Chiddy heaved a very human-sounding sigh. “The Wulivery can smell the Pistach, dear Benita. I mean they can smell any creature, like your bloodhounds, only better. They had only to send out sniffers to pick up our Pistach scent and determine where it was stronger. We have spent more time with you, here, than in virtually any other place, so our smell is very strong here, in your home. They would have known that.”
“I see,” she murmured. She couldn’t smell anything, but then, she wasn’t a Pistach, or a predator. “You’d better let the world know what they’re up against. People are not going to like it.”
Chiddy composed himself enough to say, “Please call your go-between to the government and explain what has happened. Then, tonight, we will apologize to all your people through the television. We will also introduce the Inkleozese to them and explain the function of our monitors.”
Vess assured her their apology would appear everywhere, in whatever language was locally spoken. She suggested they show pictures of the predators on TV, just so people would know what they were talking about, and they said they could do that for the Xankatikitiki and Wulivery, but not for the Fluiquosm, who do not make any reproducible image.
“Are they invisible when they’re dead?” she asked grumpily.
“Why no,” said Vess.
“Then show a picture of a dead one,” she demanded.
“Wouldn’t that be in bad taste?” Vess asked, making fussy little motions with his hands.
“You told me you’ve watched our television for years,” she snarled. “After O. J. Simpson’s trial and Ken Starr’s investigation and the constant stench from Trash TV, what’s a dead Fluiquosm or two?”
They thought a bit and then said they’d get a picture of a dead one. “By the way,” said Chiddy, “you may do me a small favor. I would like to leave my translator here, listening to your television. I would do it in the ship, but all the ship’s circuits will be fully occupied seeking predators and maintaining the disappearances and the ugly-plagues.”
“You really wantto translate our TV?” she asked, distractedly. The thought of Bert as a captive had just led her to wondering if Angelica and Carlos were safe. If they had taken her husband . . .
“No. There is little of it we enjoy. However, my accumulation of spoken vocabularies is not complete, and you have a Spanish language station? If you would be kind enough to leave it on while you are away?”
She nodded and gestured at the set, without really listening, not even watching as Chiddy put a black device no larger than a tiny camera on top of the TV.
“When you are leaving, turn on the TV and push the red button to turn it on,” Chiddy murmured when he left. “It will feed accumulated vocabulary to the ship. In fact, if you should need us, you can simply shout at it. Something urgent. Like SOS orDanger, or Fire!”
She wasn’t listening, for she had already picked up the phone to call Chad and ask him to provide some protection for Angelica. By this time she and Chad had each other’s numbers memorized, as they talked virtually every day, and Sasquatch was so used to Chad dropping in that he didn’t even growl at him anymore. On this occasion, Benita explained her concern by repeating every word Chiddy and Vess had ever said about predators making common cause with McVane, et al. She didn’t mention T’Fees. Even though neither Vess nor Chiddy had asked her to be secretive about the T’Fees problem, she didn’t think Earth needed any more variables thrown into the pot than it already had. She did, however, tell him about the Inkleozese.
Chad muttered and grumbled, “New ones? Benita, you’ve got to be kidding!”
“I’m not, Chad. They just told me about these creatures. Evidently they act in the same capacity as our UN peacekeepers.”
“Ineffectually, you mean?” he said in disgust.
“Chad! It’s not my fault.”
He said he knew that, apologizing for his tone. “Since you seem convinced the predators are working with McVane and his bunch, there’s nothing to suppose they’ll stop with Bert. I think you’re right to be worried about your kids, and I’ll get some protection started for them.”