“Listen, my beautiful but dumb guide,” Kinnison counseled the Lyranian girl as they neared their objective. “I see that you’re forgetting all your good girl scout resolutions and are getting all hot and bothered again. I’m telling you now for the last time to watch your step. If that zwilnik person has even a split second’s warning that I am on her tail, all hell will be out for noon—and I don’t mean perchance.”
“But I must notify the Elder One that I am bringing you in,” she told him. “One simply does not intrude unannounced. It is not permitted.”
“QX. Stick to the announcement, though, and don’t put out any funny ideas. I’ll send a thought along, just to make sure.”
But he did more than that, for even as he spoke, his sense of perception was already in the room to which they were goin
