“They’ll find Kleist in the closet,” Kickaha murmured. “We’ll take a taxi back to L.A. and find lodging somewhere else.”
They had the clothes they were wearing, the case with the Horn of Shambarimen, their beamer rings with a number of power charges, the beamer-pen, their ear receivers and wrist chronometer transmitters, and the money they’d taken from Baum, Cambring, and Kleist. The latter had provided another hundred and thirty-five dollars.
They went outside into the heat and the eye-burning, sinus-searing smog. He picked up the morning Los Angeles Times from a corner box, and then waited for a taxi. Presently, one came along, and they rode out of the Valley. On the way, he read the personals column, which contained his ad. None of the personals read as if it had been planted by Wolff. The two got out of the taxi, walked two blocks, and took another taxi to a place chosen at random by Kickaha.
They walked around for a while. He got a haircut and purchased a hat and also talked the clerk out of a woman’s hatbox. At a drugstore, he bought some hair dye and other items, including shaving equipment, toothbrushes and paste, and a nail file. In a pawnshop he bought two suitcases, a knife which had an excellent balance, and a knife-sheath.
Two blocks away, they checked in at a third-rate hotel. The desk clerk seemed interested only in whether they could pay in advance or not. Kickaha, wearing his hat and dark glasses, hoped that the clerk wasn’t paying them much attention. Judging from the stink of cheap whiskey on his breath he was not very perceptive at the moment.
Anana, looking around their room, said, “The place we just left was a hovel. But it’s a palace compared to this!”
“I’ve been in worse,” he said. “Just so the cockroaches aren’t big enough to carry us off.”
They spent some time dying their hair. His red-bronze became a dark brown, and her hair, as black and glossy as a Polynesian maiden’s, became corn-yellow.
“It’s no improvement, but it’s a change,” he said. “So, now to a metalworker’s.”
The telephone books had given the addresses of several in this area. They walked to the nearest place advertising metalworking, where Kickaha gave his specifications and produced the money in advance. During his conversation, he had studied the proprietor’s character. He concluded that he was open to any deal where the money was high and the risk low.
He decided to cache the Horn. Much as he hated to have it out of his sight, he no longer cared to risk the chance of Red Orc’s getting his hands on it. If he had not carried it with him when he left the motel, it would be in the hands of the police by now. And if Orc heard about it, which he was bound to do, Orc would quickly enough have it.
The two went to the Greyhound Bus station, where he put the case and Horn in a locker.
“I gave that guy an extra twenty bucks to do a rush job,” he said. “He promised to have it ready by five. In the meantime, I propose we rest in the tavern across the street from our palatial lodgings. We’ll watch our hotel for any interesting activities.”
The Blue Bottle Fly was a sleazy beer joint, which did, however, have an unoccupied booth by the front window. This was covered by a dark blind, but there was enough space between the slats for Kickaha to see the front of the hotel. He ordered a Coke for Anana and a beer for himself. He drank almost none of the beer but every fifteen minutes ordered another one just to keep the management happy. While he watched, he questioned Anana about Red Orc. There was so little that he knew about their enemy.
“He’s my krathlrandroon,” Anana said. “My mother’s brother. He left the home universe over fifteen thousand Earth years ago to make his own. That was five thousand years before I was born. But we had statues and photos of him, and he came back once when I was about fifteen years old, so I knew how he looked. But I don’t remember him now. Despite which, if I were to see him again, I might know him immediately. There is the family resemblance, you know. Very strong. If you should ever see a man who is the male counterpart of me, you will be looking at Red Orc. Except for the hair. His is not black, it is a dark bronze. Like yours. Exactly like yours.