Chapter 18

Timing it very carefully, Ed arranged it so the illegal Zombie had not only worn off but was well out of Ramona's system by the time the Neffer settled down on Earth. By that time every member of the crew was exhausted, tired of her, and had lost an average of six-point-four pounds each. To insure easy handling, though, and so he would not have to wrestle her off the ship or follow her at gunpoint, Ed hooked a couple of Charlie's tranks and forced them down the big Lesbian's gullet

She accompanied him peacefully off the ship, well tranquilized. So was the crew, but via less artificial means. Also they now felt only disgust with and for her, rather then sympathy and pity. Any girl who has lost her head and turned her body completely over to a fraternity

one night, or "sold" herself to the football team in return for being Homecoming Queen, could have predicted the Neffer crewmen's feeling of contempt for the woman who had made their trip so memorable.

Ed escorted her to Port Authority, where he identified himself three times in order to get past a secretary, a private secretary, and an administrative assistant.

In the final office, he identified himself once more, learned that he was presumed dead, and waited while finger and retina prints were checked out with Central Computry. Then he reminded the administrator of a certain unsolved crime ...

When last Ed Royse saw Ramona, the big woman was firmly in the grip of one male and one female police officer, each considerably bigger than she. She was on her way to the car that would take her into town, where one injection of super-scopolamine would gain them a complete confession, including murders, film-making, and perhaps a few other items.

Ed had already mentioned to the administrator that when the crew of the ship they had arrived on had learned of her crimes, they had used her rather whorishly.

"Royse, if what you say is true .. . and I assume it must be; you've certainly gone a long, long way, and to a lot of trouble as well.., that will never be mentioned. I can understand the crew's feeling about her; ifs a wonder they didn't cut her open to see what made her tick." He raised an eyebrow. "On the other hand, I have to tell you this, Royse: if she isn't guilty of what you say, you'll be in some trouble, for misusing a private citizen.''

Ed shrugged. "No worries," he said, and he departed the busy man's office. Then he called his brother, Dan.

"Ed! My god, man, we thought you must be deadV* "Sorry, bud. Several people are, though, and I came

back with Linda's murderer. One of them; she killed the

other one.** "She!"

"Right A woman. A big, good-looking Lesbian, Dan, with a beautiful bod... which I admit to having availed myself of."

Dan chuckled, then sobered quickly. "Hey wait. . . Ed? They weren't murderers. Linda's alivel"

Ed's knees tried to give away. For a moment he was exultant on the point of yelling out "Good," and rushing from the phone booth to home. But then he remembered. God! She never should have been allowed to live, not the way she was—he shuddered.

"Oh god, Dan, that's ... that's not wonderful, that's awful. The poor girl... but I don't see how she could have lived! She was just. . ." Again he felt the rush of goosepimples over his body. He didn't want to think of how she'd looked. Of how she must look now. God, why hadn't they let her diel Her mind must be...

But Dan was talking. "No, listen, Ed, listen. In the first place some genius healed her. I mean healed her, completely. No scars. Not a mark."

"Oh shit Dan, that's impossible. I saw ..."

"Just wait a minute, will you?" his brother interrupted.

"Sorry, Dan. But. . ."

"But but but hush" Dan said, his face on the viewscreen grinning at Ed. "I said some genius, Ed, and I mean it Name's Sill, Doctor Sill. He used... oh lord, I can't tell you about it you can get all that later. Anyhow, he used her own flesh to patch Linda up, her own cells, and I swear there isn't a mark on her body.

Not one. But... she's different, Ed." "Yeah. I can imagine."

"No no, not the way you think, big brother. In order to heal her completely, Sill had to use more spare flesh and cells than were available for the repair of an adult body. I don't quite understand it, but it's a process they'll be using from now on, you can bet on that. A new breakthrough in medicine. Let me put it simply, Ed. Linda is now about sixteen-and-a-half years old."

"Whatl"

Dan's face nodded on the screen. "That's what I said. Sweet sixteen. And there was . . . well, some kind of mixup, and she ... vanished. She..

"Vanished?1

"Ed, for pete's sake, just hush up and listen. She's been located, Ed ... in an Afro creche!" Dan grinned, shaking his head. "Well, Doctor Sill has visited her there, and examined her. She's fine, a normal sixteen-plus-year-old girl. But... her mind went back a little too, is the way he put it. Her subconscious just had to blot out what happened to her, you know. Sill says that's good. Even though her body's perfect, her mind couldn't accept the memories, the knowledge of what they did to her. She'd have gone insane, he says."

"All right, all right. So tell me what's the story now."

"She doesn't remember, Ed. She's a sixteen-year-old. She believes it. And there's a little hitch, but I think you'll like it. She's been ... you know how it was when we were in creche, Ed . . . she's been balling a lot, and particularly with this one black cat."

Ed grinned. "Yeah. She was always fascinated in that direction. She'd trade contracts with one of the other girls every time she could, to get a black man. Sure, I can understand that,"

"Right," Dan said, nodding exuberantly. "Well, he told Doctor Sill something about her no one else has noticed, or heard. He says that she keeps calling him Ed, or saying that name. You know, at... certain times."

Ed nodded. He felt a stinging in his eyes. Linda was okay. He had avenged a dead woman he had loved without knowing he had loved her, and she wasn't dead after all. She was a young girl, a teenager, starting all over again. And she had amnesia. But . . . she remembered one thing about her previous life. Him. She remembered Ed.

"Yes," he said hoarsely.

"What'd you say, Ed? Sound's getting bad.''

"I said yes," Ed repeated, loudly enough to be heard, although still very quietly, indeed.

"Oh, yeah. Hey listen, brother, when you coming over? Business still booms and there's an applicant or two you need to see before we decide."

"We'll have to take on one of them, certainly," Ed said in the same low, dreamlike tone. "To replace Linda."

"Nan, shell be fine. Once you and I get with Sill and start treatment . . ."

"We replace Linda," Ed said firmly. "She's going to have a new job, and a new life. So am I."

"Ed! The business . . ."

"Ill still be there, Dan. And so will Iinda... but not working. All right, bud, see you later." "Ed, hey . .

"Come on, Dan, climb off. Fve got a call to make. See you later."

Ed snapped the switch down and spoke quickly into the directory. A moment later it gave him the necessary number. He called, tried to get past the nurse, couldn't,

got tough, and a few moments later heard the rather angry voice say, "Doctor Sill."

"Doctor Sill, this is Edmond Royse. First, I want to thank you and congratulate you for what you did for my ... my girl, Linda. And second I want to ask you either to meet me at the Afro creche where she is or get me in there."

Sill chewed on it a moment, digesting the sudden influx of new name, material, the request. "Royse?"

"You've talked with my brother, Daniel. I've been to Mars, Doctor, and I've just got back . . . with half of the team that killed Linda ... or should have killed her, but for your genius."

"Merely the application of advanced medical research, Royse, but thank you, anyhow. Unfortunately, there's a problem . . ." He frowned, then widened his eyes, his brows raising. "Edmond, you said! Ed?"

"That's right. My brother, Dan, says she's lost her memory, but . . ."

Sill was smiling, nodding. "Right, right, she certainly hasn't forgotten you, to the dismay of a certain young cocksman in the Afro creche! Well well, this is good news indeed. Why don't you arrange to . .."

"Doctor Sill. Do you want to meet me at the Afro creche in twenty minutes, or do you want to make the necessary calls to get me in there ... in twenty minutes?"

There was a long silence. At last Sill nodded. "Yes. All right. I'll do my best, Royse, starting right now."

"Thank you, Doctor," Ed said, and buttoned off.

Eight minutes later he was in an aircab, rushing in from the spaceport. Three minutes later he was over the sprawling city, well above its highest towers. Ten

minutes after that he was across it, feeling the deceleration and loss of height as the driver started nosing down. And ten minutes after that he was past the guards, having been carefully and diligently checked out, and entering the main lobby of Afro creche. Doctor Sill had called the naked black administratrix, too, and she had already called for Linda.

Ed stood at the desk as the diminutive girl, quite nude and small of breast and deceptively slim of waist and hip, came slowly out of the elevator. The hair .. . was that Linda?

The girl stopped, stock still. She stared at the man by the admittance desk. But it was not because he was not an Af or because he was clothed amid this collection of nude bodies that made her stop and stare.

"Edr

Her voice was a scream, a girlish cry, and he nearly went over backward when that lithe young body charged, naked and barefoot, across the lobby to slam against him. The desk saved him from bouncing off the floor.

She hugged him for many seconds before pushing loose and looking up at him with wide blue eyes. Tears flowed from them, spilling down her cheeks.

"Oh Ed! I've ... I've missed you!"

"Have you?" he grinned. "I hear tell about a certain Af feller you've been making it with on a very steady basis."

She cocked her head. "When did that ever have anything to do with you and me? Ed?" She licked her Hps. "I love you, Ed."

"Right," he said. "I love you, Linda."