Mything Persons

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."

Chapter Seventeen:

"The trail's got to be 'round here some-

where!"

—D. BOONE

IT was only a few hours short of sunset as we set out on

our quest, a nagging reminder of exactly how long our

efforts at physical disguise had taken. We had agreed to

avoid following Pepe as a group so as not to attract at-

tention. Instead, we moved singly or in groups of two,

using both sides of the street and deliberately walking at

different paces. The faster walkers averaged their prog-

ress with the slower by occasionally stopping to look

into shop windows, thereby keeping our group together

without actually appearing to. Tananda pointed out

that not only would this procedure lessen our chances of

being noticed, but also that it would maximize our

chances for at least some of the group's escape if one of

us should be discovered ... a truly comforting thought.

Even though Luanna had claimed to have been

watching for us at the Dispatcher's, it had been so long

ago I fully expected her scent would have long since

dissipated or at least been masked by the passage of

145

146

MYTH-ING PERSONS 147

Robert Asprin

numerous others. As such, I was moderately surprised

when the werewolf signaled almost immediately that he

had found the trail and headed off with a determined

air. Either her scent was stronger than I had thought, or

I bad grossly underestimated Pepe's tracking ability.

The trail wound up and down the cobblestoned

streets, and we followed as quickly as we could without

abandoning our pretense of being casual strollers who

did not know each other. For a while, our group made

up the majority of the beings visible, causing me to

doubt the effectiveness of our ruse, but soon the vam-

pires began to emerge to indulge their taste for the

nightlife and we became much less obvious.

I was paired up with Chumley, but the troll was

strangely quiet as we made our way along. At first I

thought he was simply concentrating on keeping the

werewolf in sight, but as time wore on, I found the

silence somehow unnerving. I had always respected

Chumley as being one of the saner, leveler heads among

our motley assemblage, and I was starting to have an

uneasy impression that he was not wholeheartedly be-

hind this venture.

"Is there something bothering you, Chumley?" I

asked at last.

"Hmmm? Oh. Not really, Skeeve. I was just think-

ing."

"About that?"

The troll let out a small sigh.

"I was just contemplating our adversary, this Vic

fellow. You know, from what's been said, he's quite

resourceful in a devious sort of way."

That took me a little aback. So far I had considered

our vampire foe to be everything from an annoyance to

a nemesis. The idea of studying his methods had never

entered my mind.

"What leads you to that conclusion?"

The troll pursed his lips as he organized his thoughts.

"Consider what he's accomplished so far. The entire

time we've known of him, he's been on the run... first

from the Deveels, and then from Aahz, who's no slouch

'Sti^wnn.ing people once he sets his mind to it. Now,

assuming for the moment that Vic is actually the brains

of the group, he was quick enough to take advantage of

being left alone in your waiting room to escape out the

back door. He couldn't have planned that in advance,

even knowing about the door. He probably had some

other plan in mind, and formulated this new course of

action on the spot."

We paused for a moment to let a small group of vam-

pires cross the intersection in front of us.

"Now, that would have sufficed for an escape in most

instances, but they happened to pick an exit route that

left you and Aahz responsible, which set your partner

on their trail," Chumley continued. "With nothing to

go on but your reputations. Vic not only correctly

deduced that he would be followed, but he also man-

aged to spot Aahz's weakness and exploit it to frame

him and make it stick... again, not the easiest task,

particularly realizing it involved convincing and coach-

ing his two accomplices in their roles."

All of this was doing nothing for my peace of mind. I

was having enough difficulty forcing myself to believe

that we were really hunting a vampire, the sort of crea-

ture 1 normally avoid at all costs, without having to deal