The Vinzz' eyes flickered in astonishment. "_Another_ private game?
However...." he shrugged eloquently. "It will cost you a hundred
thousand credits each, gentlemen."
"No discount for a steady customer?" Keats inquired lightly, though he
was trembling inside.
The Vinzz' tendrils quivered. "None. You ought to be glad I didn't
raise the price again."
"Why didn't you?" he couldn't help asking.
The Vinzz looked steadily into the man's eyes. "I don't know," it
answered at last. "Perhaps I have been so long on this planet that I
have developed a sentimental streak.... In any case, I am going back to
Vinau the day after tomorrow...."
"For God's sake," Lockard, his senses so confused with fear and
apprehension that he was able to catch only fragments of their talk,
screamed, "pay him what he asks and don't haggle!"
"All right," Keats agreed. "The lady will wait for me here," he told
the Vinzz.
The extraterrestrial quivered indecisively. "Most irregular," it
murmured. "However, I cannot refuse a slight favor for such an old
customer. This way, madam."
* * * * *
Gabriel Lockard opened Gabriel Lockard's eyes.
"Well," the Vinzz who stood above him lisped, "how does it feel to be
back in your own body again?"
Gabriel got up and stretched. He stretched again, and then an
expression of wonderment came over his handsome features. "I feel ...
exactly the way I felt in ... any of the others," he said haltingly.
"I'm not comfortable in this one either. It's not right--it doesn't
fit. My own body...."
"You've grown out of it," the green one told him, not unkindly. "But
you will be able to adjust to it again, if you'll give it a chance...."
"There's that word again." Gabriel winced. "I'm beginning to respond
to it the way my ... predecessor did. Do we ever really get another
chance, I wonder?"
"Take my advice." The Vinzz' face became almost human. "This is
costing my people money, but we've made enough out of you and
your--shall we say?--friends. It is a shame," it murmured, "to prey
upon unsophisticated life-forms, but one must live. However, I'll tell
you this: The compulsion will come over you again and again to play
the game--your body will torment you unbearably and you will long for
relief from it, but you must conquer that desire or, I warn you, you
will be lost to yourself forever. It's a pattern that's enormously
difficult to break, but it can be broken."
Gabriel smiled down at the little green creature. "Thanks, colleague.
I'll remember that advice. And I'll take it."
"The other is still asleep," the Vinzz told him. "This time I thought
it best to let you awaken first. Good-by, and ... good luck."
"Thanks, fellow-man," Gabriel said. The Vinzz' tendrils quivered.
* * * * *
Helen awaited him in an anteroom, her veil flung back so that he could
see her poor, marred face. Anger rose hotly in him, but he pushed it
down. Her suffering had not been meaningless and revenge was already
consummated.
"Gabriel!" Her voice was taut. "... Jed!"
"Gabriel," he smiled. "The genuine, original Gabriel--accept no
substitutes."
"I'm so glad." Her lips formed the words, for she had no voice with
which to make them.
"Come." He took her arm and led her out into the quiet street. It
was almost daylight and the sky was a clear pearl gray. Again a star
detached itself from the translucent disk of the Moon and sped out into
the Galaxy.
_Soon_, he thought, _we'll be on a starship like that one, leaving this
played-out planet for the new worlds up in the sky._
"You're going to let Gabe--the other Gabriel--go?" she asked.
He bent his head to look at her swollen face. "You're free, Helen; I
have my body back; why should we concern ourselves with what happens to
him? He can't hurt us any more."
"I suppose you're right," she muttered. "It seems unfair...." She
shivered. "Still, you have no idea of the things he did to me--the
things he made me do...." She shivered again.
"You're cold. Let's get started."
"But where are we going?" She placed her hand on his arm and looked up
at him.
"Back to the hotel to pick up your luggage. And then--I still think
Proxima is a good idea, don't you? And then perhaps farther out still.
I'm sick of this old world."
"But, Je--Gabriel, you must be mad! The police will be waiting for you
at the hotel."
"Of course they'll be waiting, but with a citation, not handcuffs."
She looked at him as if he had gone extradimensional. He laughed. "What
your ex-husband didn't know, my dear, was that there was a reward out
for Jed Carmody, _dead or alive_."
Her face was blank for a moment. "A reward! Oh, G-G-G-Gabriel!" The
girl erupted into hysterical laughter.
"Shhh, darling, control yourself." He put his arm around her,
protectively, restrainingly. "We'll be conspicuous," for already the
Sun's first feeble rays were beginning to wash the ancient tired
streets with watery gold. "Think of the reward we're going to get--five
thousand credits, just for us!"
She wiped her eyes and pulled down her veil. "Whatever will we do with
all that money!"
"I think it would be nice if we turned it over to the hotel," he
smiled. "I made rather a shambles of their lobby when, pursuant to my
duty as a solar citizen, I exterminated the killer Carmody. Let's give
it to them and leave only pleasant memories behind us on our journey
to the stars." And he couldn't help wondering whether, if things got
really tough, somewhere up in those stars he could find another zarquil
game.