The other part of her brain reminded her of how he looked her up and down several times. Replayed the hint of humor lurking in his eyes when his gaze reached hers again.
And maybe a bit of disapproval?
She really hoped she hadn't seen that part. She didn't want him to disapprove of her. It was bad enough to have the disapproval of some of the other exhibitors.
She gave herself a mental shake. Stay focused. This wasn't a trip to find romance. No vacation romance for her. After all, this wasn't a vacation.
This trip revolved only around the daubpups, and only the daubpups, she reminded herself firmly even as her mind replayed everything about Damien in slow motion. Reminding her of what the rest of her had been focused on only a few moments ago.
No. The daubpups. She forced herself to visualize them. Trouble-maker Penny. Calm Clementine who would often snuggle the others. Frumpmuffin, one of the smarter of the group no matter its name.
Her footsteps quickened.
She hadn't meant for the meeting to run for so long. Not only did it run long, but it meant she didn't have time for a proper breakfast. Now the pet show was open, and she hadn't had time to check on her little ones.
After the excitement of the previous night, she really should have taken the time to be back at the pet show early in the morning. Even if it had meant getting up at such an indecent time. But, after sleeping so poorly after the interview with the show security, it had been hard to get out of bed.
She scowled at that thought as she finally reached the wide doorway into her building. Why did she have to stay so long and answer so many questions? As she'd told them, she hadn't been around at the time of the pet-napping. How could she have seen anything if she hadn't been there to see anything? Round and round the questions and answers had gone until she'd felt like she was in a bizarre real-life Alice in Wonderland scene.
"Another one this morning," someone whispered as she gained the right aisle.
That comment froze her to the spot, forcing people coming up behind her to divert around. From the appearance of the woman and the badge hanging from one of the pockets of her trim gray and white pinstriped suit jacket, one of the two talking was an exhibitor. Hard to tell with the other one, but she would guess just an attendee.
"How could that happen after last night?" the other woman asked as the crowds continued to move past.
"No one knows. They think it may have happened during morning feeding. All I know is that I'm getting a new bolt to lock my enclosure before the day is out."
And she hadn't been here for the morning feeding.
The volume of the crowd drowned out whatever the two said after. Didn't matter. There must have been another pet-napping. Who? Where?
She wanted to know, but no way was she going to ask Security. Not after last night. She could just picture herself trapped in their main office again answering hours worth of worthless questions. Just as last night, she hadn't been in the fairgrounds to even see anything in the first place.
But, the same worry was there. If someone's pets had disappeared, what about hers?
Which set her off into the building again.
Not easy to move quickly, not with the crowds building fast. She'd heard of the popularity of the Redpoint One Exotic Pet Show, but knowing and being in the thick of it were two different things. And this was only the morning crowd and not even the weekend? The thought increased her anxiety for her daubpups over what was to come in the next few days.
Oh, please, keep the internal enclosure environmental controls working. Please let them still be there when she arrived.
Vallory dodged and ducked, moving as fast as she dared. As fast as the crowds allowed.
From a break in the people, she spotted the right enclosure. Ms. Mishley waved at her from in front of her own enclosure as Vallory finally touched the clear front wall of the duabpup's temporary home.
Even better, the daubpups were still inside. Not along the front watching the "people entertainment channel," as she liked to call it. They had migrated to the back corners of the enclosure. Rebuilding nests, eating, drinking, grooming each other's fur. Clementine was on top of one of the fake tree limbs, running under and on top of it in the gravity-defying manner she found fascinating. How did they keep their grip?
But, all safely inside. She let out a long breath of relief, letting the tension seep out of her. Her daubpups, safe inside right where they should be.
Thankfully, Ms. Mishley didn't come over. She looked busy, with another of the gray service carts parked at one corner of her enclosure with buckets and bags on both shelves. Probably doing the same cage maintenance Vallory needed to do.
With her hands shaking, it took her more time than normal. Such as refilling the water and food trays. Seeing the matted straw in a back corner where the daubpups liked to make their nests, she went to the small aisle at the back of the enclosure for a fresh bundle of dried grass. She brought out a blue and gold-starred ball they loved to play with, as well.
The daubpups squealed and whistled at the sight of it. Several jumped after it the moment she let it roll towards the front corner so she could safely get inside to change out the bedding. The job should have taken only a few minutes, but the duabpups insisted on attention. Scratches, pets, playing with their tails, playing with the ball.
As she alternated between playing with them and changing out half of the grass, she noticed a crowd growing on the other side of the clear wall. It started with children, who pointed and whispered at each other at the daubpup antics. Then their parents started to gather. Then other adults. The daubpups ignored them, continuing their fun, with the voices and sounds on the other side blocked out by the solid front wall.
Vallory didn't know how to feel about the attention. Protecting any species included education of the public. She'd put up a display at one side to give information in the form of a small movie she'd made while they were still in their original habitat. Before that habitat had been destroyed.
But, to sell them as pets? No, she wouldn't do that. She hadn't yet seen them reproduce. The group must stay together if they were going to survive.
She sighed. No luck with the meeting today. Yes, she had three more meetings scheduled, but what after that?
"What are we going to do?" Vallory whispered to Frumpmuffin as she rolled the ball back. Frumpmuffin put a paw on top of the ball and gazed up at her with head cocked.
"I'm serious. What do we do if we don't find a place? I don't know where to take you after this."
Frumpmuffin didn't answer back. Merely bumped the ball towards her in the way that told her they still wanted to play.
Vallory gave a big sigh loud enough to attract the attention of Clementine on the branch. She rolled the ball away, and rolling bundles of daubpups pushed and bumped against each other in their effort to chase and grab it. The children outside laughed and pointed at the sight.
She admitted it was funny. She stuffed the last of the used grass into the bag and stood up. "Time for me to go. Want to give me back the ball?"
She couldn't even see the ball due to the mass of dauppups over it. Then it appeared, with the colorful creatures batting it between each other in their own unique version of soccer.
"Fine, have fun," Vallory said, cinching the top of the bag tightly. She would need to take it down to the incinerator. It wouldn't be fun carrying it through the crowd. Yes, tomorrow she needed to do this earlier in the morning.
She halted half way to the front door, the duabpups wrestling for the ball around her feet. She frantically searched the moving colors. Ticking them off in her mind in a silent roll-call.
No, not there.
She turned. Clementine and Neon on the branch. Pizza was busy making a new nest in the new grass.
Oh no. Where was she? No bright copper body in the bunch.
Vallory dropped the bag of old straw at the door and headed back for the rear of the enclosure. Even as the daubpups climbed the bag as a new
toy, she searched all the crevices made by the artificial branches. Even rooted through the grass to see if she was hiding underneath. Pizza whined at her, telling her in the daubpup way to go away.
Penny was nowhere to be found.
A new anxiety built. Oh no. Please no.
One more count of the daubpups present told her the same thing. One of them was missing, and of course it was Penny.
Why did Penny do this to her? Didn't they have enough problems without her pulling a disappearing act?
"Not the day for it," Vallory said out loud as she pulled daubpups from off the top of the bag. Of course they climbed on top. They loved climbing.
She used the ball to distract them and allow her to get her and the bag outside without one of them trying to follow. She wished one of the enclosed carts were nearby. It was a long way to the back of the building with such a big bag. Her arm started feeling the weight by the time she reached a few enclosures down.
"Missing one?" Mr. Pyman asked as he came out from behind his enclosure. "We had another incident."
Vallory froze, glancing quick back. Still children and adults in front of it, enjoying the antics of her daubpups. She forced herself to relax. "Oh no. They're all there. One was in the grass. All accounted for."
"Hmm." The sound told her that he didn't believe her.
Vallory headed away, feeling her face flush.
Penny. Why did she have to be herself right now?
CHAPTER FIVE
VALLORY REACHED THE back inside corner of the building, her arm feeling like it was going to pop out of its socket. Yes, do this earlier and grab one of those utility carts the show provided in the utility rooms. She used her exhibitor badge to get through the gate into the utility room.
Signs warned people away from everything on the right. Another warning sign marked a portion of the floor that would drop down into the station as a freight elevator. To the left lay the big door to the incinerator.
She pushed the bag into the opening and started the sequence as soon as the door closed. No organic contamination allowed to linger in this place. The biologist side of her approved, even while she worried about a different biological contamination.
She had an alien animal roaming around, and if she knew Penny, the little annoying creature wouldn't settle for exploring the busy local area.
No, she would head out to do some intense exploring of quiet remote areas.
A click and a brief beeping alarm signaled the freight elevator in use. Vallory stepped away from the floor now flashing in alternating red and white. The floor receded, then slid to the side somewhere under the building. A new 'floor' appeared to take up the space, several new canvas bags on it labeled as various sorts of cage lining.
"So, station, anticipating our need? Do you know where Penny is?" Vallory said to the floor. No one answered, but she didn't expect one. This was her problem, with her own little trouble-maker. Nothing to do but start the hunt.
Pulling out a pocket computer from the purse hanging angled across her torso, she found the guess correct. The tracking signal coming from Penny's collar indicated a good distance from the pet show.
Vallory hurried out of the building, using the signal to determine a direction. It led her right out of the grounds and down a level into the metal halls of the station, and still she wasn't close. Down another level and she came to an industrial area,with high ceilings and businesses and warehouses lining each side of the roads. At least, the wide space between felt like a road. There were even sidewalks running along both sides. How odd to be in a place where all the 'buildings' went all the way up to the tall ceilings.
No one on the busy sidewalks paid her any attention as she continued to follow the signal. She stopped at a dead-end side road where a large space allowed freight containers to turn around.
Vallory scowled at part of the wall. No freight containers there now, and no doors or passages to allow her to continue the race. Even if she could find a way to the other side, if she continued to delve further into the station she could also end up getting good and lost.
She put that out of her mind. She would deal with it when the time came. Right now, she needed to find Penny.
With regret, she pushed away from the wall to head away. She would need to find a different way to follow the signal. Maybe descend another level of the ring and then try to follow the signal again. Or, maybe she could find a corridor in the right direction by going onwards to the next ring section?
A small bot skimmed the ground past her, towing a miniature trailer with a pile of matte-white and shiny metal parts in the back of it. Such cute little things, with the bigger round shell and then a smaller front rounded shape out of which sprung the eyestalks. Half the size of Damien's, with a shiny half-oval red shell. Put some dots on it, and it could look like a ladybug.
No human in sight, and it appeared to be heading straight for the wall she'd been leaning against. "There's a wall there."
The bot gave her a high whistle, one of its short eyestalks glancing back at her as it continued forward at full speed.
Just before it hit the wall, a seam appeared in the surface. A door swung inwards revealing a long corridor with spaced lights. More than wide and tall enough for a human, and maybe even big enough for the cart Damien's bot was always towing around.
The computer beeped, telling her the signal was growing stronger.
The wall must have been interfering with the signal. Penny might not be all that far away after all. Before she could rethink the wisdom, Vallory stepped forward. She slipped into the corridor just before the door closed.
The small bot whistled again as it sped down the corridor with its small trailer. Vallory hurried after it, keeping it in view while also watching the indicated direction on the computer.
The corridor turned, and then split into two directions. She paused. The bot continued to the left, still speeding along. Obviously it knew where it was going and what job it needed to do.
Only, the signal said she should turn to the right. A very clear signal, but she hated to leave the bot. It didn't speak, but she'd felt better having it within shouting distance. With a heavy sigh, she forced herself to turn to the right.
"Penny, don't do this again," Vallory said at the corridor and to anyone who was listening. It would be too much to hope Penny was listening, much less obey.
She shivered as she was forced to take another turn. Her suppressed fear of getting lost burst forth with renewed strength. She didn't know how she would get out of the area, and she hadn't seen any of the helpful computer panels that were spaced along the regular halls, larger corridors, or streets of Redpoint One.
"Penny, where are you?" Vallory called out. Maybe she should have gone back for Damien to help her with this. He would know the station and how to find his way around, as well as the secret doors that led to the public areas of the station.
The computer stayed locked on Penny. That was a good thing. What a relief that the collar stayed on them when they decided to make one of their escapes. If it didn't, she would be up a creek without a paddle. The previous biologist who worked with them had tried to insert a tracking device under the skin. That didn't go well, and the daubpups had avoided his presence ever since. Hence her taking over the study, and later, their care.
Another shiver ran through her. Did the temperature just drop? She rubbed an arm with her free hand as she made another turn. "Come out, Penny. It's time to go back."
Another shiver, but this time not due to temperature. She paused among the pipes, conduits, boxes, and other shapes running along all sides of the corridor. Only the floor remained flat. Everything else was filled with, well, stuff.
The place didn't feel right. Not like at first when she first followed the small bot into the corridors. She tried to remind herself that of course the back rooms and utility corridors of the station would look like this. Raw, industrial, and yes, alien. She'd expected that. Redpoint One, after all, had been built by a
long-lost alien species. Xenobiologists didn't even know what they looked like, only that they must have been around the same size as humans to judge from the size of the rooms, corridors, and access-ways.
She shivered again, goosebumps appearing up and down her arms. A cold sweat chilled the back of her neck.
The station. Something felt wrong in this area. It had to be this area. She'd been fine when going through the other parts, just worried about getting lost.
Not here.
The shadows grew darker. The air temperature dropped. A soft ping echoed down from somewhere further down the corridor. She caught her breath at the sound of a metal clang.
"Penny?" She hated how her voice cracked. She cleared her throat.
Realizing she was holding her breath, she forced herself to let it out. It didn't help the tension in her lungs, or the rest of her body.
A light blinked out.
Vallory stared up at it, eyes wide. Why did it go out? There weren't all that many along the length of the corridor to begin with.
A hum split the air, causing her to jump, the soft noise loud to ears so attuned to her surroundings.
A hum? Where was that coming from? It sounded like behind her.
She turned, seeing something move in the shadows. A large movement. Something that went all the way from floor to ceiling. It felt wrong. It shouldn't be moving. She didn't know why, but she knew nothing should be moving.
She forced herself to take a step towards it, to try to see what it could be. Then another.
Vallory gulped. A door? A door was closing?
The chill on her skin turned to freezing as a fresh sweat broke out. Suddenly, the distance between her and the slowly closing door seemed a light-year away.
Not that far. She repeated that words to herself as she broke into a run. She could get to the other side before it closed if she ran fast enough. She was in pretty good shape. She could run fast for a sprint. Just for a short distance.
Penny could take care of herself. All the daubpups could. Nothing she'd seen so far could keep them contained if they didn't want to be. Penny could get out even if the door closed.
Once Upon a Pet Show (A Redpoint One Romance) Page 5