“You know this Bumppp world?” I asked. “Or any of those places?”
She slowly shook her head.
“Aahz?”
“No, I don’t.”
I looked at him, then at Tanda, remembering what Aahz had told me about dimension hopping. You had to know exactly where you were going, or you couldn’t jump.
“So we’re stuck here?” I asked. “That’s the end of the trip?”
“No,” Aahz said, reaching into his belt pouch and pulling out a D-Hopper.
He quickly scrolled through the listing of dimensions on the Hopper, checking them with the names on the map. Finally, he sighed and put it back.
And with that sigh I knew we were done. The five possible places we could jump to from this place was not on the D-Hopper either.
“Damn,” Tanda said. “I was afraid this might happen.”
She pushed herself to her feet and brushed off her pants.
“I hate this,” Aahz said, standing. He carefully folded the map and put it in his belt pouch.
“What are we doing now?”
Tanda motioned that I should come closer. Then she reached up, and before I could stop her, she sealed my lips again.
“Sorry,” she said. “Can’t take the chance.”
I tried to object, but the only thing that came out was “Wggghhh.”
This was getting old. Too much more of this kind of treatment and my lips were going to be sore for a week.
A moment later, without a warning from either Tanda or Aahz, we were back standing in front of the Shifter in the big tent.
Chapter Three
“There’s no such thing as a free ride.”
M.T.A.
“Ten percent for your solution,” the Shifter said, its voice deep and strong as it studied Tanda and scratched what seemed to be part of its neck.