“Just think, baby!” the woman gushed. She was practically vibrating with the thrill of the hunt. “A million stores! Let’s buy a few trinkets!”
“We discussed this,” the man began to protest. “You said you just wanted to see it!”
“Well, yes, but we’ll need something to remember the experience by, won’t we?” Her voice was plaintive.
The man sighed. “All right, honey, but only stuff we can carry, okay?” He wagged his finger at her.
“Deal!” she replied. She actually clapped her hands and skipped before letting out an excited squeal and hugging her husband. Beneath the visor, the man gave a broad, happy grin. Valerian found himself smiling as well.
Thaziit turned to face his group, walking backwards with practiced ease as he said, “Remember that the sensors embedded in your equipment enable you to be fully present in Big Market and have the total experience. You can touch objects, the walls…”
Not looking where he was reaching, Thaziit’s hand closed on the enormous proboscis of an alien merchant with tiny eyes and two sets of arms. One of his four hands came up to slap Thaziit’s.
“Watch it, buddy!”
“Oops! Sorry!” Thaziit apologized. The alien muttered at him and rearranged the items on his table, still glaring. The items on his table glared, too.
Thaziit took off his glove and held it over his head, so everyone could see. “As I was saying, you can touch objects in Big Market if you have your gloves on. But if you remove your sensors, you will lose contact and all sense of touch.” He reached out, and this time his hand went completely through the alien’s head. It sputtered in annoyance, clearly fed up with the annoying human guide.
“Then you’ll lose the chance of snapping up bargains! So keep your equipment on at all times!”
The group headed deeper into the market. Thaziit slowed, allowing some time for everyone to wander a bit and peruse tables and carpet displays more carefully. Valerian pretended to show interest in an ancient piece of furniture that the vendor assured him “every household needed,” then, once he was certain Thaziit’s attention was on helping another tourist, he fell back and melted into the crowd.
He slipped discreetly down a narrow street, checking the street and vendor numbers he’d seen on the map. Further away from the center area, the real estate grew distinctly seedier. Instead of large, airy plazas with statuary, fountains, and awnings, the architecture went up—and down, into the earth—instead of out, and the shops were smaller and darker, becoming not much more than a warren of holes.
Valerian hastened down seven sets of stairs, then he turned into another street, slowing as he approached the appointed site. Light filtered down from a series of grates overhead, both from artificial illumination and from some round, glowing, floating creatures harnessed for just this purpose. He passed a tentacled being juggling about twenty bright metallic balls, and then found himself a few shops away from Igon Siruss’s “antique store.”
Slightly amused, Valerian thought it was completely nondescript, looking like any one of the thousand other stores he’d passed. Modest columns rose on either side of the door, and an arched entrance with a red curtain shielded the interior. There was nothing special about it— if you excluded the pair of heavily armed Kodhar’Khans flanking the door and the leashed Pit-Ghors that sat beside them.
The Kodhar’Khans were slender, a little taller than Valerian. They did not look nearly as imposing as Igon Siruss, but they were clearly members of the same species; Valerian made note of the three sets of nostrils.
They wore dark orange hoods and were heavily armed, but otherwise did not look particularly dangerous. Valerian decided that Laureline was probably overestimating their aggressiveness. Which was kind of sweet.
The Pit-Ghors, however… These were two of the larger ones Valerian had ever seen. He regarded them with healthy appreciation. They were four-legged and very solidly built, reptilian, red in color. Their heads were enormous, their sharp-toothed mouths equally large, and they seemed to be obedient.
For now.
Valerian continued at a reasonable pace, regarding the store and the other shops on the street with a casual oh hey I’m just looking amble, then turned left down another street as if looking for more shops.
Sergeant Cooper was waiting for him. Valerian had never met the sergeant, but he decided that if he ever wanted to get into a bar brawl, it wouldn’t be with this man. Not so much because he was larger or more muscular, or even that he looked particularly scary, but because there was just something about the way he held himself that promised that such an encounter would end badly.
Cooper eyed the floral shirt with distaste. Valerian found that highly amusing, considering that Cooper, who was also attempting to blend in, wore a floppy, shapeless hat and a bulky necklace that was of obviously cheap craftsmanship.
“Major Valerian,” Valerian introduced himself.
“Sergeant Cooper,” the man replied, nodding at him. He handed a gun to Valerian, who inspected it while Cooper pulled the cover off a rectangular metal box that had the words “The Sleeve” written on it. The metal was dinged, and the brown paint on it grimy. It had seen better days.
“Put this on,” instructed Cooper. With the weapon gripped in his hand, Valerian thrust his right arm into the Sleeve up to the shoulder. Cooper fastened it securely over his arm. The Sleeve swallowed Valerian’s lower arm, hand, and weapon.
“Ever used one of these before?”
“Nope,” Valerian said. He hadn’t had many missions involving virtual reality. He preferred his reality to be… well… real.
“Enter your genetic code on the front keypad, here,” Cooper instructed. “To come back, you enter your code on the back keypad here. Clear?”
“Crystal,” Valerian replied.
Cooper reached into a pocket of his outlandish garb and brought out a small canister. “This will let you infiltrate the VR scenario completely unnoticed.”
“I’ll be invisible?”
“In the virtual world of Big Market, yes. Here in the compound… not in the slightest.”
“Got it.”
Cooper spritzed him twice with the concoction. It had a faint floral scent. They won’t see me, but they’ll get a lovely whiff of springtime freshness, Valerian thought, amused. He looked down at himself and grinned. Through the visor, in this virtual world, he now couldn’t even see himself. It was disorienting, to say the least, but kind of fun.
“Good luck,” Cooper said.
Valerian moved to the front of the store and took up position.
He didn’t have to wait long.
CHAPTER SIX
Two tall, willowy humanoid figures approached the storefront. They wore gloves and hoods and kept their heads ducked down, so Valerian couldn’t get a glimpse of their faces. They strode right up to the store, making no pretense at being ordinary tourists out for a day’s shopping. Parting the hanging red curtain, they stepped inside. A Pit-Ghor growled at them, but one of the guards reprimanded it and yanked on the creature’s chain. It subsided, unhappy but obedient.
Valerian was forced to follow the two customers almost immediately, lest further movement of the curtain at the entrance betray him. Again, the Pit-Ghor reacted, baring its ugly teeth.
“Fluffy, what’s with you today?” the Kodhar’Khan guard said, glaring at the animal.
“I told you,” the other one replied, “he needs more exercise. Big healthy boy like him. Don’t you, Fluffy? Huh?”
The creature wiggled happily at the guard’s tone of voice.
“I give him enough exercise,” the first guard said, “but every time I ask you to take him out…”