The mystery guest drew himself up. "Well, I guess there's nothing else I can do here," he said proudly. "You people get on with whatever you're doing."

The mystery guest headed for the replacement rental. The leasing people hadn't been eager to give him anything newer after he rear-ended the ambulance at the cake-eating contest. He grimaced when he got to his loaner. The whole cake-eating fiasco had been about botulism, not the incident on the reception line, damn it.

The prosthetic limb was bothering him too. Or maybe, the mystery guest reflected as a couple of security guards moved towards him in the distance, what was bothering him was its phantom.

Next time: aliens refuse to abduct the mystery guest!