Alien Taste by Wen Spencer

he’s scared silly and drops dead and they eat him.” Max considered the run of logic. “Okay, it hangs together in a twisted Outer Limits kind of way. I suppose you could even say that after all that effort to change into a weasel, one would be very hungry and snack on whatever was at hand. Then what happens? Where do they go, and what happened to the rest of her body?”
    â€œI don’t know, Max. Agent Zheng stopped me before I could get into seriously tracking them. But I got to thinking. If her vital organs can change into weasels, why can’t all of her body? The coroner had knocked the grill off the air vent. They’re little, they all could have gone into there.”
    They glanced at each other. After more than three years of working together, they had developed a full language of expressions. The look they exchanged was an agreement not to talk about it for a while. Ukiah looked away to stare out the window at the passing landscape.
    They were almost to their exit before Max found a semisafe subject. “So, tell me about these people in Schenley Park that you went haring off after? You didn’t tell Agent Zheng everything.”
    â€œHow could you tell?”
    â€œOh, after you learn wolf body language, you’re as clear as water.”
    Ukiah wasn’t sure if Max was joking or not. “Well, after I killed Doctor Haze, I passed out—”
    â€œAfter she sliced you open, you passed out,” Max corrected him with a light cuff. “Shock does that to people. Which reminds me.” He pulled over onto the shoulder. “Let’s have a look at that cut.”
    Ukiah sighed and winced as he peeled up one edge of the bandage.
    Max set the Hummer’s hand brake, leaned over, and peered closely at Ukiah’s neck. “Take the bandage all the way off,” he commanded and pulled the Hummer back into traffic.
    â€œReally?” The Hummer was sadly lacking in vanity mirrors.
    â€œThe cut looks better than that huge bandage. If you’re feeling okay enough to run all over Schenley Park in the middle of the night, then we might as well do damage control with your moms. It’s a good thing you heal so quickly.”
    Ukiah considered the truth of this and started to coax up the sticky bandage. “Well, I passed out. When I came to, there were police and the helicopter and everything.”
    â€œYeah?” Max was obviously puzzled as to where Ukiah was leading.
    â€œAnd there were these two people, standing off where I couldn’t see them, talking about me.” He recounted the discussion completely. “I went back to Schenley Park to look at the tracks. It was creepyhow they could move through the thick brush, in the dark rain, at a full run, without anyone noticing them.”
    â€œThis case gets better and better.” Max leaned over and cued up the disc on the Hummer’s deck. “I didn’t pay any attention to your headcam after you went down. I was glued to the GPI screen. When I watched the recording this morning, I turned it off after Haze dropped. Your watcher might be on the disk.”
    The screen hissed with static and came up with the chaotic jumble of police cars outside the apartment building. “Testing Ukiah’s VOX.” His own voice always startled Ukiah. The timbre was wrong and slightly higher than he expected. “Testing, 1, 2, 3. How’s that?”
    Max sounded like Max at least. “Good, it’s coming through clear. There’s my channel good and strong. We’re go.”
    It was the first time Ukiah had ever really watched one of their recordings. Usually his memory was so much fuller and clearer. This time, however, there were holes in his memory. He and the camera went into the building. Despite state-of-the-art steadycam, the view was jittery and vaguely fish-eyed. The lack of smell and touch, the limited view, and the reduced sound left Ukiah feeling more and more