Hidden Talents

would have been a significant clue. The stuff dripped from him like icicles.
    “Did you get any sleep at all?” Zone asked anxiously.
    “Plan to sleep a few hours this afternoon.” Blade went toward the counter “Doin' sentry duty until then. You?”
    Zone shook her head. “Not much. The lines of negative influence were just too powerful.”
    “Yeah, I know what you mean.” Blade leaned one elbow against the counter and stared at Caleb with basilisk eyes. “Been a lot of negative influences around here lately. Kind of makes you wonder, don't it?”
    Zone followed his gaze. She narrowed her eyes. “Yes, it does.”
    “Something wrong?” Caleb asked politely.
    “Could be,” Blade said.
    The front door opened again. Quinton Priestly, bundled up in a thick parka, a scarf tucked under his beard, hurried into the warmth of the store. “Getting cold out there. Won't be long before the first snow. The endless vectors of points on the mathematical planes are mirrored in the microcosm of our seasons. Morning, everyone.”
    “Good morning,” Zone said.
    “Mornin',” Blade muttered. He didn't take his eyes off Caleb. “We were just talkin' about all the negative influences around here.”
    Quinton heaved a sigh. “You refer, of course, to the recent death of a member of our community. Ambrose was a difficult man in many ways, but he was one of us. We'll miss him.”
    “Some of us will probably miss him more than others,” Blade said.
    Quinton turned and saw Caleb. “Perhaps you're right.”
    Caleb walked to the front of the aisle and looked at Zone, Blade, and Quinton in turn. “Do we have a problem here?”
    “Seems to me,” Blade said, “that what we got here is an amazin' coincidence.”
    “How's that?” Caleb asked.
    “Can't help but notice,” Blade said, “that the first death we've had around here in years took place just a few hours before you showed up in town. For all I know, you might have been here right about the time Ambrose bought the farm.”
    Caleb went very still. “What the hell are you implying?”
    “Nothin'.” Blade ignored Zone and Quinton, who had both turned startled stares on him. “Just pointin' out a few facts. What with the fog and all, no way of knowin' who was where the night Ambrose died.”
    Caleb took a step forward.
    “Come on, Blade,” Quinton said hastily. “Take it easy. Don't get carried away here. We all know Ambrose's death was an accident.”
    “Yeah?” Blade squinted at Caleb. “All I know for sure is that Ambrose is dead.”
    “And all I know for certain,” Caleb said softly, “is that you are a paranoid son of a bitch.”
    “Seems to me,” Blade said, “that it's possible poor old Ambrose might have just had the bad luck to be your first target.”
    “My first target?”
    “Might be your people are a little smarter than I figured. Instead of usin' a whole commando team, maybe they just sent in a single man to pick us off one by one. A sniper who works alone. You that good, Ventress?”
    Zone's face registered serious alarm. Her eyes skittered anxiously from Caleb back to Blade. “Blade, I don't think you should say things like that. I don't like the color of his aura. It's getting very dark.”
    “Yeah, Blade,” Quinton muttered. “Calm down, big guy. Serenity knows Ventress. She wouldn't have invited him here if she didn't think she could trust him.”
    “Sometimes Serenity's too damn trusting, if you ask me,” Blade said. “She's…whatchacallit—naive. Yeah. That's the word. Naive.”
    “I think I've heard enough.” It was one thing, Caleb thought, for him to call Serenity naive. It was another for some jerk built like a tank to call her names. “One more word and I'll wrap that tool belt you're wearing around your neck. Assuming I can find your neck, that is.”
    “Is that a fact?” Blade straightened away from the counter. He braced his booted feet widely apart and centered himself slowly and heavily into a martial arts stance. “Any time you want to try, I'll be waiting.”
    Caleb studied him curiously. “Where'd you learn your hand-to-hand style? From a kung fu movie?”
    “We'll see just how good you are, mister.” Blade started forward with a crablike movement.
    Caleb reached for one of the jars of vinegar that occupied a nearby shelf.
    “Jesus,” Quinton whispered.
    Zone opened her mouth and screamed. “ Serenity! You'd better get out here fast .”
    The office door slammed opened. Serenity scanned the