As he’d feared, he was greeted by swarms of people to whom everything new was an adventure. He was pinched and poked and petted and prodded by men and women who insisted most vigorously that Amassa must allow them to dub this fine primitive. Amassa, knowing full well she possessed an original in a world of copies, remained noncommittal.
After two hours of encounters, s****l and otherwise, with a strange assortment of people, Hawker finally found Symington and managed to pry him away from his own circle of admirers. The two men found a quiet corner to talk in, and related to one another their experiences over the past few days.
“It’s scary being a slave,” Symington admitted, “but I have to hand it to them; they can do things I wouldn’t even have dreamed of. Tesaak—she’s the woman who has
