Read Online Flinx in Flux by Alan Dean Foster - Free Book Online Page B

I’ve been out for several days.” He nodded as she turned her palms up, inspecting the scoured skin. “I guess you’ve done a good job on me. Thanks. I can’t say that I feel good, but I feel better.”
    “Several days’ rest is good medicine for any injury.”
    “I woke up and saw you lying on the other bed, and I thought they’d found me. I thought you were one of them.” This time she did not smile. “I had the little knife. It fits inside the middle of my boot. That’s how I got loose. Not much use against a bunch of people, but against one sleeping man . . . I was going to cut your throat.”
    “Pip would never have allowed it.”
    “So I found out.” She eyed the flying snake wrapped around the bedpost. “When it came at me, I tried to get out the door. It’s sealed both ways. That’s when I started screaming, but nobody came to see what was happening.”
    “I sealed the door because I don’t like interruptions when I’m sleeping.” Reaching behind the headboard, he brought out a thin bracelet and touched a stud set flush with the polished surface. The door clicked softly. “I bring my own lock. Don’t trust the ones they rent you. As for your screaming, this is a pretty wide-open town. Not a place where people interfere in their neighbors’ business. Hard to tell sometimes why somebody’s screaming.” He slipped the bracelet on his wrist. “Ever seen a picture of a body ravaged by millimite bugs?”
    She looked down at her legs, then ran her fingers along the almost vanished welts. “These?”
    He nodded. “They feed subcutaneously. They’re not very big, but they’re voracious and persistent. The first thing they do is eat their way to where the muscles are attached to the bone. They cut through the legs first. Then, when their prey can’t move anymore, they settle in for a leisurely month or so of eating.”
    She shuddered anew. “Here I am throwing questions at you right and left, and I haven’t really thanked you.”
    “Yes you did. A moment ago.”
    “I did?” She blinked. “Sorry. My name. I haven’t told you my name.” She brushed at her short blond hair. He wondered what she would look like with a professional patina of cosmetics on that exquisitely sculpted face. “I’m Clarity. Clarity Held.”
    “Pleasure to meet you.”
    She laughed, a little less uneasily this time. “Is it? You really don’t know a thing about me. Maybe if you did, you wouldn’t think it such a pleasure.”
    “I found an injured human being lying exposed to the jungle. I’d have picked up anyone under those circumstances.”
    “I’ll bet you would have. Come on,” she chided him, “how old are you, really?”
    He sighed. “Nineteen, but I’ve been around a lot. Listen, what’s this all about? Who beat you up and why were they holding you against your will?”
    Suddenly she was looking around the room, ignoring his questions. “Is there a bathroom in this place?”
    Flinx put a damper on his curiosity and nodded at the holo of an icy fountain off to the left. “Behind there.”
    “Is there a bathtub?” There was an edge in her voice. He nodded, and she smiled gratefully. “About time things started evening out. From hell to heaven in one waking breath.” She rose and started toward the holo.
    “Wait a minute. You haven’t answered any of
my
questions.”
    “I will. I’ll tell you anything you want to know. After all, I owe you my life.” She glanced back at the doorway. “You sure no one can get in here?”
    “I’m sure. Even if they did . . .” He nodded in Pip’s direction.
    “All right. I should be working on getting out of here, on getting off this world. Because I’m sure they’re looking for me right now. But I feel, like something that just crawled out of a sludge pit. If I don’t clean myself up, I won’t be able to stand me long enough to answer your questions. Bath first.” She smiled to herself. “There’s always time for a bath.”
    He leaned