The waiting was always the worst part; it left time for the guilt to set in. This time it wasn't even reasonable guilt, just an automatic response after so many years of this work. She hadn't even stolen the lizards, for gods' sakes! All she'd done was catch a handful of wild Ttees on a brief visit to that distant place where they were plentiful, and sure, maybe she wasn't supposed to be on that ship in the first place, but that hardly mattered now and anyway it wasn't wrong to be in a place just because somebody else owned it and she stood by that.She hadn't expected the buyer she'd gotten—from what she'd heard Ttees were mostly popular as pets for children or weird lizard fanciers, but almost as soon as she'd posted her Craigslist ad she'd had a response from some scientist who wanted every lizard she had. He'd offered a startling price and so she hadn't asked questions, but she had to wonder what he was going to do with them.
