“Good,” my guide declared, rubbing his hands together as the cab commenced its now familiar swerving. “I think I know just the person.”
Settling back in my seat, it occurred to me that Edvick would probably get a kickback from this bodyguard he was lining me up with. That would explain his enthusiasm to get us together. I banished the thought as a needless suspicion.
The alert reader may have noticed that with the exception of a vague reference to the fat lady in the department store, I have said absolutely nothing about female Pervects. There’s a reason for that. Frankly, they intimidate me. Now don’t get me wrong, male Pervects are quite fearsome, as can be ascertained by my accounts of my friend and partner, Aahz. On the whole, they are big and muscular and would just as soon break you in two as look at you. Still, they possess a certain rough and tumble sense of humor, and are not above blustering a bit. All in all, they remind me of a certain type of lizard: the kind that puffs itself up and hisses when it’s threatened . . . it can give a nasty bite, but it would probably prefer you to back down. Female Pervects seem to be cut from a whole different bolt of cloth. Their eyes are narrower and set further back on the head, making them look more . . . well, reptilian. They never smile or laugh, and they don’t ever bluff. In short, they look and act more dangerous than their male counterparts.
Some of you may wonder why I am choosing this point of the narrative to expound on the subject of female Pervects. The rest of you have already figured it out. For the former, let it suffice to say that the bodyguard Edvick introduced me to was a female.