The Eye of the Llama

by Gary D. Snyder

Part 15:

"Yolkus?" Libby asked, stunned. "Why would they send Jimmy all the way to Yolkus?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Cindy replied. "After what Jimmy's done, King Goobot would give a lot to get his hands on him. I'll be Khormak cut some kind of deal with him in exchange for Jimmy." She shook her head. "If Jimmy arrives on Yolkus he's done for. We've got to catch that ship!" She turned and ran for the door with Libby in close pursuit.

"Cindy, hold on!" Libby called. "Where are you going?"

"To Jimmy's space bus!" Cindy called back, somewhat breathlessly. The thin air definitely presented problems with any appreciable amount of exertion. "It's our only chance!"

Libby caught up with Cindy and grabbed her arm, dragging her to a halt. "Cindy, no! That won't work."

Cindy turned on her friend, unreasoning anger crossing her face. "What do you mean? Why won't it work?"

Libby again assumed the role of the objective observer. "Three reasons. First, we don't know how to drive. Second, even if we did know how to drive we wouldn't know how to drive that thing. And third, I doubt seriously that Jimmy has a star map to Yolkus in the glove box."

"But –" Cindy tried to come up with reasonable rebuttals to Libby's objections and failed. Libby was right and she knew it. But they had to do something. If they didn't Jimmy would be in the clutches of the Yolkians in a few hours, and if that happened…. "What do you suggest?" she finally asked.

Libby's answer was sensible enough. "I think," she said, "that we should tell Princess Leama and ask her to handle it."

Cindy considered it. On the face of it Libby's suggestion seemed the most logical course of action but Cindy shook her head. "I don't think we should."

"What? Why?"

"Because I don't quite trust her. Not about this."

This took Libby aback. "What?"

"I don't know that I can really explain it," Cindy said painfully, "but I get the feeling that she's playing been us to get to Khormak. I think that stopping Khormak from sending Jimmy to Goobot would go against her plans and she's undoubtedly being careful not to let anything mess them up."

"You really think so?"

Cindy nodded. "I'm almost positive. I mean, take that chauffeur we were assigned."

"He seems nice and helpful enough."

"Yes, very, like when we pulled in back of that building to keep on eye out for what Khormak might try to do. He was pretty good at picking out the best place to do that, almost like he was an expert on surveillance. And remember when we were chasing after those two goons that he was the one who suggested that we hold back to avoid being spotted?"

Libby thought about it. "Yeah, I remember. But you said it was a good idea. You even said you that you should have thought about that."

"It was a good idea," Cindy agreed. "And I wish I had thought of it. But it seems odd that he would think of that so easily – unless he was trained for that sort of thing. Remember when you said that maybe the princess had undercover agents to watch out for her? I'm almost certain that he's one of them."

"Okay, maybe he is. So? Maybe he's been assigned to keep us out of trouble."

Cindy gave Libby a thoughtful look. "Out of trouble? Or out of the way? If he were a trained agent he should have had no problems calling in reinforcements or catching those two before they reached the spaceport." Cindy paused for effect. "Unless someone didn't want them stopped."

Libby nodded slowly as the pieces began fitting together. "It was rather convenient that he had to pull into another lane and lose them just as we reached the spaceport." Buy an alternate explanation struck her. "Wait a minute. Maybe he isn't working for the princess. Maybe he's a double agent working for Minister Khormak."

"If Khormak has people that close to the princess then we couldn't be sure that asking her for help on this would do any good because they might foil anything she tried to do. It might even force Khormak's hand and ruin everything for the princess for good." She shook her head again. "Either way I don't think that asking her for help on this would do much good."

"Then what?" Libby wanted to know. "We can't just give up on Jimmy. He's our friend. What do we do?"

Cindy didn't answer. They were light-years from home and help from anyone there. She wished that Goddard had come along, but he had been needed to maintain the subliminal transceivers Jimmy had set up back on Earth and even if she could contact him she doubted that he'd have any way of getting to Felangie. What do we do? she asked herself numbly. Her eyes wandered around the inside of the spaceport terminal, passing over what appeared to be vending machines, luggage lockers, and communications booths. As she stared at the booths their images slowly began to register to her, and as they did so the beginnings of an idea took shape in her mind. "What do we do?" she said softly. "We reach out and touch someone."

"What?" asked Libby, startled.

Cindy didn't answer. She walked into one of the booths and activated it, pressing various unfamiliar buttons until a faceless voice asked, "Comlink assistance."

"Hello," Cindy said. "I'd like to place a collect call to another planet." She wasn't sure if such a concept existed in this part of the galaxy but she had to try it. She had no local money and doubted that her wireless calling card would be honored here.

"Name of caller, please."

"Cindy Vortex, of Earth. And could you please hurry? This is an emergency."

Back at the palace Carl and Sheen continued to prepare for the fight scheduled for the day after tomorrow. Carl had steadfastly refused to try any of the eggs in the bowl despite Sheen's insistings.

"Come one, Carl, just try one. If you don't like it you can spit it back out."

Carl shook his head. "Uh-uh, no way. I still don't know what laid them. Or what that stuff on them is."

"Oh, that stuff? That's just the jelly from the egg-mass from when they eggs were laid."
"I didn't know that birds made jelly," Carl said, both bewildered and fascinated.

"Up until a few years ago you didn't even know that birds made eggs."

"That's true," Carl replied, subdued. "So birds make jelly and eggs?"

"Well, actually, birds don't. But other things do. You know, like frogs and fish and insects and –" Seeing Carl's horrified look Sheen hastened to add, "You know, like caviar. Caviar is just fish eggs. It's considered a great delicacy. Think of this as caviar." He looked at the bowl, his voice faltering as it lost some of its conviction. "Just a big bowl of large…green…slimy…caviar."

"I don't eat caviar. There's too much salt and I'm extremely allergic to salt. Besides, these eggs smell funny."

Sheen shook his head in bewilderment. "You know, for someone who ate a whole plate of Plutonian gut chunks you're awful particular."

"Not going to eat them," Carl re-iterated stubbornly in a sing-song voice.

"Okay, fine," Sheen capitulated. "Deny your body the protein and nutritive slime it so desperately needs for the upcoming fight. Now, we need to work on the problems with your speed."

"What are the problems with my speed?" Carl asked.

"Well, the first problem is that you don't have any." Sheen paced back and forth thinking out loud. "In the old days we used to train by chasing chickens. But unfortunately there aren't any here. That raises a problem."

"Well, how about using whatever laid the eggs?" was Carl's helpful suggestion.

Sheen shook his head. "As hard as it may be to believe it's actually slower than you are. And cleaning up the trails on the floor and walls could be a problem." Ignoring Carl's bewildered look Sheen went on, "No, we need to find some other way of putting some lightning in those lethargic little legs of yours."

Carl was beginning to figure it out. "Sheen, are you saying that those eggs were laid by –"

"Will you forget the eggs?" Sheen demanded. "We need to work on your speed, remember?"

Carl backed away from the bowl of eggs in revulsion. "Eww," was all he could say.

Sheen gave a grunt of disgust. "Carl, will you let it go? We need to…" His words faded away as a thought came to him. He slowly picked up the bowl of eggs and hefted one as he grinned wickedly at Carl.

Carl back away, not liking the direction things were taking. "Sheen? What are you doing with those eggs?" he asked nervously.

"Run, chicken boy!" Sheen cried as he lobbed one of the spheres at Carl. The egg sailed past Carl's head as he screamed and began running. Sheen continued to huck the eggs at Carl as he frantically dodged and dashed madly about the room to avoid being hit by the gooey missiles.

"Sheen, cut it out!" Carl wailed. "I don't like this very much!"

"You're doing great, Carl! Keep it up!" Sheen called in an encouraging voice as he took careful aim and missed Carly by only a few inches. "Only a few more dozen to go!"

End of Part 15