The Human Blend - Alan Dean Foster [112]
Smartly, Whispr did not push matters. The doctor felt wronged and made no attempt to hide it. There was nothing more he could think of to do beyond the verbal and physical abasement he had already performed that would better show the depths of his confusion and contrition. He would just have to wait it out, hoping that like a bad cold her anger and resentment would fade away.
In any case there was no more time this morning for further recrimination. Wizwang’s jungle-covered houseboat loomed ahead and Whispr began to moderate their approach. As soon as their craft adhered itself to the floating bit of rainforest Ingrid stepped up onto the bow without waiting for him to lend a helping hand. A few bees swarmed curiously around her before heading off on their morning rounds. Looking on, Whispr amused himself by thinking that they were checking her out.
He had never held any interest in insects except for ways to avoid them. Instead, his attention was drawn to a second, battered, nondescript waterlands runabout that was fastened to the stern alongside their host’s own personal commuter transport. Did Wizwang have two such craft and they had simply missed seeing the other in the course of their earlier visit—or was the unknown individual who espoused mutual interest in such things as MSMH and enigmatic storage threads already here?
Then, as his gaze wandered over the dark water, he spotted the alligator lying motionless alongside the new craft and knew the answer. It was not the hulking crocodilian itself that offered the revelation but rather the small yet efficient vidup situated atop its head and between its eyes.
The individual with whom Wizwang had so carefully nurtured contact was already chatting with Ingrid when Whispr descended to join them in the main cabin of the houseboat. He grinned at the newcomer.
“Gator.”
“Sleep me with saurishians if it isn’t Whispr-man!” The reptilian figure responded to Whispr’s terse greeting with the astonishing toothy smile the other Meld remembered so well. Wizwang was plainly as startled as Ingrid by the instant rapport between the two men. Her lower jaw dropped while the eyes of the faux ten-year-old widened in disbelief.
“You two know each other?” Wizwang made an effort to recoup his poise. “I suppose I shouldn’t be so surprised. There cannot be very many people who are aware of the existence of these implants, the storage thread, or the remarkable material out of which they appear to have been fashioned.”
Leaving a gaping Ingrid in his wake Gator walked over to Whispr and took the other man’s hand in his scaly fingers. Whispr eyed him guardedly.
“I thought you’d be dead, or in jail. I saw you get shot.”
“It was a near thing.” The Alligator Man tapped leathery fingers against his shirt-covered side. “My melded skin helped. Tough stuff. I did just get away. I did my best to get you to safety but until now I had no idea how you had fared. Glad to see you made it out all right. What brings you to the waterlands?”
Whispr nodded toward their host. “You already know or you wouldn’t be here. Information. Trying to find out more about the storage thread I brought to you.”
“The contents of which our diminutive but knowledgeable friend here hasn’t been able to crack, either. Or so he’s informed me. When he told me he had been in contact with others who were familiar with the same supposedly unfeasible material I had no idea it might be you.” Looking back, he gazed appreciatively at Ingrid. “You’ve moved up in the world since our initial meeting, Whispr-man. How long have you two been …?”
Her tone frosty, Ingrid interrupted. “We have not been ‘anything,’ Mr.… Gator. I am Dr. Ingrid Seastrom.…”
“ ‘Doctor.’ ” Where eyebrows would have been, the narrow horizontal scutes above Gator’s eyes rose slightly.
“… to whom Whispr came for treatment of his injuries. He subsequently offered me the opportunity to try and read the thread in the hope that it might contain information he might use to obtain money with which to pay me for the services I had performed. I’d had a previous encounter with