ALL ETHAN HAD WAS HIS weapon, his recorder, and the clothes he was wearing. As he stood on the sandy riverbank, staring at the place where the flitter had disappeared into the water, he got angry at himself. He’d been stupid to walk away from his only means of transport, and all his food, water, and other vital equipment. Yet who could have guessed that such a thing would happen? And what could have taken his vehicle? It wasn’t like the flitter was edible. Why would anything want to drag it into the river, assuming that was what had happened?
Maybe an aquatic creature had been able to smell his food, but it seemed hardly possible. Could an animal in the water smell food on land that was inside tightly sealed packages? He didn’t know. He hadn’t learned about Earth animals with that kind of
