“I like it a lot,” Cassie told him. “It makes me think of a time when I was the green goddess.”
KLAUSER’S gift was small, flat, and light. Cassie packed it, and did not open it until the engines were recharging after the fifth hop and she was getting ready for bed. Opened, it proved to be a picture. A younger William Reis than she had ever seen stood next to an older man of about the same height who must have weighed at least three hundred pounds.
When she tapped Reis’s image with her fingernail, he said, “I’m Bill Reis, the new ambassador to Woldercan, and I’d like to thank Ambassador Klauser for teaching me a great deal I needed to know, and for all the kindness and hospitality he and his family have shown my wife and me.”
WHEN the sun was a yellow spark and the blue sphere of Earth less than nothing, Cassie murmured, “Oh, Bill, my poor Bill. Why did you have to die?”
And when the Milky Way was a little band of bright stars, a thing like a diamond bracelet seen from a great distance, “Come back to me, Wally! Please, oh, please, Wally! Come back to me!”
Our Cast:
AABERG, LARS Detective lieutenant on the Kingsport Police.
BENCH, SHARON Reporter often seen on trivid.
BRIGGS, MARGARET Cassie’s dresser.
CABANA, ALEXIS Leading lady in The Red Spot.
CASEY, CASSIE Our star.
CHASE, GIDEON Professor, consultant, and wizard.
COM PU TER Artificial personality.
DEMPSTER, INDIA Director of The Red Spot and Dating the Volcano God.
FERGUSON, JOHN Official of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
GOMEZ, PAT Private investigator.
HANGA Shark god.
HERBIE Cassie’s first husband.
HIAPO Takangese who meets Cassie at the airport.
IULANI One of Cassie’s Takangese maids.
IZANAMI Japanese nurse at the clinic on Takanga Ha’i.
KANOA King of a village on Great Takanga.
KEAN, BRIAN Reverend Brownlea in Dating the Volcano God.
KLAUSER, HAROLD Former ambassador to Woldercan.
KU’ULAI One of Cassie’s Takangese maids.
MCNAIR, FLORENCE The lady from Perth, an Australian tourist.
MERCE, TABBI Actress who replaces Norma Peiper.
NELE Manager of Salamanca House.
OKALANI Takangese who carries Cassie’s parasol.
PALMA, VINCENT Actor who plays the Volcano God.
PAVLATOS, MADAME Owner of the seagoing yacht Athena.
PEIPER, NORMA Aunt Jane Brownlea in Dating the Volcano God.
PENNIMAN, PORTER “TINY” Chief in Dating the Volcano God.
PICKENS, BRIAN Tenant renting the apartment over Cassie Casey’s.
PRESIDENT, THE Chief executive of the United States.
REIS, RIAN William Reis’s son.
REIS, WILLIAM “BILL” Billionaire with a slight touch of megalomania.
SCHOONVELD, DR. Head of the clinic on Takanga Ha’i.
STORM KING, THE Squid god.
WARSHAWSKY, JAMES K. “JIMMY” Security guard.
WHITE, EBONY India Dempster’s assistant.
YOUMANS, ZELDA Cassie’s agent.
ZEITZ, SCOTT Cassie’s second husband.