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The Blank's additional bulk didn't hinder her in the slightest. By keeping him
moving his weight was evenly distributed. The Blank was glad this wall route
was so dark. He was sure he'd have nightmares if he could see what she was
doing. A few feet from the ground, she twirled McKensie around and holding him
in both arms upside down, did a forward flip and landed upright on her feet.
'Open eyes, Mac,' she said placing his feet gently onto the ground and urging
his body upright. 'Is safe now.'
'If I ever do this with you again, remind me to have some practice with you
first,' he said rather hoarsely.
He was shaking from reaction to events.
'You stay on? Work with lonely Fey?'
McKensie shook his head, catching his breath. Kataya Oberon was still
breathing at a regularly rate.
'Yeah! Work with lonely lovely Fey.'
'Say nicest things. Choomande!'
'Can't I catch my breath?'
The Fey kissed him on both cheeks instead and hugged him until his body
settled down. Her demonstration of strength was restrained with dealing with
anything other than inanimate objects.
'What happened to the case?' he asked shortly.
'It here. Came down while you on ladder.'
She opened it and stripped and changed into a trouser suit and slipped the
safe packages into its lining pockets. She hadn't bother with any underwear.
'Where do we go from here?'
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'Eat. Hungry! Could eat whole cow. Plenty time before leaving.' Kat slipped on
a pair of sandals and hat.
McKensie kissed her on the cheek. 'Now that would be conspicuous.'
o O o
More conspicuous than he realised, McKensie decided. The chef at a different
cafe had been extremely uncooperative in providing Kat with raw beef in the
late evening. After swearing profusely in Portuguese, the Fey had stalked into
the kitchen. McKensie picked up a discarded newspaper and looked at the
headlines as various noises came from the kitchen. There was little he could
do, other than make the scene worse. He wouldn't have been able to do much
other than watch anyway. The other cafe patrons appeared to be either too
pissed or high on the carnival to be that concerned. Just the activities of an
annoyed tourist in their eyes.
She returned with her raw meat dish and something she described as feijoada
for him. An apologetic waiter arrived with drinks for them both, adding in
poor English that it was all the complements of the house. Oddly enough, the
Fey chose to drink guaraviá, the fruit juice he favoured, rather than the
cachaça she had been drinking all day. Diplomatically, the Blank avoided
asking her about the change in her taste. Presumably, her period of camova was
at an end.
The early morning bus trip to Sãn Paulo was totally uneventful. Why would
anyone suspect that they would go further inland than leave the country right
away? He had slept most of the way. Kataya Oberon had taken the aisle seat and
half-dosed, keeping an eye out for possible thieves. If the Fey had stopped
anyone, she didn't say. A couple faces appeared to be keeping a respectable
distance when he woke.
An attitude developed with all Blanks working with any Psionic was to just
keep out of the way while they looked after trouble. Physical Psionics like
the Fey needed the same sort of respect. They were simply in a class of their
own.
Maxine Caruthers had obviously tried to impose her own values on the Fey. Kat
was very much a free spirit and had eventually rebelled. The fact Maxie drew a
knife on her appeared to indicate the pheromone might have driven her to it,
too. It would be mitigating circumstances for her and probably not restrict
Maxie to desk duties.
Kataya Oberon was strong-willed with strong body. A free spirit. She resented
having her freedom restricted. Kat did as she pleased, which was probably why
she kept missing spy bugs. Not out of arrogance but simply because she didn't
care because nothing would stop her. Yet now she had more than designs on his
body and was obviously out to protect him. As a tiger would protect its mate.
She might be half-tigress but this value was carried with the Fey for the
'weaker' male. He was feeling the mood of camova but not sure if it depended
on her pheromone. He hadn't smelt that odour for a couple days now. Had he got
used to the smell or was he now under its spell? How could he tell the
difference?
McKensie looked at the Fey curled up on the aeroplane seats. Without any
assistance from her pheromone or the deodorant, they had spent a couple days
and nights in a Sãn Paulo hotel making love and eating. They had got extremely
close.
If it was the love of a man that would stop her roaming the villages around
the Compound then he was hardly in a position to argue. McKensie also didn't
want to see her angry or upset. Least of all with him.
He had too much respect for her, both as a Fey and as a woman. He could
certainly do worse in lovers.
In training, Blanks were told to be pliable with the demands of the Psionic
they worked with. Training never equipped anyone for this situation. Quite
what the Stable Bureaucracy would say about this arrangement was hard to say.
Standing orders were to encourage Psionic Pairs to get emotionally
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involved in the hope that they might yield powerful Psionic offspring. It was
something they tended to resist. A Blank bedding a Psionic might be frowned
on. If he told them about it. A Fey offspring with the ability not to be
susceptible to being scanned by a Psionic might be regarded as being dangerous
to the
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