"My words precisely when someone else I could name

deemed it necessary for me to dress up as a girl, remem-

ber?"

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" Aahz glowered,

peering at me suspiciously.

"Well, there are a couple of other options," I ad-

mitted.

MYTH-ING PERSONS 143

"That's more like it!" he grinned, reaching for his

wig.

"You could stay behind. ..."

His hand stopped just short of its mission.

"... or we could forget the whole thing and pay the

fine ourselves."

The hand retreated as my partner's shoulders sagged

in defeat. I felt no joy at the victory. If anything, I had

been half hoping he would be embarrassed enough to

take me up on my suggestion of abandoning the project.

I should have known better. When there's money in-

volved, it takes more than embarrassment to throw

Aahz off the scent....hether the embarrassment is his

own or someone else's.

"All right, everybody,"- I called, hiding my disap-

pointment. "Are we ready to go?"

"Remember your sunglasses!" Tananda added.

That was the final touch to our disguises. To hide our

non-red eyes, each of us donned a pair of sunglasses.

Surveying the final result, I had to admit that aside from

Tananda and Chumley, we didn't look like us. Exactly

what we did look like I wouldn't venture to say, but we

sure didn't look like usi

"Okay," Aahz chimed in, his discomfort apparently

behind him. "Does everyone have their marching

orders? Vilhelm? Are you sure you can track us on that

thing?"

"No problem," the little vampire nodded. "When

things get slow around here I use this rig to do a little

window peeking right here in town. Covering the streets

is even easier."

"Remember," I told him, "watch for our signal.

When we catch up with this Vic character, we're going

to want you to get some responsible local witnesses there

chop-chop."

144

Robert Asprin

"Well now," Aahz grinned evilly, "you don't have to

be too quick about it. I wouldn't mind having a little

time alone with him before we turn him over to the

authorities."

My heart sank a little. Aahz sounded determined to

exact a bit of vengeance out of this hunt, and I wasn't at

all sure he would restrict himself to Vic when it came

time to express his ire.

I think Tananda noticed my concern.

"Ease up a little, Aahz," she said casually. "I don't

mind helping you out of a tight spot, but count me out

when it comes to excessive force for the sake of venge-

ance. It lacks class."

"Since when did you worry about excessive vio-

lence?" Aahz growled, then shrugged his acceptance.

"Okay. But maybe we'll get lucky. Maybe he'll resist ar-

rest."

I was still worried, but realized that that was about

the most restraint I would get out of my partner.

."Now that that's settled," I said, producing Lu-

anna's scarf, "Pepe, take a whiff of this."

"Enchanting," he smiled, nuzzling the piece of cloth.

"A young lady, no? Eef ze body is as good as ze aroma,

I will follow her to the end of ze world whether you ac-

company me or not."

I resisted an impulse to wrap the scarf around his

neck and pull.

"All right, everybody," I said, retrieving the scarf

and tucking it back into my tunic in what I hoped was a

casual manner. "Let's go catch us a renegade vampire."