From Red to Black
The Never Ending Quest - Episode 21883
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Lady Aresia had been away long enough that I'd come out of my trance, or
whatever it was. I was reflecting ruefully on what had happened. How was
it that I had never heard of such a remarkable woman? She might be a bit
of a bitch, but she was also a Keeper and a highly skilled mentalist.
Yes, Known Space is a big place, but word about someone like that normally
gets around. She might have given me a false name, of course, but I'd
never heard of anyone with her combination of abilities - not to
mention her eye-catching looks. Of course, I reflected, it might help
to keep her unknown that she could tell anyone to forget her and know
that they would.
Whilst I waited for her to return, I contemplated pretending still to be under her influence. That might prevent her from giving me a second dose from those amazing blue eyes. But when she came onto the bridge her eyes were concealed behind dark glasses and her red hair had been dyed jet black! She was wearing ordinary "planet-side" clothing, too, though I'd have bet that she still had her micromesh armor on underneath it. She smiled at my evident surprise at the change in her appearance. "No doubt you are relieved that my eyes are hidden, Captain. I've found that it doesn't pay to be too easily recognisable, especially on a planet with a reputation like Weston II's. People can be made to forget what they have seen, but robots and androids cannot. Nor can spy cameras, for that matter. So I always have a bottle of hair dye and some dark glasses in my luggage." "Wouldn't tinted contact lenses be better?" I asked. "No. Too fiddly. More importantly, I couldn't remove them nearly as quickly as I could my dark glasses. That's important, because my hypnotic power won't work through tinted contact lenses." "You're being remarkably forthcoming all of a sudden," I said, having decided that it wasn't worth pointing out that jet black hair didn't seem like the best way for her to avoid drawing attention to herself. She gave me a wolfish grin. "Why not, Captain? You aren't going to remember any of this afterwards...
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JH
2/3/2003 11:14:36 AM
Extending Enabled
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