Shecarried her credit in gold chip-coins hidden in the money belt strapped to thesmall of her back. Other establishments might be linked to various financialinstitutions and accept a thumbprint scan for a transfer but not here. TheDemon’s Eye was a strictly cash-only kind of place. Not too surprisingconsidering who ran it. B’Rugh wasn’t known for his tolerance or leniency—hewas more famous for business acumen and cruelty, though he had always beencivil to her.
Trinhad met him when she sat in on a card game of three handed thrash in a trashylittle dive in the Leffaba System. It was a complicated game which involvedperiodically trading hands with the player sitting three seats from you as wellas managing three groups of cards at once.
Despitethe fact that two of the players had been Leffbas—the species that hadoriginally invented the game and who each had three arms and six hands, Trinhad still managed to win. B’Rugh, who had lost badly, was much impressed withher skill and had been inviting her to come visit him at the Demon’s Eye ever since.
Thiswas the first time Trin had taken him up on his invitation. She just hoped itwasn’t the last thing she ever did.
Shescanned the long, dirty metal walkway as she went, her low heeled boots ringingagainst the floor. So far, so good. Though she could see the huge, lumpishshapes and gleaming eyes of males in the side corridors, no one had accosted orattempted to approach her yet. There weresome leering expressions of lust and a few catcalls from time to time but thatwas all…for now. Had B’Rugh put out the word that she wasn’t to be bothered? Orwere the thugs simply so surprised at seeing a lone female in their midst theydidn’t know what to do?
Whateverthe case, Trin hoped that their apparent policy of non-contact continued.Although at some point she was going to have to ask someone to point the way toB’Rugh…
“Greetings,my lady,” a high, grating voice announced.
Itwas so close to her and so unexpected that Trin nearly jumped out of her skin.
“I…what?”She looked around wildly, only to see the speaker appear suddenly right infront of her. He didn’t walk forward, he simply showed up as though he’dmaterialized out of nothing.
Shetook a look at him…and had to fight to keep from stepping back. He was a tall,skeletal male with a skull-like face and boney, prominent eye sockets aroundhis deep-set eyes. Or eye, anyway.The entire right side of his face was covered with some kind of rigid metalmask with an unblinking purple light glaring from where the right eye shouldbe. He had a knife blade of a nose and thin, almost non-existent lips that werethe color of raw meat.
Theworst part in Trin’s opinion, was that a piece of his skull had been removedand replaced with a clear, plasti-glass dome. Through it, she could see hispulsing gray brain implanted with a few weakly flickering lights. The brainmatter around these implants was darker that the other tissue and lookedalmost…rotten. But that wasn’t possible, was it? How could anyone live andfunction with a rotting brain?
“Isee you’re admiring my communications array,” the male said, tapping theplasti-glass shield with one skeletal finger.
“Oh,uh…” Trin wasn’t sure what to say. “It’s…like nothing I’ve ever seen before,”she said at last. Which was certainly true.
“Itused to be my link to the beings I served—they are, alas, no more.”
“That’stoo bad,” Trin remarked, keeping her hand near her blaster.
“Ihad another connection too—one to a dear friend—closer than a brother. But hedied as well.” He sighed mournfully in a way that almost made Trin sorry forhim. Almost.
“I’mvery sorry to hear it.”
“Well,it cannot be helped. People do come and go in our lives sometimes, don’t youagree?”
Trinthought of the big Havoc chained to his cot back on The Alacrity—thought of her decision to let him go when she gotback from doing the deal aboard the Demon’s Eye.
“True,”she admitted, her heart feeling heavy for no reason she could really name.
“Butthen…one moves on,” the strange male continued. “One finds new places toinhabit, one makes new friends. The universe becomes a brighter place—yes?”
Hesmiled and Trin had to keep herself from flinching away from him a second time.Pealing back those liver-colored lips revealed spit-shiny stainless steel teeththat were somehow even more grotesque than the exposed brain.
“Right,”she muttered, gripping her blaster.
“Oh,you won’t need that.” The male grinned even wider and nodded at the blaster.“It’s quite unnecessary. I’m not here to accost you—I’m here to lead you to ourmost estimable leader, Alile vuh B’Rugh.”
“Isee.” Trin relaxed a little though she kept her hand hovering over her blaster.“You weren’t with him when I first met him, I don’t think,” she remarked. “I’mcertain I would have remembered you.”
“AsI would have remembered you, dearlady.” He bowed again and came up grinning. “As a matter of fact, I amrelatively new here but I have quickly gained the confidence of our fineleader. You might even say I am his number Twomale.” He laughed, as though he’d made a joke. Trin didn’t join in.
“Sowhere is B’Rugh?” she asked tightly. More and more she felt she didn’t likethis tall thin male with his exposed brain and steel teeth. As a captain shehad learned to trust her instincts and he gave off a bad vibe. A bad, crazy vibe. Every nerve in her bodyshouted, run! But she couldn’t—shehad a deal to make.
“B’Rughis this way—waiting for you in his main receiving parlor. Or as the otherdenizens of this fine establishment call it—the Grog Hall.” He swept out oneboney hand in an elaborately graceful gesture. “Ladies first?”
“I’llfollow you,” Trin said tightly.
“ButI do not wish to be rude.” He openedhis eyes wide—the left eye anyway—as though indicating his horror of the idea.
“Femalesdon’t expect special treatment where I’m from. We are more than equal to malesso nobody needs to go first,” Trin said brusquely. “You know the way so youlead.”
“Verywell.” He nodded amiably enough and turned to sweep down the wide metalcorridor ahead of her. Trin breathed a sigh of relief, glad to have thatstrange, crazy gaze off her face at least for a minute. She noticed that herhost—B’Rugh’s number two male as he called himself—was wearing a strangegarment. It was a long, black leather coat which fell from his boney neck tohis black boots which made dull, clanking echoes on the metal floor. The coatfluttered against his ankles as he walked, almost as though it was alive.
Weird. Very weird. Shewondered if he was really who he said he was and if he was taking her to B’Rughat all? If he’d tried to lead her off into one of the narrow, dark, sidecorridors she would have balked. But so far they were simply making their waydown the wide main walkway.
Shedid notice, however, that most of thewatching males had somehow disappeared. And the one or two that remained hadlooks of fear rather than lust on their faces as they watched her walk past.Somehow Trin doubted the fear was for her. For some reason, even the largestthugs they passed were afraid of the tall, thin male who was leading her downthe corridor. That made her even more wary of her companion but what could shedo but keep following him?
Justas she was about to get really nervous, they came to a place where the maincorridor branched off into two smaller ones. In the exact center of thejuncture was a strange, triangular door wedged into the crease between thecorridors.
“Inhere,” her companion said, turning briefly to smile at her. “I hope you’rethirsty—it’s considered very rude to refuse a drink offered by your host here.”
“Isthat right?” Trin said neutrally.
“Ohyes—which is why I mention it. I know you don’t wish to upset or offend theestimable B’Rugh.” He flashed that grotesque, steel grin again and swung openthe triangular door, ducking a little to go in as the narrow point of thetriangle was at the top.