"Dangerous?" Amaryllis repeated.
Vivien used a tissue to remove several more layers of makeup. "You have to understand, Jonny was always carrying on about his research. I tuned him out most of the time. My job was to relax him."
"Did he mention any names?" Amaryllis asked cautiously.
"No." Vivien tossed the tissue aside. "Hell, I wouldn't have remembered if he had. None of my business. Excuse me. Gotta use the facilities."
Vivien rose from her purple cushioned stool. The dressing gown billowed out behind her as she crossed the threadbare carpet to open a narrow door at the rear of the room.
Lucas averted his eyes quickly, but not before he caught a glimpse of a familiar, silver-haired figure seated inside the small bathroom. Yolanda did not look up from the magazine she was reading.
"Be out in a minute, Viv."
"Sorry, Yo, dear. Didn't hear you in there." Vivien slammed the door and heaved a deep sigh of resignation. "Yolanda and me gotta share the crapper. Her dressing room is right next door. The jerk who owns this joint is too damn cheap to give his star dancer her own bathroom. Can you believe it? I swear I'm gonna quit one of these days. There's better clubs on the strip."
"I can't believe it," Amaryllis said.
"Can't believe that Vivien and Yolanda have to share a restroom?" Lucas took Amaryllis's hand as they walked out of the alley behind the SynCity Club. "Hey, being a syn-sex stripper's a tough way to make a living."
"Don't be ridiculous. I'm not talking about the dressing room facilities. I'm referring to the fact that Professor Landreth had a standing appointment with Vivien."
"As perversions go. I'd say Landreth's was fairly innocuous."
"But it was so unlike him. I knew him for years, and I never had an inkling that he, well, you know."
"Someone sure as hell had a more realistic view of the sainted professor." Lucas guided her through the crowd toward the side street that led back to where the leer was parked.
"What do you mean?" She glanced at him with a searching frown. "Oh, I get it. The person who sent me to see Vivien obviously knew about the appointments."
"Yeah."
One block off the main strip, the number of people on the sidewalk dwindled swiftly. The music, noise, and laughter that blared from the open doors of the clubs receded into the distance. Lucas tightened his grip on Amaryllis's arm, keenly aware of the sound of her footsteps ringing lightly on the stone pavement. He began watching alley entrances and dark doorways.
"Vivien wasn't very helpful, was she?" Amaryllis said after a while.
"She didn't have anything to tell you because nothing out of the ordinary occurred the night before Landreth's death," Lucas said deliberately. "You heard her say that the professor was always tense."
"Yes, but she did imply that the night before he died, he had been more tense than usual. In fact, she said he'd been that way for several weeks."
"She's a performer. She probably felt obliged to give you something for your money."
"You mean for your money," Amaryllis muttered. "I still don't approve of bribery."
"I don't know how in five hells you've managed to get this far in life without learning a few of the fine points of pragmatism. The future belongs to the expedient."
"Nonsense. You don't really believe that."
"We'd still be trying to get through the stage door entrance if I hadn't bribed the guard," Lucas said. "But given the fact that you and I are never going to see eye to eye when it comes to personal philosophies, let's move on."
"To what?"
"I'll grant you that this evening has had its interesting moments, but things have gone far enough. Think about it logically, Amaryllis. If there had been anything strange about the circumstances of Landreth's accident, the police would have pursued an investigation."
"Talking to Vivien has given me an idea, Lucas." Amaryllis sounded as if she had not heard a word he'd said. "It might not be a bad idea to talk to a few other people who saw the professor just before he was killed."
"I was afraid of this. What is it with you? Looking for answers is one thing. Getting obsessive about them is another." Lucas sensed the movement in the deep shadows of the alley before he saw the two men. "Damn. Just what I needed to make this evening perfect."
"What are you doing?"
He didn't respond. Lucas used his grip on Amaryllis's arm to shove her behind him as he pivoted to face the gaping mouth of the alley. There was a clattering noise as she fetched up against a heavy metal garbage can.
"Oh, dear," Amaryllis said in a very small voice.
A rustling sound announced the indignant departure of some small animal that had been dining on the contents of the overflowing trash container.
"Lucas?"
Lucas heard her quick, sharp intake of breath. "Stay between me and the wall. Understand?"
"Yes," she whispered.
The first man emerged from the alley. He moved with the sinuous glide of a practiced street predator. He was followed by a slightly shorter man who approached with a crablike gait. In the weak light of the streetlamps Lucas saw that both men were dressed in Western Islands gear. Each wore his long, greasy hair tied with a leather thong. The first man wore the designer version of the fashion look. He was covered with an array of zippers, pockets, epaulets, and gadget loops.
But the smaller man wore the real thing.
Lucas glanced at the knives in the men's hands, and then he concentrated on watching their eyes.
"Nice outfits," Lucas offered politely.
"Ain't they, though?" The tall man in the fancy gear snaked closer. "Me and Dancer pride ourselves on being stylish, don't we, Dancer?"
"Yeah, Rand, stylish. That's us." Dancer's teeth glinted in a savage grin.
"Something we can do for you two fashionable gentle- men?" Lucas asked.
"Well, now that you mention it, there surely is." Rand motioned with the knife. "You can start by handin' over your wallet."
"And then you can hand over the lady." Dancer licked his lips. "Been a long time since I had a chance to crawl between the legs of a pretty little thing like her."
"What a disgusting little creep you are," Amaryllis said loudly.
"Quiet, Amaryllis." Lucas did not take his eyes off the approaching men.
Dancer spit on the sidewalk. "Don't worry, I like 'em feisty. More fun that way."
"You are both a disgrace to the clothes you wear," Amaryllis informed Dancer and Rand.
"Hub?" Dancer's face screwed up into a tight frown.
"You're wearing Western Islands frontier gear, but it's obvious that neither of you has ever been anywhere near the islands. I suspect you wouldn't last five minutes in a real jungle. You lack the fortitude to live on the frontier."
Rand scowled at Lucas. "You better shut her up real fast."
Lucas shrugged. "That's easier said than done."
"You're frauds, both of you," Amaryllis declared. "A couple of city street punks playing at being real brave frontiersmen."
"Stop her right now." Dancer's voice rose with alarming suddenness. In the blink of an eye he was losing whatever control he possessed. "Hear me? Make her be quiet."
Rand cast an uneasy sidelong glance at his companion. Then he grimaced. "Better do as he says," he advised Lucas.
"Sorry," Lucas said briefly. "I've got better things to do."
He knew that this was the best chance he was going to get. He summoned energy and poured it into the illusion.
He had no way to focus, so he could not generate a solid, substantial image, just a ghostly apparition. Without a prism he could not make it last for more than a few seconds. But after all the years of practice, he had enough control and enough power to create a brief distraction. With any luck, that was all he and Amaryllis would need.