Alan Dean Foster (30 page)

The pilot's look of uncertainty lingered a few seconds longer, then he grinned at his instruments, reassured. "Yeah, right. That was it. "

Despite the pain that was roaring through his right hand, Francisco smiled.

Not too much smog this morning, Sykes thought as he did battle with his clothing in the church anteroom. He was having a hell of a time trying to fasten the tuxedo tie with one arm in a sling.

A pair of alien hands appeared to help.. One of them was also bandaged and in a sling. Beneath the bandages was one of the most peculiar resin casts Sykes had ever seen. It ran all the way up Francisco's shoulder.

If anything, he was less mobile than his partner.

He looked out of place in his oversized tux, Re a Chicago Bears linebacker suddenly plopped down in the midst of some royal coronation.

Come to think of it, Sykes decided, that was a fitting description of the day's activities to come.

After finally beating the tie into submission, the detective turned sideways and struck a bodybuilder's pose in the miffor. The sling ruined the effect.

"How do I look?"

Francisco took a long look, nodded approvingly. His wife had dressed him.

"You look very good."

A knock at the door made both of them turn. Sykes opened it, to reveal his daughter. She looked radiant in her wedding gown. Behind Kristin the interior of the church was swarming with assembled guests. Towering above all the

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women and many of the men was Mrs. Francisco. Her son darted through the crowd, playing with several human boys.

Sykes gazed at his daughter, remembering the little girl with the perpetually dirty pigtails who was always getting herself stuck in the tree house outside their Valley home. What had happened to her? Who was this blinding light, this cover girl, this movie star standing before him?

She reminded him with very few words.

"Ready, Daddy... ?"

Something inside him melted. He was going to take his time escorting her up the aisle, was going to savor every second of it. This time he wouldn't need a tape to help him remember.

One more thing to do before that. The music was beginning outside and the guests were hurrying to take their seats.

"George, uh-I want to apologize now, in advance, for all the rotten things I'm going to say to you over the years." He let his daughter slip her arm through his.

The Newcomer smiled down at them. "That is all right, Matthew. After all, you're only human."

Caught off guard, Sykes paused, then started chuckling as Kristin led him out of the dressing room into the brightly lit church. Half of Los Angeles seemed to be sitting in the pews, and all of them were looking at him and his daughter, and smiling.

"What a wild man," he murmured fondly. "Never know what he's gonna say next."

His daughter was pulling slightly, but a moment later he was matching her stride for stride.