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those who failed to think as clearly and cogently as he did. Intelligence and awareness burned in him with the cold, powerful energy of jelly-ice.
    But during the past week she had rediscovered why strat-talents were sometimes called hunters. They did have some distinctly unnerving habits. Hanging out with one was a bit like keeping company with a chameleon-cat.
    She had discovered that if you took your eye off Rafe for even a moment it was easy to lose sight of him. He did not exactly disappear, but he had a natural affinity for whatever camouflage happened to be convenient. If he wished, he could fade right into the woodwork. Hisability to become uncannily still made it possible to overlook him when he stood in any kind of shadow.
    Until he moved a second ago, he had been blending quite nicely into the dark space created by two narrowly focused lights positioned above two of the glass cases.
    â€œPercy Morland was one of the foremost stylists of sixth generation meta-zen-syn philosophical poetry,” Rafe said.
    His disapproval lapped at her like a dark sea in the windowless chamber.
    â€œYes, I know.” With an effort of will, Orchid managed to keep her voice polite. Did he think she had never attended a basic lit class?
    No doubt about it, as interesting as he was—and he was a far sight more fascinating than meta-zen-syn poetry—Rafe Stonebraker was starting to get on her nerves.
    Orchid reminded herself that it never paid to offend the clients. Clementine would not be pleased if she was rude to this one in particular.
Think Exclusive
was Clementine’s latest office slogan.
    Orchid did not mind thinking exclusive, but she wondered if Clementine was aware of just how exotic her newest client really was. Rafe claimed to be a class-six strat-talent and he had the certification papers to prove it. But this was the third time she had worked with him in the past week and Orchid was willing to bet her next royalty check that he was far more powerful than his papers claimed.
    When she focused for him she could literally feel the self-control he was forced to exert in order to hold his talent to a class-six level. She sensed the hunger in him to use the full range of his power. She knew that the powerful prism she projected for him whetted his appetite.
    Three years ago she had known another strat-talent whose hunger had been just as powerful. Calvin Hyde’s talent, however, had also been tainted with the dark hintof evil. But after the first very cautious focus session with Rafe, Orchid had known at once that he was no Calvin Hyde.
    He could be irritating, arrogant, and maddening but there was no evil in his talent.
    She could feel other things besides the hunger in him and that fact was making her increasingly uneasy. After all, everyone knew that the focus link was supposed to be completely neutral when it came to the personal side of things.
    The indescribable rush of intimacy she experienced when she created a metaphysical prism for Rafe had to be a product of her own overactive imagination. There was no other logical explanation. But it was definitely not normal.
    Thankfully, thus far Rafe appeared to be blithely unaware of the sensations she experienced during their focus sessions. As far as she could tell, he seemed completely unaffected. Nevertheless, even though she was not afraid of him, Orchid was beginning to think that it might not be a good idea to work with him again in the near future. Something about their link was definitely weird.
    Suddenly Rafe moved closer to her, coming to stand directly behind her. He studied the book over her shoulder.
    â€œMost experts believe that Percy Morland was a very high-class vision-talent who suffered from periodic bouts of unaligned synergy on the metaphysical plane,” he said.
    â€œI’ve heard that,” Orchid murmured. She wondered if Rafe knew how irritating he was when he went into his lecture mode.
    â€œHe refused treatment,”