terella said kindly. "It's better to concentrate on getting you settled so you can make some decisions about your future, than to waste time speculating on the reasons you were sent here.""What about the expedition? Is it still on?" Zach asked."That will depend on Professor and Mrs. Lamont. However, the deposit is non-refundable; you and the others will be paid for your time and trouble.""What?" Lamont exclaimed. "Why should they get paid for an expedition that doesn't take place?""Our laws in respect to these matters may be different than those on earth," Terella said. "Once the offer has been posted, those who signed up for employment under its offer are considered hired. If the expedition is cancelled, they are entitled to severance pay to cover time and wages lost."She looked up as her younger brother Terrence poked his head in the door. "I have rooms arranged for the Lamonts at Mrs. Riker's boarding house," he said. "Excellent. Why don't you go and settle into your rooms, have a meal and we'll discuss this further tomorrow." Gently but inexorably, she guided them to the door, shutting it behind them."Are you staying at Marley's?" she asked.Zach nodded. "He said he has a spare bed. Why don't you join me for dinner? He sets a good table.""Maybe I will if I get done in time. About seven?""Sure." He watched the engrossing sway of her hips in the tight jeans as she walked away from him.

SUSPICIONS
RUBBING THE crease between his eyes, Jeremiah van Horn put down the letter he had been reading. It had come through the Portal from earth in today’s mail pouch. He was a short, rotund man with thinning grey hair and a wispy beard. His horn-rimmed glasses perched on a round button of a nose. He looked like what he was, a kindly man who had responsibility thrust upon him.
“What’s the matter Dad?” his daughter, Terella, stood in the doorway. It was a constant source of amazement to him he and his wife Louise had produced a daughter as lovely as Terella. Despite the way she underplayed her looks, her father thought her ash blond hair, grey-green eyes with their dark lashes and generous mouth added up to beauty. When those things were combined with a slim hourglass figure, it amazed him she didn’t have suitors beating down her door.
He held out the missive. “You’d better read this. It’s about that new family who recently came through the portal.”
Dear Mr. Horn, the letter read. I have learned of a new danger to our colonies I feel you should be informed about. A man named Richard Lamont and his family will come through the Portal. His dossier says he is an archaeologist, and the Hidden Treasure Foundation sponsored him to an ‘unknown destination’. While he has a minor degree in archeology, he also holds a PhD in Portal Technology. I don’t know how well you know a Portal Runner named Leslie Jorgenson, but the man has the reputation of dipping his fingers in shady waters. Because of that, colonists who want to get around the rules which keep us all safe from the Portal Authorities sometimes approach him about illegal imports. However, it seems he has some standards. He tells me Lamont and another man approached him about smuggling in the tech it would take to build another Portal. One that would not be under local government control. Jorgensen claimed he refused, but I discovered Lamont is taking his family across to Lemuria this week. While I don’t know for sure if Lamont will bring in stuff to build a second Portal, I urge you to keep an eye on him.
On another note, I will be arriving with the next scheduled shipment to program the connections to Arcadia and Barsoom. Hopefully we can test it during my visit. Arcadia wants to arrange a shipment of the Gregor Crystals at that time.
Sincerely Yours, Devon Morton.
Terella laid the letter back on her father’s desk. “This doesn’t sound good,” she said.
“You met with them in your office,” Jeremiah said. “What was that about?”
“He wants to explore that forerunner site out by the Scarlet Lagoon. I set him up with Zach Tylor as a guide.”
“The Halivaara Wheel? It will take at least a month to get there. That’s far enough away to make it hard to keep an eye him,” he said. “I assume Tylor will stay around for a few weeks after they arrive?”
“He usually does, if only to prevent any troubles arising,” she replied.
“I want you to go out with them,” he said.
“Zach will know I rarely do that,” she protested. “What do I tell him?”
“Do you trust him?”
“Yes,” she replied.
“Then tell him everything,” he said.
She frowned. “If Lamont is part of a conspiracy, they are probably watching us. They might guess we know something.”
“Didn’t I hear Tylor invite you out for drinks later?”
“Yes,” she admitted.
“So put on a pretty outfit, let your hair down, and go have a drink with the man. You spend too much time in the office. A pretty girl like you should get out more.”
“I go out,” she protested.
“With girlfriends,” he retorted. “I mean on an actual date.”
“It’s customary to wait to be asked,” she said dryly.
“Well, he asked you, didn’t he? You could do a lot worse,” her fond father told her.
Her eyebrows rose. “I thought you didn’t approve of ‘hardscrabble farmers’ as a suitor for me?”
“He’s different; he’s ambitious and he works hard. He’s going to go far unless I miss my guess. Besides he’s a far cry from that yahoo you had your eye on back in high school.”

So, she went home and changed into a tank top and a pair of tight black jeans. A wide belt with an ornate buckle and a necklace of native jade completed the ensemble. She took a cab pulled by a pair of Raffes to the Red Cat Tavern.
A wooden sign depicting a large red cat hung from a pole over the door. The outside wall was made of river rocks on the ground floor and timber planks on the upper. Marley Redfern, the owner, was tending bar. He gave Terella a friendly nod when she entered and stood looking around. The tavern was packed. Several groups of people gathered around the big round tables, enjoying both cards and dice games. Marley had set a dart board up against the back wall, and a group of players were taking pleasure in competing against each other. Several people playing checkers, chess or parchisi occupied a few of the smaller tables. A few couples were eating some of Marley’s excellent food. Even most of the stools at the bar were occupied. She spotted Zach at a small table in the rear, with Lucy lying at his feet.
Surprised and pleased she had accepted his invitation he rose to his feet when he saw her waiting in the door.
“Wow, you look great,” he said when she arrived at the table after winding her way through the other patrons and fending off several invitations to join one of the groups.
“Thanks,” she said. Lucy nudged her with her snout, and Terella squatted to greet her. “Hello, Lucy,” she said, stroking the animal’s coarse fur. “I didn’t think you brought her with you. Was she waiting outside when you met the Lamonts?”
“She was guarding the sled,” he replied. “Besides—well, they are newcomers; I didn’t want to scare them off.”
He pulled a chair out for Terella, and she sat across from him. “They’ll have to get over that in a hurry. Wait until you put them up in an Elf Howdah,” she said. “Besides, Lucy isn’t scary, are you, girl?”
When Betsy, Marley’s overworked waitress, appeared at the table, Zach ordered a glass of wine for Terella and a beer for himself.
“What about Lucy?” Betsy asked.
“A plate of appetizers for her—and bring one for us, too,” Zach said.
Betsy brought out the two plates, loaded with fried vegetables and stuffed mushroom caps. Terella moved Lucy’s over to the edge of the table, pulled out a chair, and patted the seat. Nothing loath, the Banded Koodoo hopped up on the chair and daintily scarfed down the appetizers.
“Glad you came?” he asked Terella.
“Yes,” she said. “Dad tells me I spend too much time working and not enough socializing. Thanks for the invite.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Did you think anything was off about Lamont?” she asked.
Zach sighed. “I might have known you didn’t come here for the pleasure of my company. What’s bothering you about the Lamonts?” he asked.
“That’s not true; I enjoy your company. You don’t get into town often enough for me to indulge in it.”
“Come, that’s encouraging,” he said with a smile.
“I didn’t think you wanted any,” she retorted. “As for the Lamonts, Dad got a letter from earth in the mail pouch from Devon Morton, do you remember him?”
“Isn’t he the man who came to check out the Portal machine after the coup failed?”
“Yes, that’s him. He warned Dad that Lamont and another man had tried to hire a Runner to bring in some tech to set up another Portal.”
He frowned. “I thought Lamont was an archaeologist?”
She took a sip of the excellent wine. “He has a degree in it, but according to Morton, he majored in Portal Technology.”
“Oh, Hell,” he said. “I don’t suppose you want to come along on the trip to help me keep an eye on him?”
“You must be psychic. That’s what Dad wants me to do. Do you mind an extra?”
He grinned at her. “Not a bit—I’ll simply put you to work.”

AMAZON