I was starting to get real anxious to meet this guy Vic. It also occurred to me that of all the potential problems our growing reputation could bring down on us, this was one we had never expected.
"And you believed him?"
Luanna made a face, then shrugged.
"Well… you're supposed to be able to do some pretty incredible things, and I don't want you to think I don't believe in your abilities, but I was worried enough that I sneaked back to let you know what was going on…just in case."
It was almost funny that she was apologizing for giving us the warning. Almost, but not quite. My mind kept running over what might have happened if she had believed in me completely.
"I guess my only other question is who is this citizen that Aahz is supposed to have killed?"
"Didn't anybody tell you?" she blinked. "It's Vic. He's from this dimension… you know, a vampire. Anyway, he's hiding out until the whole thing's resolved one way or another. I don't think even Matt knows where he is. Vampires are normally suspicious, and after I sneaked out the first time, he's even gotten cagey around us. He just drops in from time to time to see how we're doing."
Now I knew I wanted to meet friend Vic. If I was lucky, I'd meet him before Aahz did.
"Well, I do appreciate you filling me in on the problem. Now, if you'll just come back to Blut with us and explain things to the authorities, my gratitude will be complete."
Luanna started as if I had stuck her with a pin.
"Hold on a minute! Who said anything about going to the authorities? I can't do that! That would be double crossing my partners. I don't want to see you or your friends get hurt, but I can't sacrifice my own to save them."
An honest crook is both incongruous and infuriating. Aahz had often pointed this out to me when some point in my ethic kept me from going along with one of his schemes, and now I was starting to understand what he was talking about.
"But then why are you here?"
"I wanted to warn you. Vic has been thinking that you might come into Limbo after your partner, and he's setting up some kind of trap if you did. If he was right, I thought you should know that you're walking into trouble. I figured that if you came, you'd look up the Dispatcher, so I waited there and followed you when you showed up. I just wanted to warn you is all. That and…"
She dropped her eyes again and lowered her voice until I could hardly hear her.
"… I wanted to see you again. I know it's silly, but…"
As flattering as it was, this time I was unimpressed.
"Yeah, sure." I interrupted. "You're so interested in me you're willing to let my partner sit on a murder rap just so you can watch me go through my paces."
"I already explained about that," she said fiercely, stepping forward to lay a hand on my arm.
I stared at it pointedly until she removed it.
"Well," she said in a small voice. "I can see that there's nothing more I can say. But, Skeeve? Promise me that you won't follow me when I leave? You or your friends? I took a big risk finding you. Please don't make me regret it."
I stared at her for a long moment, then looked away and nodded.
"I know you're disappointed in me, Skeeve," came her voice, "but I can't go against my partners. Haven't "you ever had to do something you didn't want to do to support your partner?"
That hit home… painfully.
"Yes, I have," I said, drawing a ragged breath. "I'm sorry, Luanna. I'm just Worried about Aahz, that's all. Tell you what. Just to show there're no hard feelings, can I have a token or something? Something to remember you by until I see you again?"
She hesitated, then pulled a gossamer-thin scarf from somewhere inside her outfit. Stepping close, she tucked it into my tunic, then rose on her tiptoes and kissed me softly.
"It's nice of you to ask," she said. "Even if I don't mean anything to you at all, it's nice of you to ask."
With that, she turned and sprinted off down the road into the darkness.
I stared after her.
"You're letting her go!?"
Suddenly Massha was at my side, flanked by Guido.
"C'mon, Boss. We gotta catch her. She's your partner's ticket off death row. Where's she goin'?"
"To meet up with her partners in crime," I said. "Including a surprisingly lively guy named Vic… surprising since he's the one that Aahz is supposed to have killed."
"So we can catch 'em all together. Nice work, Hot Stuff. Okay, let's follow her and…"
"No!"
"Why not?"
"Because I promised her."
There was a deathly silence as my assistants digested this information.
"So she walks and Green and Scaly dies, is that it?"
"You're sellin' out your partner for a skirt? That musta been some kiss."
I slowly turned to face them, and, mad as they were, they fell silent.
"Now listen close," I said quietly, "because I'm not going to go over it again. If we tried to follow her back to their hideout, and she spotted us, she'd lead us on a wild goose chase and we'd never catch up with them… and we need that so-called corpse. I don't think her testimony alone will swing the verdict."
"But Boss, if we let her get away…"
"We'll find them," I said. "Without us dogging her footsteps, she'll head right back to her partners."
"But how will we…"
In answer, I pulled Luanna's scarf from my tunic. "Fortunately, she was kind enough to provide us with a means to track her, once we recruit the necessary were wolf."
Guido gave my back a slap that almost staggered me. "Way to go, Boss," he crowed. "You really had me goin' for a minute. I thought that chickie had really snowed you."
I looked up to find Massha eyeing me suspiciously. "That was quite a kiss. Hot Stuff," she said. "If I didn't know better, I'd think that young lady is more than a little stuck on you… and you just took advantage of it."
I averted my eyes, and found myself staring down the road again.
"As a wise woman once told me," I said, "sometimes you have to do things you don't like to support your partner… Now, let's go find these Woof Writers."
Chapter Nine
"My colleagues and I feel that independents like Elf Quest are nothing but sheep in wolves' clothing!"
THE Woof Writers turned out to be much more pleasant than I had dared hope, which was fortunate as my werewolf disguises were some of the shakiest I'd ever done. Guido was indeed allergic to werewolves as feared (he started sneezing a hundred yards from their house) and was waiting outside, but even trying to maintain two disguises was proving to be a strain on my powers in this magic-poor dimension. I attempted to lessen the drain by keeping the changes minimal, but only succeeded in making them incredibly unconvincing even though my assistants assured me they were fine. No matter what anyone tells you, believe, me, pointy ears alone do not a wolf make.
You might wonder why I bothered with disguises at all? Well, frankly, we were getting a little nervous. Everyone we had talked to or been referred to in this dimension was so nice! We kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. All of our talks and discussions of possible traps had made us so skittish that we were now convinced that there was going to be a double-cross somewhere along the way. The only question in our minds was when and by whom.
With that in mind, we decided it would be best to try to pass ourselves off as werewolves until we knew for sure the Woof Writers were as well-disposed toward humans as Vilhelm said they were. The theory was that if they weren't, the disguises might give us a chance to get out again before our true nature was exposed. The only difficulty with that plan was that I had never seen a werewolf in my life, so not only was I working with a shortage-of energy, I was unsure as to what the final result should look like. As it turned out, despite their knowledgeable advice, my staff didn't know either.