“But I am Goa”
“Don’t you dare use that name for yourself, Pobrecita,” Johnny said, angrily shaking his finger at her. “Buneka Rourke, this is your sister, though I think we can find a better proper name for her than ‘Cita, or Nina, don’t you think?”
“A sister!” And Bunny was folding the startled child into her arms. “A sister of my very own! Everyone I know has at least a sister or a brother, and all I’ve ever had were cousins …”
“And uncles and aunts,” Sean prompted through gritted teeth as Yana yanked the bandage to make sure it was firm about the jagged arrow wound.
“Hey, we got trouble,” Diego said, staring up the hill. “If that isn’t Matthew Luzon, my name’s not Diego Metaxos, and I do know my own name!”
“And the good and reverent Shepherd Howling, too, I’ll wager,” Johnny added, noticing the man in flowing robes beside the Intergal vice-chairman
“Oh, he’s come for me. He’ll make me marry him …”
“Marry him!” burst from five throats.
“Not while we live!” Johnny said in a voice that sounded much like the snarls issuing from both track-cats. “Bunny, get your sister into the copter and stay there!”
“She’s my sister and I’ve the right”
“Go,” Sean said and pointed to the copter. “Lock the doors.”
“There’s a box of flares, Bunny. Get ‘em out, and if you see me circle my hand, aim ‘em at that crowd.”
“Gotcha!” And, lifting her sister into her arms, Bunny sprinted back to the safety of the copter. Push come to shove, she’d fly it out of there herselfshe’d watched Johnny often enough to understand the principles of the yoke and the gearing. No one was going to get her little sister, not when she’d just found her.
Johnny handed Yana the automatic and the clips, slapping Sean’s hand away when he tried to get the weapon.
“You handle the cats, Sean. That is, if the clouded one will take orders like Nanook will,” Johnny suggested.
Both cats growled low in their bellies, making their necks vibrate as they took positions on either side of Sean Shongili.
The crowd’s noise had died to a murmur. Matthew and Shepherd Howling led the pack by several strides.
“Well, Dr. Luzon, you’ve led me quite a hunt,” Johnny called when the men were near enough to hear him.
“While you, Captain Greene, did not reappear as you promised.”
“Oh, I reappeared. Dr. Luzon, just as I said I would, but you’d taken off in old Scobie’s beat-up snocle. My compliments on your driving to get that snow bucket this far.”
Shepherd Howling raised one arm, his robe falling back over his bony wrist, pointing to the copter. “The child Goat-dung is one of my flock and is about to become one with me, to the salvation of her humanity. You must return her to my protection. I don’t care what error you infidels fall into or what the Great Monster does to you, but she must be returned to me, and the monster who abducted her, as well.”
“Well, now, sir, I can’t rightly do that,” Johnny said.
“Watch who you’re calling a monster, you abomination,” Sean snarled. “This child is my niece, and she is and will remain with her closest relative. I, her uncle, and male guardian, did not condone and will not condone a marriage for the child to anyone.”
Shepherd Howling looked from Sean’s face to the wound on Sean’s leg, and back to his face again, his eyes widening with horror. “You! You were the monster! The seal man! Then the girlshe, too, is a monster.”
“Monster?” Yana challenged, inserting herself between the injured Sean and the self-proclaimed Shepherd. “I only see one monster here, and it isn’t Dr. Shongili. Do you always throw lethal weapons at visitors, Mr. Howling?”
“He was no visitor when we first saw him,” Shepherd Howling blathered. “He looked like a seal at first and then startedgrowing. And he came from the underworld via the portal from which all of the damnable abominations of this planet emanate!”
“Nonsense,” Yana snapped. “He was exploring an underground passage where his pregnant sister and brother-in-law disappeared many years ago. You’re making up this incredible story to prevent further inquiry into your own abominable activities.”