Nefertiti flexed her claws and growled, and Jin set her down on her four paws, where she flapped her wings with a burring noise for all the world like one of the chickens.

"Does she fly?" asked Mina, holding out a hand for the sphinx to sniff.

"I don't think so," said Jin.  "Her wings are almost the same size as Gyre's, but she's way heavier."

"These custom genetic constructs are usually made to be decorative, not functional," advised Raven-sensei.  "Depending on what the buyer orders, of course."

Mina frowned.  "That seems mean, to give her wings she can't fly with."

Jin crouched on his heels and scratched the creature's shoulder blades, between the wings, which folded tamely again as she stretched into the caress.  She could not lick her fur like a cat, nor preen her feathers like a bird, so Jin would have a lot of interesting grooming to do, according to the care instructions in the file.  "I wonder, do they lay eggs, or have live babies?  One at a time, or a litter like kittens?  I wonder if there are any male ones, left over?"  And if he could find one, somehow . . .

"There may not have been any males made," mused Raven-sensei.  "I believe sphinxes were traditionally female.  But these proprietary constructs normally aren't given the ability to reproduce.  You'd likely have to clone her, and hand-raise the babies."

Jin's imagination took fire.  Home cloning of small animals wasn't that hard, if you could get the right equipment, from a pet supply place or hobbyist who was upgrading or quitting.  Hardly something to be found in an alley scavenge, but there ought to be used stuff for cheap somewhere . . .

"Hum!" said the sphinx, plaintively.

"She talks!" cried Mina, her face breaking into a delighted smile.

"They come with about a twenty-word vocabulary, according to the file," said Jin.  "I don't know if you can teach them more, like a parrot."

"We can try . . ."

Beyond the glass, their mother made a noise of hopeless maternal protest, much like the halfway point of other such negotiations, so Jin took heart.  But this time, she said, "Jin, we don't even have a home to take her to, right now.  Oh, no, I just thought of that!  What's happened to our apartment, and all my things?  Nobody could have been paying rent for a year and a half, with no one living there.  Oh—and my bank account—what happened to my money, after I was frozen?  If I have no job, no money, no place for us to live—"

"Aunt Lorna has some of your clothes in boxes in the attic, I know," Mina piped up.  "And she took my stuff and Jin's.  She had to sell the big couch, and the kitchen table, and a couple of the other big things, because she didn't have room, though."