Three Card Monte (The Martian Alliance) (7 page)

“We don’t like your kind in here,” the Polliwog shared.

Bullfrog was big and the glass wasn’t strong enough to withstand a big Polliwog body being flung against it. The glass cracked. “What kind? I’m from here, just like you,” Bullfrog said as he kicked the guy who’d grabbed him in the gut.

Several of the suits jumped on Bullfrog. He was good, and kept most of them occupied enough that he didn’t go down.

“Stay out of our business, Diamante scum,” another Polliwog snarled as he reached for me. I dodged. Now wasn’t the time to question who they thought we were working for. Now was the time to get away.

Ciarissa wasn’t the strongest being in the galaxy. However, the benefits of being a shifter were many times without number, and this was one of those times. I kept my external self the same, but altered my insides to match the strength and internal structure of the Troglodytes from Rockenroll, who were similar to the trolls of ancient fairy tales. They lived in caves. Lavish and elaborate caves, but caves nonetheless.

They were also hella strong.

I grabbed the nearest Polliwog in a suit and slammed him into the breaking glass door as hard as I could. I was quite small for a Troglodyte, but even though I was the height of a little child on Rockenroll, I had more than enough strength to use the Polliwog as a battering ram.

The door shattered. I kicked the various suits away from Bullfrog, grabbed him, and ran. Troglodytes weren’t fast. All that heavy body with bones and muscles the consistency of rock meant moving fast wasn’t in their game plan. However, it was in mine.

I shifted internally again, this time I took on the characteristics of the Naynek from Paradise. As with the Troglodytes, my size meant I was at the level of a child in terms of Naynek abilities, but since they were among the fastest runners in the galaxy, even their young moved swiftly.

This helped us to get away from the casino, but without a Polliskin, I wasn’t going to be able to keep up my pace too long.

Bullfrog knew. He lifted me up and flipped me onto his back. “Hold on.” Then he took off in the manner all Polliwogs can, but which he rarely did—he jumped. Bullfrog kicked off with his strong back legs, and we soared into the air. He landed on all fours, his hands helping to keep us balanced. Then he jumped over and over again. He covered a lot of ground this way.

The Underground chased us for a while, but suits aren’t well equipped for the kind of leaping Bullfrog was doing, so we lost them. Or they gave up. Or both. I chose not to worry about whether we’d outpaced them or they’d gotten tired of running after us. I was too busy trying not to scream or breathe.

I thought Bullfrog would stop leaping once we lost the Underground, but he didn’t. He headed instead for what I knew was the poorer district of Amphibia. After a few minutes, Bullfrog leaped us into some thick, tall reeds that provided an illusion of privacy for those Polliwogs who needed to relieve themselves and couldn’t make it to, or be bothered to find, an actual bathroom.

“You need to change into a Polliwog,” he said urgently. “Now.”

“Gladly.” I shifted and was now a female Polliwog. Sure, I was a female Polliwog covered with the remains of what seemed like a million flies on me, but as a Polliwog, it didn’t bother me as much as it could have. Which is to say I could wait to throw up until we were back on the
Stingray
.

“Follow me,” Bullfrog said, as he leaped away.

I did as requested. As a Polliwog, I enjoyed that the air didn’t really feel uncomfortable, the scent of fetid rot was quite pleasing, and the abundance of flies made my stomach rumble. Okay, I enjoyed two out of those three.

We jumped for a good fifteen minutes, and then Bullfrog seemed to feel we were far enough away from danger that we could slow down. Or he was lost. I voted for lost.

We were in a vast, unsettled area of swamp with no Pads anywhere, or dry land. The area had no scientific teams visible. It was, for Polliworld, quite desolate—meaning there were only about a million snakes and a quadrillion bugs along with the zillion flies enjoying the massive and plentiful foliage.

“Where are we?”

Bullfrog sighed. “The only place we’re safe right now.”

“And where is that?”

The look on Bullfrog’s face said that I wasn’t going to like the answer. “Probably the most dangerous spot on Polliworld. What we call No Frog’s Land.”

“Why is it you know about this place?” Good, good. I was calm. At least I sounded calm. I resisted the desire to eat some flies to calm my supposedly calm nerves. Hey, I freely admit to being a stress eater.

Bullfrog grimaced. “This is where I’m from—where I grew up.”

I looked around. “Really? Because, I don’t see a lot of ‘from’ around here.”

“Trust me.”

“Doing my best. Why do you think the Underground called us Diamante scum? We don’t look like Diamante employees, let alone enforcers.”

“My bet? Monte told them about me and they think I’m a Diamante spy.”

The temptation to say that I doubted we were that lucky was strong, but I held it in. “Can Roy and the others come get us here?”

Bullfrog shook his head. “We need to get underground.”

“I thought we wanted to avoid the Underground.”

He heaved a sigh. “I mean the real underground.” Bullfrog took my hand and led me into the swamp.

“Ick. And I mean that in the most species-loving way possible.”

“Close your nose and mouth.”

“What about my eyes?”

“If you did a full change, you should be fine, but you can close them if you want. I won’t lose you.”

I ensured I had as good a grip on Bullfrog as he did me. We waded further into the swamp. I did my best to ignore anything and everything I felt brushing against my legs. “Are Polliwogs immune to venomous snake and bug bites?”

“No.”

“Fantastic.” I took a deep breath and slammed my nose, mouth, and eyes shut as we went under the swamp water.

Bullfrog led me along to somewhere. I refused to look. It was probably stupid, seeing as if I had to run away, or swim really fast, I wouldn’t know where to run or swim to. I decided that ignorance was a lot better than the knowledge of exactly what I was swimming next to and through.

We surfaced and I cracked one eyelid. A small patch of dry ground was ahead of us and we clambered onto it. I was never so grateful to feel terra-at-least-sorta-firma in my entire life. “Where are we?” I asked, trying to move my mouth as little as possible, lest I swallow something.

“We’re on Longdaddy’s Land.”

“Longdaddy?”

“He runs No Frog’s Land.”

“Longdaddy? I mean, I’ve heard of ensuring you advertise and all that, but, really? Longdaddy?”

A throat cleared behind me. “Yes.” The voice was deep and old, but it didn’t sound weak in any way.

I turned around slowly to see a very long-legged, very muscular Polliwog of indeterminate advanced age. I could tell he was old because his scales had the whitish tinge only older Polliwogs got.

He held a thick walking stick that I was quite sure doubled as a handy, effective, and painful fighting staff.

“I am Longdaddy,” he said, probably for effect, because it wasn’t like I couldn’t have guessed. “And you are not one of my people.”

Self-preservation ensured that I kept my mouth shut even as I tensed to jump. Polliwogs jumped a lot faster and farther than they could run. Not that Bullfrog gave me time to talk, or jump, and he tightened his hold on my hand. “No, she’s not from our part of the pond, but she’s my friend.”

Longdaddy studied us. “A special friend?”

“Very,” Bullfrog said firmly.

Every time I went undercover Roy worried that I’d have to make out, or more, with someone other than Roy himself. I always managed to avoid it, but the thought occurred that I might not be able to avoid sharing tongue with Bullfrog, at least if we wanted to survive. This was an unappealing thought on so many levels I lost count.

Longdaddy continued to study us. I wasn’t sure if I should attempt to cuddle with Bullfrog, say something, or jump like hell, and Bullfrog wasn’t giving me any clues to work with, either.

“What is your ‘friend’s’ name?” Longdaddy asked finally.

“DeeDee,” Bullfrog replied.

“I would like her to speak. Especially because DeeDee is not a common name among us.”

This was true enough. “It’s a nickname,” I said which was also true.

“And what is the name you were given when you were a tadpole?” Longdaddy asked me. “I would like you to answer this, not Bullfrog.”

“My tad-name is Deciduous. Everyone else always gets called Deci or Dous. I wanted to be different.”

Longdaddy seemed thrown, possibly because he hadn’t expected me to use a common Polliwog name, let alone know what the standard shortenings of said name were. You didn’t survive as long as a hidden shifter as I had without doing a great deal of planetary homework.

“You are Bullfrog’s friend?”

“Yes, his very good friend, and he’s my very good friend. I don’t know that you’re our friend, though you may be more friendly than the ’Wogs we just escaped.”

Longdaddy’s eyes narrowed. “You have angered the Underground?” he asked Bullfrog.

“In a way,” Bullfrog replied. “We’re…investigating the new casino.”

“Ah.” Longdaddy appeared to reach a decision. “Come with me. We will discuss your predicament at greater length in better private.”

That there were Polliwogs hidden and watching us to protect Longdaddy was a given. I wasn’t sure that going into a private meeting with Longdaddy was an improvement.

Bullfrog tugged on my hand, and we followed Longdaddy. He walked off the small patch of land, and we followed into another part of the swamp, with me keeping my Polliwog stone face on and going strong.

We didn’t submerge. We walked for quite a ways through swamp, onto small patches of land, back into swamp, and on, wandering in various directions in what felt like a very aimless manner. I had no idea where in the swamp we were, which was, I was sure, the entire point of this particular swampy constitutional.

We finally reached yet another small patch of land, but this one had a reed hut sitting on it. It resembled the standard Polliwog Pads in the same way the
Stingray
resembled a Diamante cruiser—there were similarities, but Longdaddy’s hut wasn’t giving off the Happy Home kind of aura.

Longdaddy indicated we should precede him inside the hut. I wasn’t a fan of this idea, but Bullfrog didn’t hesitate. He ducked his head and walked through, dragging me after him.

Sadly, the interior wasn’t somehow more huge and palatial inside. It was still a grungy reed hut. However, what it lacked in ambiance it made up for with a stairway going down. Naturally, the stairway was dark, because the cosmos didn’t allow it to be any other way.

Longdaddy joined us, then shocked me to my currently-amphibious-core and headed down the stairs in front of us, instead of making us go first into the dark and likely dangerous unknown, stabbing us in the backs, or shoving us down the stairs. Bullfrog heaved a sigh of what was either relief or terror, and headed us down as well.

The walk was long, smelly, and dark. I was glad I was in full Polliwog form, because if it smelled to me in
this
form, I’d have probably passed out from stench overload as my normal self.