Chapter 4
The stranger, whose name was Xellos Metallium (no relation with Luna's friend, Zelas. Just a coincidence in last names), assumed he would have little difficulty in location Lina Inverse. He had what he liked to think of as flair, a talent developed during a brief career in the police and a slightly longer period snooping for a private agency. Neither career had remotely satisfied those who employed him and in consequence had given him small job satisfaction. So when his widowed mother died, leaving him a small, but adequate income, he turned to bird-watching, which had previously been a hobby, into a way of life. He was not married; he was as free as the birds which were his passion to travel wherever and whenever he pleased.
One pleasure was getting into conversation with strangers. He would tell those who would listen that he was writing a book, although this was not strictly true, his writing having got no further than an article or two in his local paper and a paragraph promised in a bird watching magazine. Returning from an autumnal trip to the Scilly Isles and observing from his seat near the buffet, the wading birds on the Exe estuary, the swans focused on a kestrel hovering above a field mouse on the railway embankment, he was able to get a sighting of Lina when she leapt from the train and later exchanged words with the guard.
If Zelgadis had not been so withdrawn and toffee nosed, Xellos might not have bothered to do more than tease; as it was, his stuffy and protective attitude annoyed Xellos and aroused his curiosity; he concluded to include Lina and the sheep in an article he might write on. 'Autumn Bird Life as Viewed from a Train,' or something like that.
Banned, as Zelgadis had hopped for, from any contact with Lina by the guard. Though he had managed read her name on an overnight bad a fellow traveler identified as hers by the seat she had vacated when she leapt on her 'errand.' The traveler volunteered also that Lina had joined the train at the Santa Teresa parkway.
Irritated by Zel's attitude, Xellos vowed to find out what the girl was about and what had roused the interest of a guy like Zelgadis who smelled of expensive cologne, had visibly and offensively reared away from his own well worn and pub scented aroma. 'It would serve Zelgadis right,' Xellos told himself, 'if I located Lina." For he already linked the two in his mind; 'there might be a place for Lina in his notebook marked 'Useful Contacts.' For it would be pleasant to create chaos for him.
When the they reached for the Ayer station, Xellos was convinced of Zelgadis' interest on Lina when he saw Zel stop him from getting to Lina by barricading the path and watching him fall and stumble without offering any help. Then, obviously thinking he would have lost the girl, he stalked on towards the cabs and rather than to look for Lina, Xellos followed Zelgadis to listen for, and note, the address he called out to the driver.
With this accomplished, Xellos wandered back along the concourse to fortify himself with a beer before chatting with old friends in the police and people he had formerly know in the station hierarchy. While drinking his beer, he decided it would be better to leave the police out of this quest and confine his enquiries to old associates among the railway staff. But he was disappointed to find most useful contacts he had known had moved on and the two who were left were less than co-operative. True, they were willing to tell him Lina Inverse's name (though he knew that already) and they agreed that she might be charged for stopping the train. And, should she be charged, she could be fined.
"Then again, she might not." said a man called Bates. "So much gets dealt with by post these days."
He occupied a far more senior post than Xellos remembered and was viewing him now without much friendship.
"Why do you want to know?" he enquired, but before Xellos could think of an answer, his college whose name was Smith, volunteered the suggestion that since the train had scarcely been delayed and unless somebody lodged a complaint, the whole episode would most likely be overlooked. Since stopping a train to rescue a sheep was a trivial and laughable matter, which did little to enhance the image of the train industry.
"You wouldn't be in the business of writing for the newspapers, would you?" Asked the man called Bates, beginning to scowl. "Because if you are..."
Remembering belatedly the terms he had once been on Bates, and that Bates owed him no favors, Xellos voiced a hasty denial and said quite humbly that he 'only wanted the lady's address.'
To which Bates riposted, "we are not in the business of giving ladies' addresses to casual enquirers." Enjoying himself, for he too remembered Xellos, he added, "and now, if there is no more we can do to help, we have other, more urgent matters to attend to."
Feeling that he now had nothing to lose, he said, "like what?"
"Like bomb threats! Didn't you once have a few connection that were dealing with this sort of thing, 'cuz if you are, we might be interested."
Feeling bullied, Xellos denied any connections or knowledge of any sort of people like that. "Look here," he said, "all I wanted was..."
"A bird's address," Bates said.
"Which you won't give?"
"Didn't we say?" Smith spoke as he picked up a folder.
"Well then," said Bates.
Xellos said, "goodbye then," and muttered "Thanks for nothing." And left the office. As he left he heard Smith laugh and Bates ask, "what was his interest with that girl?"
Smith replied, "Search me. The birds he takes an interest in are of the tweet-tweet variety."
Solacing himself with another beer in the pub, Xellos Metallium comforted himself with the thought that he had Zelgadis' address and the knowledge of where Lina Inverse had joined the train. 'There was plenty of time, no hurry at all. It might even be kind of fun to investigate around the area of the Santa Teresa Parkway.
***
Disclaimer - Slayers characters nor 'An Imaginative Experience' does not belong to me.
The stranger, whose name was Xellos Metallium (no relation with Luna's friend, Zelas. Just a coincidence in last names), assumed he would have little difficulty in location Lina Inverse. He had what he liked to think of as flair, a talent developed during a brief career in the police and a slightly longer period snooping for a private agency. Neither career had remotely satisfied those who employed him and in consequence had given him small job satisfaction. So when his widowed mother died, leaving him a small, but adequate income, he turned to bird-watching, which had previously been a hobby, into a way of life. He was not married; he was as free as the birds which were his passion to travel wherever and whenever he pleased.
One pleasure was getting into conversation with strangers. He would tell those who would listen that he was writing a book, although this was not strictly true, his writing having got no further than an article or two in his local paper and a paragraph promised in a bird watching magazine. Returning from an autumnal trip to the Scilly Isles and observing from his seat near the buffet, the wading birds on the Exe estuary, the swans focused on a kestrel hovering above a field mouse on the railway embankment, he was able to get a sighting of Lina when she leapt from the train and later exchanged words with the guard.
If Zelgadis had not been so withdrawn and toffee nosed, Xellos might not have bothered to do more than tease; as it was, his stuffy and protective attitude annoyed Xellos and aroused his curiosity; he concluded to include Lina and the sheep in an article he might write on. 'Autumn Bird Life as Viewed from a Train,' or something like that.
Banned, as Zelgadis had hopped for, from any contact with Lina by the guard. Though he had managed read her name on an overnight bad a fellow traveler identified as hers by the seat she had vacated when she leapt on her 'errand.' The traveler volunteered also that Lina had joined the train at the Santa Teresa parkway.
Irritated by Zel's attitude, Xellos vowed to find out what the girl was about and what had roused the interest of a guy like Zelgadis who smelled of expensive cologne, had visibly and offensively reared away from his own well worn and pub scented aroma. 'It would serve Zelgadis right,' Xellos told himself, 'if I located Lina." For he already linked the two in his mind; 'there might be a place for Lina in his notebook marked 'Useful Contacts.' For it would be pleasant to create chaos for him.
When the they reached for the Ayer station, Xellos was convinced of Zelgadis' interest on Lina when he saw Zel stop him from getting to Lina by barricading the path and watching him fall and stumble without offering any help. Then, obviously thinking he would have lost the girl, he stalked on towards the cabs and rather than to look for Lina, Xellos followed Zelgadis to listen for, and note, the address he called out to the driver.
With this accomplished, Xellos wandered back along the concourse to fortify himself with a beer before chatting with old friends in the police and people he had formerly know in the station hierarchy. While drinking his beer, he decided it would be better to leave the police out of this quest and confine his enquiries to old associates among the railway staff. But he was disappointed to find most useful contacts he had known had moved on and the two who were left were less than co-operative. True, they were willing to tell him Lina Inverse's name (though he knew that already) and they agreed that she might be charged for stopping the train. And, should she be charged, she could be fined.
"Then again, she might not." said a man called Bates. "So much gets dealt with by post these days."
He occupied a far more senior post than Xellos remembered and was viewing him now without much friendship.
"Why do you want to know?" he enquired, but before Xellos could think of an answer, his college whose name was Smith, volunteered the suggestion that since the train had scarcely been delayed and unless somebody lodged a complaint, the whole episode would most likely be overlooked. Since stopping a train to rescue a sheep was a trivial and laughable matter, which did little to enhance the image of the train industry.
"You wouldn't be in the business of writing for the newspapers, would you?" Asked the man called Bates, beginning to scowl. "Because if you are..."
Remembering belatedly the terms he had once been on Bates, and that Bates owed him no favors, Xellos voiced a hasty denial and said quite humbly that he 'only wanted the lady's address.'
To which Bates riposted, "we are not in the business of giving ladies' addresses to casual enquirers." Enjoying himself, for he too remembered Xellos, he added, "and now, if there is no more we can do to help, we have other, more urgent matters to attend to."
Feeling that he now had nothing to lose, he said, "like what?"
"Like bomb threats! Didn't you once have a few connection that were dealing with this sort of thing, 'cuz if you are, we might be interested."
Feeling bullied, Xellos denied any connections or knowledge of any sort of people like that. "Look here," he said, "all I wanted was..."
"A bird's address," Bates said.
"Which you won't give?"
"Didn't we say?" Smith spoke as he picked up a folder.
"Well then," said Bates.
Xellos said, "goodbye then," and muttered "Thanks for nothing." And left the office. As he left he heard Smith laugh and Bates ask, "what was his interest with that girl?"
Smith replied, "Search me. The birds he takes an interest in are of the tweet-tweet variety."
Solacing himself with another beer in the pub, Xellos Metallium comforted himself with the thought that he had Zelgadis' address and the knowledge of where Lina Inverse had joined the train. 'There was plenty of time, no hurry at all. It might even be kind of fun to investigate around the area of the Santa Teresa Parkway.
***
Disclaimer - Slayers characters nor 'An Imaginative Experience' does not belong to me.