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Jodi shrugged unhappily.
“I have no idea and we may never know.”
“If she was a man, Liosh probably would have ripped her to pieces, the way he killed the one who attacked Melli,” Kat said. “But I’m sure since this Amanda is a woman, he feels like he can’t touch her.”
“Exactly.” Jodi nodded. “But I wish there was a way to punish her. At the very least, some way to indicate that she’s a bad person and make other people stay away from her so she can’t hurt anyone else.”
“Kind of a ‘Mark of Cain’ that sets her apart and warns everyone off her?” Kat asked.
Jodi nodded. “Exactly! So she can never hurt anyone ever again! And so Melli won’t be afraid to go back to campus and finish her classes.”
“You know, you just might have something there.” Kat looked thoughtful. “Have you met the little Tolleg surgeon we have on board called Yipper? He looks a little like a cross between a baboon and a hound dog.”
“Yipper?” Jodi looked at her blankly. “Honestly no—I’m sure I’d remember him if I did meet him, though—he sounds unforgettable.”
“Oh he is—he’s an excitable little guy.” Kat smiled fondly. “But he’s also a brilliant scientist and surgeon. I went to see him the other day and he was working on a new kind of gene therapy—something to do with the Kindred Mating Scent.”
“Really?” Jodi was instantly interested. “That crazy Mating Scent is the main reason Vorn and I got together. His was so strong it was making me insanely horny for him—I literally couldn’t resist him.”
“Yeah, the Mating Scent will get you every time,” Kat remarked. “But did you know that every once in a while a Kindred is born without the ability to make a Mating Scent? It’s really sad—inhibits their ability to attract a female and bond with a mate. Anyway, Yipper has been working on a way to help warriors like that develop and exude a Mating Smell so they can live normal lives. I guess you could call it olfactory/ pheromonal gene therapy.”
“Okay…” Jodi wasn’t following. “That sounds sad and it’s really nice of, uh, Yipper to help, but what does any of this have to do with marking Amanda Brannigan as a bad person?”
“Come on.” Kat tugged her by the arm. “Let’s go see Yipper and you’ll understand.”
“Oh dear me, yes indeed, yes indeed.” Yipper nodded vigorously, his long ears flopping. “Bad smells are easy to make—too easy, in fact. Yes they are, yes they are!”
“Okay, that’s good.” Kat said, nodding. “And how difficult is it to administer this therapy of yours? Would we have to bring the subject into the lab or what?”
“Oh no, that would not be necessary. No it wouldn’t, no it wouldn’t.” This time Yipper shook his head, his furry ears flying. “All you would need to do is just inject the new gene under the skin—just a quick stick, yes indeed, yes indeed! The new gene would find its way to the subject’s DNA and begin replicating itself almost like a virus, replacing the old gene sequence with itself and making millions more until the subject was completely altered. It would happen in a matter of minutes. Yes it would, yes it would!”
“Well that sounds simple enough,” Kat remarked. She grinned at Jodi. “Do you have an idea of where I’m going with this, doll?”
Jodi grinned back.
“You know, I think I do. Thank you, Kat—you’re full of good ideas.”
“I got a million of ‘em,” Kat said with a laugh. She looked at Yipper. “Listen, Yipper—here’s what we need you to do…”
Forty-Nine
“Hello, are you Amanda Brannigan?”
Amanda looked up from the perfume bottles she was sorting, frowning at the girl with long black hair and vivid green eyes. She looked vaguely familiar.
“Oh, yes—hi,” she said, smiling in case the girl was some kind of secret shopper who worked for the store. Working retail was such a pain in the ass but at least Amanda had the cushiest job in the large department store. As a “beauty consultant” she spent most of her shift sorting makeup, arranging perfume bottles, and trying to make customers feel bad enough about themselves to buy the ridiculously overpriced products the store sold.
“Well, I could sell you this lotion you picked for your face,” she might say to a woman who was getting into her 40s. “But there’s not much we can do about that waddle under your chin unless you’re willing to buy a good-quality firming cream.” She would shake her head. “Honestly, it might be too late already. But maybe if you started the new cream today…”
Or she might talk about a customer’s weight.
“This bronzing powder is really going to help you contour your face and hide the pudginess,” she’d say.
Or their age.
“Have you thought about wearing a lighter shade of foundation to try and minimize the fine lines around your eyes and mouth? I have something here that will make you look sixty again. What’s that—you’re only fifty-four? Oh dear…well, I think it’s clear you need this badly…”
