Odd Girl Out by Timothy Zahn Read Free Book Online

through Yandro back here.”
    Her forehead creased for a moment as she studied my face. Then the wrinkles smoothed out again. “All right,” she said. “Let me see what’s available.”
    Her eyes glazed over again. Her lemonade was also gone, and I wondered briefly whether or not I should get us some food when I ordered refills.
    “Got it,” she said, her eyes coming back to focus. “The train for Yandro leaves from Platform Seven in forty minutes.”
    So much for getting food or even more drinks. But there would be plenty of both on the train. “And the other?”
    “It’ll leave Yandro two hours after we arrive.”
    “Perfect,” I said. “We have compartments on both?”
    “Of course,” she said, as if I even had to ask.
    “Good,” I said. Pulling out a cash stick, I plugged it into the payment slot in our table. “Let’s go.”
    “Already?” she asked, frowning. “There’s still forty minutes.”
    “I know,” I said. “But our friends over there are going to need time to buy their tickets, too. No point in making them rush.”
    She gave a quiet sigh. “I suppose not. Oh, and you’ll probably want this back.” Pulling a folded handkerchief from her pocket, she pushed it across the table toward me.
    I closed my hand over it, feeling the reassuring weight of the Chahwyn kwi weapon as I picked it up. “Thanks,” I said, slipping it into my own pocket. “Did you have to use it?”
    She shook her head. “The Modhri seems to be avoiding me.”
    “I don’t blame him,” I said. The kwi had two basic settings—unconsciousness and pain—both of which worked quite well against Modhran walkers.
    Of course, it was anyone’s guess as to how long the thing would last. The kwi was over a millennium old, a relic from the war that had originally spawned the Modhri in the first place. The Chahwyn who’d dug up the kwi didn’t know an awful lot about it, including if or when it might suddenly pop a vital circuit and become nothing more than a flexible and rather decorative set of brass knuckles.
    Still, for now the thing worked, and it worked well, and the Chahwyn had given me permission—albeit grudgingly—to carry it aboard the Quadrail. For that I was grateful.
    Grateful enough that I didn’t even resent the fact that Bayta and I seemed to be field-testing the thing for them.
    Retrieving my cash stick, I stood up and keyed the leash control inside my jacket. Obediently, the two bags at my feet aligned themselves, ready to roll as soon as I started moving. Bayta also stood up, her bags similarly preparing themselves for duty. “Okay, let’s go,” I said. “Nice and easy and casual.”
    “I know the routine,” Bayta said. “By the way, Frank…”
    I looked at her, seeing the sudden discomfort and embarrassment in her face. “Yes?” I asked.
    Her lip twitched. “Nothing,” she murmured. “Sorry.”
    “That’s okay,” I assured her. “I’m glad we’re back in the trenches together, too.”
    A flicker of surprise crossed her face, followed rapidly by relief and then a second surge of embarrassment. “Right,” she said. “Me, too.”
    “So let’s get to it,” I said, gesturing her ahead of me like a proper gentleman.
    As we headed away from the table toward Platform Seven, out of the corner of my eye I saw our settled-looking Pirk get up off his bench. He fussed for a moment with his headdress, then started off in the same direction we were also going. I didn’t want to turn around and check on the two Humans, but I suspected they had joined the parade as well.
    Fourteen hours to Yandro, another eleven back to New Tigris, then probably five to eight days to get to New Tigris proper via torchliner. Add in the twenty days since Lorelei had left New Tigris Station, plus the five to eight days up from the planet itself, and by the time we reached her kid sister Rebekah it would be a month or more that the girl had been on her own.
    I just hoped she wasn’t in any pressing hurry to