Meanwhile, in the forest, it was time for Koen to enact the hardest part of the plan.

He didn't want to. His body rebelled. It turned back toward the trees, hands out as if to search for Baroness Smoke Detector. She would probably still be waiting in that clearing. Koen would find her. He'd brush the leaves out of her fur. He'd take her home on the bus. Clean up. Take a shower. Maybe do some laundry. And cook. Of course! Goodness, whatever would Koen make for dinner tonight? There was a recipe for yakisoba that he wanted to try and he should have ingredients, although if he consulted with Yoshida—

Koen's hand came up and slapped him on the side of the face. The blow jammed his glasses into his nose and the forest went skewed and blurry.

Call Graa.

It was the only thing he could do. It was what an innocent man would do after his charges had escaped into the forest. He'd try to find them, and when he couldn't, he'd call their owner. That was what he would do. Koen's hand was on his chest now, knocking as if on a door. He would confess.

Call Graa! Do it.

His fingers spread across his sternum, digging in. He could try one more time to find Baroness Smoke Detector. He could run away. He could give himself a heart attack right here at the edge of the nature preserve, and then he wouldn't have to. Do it do it do it!

Like an ape shoved into an elevator, Koen's body finally decided it was more painful to resist than to submit. The muscles in his jaws relaxed enough for him to say, "Translator, call General Graa."

The conversation that followed was just as excruciating as Koen had imagined.

"I am very angry! You have stolen my time and traumatized my animals. I revise my opinion of your competence far downward."

"I'm so, so sorry," Koen gasped. His jaw ached. His chest hurt where his fingertips had bruised it. And it was getting dark. "I'll stay here until I find them. I'll stay here all night if I have to."

"You will stay. I am fearsome! My words cast a shadow upon your head. I order you to cower, Human Koen. Cower and wait!"

Koen didn't have to cower long. A vehicle like a fullerene manta-ray swooped out of the darkening sky. It didn't even bother to land. The flier simply dropped a dark bundle, which unfolded wings and circled, screaming.

These calls sounded more like the ravens Koen had heard back on Earth. The bird cawed and qworked in a high, piercing voice.

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"To me, to me," cried Koen's translator. "Help. I'm afraid."

Koen held up his hands and General Graa descended upon him. A shadow did indeed spread across his cowering face, but the human forced himself not to run away or bat the bird out of the air with his fists.

More cawing. "Hold out your arms, stupid steed!"

Koen's vision was filled with spreading black feathers. "What?"

Flapping hard, Graa lifted away from Koen, and dropped onto the ground in front of the human.

"I am annoyed. Mutes in a skull-cup."

"C-clarify?"

"Yet another failure. From you!" The Pick general was not wearing his medals. He had no clothes on at all apart from a pair of plastic gloves on his feet and a razor-edged sheath on his bill.

General Graa stretched his neck toward Koen, beard and crest bristling. "Pick me up. I am very angry."

Koen bent down and there was a humiliating scuffle before before the Pick was perched on his forearm. I need some sort of protective padding, he thought, but deeper, I deserve this.

"I am frustrated," said Graa. "Tell me where you were before you lost my animals with unprecedented stupidity, incompetence, and carelessness."

Koen tried not to tremble. "Over there."

"Over where? Point. No, not with the arm holding me. I am annoyed!" Graa's talons dug into Koen's sleeve. "There? Then follow!"

With a tremendous shove against Koen's arm, Graa launched himself back into the air. He flapped, beak gaping, into the forest, crying, "Follow! To me! I am lonely."

Baroness Smoke Detector barked. She was waiting in the clearing where Koen had tried to abandon her. Graa swooped over the dog and the small creatures gathered around her backed away.

Forest predators? thought Koen wildly. Then, as he jogged closer, No. Children.

They were of several species. Waist-high Quotidians in tight little clusters, squatter, more independent Successors, Catenaries like bridges made of fist-sized salps. They squealed, buzzed, and farted, toddling away from the dog and back to larger nonhumans that Koen assumed were their parents.

Graa snapped his wings open and landed on the dog's back. She opened her mouth and panted, tail wagging, doing a much better job as landing pad than Koen had.

"She seems unhurt." Graa gave the dog's fur a quick nibble. "She was good to wait here. I am relieved. I am anxious! But where is Mr. Grumbles? Why is he not with her?"

"Maybe he saw something deeper in the forest," Koen suggested. "Food or something?"

"That's a stupid theory." Graa folded his wings and rocked from side to side. "I am angry. We will interrogate the bystanders. Then, we will search. We will not return home until my pets are safe."

Koen considered going home. He considered confessing, and telling General Graa where Mr. Grumbles was. He remembered the faces of Laura, Mark and Severo, and resigned himself to a sleepless night walking around in circles between the trees.