The shuttle was set down in a thick copse of trees, and the group exited, including Odiferous Tentacle, a Xankatikitiki chief called Mrrgrowr, and the two Fluiquosm females, Quosmlizzak and Kazzalamgah. It was in the wee hours of the morning and the city was quiet enough that the Wulivery and one of the Fluiquosm felt they could collect Benita without attracting attention. While the mind-fogger stood by to confuse anyone who might witness any part of the abduction, the Wulivery pretended to be a tree while making a phone call from a sidewalk booth. Wulivery were skilled at languages and particularly good at picking up conversational idiom, though they could make vocal sounds only through a machine.
Benita’s phone rang at three A.M. on Sunday, so her digital clock told her as she came groggily awake. “Hello,” she muttered, staring witlessly at the clock and wondering what new threat or confusion was happening. “Hello?”
“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” demanded a mechanical voice.
The person who owned that voice wasn’t anyone Benita knew, or wanted to know, but she realized immediately what it wanted.
“Hello,” she said again, sitting upright, forcing herself to waken. “Do you have the right number?”
“Alvarez,” the voice said. “This is the right number. We have you located. We have possession of your mate and offspring. Harm will come to them if you don’t go downstairs and come out the back door right now . . .”
Shaking off her stupor, Benita gritted her teeth and said what she and Chad had agreed she would say. “I can’t,” she said. ‘The president has asked me to appear before Senator Morse’s committee on Monday morning. I’ve promised I’ll be there.”
There was a snort at the other end, like an aborted curse, a moment’s mumbling, as though to someone else, then a disconnect. She hung up, tears running down her face as she prayed she was doing the right thing. Whoever or whatever the voice was, it would have to report to Morse. And once Morse knew she’d testify before the committee, he’d have no reason . . . well, less reason to hang on to her children. Or to Bert.
She pulled herself out of bed, stumbling through the dark, banging one hand against the bathroom door hard enough to break a nail straight across, and then scratched herself with it when she splashed cold water on her face. She dressed in jeans and a knit shirt with a roomier flannel shirt over it, then went to the phone in the bedroom and called Chad, who said he would be over in a few minutes, with weapons.
“Can you shoot?” he asked.
“As a matter of fact, yes,” she muttered, digging through the drawer of the bedside table for a nail file. “My brothers and I used to shoot at cans and rats, out at my Dad’s salvage yard. Back then, it was out in the country . . .” Her voice trailed off. Back then had no point to it at the moment.
Odiferous Tentacle was annoyed. The result of the call was not as planned. The official, Morse, wanted the woman to appear before him, but the woman was already committed to appearing before Morse. Did Morse still want her taken secretly? This possibility had not been covered in the rules of engagement! Sending the Fluiquosm to report back to the group, the Wulivery found another phone and called General McVane, feeding a small tentacle up through the coin return to ding the coin mechanism as many times as required.
General McVane, wakened from a sound sleep, growled into the phone. “Call me back in an hour. I’ll get ahold of Morsel”
While they waited, the predators continued their previous conversation.
The toothy Xankatikitiki chief, Mrrgrowr, remarked, “You’re right that there is more meat here than seems possible, but a lot of it is flab. The flesh is too soft. Tiki’s jaws will atrophy. Tiki’s teeth will rot.”
Odiferous Tentacle shrugged, a gesture which took him from a height of four meters to one of about eight, followed by the emission of a lengthy stink. “Not all of them are flabby. In other parts of the world, the peasants are quite solid. A few generations of unlimited predation will take care of those that aren’t. We’ll make a practice of allowing the more fit to escape us. That way they’ll reproduce disproportionately and improve the species.”