"I've got to get in touch with the authorities—your government."
She looked blank.
He simplified it, "Your leaders."
"Oh, it's easy that is. There be Aline and Clio and Leah and—but that Leah! It's the cake she takes! Thirty chasers she led on the best drag-out of all. Two whole days it lasted!"
"No, Riva! Not that kind of leader. I mean—well, someone who gets things done. The kind who gets behind things and—"
"That be Leanc. Behind those floating cars he's getting all the time. And how he can throw so many rocks I'll never know!"
He mussed his hair in frustration, then composed himself. "How do I get to the city?"
"That crowded place with all the big houses?" When he nodded, she went on, "It's never been there I have. Now we play?"
He drew in a hopeless breath. "All right. Now we play. You go hide."
She radiated a warm eagerness as she initiated the game all over again with a kiss and then went sprinting toward the front of the house. He watched her disappear through the next room, then went out the nearest door, heading for the fence and his ship beyond. It had required no small degree of restraint not to go racing off after her.