Neptune Crossing
Page 32
*
“You break.”
Julie nodded and split the starting formation with a crack, sinking a dwarf and a mermaid. Bandicut watched admiringly as she sank three more faces in a row. She missed and it was his shot. Sighting down the cue wand at the Cheshire Cat, he found himself focusing beyond the grinning teeth on the ball to Julie’s intense gaze, watching from the far side of the table. She smiled and moved out of his sight line.
The cue was wobbling in his grip. He drew a breath. /Help me out a little, okay?/
/// I thought you wanted— ///
/I just mean, help me steady the shot, all right?/
/// No problem. ///
He suddenly found his aim, and felt a clear understanding of the gravity path that he was about to try. The wand flashed at the cue ball, and it spun away, looped around a well, and clacked into the Cheshire Cat. The silver cue ball drifted slowly away from the impact, and the Cat’s grin skidded and vanished into the side well. /Great!/ he thought.
/// It’s good practice, ///
the quarx acknowledged.
“Nice shot!” Julie cheered. “Can you do it again? How about putting Dinky Duck down the table into the end well?”
He squinted along the path between the cue ball and the diminutive yellow duck. There were two gravity wells in the way of the shot she’d suggested. He’d have to slingshot the cue around both of them, just like a spacecraft picking up a gravity-assist from a planet.
/// We can do it, ///
Charlie assured him.
/I’m trusting you./ He cleared his throat and grinned at Julie. “If I make it, will you stay and have a drink with me afterward?”
She allowed a smile on one corner of her mouth. “Only if you make it and promise to stay a nice guy . . .”