Firefly.

"Safe," Frank said. "She got away and called me, and I came out. She would have helped you herself, but didn"t know where you were, and couldn"t find you in the dark. I think she got lost on the way; took her hours to find the house."

"The firefly," Cyrano said.

"The monster? It got Bull Shauer. I don"t know where it is now."

"Thank G.o.d I gave her that hypo!"

"Thank G.o.d you did!" They both knew it would have been May, otherwise. "Look, we can"t advertise that body. I don"t think anyone knows where Bull went. As far as the law is concerned, he left town. But the bones-"

"I"ll take care of them. My pleasure. Maybe there"ll be more to show how it happened, this time."

"His clothing"s on, but his fly"s open. But he had it open to rape May, she says, so that doesn"t mean anything."

"Maybe. But the thing uses pheromones. He could have thought it was a woman."

"Do you have any idea what it looks like?"

Cyrano shrugged. "Maybe like a woman."

"But doesn"t it take females too?"

"Female animals. When I catch it, I"ll let you know what it looks like."

"It affects human females too. May said it was so strong, she almost wanted Bull Shauer."

Cyrano grimaced. "Which must be about as strong as anything gets. I wasn"t nearly as close, but I got a whiff of it, and that was enough."

"But hardly any remained by the time I saw the body. The firefly must turn off the pheromones once it catches its prey."

"For sure. Why waste them?"

"You"ve had a bad night out here. Will you be okay?"

"I"m alive. That"s good enough."

Frank had to agree. If the firefly hadn"t fed on Bull Shauer, it would have come for Cyrano.

"Then I"ll leave the bones to you. Just so there"s no trace. This never happened."

"Don"t tell me my business," Cyrano said gruffly. He headed for his van.

Frank went to his car. He paused only long enough to make sure the van was operative, then turned his car around and went back down the trail toward the main house.

"Cyrano"s taking care of it," he announced. "None of us ever saw Bull Shauer out here. Agreed?"

They nodded together: Geode, looking the same as usual; none, looking surprisingly radiant; and May, with a shiner, welts, and ill-fitting dress.

"For all we know, or care, he got disgusted because May escaped him, and left town. So there"s no mysterious disappearance and no body."

They nodded again.

"And you can stay here, May, until you recover."

"No," she said. "Now that Bull"s gone, I can return to my room in town, and resume my activity."

"But you look a sight-no offense."

"None taken," she said, smiling. "But there"s no mystery about that. Bull was in town and did beat me up. I hid, but returned when he left town. There"ll be some talk, but nothing dangerous. I"d like to get my car."

"I don"t think you"d better go out there again."

"We can do it," none said. "Geode and I."

Frank nodded. "And take her stuff out of the cabin; better if there"s no evidence she ever was there." He held out the keys to May"s car, which he had taken from the bones.

none smiled in agreement. The two of them went out.

Alone with May, Frank found things suddenly awkward. "I guess you"ll be okay, then. You"ll want to rest before you drive in."

"It has been a difficult night," she agreed. "But are you in a hurry?"

"At this hour? No."

"Bull freed me of a double burden," she said. "First, of himself; that is a phenomenal weight off my mind, quite overriding the shock of the manner of his death. Never again will I have to hide. I"ll remain nominally married to him, of course, since I can"t prove he is dead, but that is no concern to me. Second, he rea.s.sured me that he didn"t have AIDS. When he raped me, I was afraid-but he said he didn"t have it, and in that I believe him. I will survive."

He hadn"t realized that she suffered from that particular fear. "I"m glad."

She hesitated. "This-may not be appropriate. But I would like to be in your arms."

"What?"

"You are not like Bull."

His surprise became understanding. He went to her and took her in his arms. She clung to him, and put her head on his shoulder, and he felt her crying. She was in desperate need of comfort, despite her businesslike att.i.tude.

"Oh, the h.e.l.l with this!" he said.

Now she was surprised. She lifted her face. "I"m sorry. I"m not normally like this. I-"

He kissed her.

At first she responded diffidently, fl.u.s.tered. Then she coalesced and came back with full strength. The lingering barriers came down, and only understanding, need, and pa.s.sion remained.

They broke, partway, in due course. "Yes, exactly," she said. "I know I"m not much at the moment, but last night when the firefly approached, and its pheromones-I thought of you. I wanted you in a way I have not wanted any man before. I realize that this puts an ugly face on the situation, but for the first time I truly understood s.e.xual pa.s.sion, and I have not forgotten. So if you-"

"I"m married. No disrespect to you."

"I respect that." She seemed, if anything, relieved. "Then perhaps we should simply talk."

They sat in the living room and talked, about nothing in particular. They did not touch again. But it looked very much like dawning love.

In half an hour Geode and none were back, each driving one car. Geode drove the station wagon into the garage, while none parked before the house.

"Thank you, dear," May said. "You have been so kind."

"You have been kind to me," none replied.

The two women hugged. Then May got into her car. none took the things out of it, for they would only call attention to May"s presence at the ranch. May"s things were at the hotel room in town. She would have to get by in the too-tight outfit for a few minutes when she got there, but then she would be able to change.

"I"ll follow you in," Frank said. "If you feel faint or anything, just pull over."

"Thank you." May started the car and pulled slowly forward.

Frank returned to his car and followed her. Everything was formal, the way it should be. But everything had changed, and not just with the firefly. He didn"t know what was going to happen next, but his outlook had abruptly become more positive.

As they turned left at the right-angle corner, he noticed how the fence there was overgrown by pa.s.sion flowers, each big and purple. There was pa.s.sion fruit too, looking like green lemons. He had heard they were edible, but he didn"t trust it. Still, it did lend a notion: here in the vicinity of pa.s.sion fruit, he was discovering a new and unexpected pa.s.sion. May had confirmed her interest in him, and despite his demurral, he was interested. Oh, she was no nymphlike beauty, but that wasn"t the point. He was a lot more interested in character and constancy, and those she had in spades. Yet as far as physical appearance went, she was good enough. In fact, she was a pretty robust specimen. That had been quite clear when she was halfway naked. After all, he was no college athlete himself. Had he not been married...

* 30 - "I PROMISED TO tell you another story," none said as she fixed him lunch. "I have told you about none; now I will tell you about Eve." She paused, glancing at him. "It isn"t really a story; it is history. It is the truth about women, and how they govern men."

He sat watching her, listening. As she talked, he saw what she described, becoming immersed in her framework. He learned about Eve.

It was about a hundred and fifty thousand years ago, between the beginning of the Riss glaciation and the beginning of the Wurm glaciation. Eve was born into an isolated tribe in Africa, whose members were confined there by the greater worldwide success of the more robust species of man who were later to be termed Neanderthals. Her people were on the primitive fringe, lacking access to the richer hunting grounds. They had to make do with scavenging from the edge of the great sea, finding sh.e.l.lfish and spearing fish. They were as intelligent as the others, and their language skills were equivalent, but their numbers were too few for real compet.i.tion.

The problem was that their breeding rate was low. The women of other tribes came into heat every month until bred, so were constantly getting pregnant and producing offspring. But Eve"s tribe, driven to the verge of the sea, had survived only by retreating into the sea to avoid enemies, including other men. They had adapted by becoming more fleshy, especially their women, so that they could better withstand the chill of the water. The men remained lean when young, going ash.o.r.e to hunt, but the women"s safest haven was shallow water in seaside caves, curling up with their fat babies in the darkness so that others did not know their whereabouts. Those who were able to remain still in cool water longest survived best.

But in the course of this water retreat they had somehow lost something vital. Too often their periods of heat occurred when they were hiding in the water, so that the effect of the pheromones was lost, and their men did not flock to breed them. This lessened the breeding rate significantly, and the tribe barely maintained its numbers. Yet if a woman left the water during her heat, she could attract a neighboring tribesman, who would gladly impregnate her, but would not care for her thereafter. A man of her own tribe would not care for her when it was known that her baby was not of the tribe. Thus foreign impregnation was too apt to be her death warrant. She needed to breed with her own kind-more than she did.

Eve was a mutant, though she did not know it. A genetic defect lurked in her being, and it did not show until she matured. Then it became entirely too evident. Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s were prematurely swollen. Normal women"s b.r.e.a.s.t.s developed only when they were gravid, in time to suckle their babies, as was the case throughout the anthropoid species. They developed partially when the women came into heat, but subsided when fertilization did not occur. Eve"s b.r.e.a.s.t.s would have been normal for late pregnancy, but were grotesque as permanent structures. What use were they, with no baby to suckle? They did not lactate, they were merely there, incongruous.

But there turned out to be a side benefit to this abnormality. Eve was able to endure the chill of the water better because her prematurely developed b.r.e.a.s.t.s insulated her to a degree. Also, the men of her tribe were attracted to women who looked as though they were ready to breed. Thus those with wide pelvic girdles and fatty thighs were more appealing than those with narrow ones, and the nascent b.r.e.a.s.t.s of the time of heat contributed to it. In the absence of the proper dissemination of the mating odor, because of the water, Eve"s half-hidden b.r.e.a.s.t.s seemed to resemble the lesser signal of readiness. There was normal variation among men, with some being more visually stimulated than others, and Eve was able to attract one of these. He bred her right there in the water, not waiting for her heat. Actually, he thought her heat was on her, because he saw the b.r.e.a.s.t.s and knew the smell couldn"t travel through the water, and she was so eager for it that she certainly acted as if in heat. The penetration was uncomfortable, and of course it didn"t take, but the lure of her oversized b.r.e.a.s.t.s remained, and the next day he bred her again-and again on the following day. She learned to make herself ready for him, so that the penetration didn"t hurt despite the tendency of the water to wash away the slick juices that normally facilitated it during heat. She gave the illusion of being perpetually in heat, as long as the water drowned out the airborne pheromones, and he responded to it with less appet.i.te than those who were compelled by the smell, but nevertheless persistently enough. It was a fact that any man could copulate at any time, only awaiting the readiness of the woman.

Inevitably two things happened. He came to form an attachment to her, and so became her regular man: what today would be termed the married state. And in due course she came into genuine heat, so that the breeding took, and she conceived by him. So her defect turned out to be an a.s.set, and she bred when those around her did not.

The effect on her tribe was small but significant. Eve received male attention the whole of her mature life, even when she was well past the age of breeding, because her aspect in the water gave the illusion of breedability. Thus she bore babies constantly, many more than usual, and male protection extended even after she stopped producing babies, because she always seemed ready to have another. Thus her offspring were more copious than those of other women, and had better protection, and became more prominent in the tribe.

The majority of her offspring happened to be female-and all of them grew up with the same genetic defect, because it turned out to be dominant. Their b.r.e.a.s.t.s swelled at maturity and would not subside. But in the water they did well, both against the chill and with visually oriented men. They quickly learned to conceal their real state, and to accept the approach of men even when they did not feel inclined for copulation, because they knew that repeat servicing was far better than none. They bred effectively, and had many offspring of their own. The men were not completely fooled, of course; they knew that breedability was mostly illusion when the women were not in heat. But they were satisfied to go through the motions regardless, for there was pleasure in it apart from the actual fertilization. In fact, the men never had been as interested in the fertilization as in the pleasure of the moment, and these women were very good at providing the latter. For the first time, the women were able to do what the men could: to breed at any time. It was a wonderful equalization of the s.e.xes, which in time would lead to the very verge of full equality, farfetched as that seemed at this time.

Generations pa.s.sed, and the population of Eve"s tribe reversed its trend. Now the tribe was growing in size, and achieving a better compet.i.tive position. The women no longer had to hide in the water so much. But by this time the alternate pattern of breeding had become established, and men did not necessarily bother to wait for the pheromones before going to it. In fact, some women had lost their pheromone production qualities, so that their periods of heat were virtually unmarked. It turned out to be a continuing advantage for them to hide their reproductive capacity, because some men did not desire to sire offspring, which entailed some years of obligation. But because the women never looked unready, the men could never be sure when it was "safe" to copulate, and frequently got caught. Conceptions continued.

Gradually Eve"s tribe increased, for there were many factors that governed man"s success, not just his rate of reproduction. Fifty thousand years later her descendants had spread across Africa, but remained only one of a number of human species. Then the final glaciation came, Wurm, slowly shaking up the world. As the glacial surges of ice moved down from the arctic region, the northern tribes retreated south, impinging on the territory of those who had settled there. There was warfare, and admixture, and famine as regions were overhunted. There was a progression of migrations as one species put pressure on another, and the other put pressure on a third, dominoes toppling south. The fair-haired Neanderthal Northmen were on the move, and the disruption of their coming was chronic.

Meanwhile Eve"s people were expanding, for now they had a secure population in Africa and were still breeding well. It was not that their population doubled every generation; the effect was far more subtle. But it doubled in the course of twenty thousand years, while other populations didn"t, and that meant rapid expansion on the geological scale. Eve"s people had continually to find new pastures. So it was that they were always coming into conflict with those who already occupied those pastures. Eve"s people had either to remain bottled up or to fight. They became excellent warriors. They were a cohesive group, with constant intercommunication, and were especially protective of their women. This was because their women remained constantly s.e.xually appealing. Other species of man converged on any woman in heat, and bred her madly, and then forgot her for a month in favor of the next woman in heat. But Eve"s women no longer came into heat; their reproductive cycles were muted, often entirely hidden from males, and their b.r.e.a.s.t.s were forever swollen, so that the lure of their s.e.xuality never abated. A woman kept her man occupied continually, never giving him the chance to wander. So while the women of other species might be slain between breeding cycles, unprotected, Eve"s women were never unprotected. Thus they continued to breed at a superior rate. Eve"s men excelled at two things; warfare and copulation. In fact, they became the most warlike of the human species, and they developed the biggest proportionate p.e.n.i.ses.

There was an interglaciation, the ice retreated. The species and tribes of man migrated back north, and the pressure of population was relieved. But then the glaciers advanced again, forcing the tribes back-while Eve"s people continued to advance from the south. This happened several times. In some regions, two species lived in the same general terrain, but they never interbred, because Eve"s men were no longer compelled by the heat cycle, and found the flat-chested women of other species unappealing. Caught between the ice and Eve"s people, even the proud and powerful species of Neanderthal man at last succ.u.mbed to the dark-skinned Eve"s species. By about thirty thousand years before the present, the greatly varied species of man had been replaced by one uniform species: Eve"s children. Then that species branched, becoming fair-skinned like the erstwhile Neanderthals in the north, and black-skinned in the south, and large and small as the local terrain encouraged. But all of them had perpetually swollen b.r.e.a.s.t.s on the women and big p.e.n.i.ses on the men, even after there was really no need to compete by superior reproductive capacity.

So it was that Eve was the mother of modern man. Her genetic pattern is in every living human being. We know this because we have traced the special gene pattern of the mitochondria, which are the power generators of the cell, which are transmitted only from mother to child. The father does not pa.s.s these particular genes along. In this sense, only the women matter; the men are genetically forgotten. So we know about Eve, but not about Adam. Her legacy became the guiding principle of mankind: continuous s.e.xuality.

And indeed it has been perfected! A man is a comparatively simple creature, s.e.xually; he is aroused by the signals of the most proximate woman, and will breed with her if there are not contrary constraints, such as another man present. The art and science of s.e.x lie with the woman. Her entire body and manner have become a s.e.xual geography, from her large, innocent eyes and hair that frames her face, neck, and bosom to advantage, to her trim ankles and dainty feet. Her large b.r.e.a.s.t.s attract a man"s eyes like magnets, but if she is facing away, her b.u.t.tocks take up the task and hold him just as securely. Her narrow waist and broad hips signal her femininity and ability to breed. The very contours of her limbs and extremities are appealing to the man, and compelling as they approach her center, which is the site for copulation. Like a spiral, her body brings in his gaze and his desire, so that he is compelled to approach and finally enter that central orifice. When she walks she signals, and when she dances she incites. The man is helpless before this array; virtually any healthy young woman who strips and signals any man will compel him to breed with her. She can breed almost anytime she wants to, with any man she wants to. She is the daughter of Eve, who conquered the world by first conquering the male of her species-without letting him know it.

If she does not wish to breed-and indeed, she can be quite choosy about this-she has a variety of ways to turn off the signals. Her clothing, instead of being crafted to show those portions of her body which most incite men to l.u.s.t, can cover them. Her actions can become negative. For a woman"s ultimate beauty is only partly physical; her actions complete it. A woman who meets a man"s gaze briefly, then glances demurely down, and her earlobes flush and her bosom heaves and she tilts her head a bit to the side and meets his gaze again, sidelong, as she smiles-that woman is beautiful. In such manner she lures and captures the man of her choice, he being too dull to understand that it wasn"t his idea. This dullness has nothing to do with intelligence; the man may be a genius-which is why she wants him-but the signals she sends operate below the level of intellect, and score despite his belief that he is in control and knows better. She talks with him, she listens to him, she flatters him, and finally she offers s.e.x to him, and he is hers.

Eve started it, and her daughters perfected it. Every woman practices it, and so governs even the most reticent man.

"As I am doing with you," none concluded. She stood before him, in a dress that exposed her neck and shoulders and the upper surfaces of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Her auburn hair came down across her forehead and framed her eyes, which were luminously green. She put her hands on his shoulders, and drew him a bit in to her as she tilted her head and gazed momentarily into his eyes, and away, and back, her pupils dilated, her mouth parted, almost slack, a bit of color on her cheeks. She was lovely.

"But I can"t-" he protested, wishing, oh, wishing that he could.

"Because now you know I love you, and it is safe for you to love me."

He stared at her face, and it seemed to blur, and then he was holding her, and kissing her. It was true.

"I have told you of none, and of Teensa, and of Eve," she murmured. "I must still tell you of Nymph. Then we shall make love, if you wish."

"I love your stories, but I don"t need-"

"Indulge me, Geode. Nymph is important. But she can wait. We must eat, and go on your rounds; I think there is time today for me to go with you."

"Yes. I want you with me. Forever!"

"I will be with you, while I live."

"Till death do us part," he said, recognizing the allusion. "You are everything to me, none."

"This is the way of love. But it must be guided. And fed. Eat, Geode."

For of course the meal was ready. Obediently, gladly, he ate.

The chime sounded. Geode got up quickly and went to the front door, where he punched in the gate-opening code. Was it Frank Tishner?

none quickly hid the dishes, in case it was someone else and she had to hide.

It was an express delivery van. "There an Onion here?" the driver asked. "This is the address, but-"

"The owner has a sense of humor," Geode said quickly. "Sometimes he puts odd names on things. I"ll take it."

The man handed over a small package. Sure enough, it was addressed to none.

The van moved off. Geode brought the package inside. "It"s for you," he said, giving it to her.

"Me? But, Geode, no one knows I"m here, except-"

"It"s from Mid." He showed her where the return address listed MIDDLE KINGDOM ENTERPRISES.