Aliens In The Family Read Online Free Page B

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    At that moment the woman behind the counter spoke to him once more. "Can I help you, dear?" she asked with the identical words and expression she had used a moment ago.
    "How much is the transistor?" Bond enquired casually. His blood chilled as the woman calmly pulled the knitting off her needles and rose, pointing them at his heart like twin swords. They were steel and very sharp.
    "You must be the one," she said in a high, cold voice. Simultaneously, the curtains around the changing booth behind Bond were swept aside and a dark figure appeared—a man with white hair erupting around his forehead and chin as though he were more goat than man. His bumpy forehead even looked as though it might be growing horns, and his yellow eyes bulged.
    "You!" the man snorted. "Did you not think there might be a trap for anyone the School sent down? Your people are not all-powerful, you know."
    "Who are you?" Bond asked, appalled at being recognized, but even as he spoke, the answer—incredible and terrifying—came into his mind. Under the skin of his wrist throbbed a mechanism called 'the pulse' which enabled the School to trace his progress even though he could not contact the School. Contact until the proper time was strictly forbidden. He touched the pulse with his thumb.
    "You're Wirdegen!" he cried. "You're trying to find a way into our Inventory!"
    "Knowledge is the greatest treasure of all," said the man. "The woman there—she's nothing. She's under our control, as you will be in a minute."
    Bond quickly turned and shouted across the counter to the Companion "Wake up Solita! Wake up!"
    "You can't wake a Companion out of a Zahn trance by shouting to it," said the man contemptuously. "Even a Delta function student should know that!" He threw himself at Bond who, still shouting Solita's name, leapt over the counter to brave the steel needles, hoping they were more to frighten him than to kill him. He felt one of them stab his arm as he fell behind the counter taking the bell, invoice book and skeins of wool with him.
    "Solita!" he shouted again. The light changed. The box lit up as if a little fire blazed in it.
    "Bond? Is that you Bond? Is it rescue?" asked a girl's voice. The man appeared astounded and stood as if the steel needles had pinned him into the air in some way.
    "Audio defence!" commanded Bond desperately, trying to recall all he could about this Wirdegen enemy who had appeared out of nowhere and who now tried to grab him and to set a small disc against his forehead.
    "Bond, is that you?" asked Solita again.
    "Audio defence!" screamed Bond. "Yes, this is Bond— Bond. I wouldn't deceive you. Read my bio-phase! Audio defence! This is override instruction." He shouted a series of numbers, thrashing his head backwards and forwards as he cried out. The disc placed against his temple slid down, scraped the side of his face and struck his ear as he managed to knee the man in the side. The woman topped like a heavy doll across his legs, trapping him. But even as it seemed as if he might be caught, a thin, keening sound made itself heard, rapidly rising and swooping up into the range of inaudibility.
    Several things then happened at once. A fine shiver ran through the shop. There was a shocking uproar, not from the transistor but from a little dog tied to a parking meter howling dismally and tugging at its leash. Several car horns sounded in the street outside and could not be turned off, and glasses shattered on nearby tables, exploding into glittering daggers of glass. The woman on top of Bond clasped her hands over her head and tried to crawl towards the door. The bearded figure hanging over Bond suddenly collapsed. One minute it was suspended above him, powerful and menacing, the next it was collapsing with a slow, billowing grace. The pale, goatish face shining between the upper and lower nests of hair, and the live yellow eyes, vanished as if they had been sucked back into darkness. The woman did not vanish in the