Chimera Read Online Free Page A

answered without opening her eyes. "I didn't take you for the philosophical type."
    "I wasn't asking why I had to have my game interrupted—"
    "Which you would've lost anyway."
    "Without getting in hock to you."
    Her eyelids flicked open as she gave me a sideways glance, dark slitted pupils at the edge of golden eyes. "Refresh my memory. When did I force you to take all of my money?"
    One point for the cat. I turned back to the HV.
    We watched the usual unpromising news about efforts to restore the ozone layer, and another border dispute between North and South California over homeless people heading north for welfare benefits. The Chief Justice announced that the Supreme Court would consider whether the laws of the Arizona theocracy were in violation of the First Amendment, Arizona's Christian Party governor announced the state legislature would consider whether the Supreme Court was in violation of the Decentralization Amendment, and the President's spokeswoman said no Federal troops would be sent to impose the will of nine old men and women on the free people of Arizona. Then the chairwoman of one of the human football leagues complained about the growing popularity of the chimera league, saying that for their safety, chimera players ought to wear helmets and padding like their counterparts in the human leagues.
    " Que altruist," the cat said.
    When Elvis and Marilyn sims began singing about the cocaine being back in Coca-Cola, I turned to the cat and tried again. "What I meant was, why'd you come to me? Or is that something you'd rather not talk about now?"
    "I called some other agencies. The first three were very friendly, until they heard I was calling for myself, not my owner."
    "You've got an owner?"
    "No. I called four more detectives with the camera turned off. None of them would work for cash."
    "Why'd you think I'd be any different?"
    "I was calling from a bar in Crittertown. The Tavern of Dr. Moreau."
    It's a small place on Lankershim with cheap beer, no decor to mention, and every Tuesday night, a house band consisting of four chimeras and a human on sax that played the finest wildsong in L.A. They didn't welcome humans, but they didn't discourage us, either—one afternoon, I overheard a chimera ask, "What's a skin doing in a fur bar?" and the weaselman behind the counter answered, "Keeping his tab paid up. Which is more than I can say for some."
    I didn't think anyone at Moreau's knew my name, but the cat anticipated that question. She said, "I asked the barman if he knew any detectives who would work for chimeras. He said there was a skin that might be worth a call. He dug your card out of a big glass bowl, some kind of drawing for dinner for two at Beauty and the Beast's. That's when I got your recording."
    "I hope you put the card back in after you called."
    She smiled at that. "Relax, Mr. Maxwell. I did."
    "Call me Max."
    The smile faded.
    "Or don't, Ms. Domingo. You're the client."
    She nodded. "It's nothing personal. You have a policy about working for chimeras. I have a policy about humans with policies about chimeras."
    "I broke mine."
    "Because you can't afford to pay me back. If you'd known what I was, would you have taken my case?"
    There were a lot of things I might've said. I settled for the truth. "No."
    "I don't see any reason to compromise my principles, Mr. Maxwell."
    "You're claiming the moral high ground, when you presented yourself as—" I remembered that the room had to be bugged and stopped the sentence there. I glanced twice at the ceiling to remind her that they would love for us to give them something useful.
    She glared at me, breathed once in exasperation, then breathed again more calmly and said, "I needed to get to you as soon as possible."
    "Ah. Necessity is a principle now."
    "What would you know about necessity?"
    "I know that principles you abandon in the face of necessity don't deserve the name."
    "That's easy for a human to say, Mr. Maxwell."
    I looked at my watch. Zoe