Page 23 of Alien Rescue

“No, but I am going in that direction. I can make a short detour.” Those brown eyes seemed to look into her soul. She instinctively searched for red tendrils, and she refused to accept that she felt disappointment when she didn’t find any.

“Thank you, I’d appreciate it.” They got back into the truck and she had to battle tears. She hated being this helpless. How was she supposed to rescue Mr. Parnell, and if she couldn’t, would her father even be willing to speak to her again? She’d missed her six-monthly TC call home. She’d have to wait another six months now. And even then, Father might be too busy to talk to her.

She squared her shoulders. Crying about it wouldn’t get anything done. “Tell me about the aliens.” She looked around. “I don’t see any of them.”

“They give instructions and make sure the work is done and then disappear. They do get things done in a superior manner.”

Rose glared at him. His blind admiration for the aliens was starting to grate on her. “They are our conquerors. How can you forget that? I just don’t understand how they took over in such a short time?” She’d gone into the testing box in one world and came out of it to a different reality where aliens ruled.

The trucker reached out with one hand and activated a TC on the dashboard of the truck. Images sprang up in front of her. Aliens, who looked like Zanr, who wore the same silver uniform, marched through Washington— row upon row of them. She instinctively looked for Zanr. It was weird, but she’d be able to tell him apart from the other aliens. Their silver uniforms gleamed in the sun and their ridged heads were menacing, alien.

“When was this?” she whispered. While he focused on driving, she entered the code that should go out to all agents in possession of a TC. At least they’d know she’d escaped.

“Two weeks ago.”

Right after the aliens got her. How could the aliens be everywhere all of a sudden? “There’s so many of them,” she whispered. How big was their spaceship? How many spaceships did they have? Were more aliens coming to Earth?

“It would seem so,” the trucker said.

The trucker touched the TC image, and it changed to show a huge image of the leader alien who’d told her she had to breed fifty babies for his alien empire. The image spoke in near-perfect English, laying out new rules for humans.

“Has anyone seen their spaceship? And what about the president, the government, what happened to them?” Surely someone tried to stop the invasion?

“The president is still in charge.”

“Yeah right, taking orders from aliens,” she muttered. After the death of the previous president, President Jameson was elected under rather sketchy circumstances. Now she had to wonder if the aliens had a hand in his rise to power.

She slapped her hands against the dashboard and screamed in frustration. “Why isn’t everyone fighting to their last breath? Instead of going about their business, why don’t they grab weapons and storm the aliens’ stronghold.” Wait! The safe house. Weapons! The weapons stash—how could she have forgotten about it?

“Everyone is enjoying better circumstances—why would they fight?” the trucker asked.

Nothing was going to convince this joiner to stand up for humanity. “Turn around. I’m going to blow those aliens to hell.” She regretted saying it out loud the moment the words left her lips.

“How will you do that and how will you find them?” he asked curiously. He didn’t seem upset at her plan to blow the whole lot of them to kingdom come. Maybe he was one of those people that just went with the flow. She relaxed slightly.

She knew where they lived. Should she try to bomb the aliens on the mountain on her own? Somehow, she doubted that would be as easy as her escape had been. She shifted uneasily.

She’d grab whatever weapons she found in the safe house and then go to New York, meet up with Morgan. Maybe some of the others were there, as well. She brightened at that thought. “I’ll find them and find a way to kill them,” she muttered. Rose wanted to bite off her own tongue. She shouldn’t tell an alien lover her plans. Mr. Parnell was right, she had no skills as an operative.

“For now, I’d like you to take me to this address and then to New York, or as close as you can get me. If you allow me to use your TC, I can reimburse you for your trouble.”

He motioned to the TC and she accessed her funds. Unlike her colleagues, she didn’t have to live frugally to get through the month on a few credits. Money had never been her problem. The grandmother she’d never met had left her and her brother with generous credits.

They stopped in front of a neat little house in one of the few affluent areas left in the capital.

“Wait here,” she said and jumped out. “I just have to talk to a friend.” She hurried to the front door. Her code worked and she almost sagged with relief. Hopefully, the trucker didn’t notice that she let herself in. It was a small house and the furniture definitely didn’t fit the outside of the house. It was typical civil-service fare: old and rickety with worn, dirty-looking carpets. Inside the only bedroom, she found a backpack. It took some time, but she found the hidden space under the floorboards in the kitchen. At least it wasn’t a combination safe. She’d have a problem then.

Inside she found laser pistols and some explosives. “Yes.” She pumped her fist in the air. “Look out, aliens. Soon I’m coming to blow you all to hell.” Rose sat still for a moment, the picture of Zanr, torn apart and bleeding, obscene in her imagination.

She glared down at her dress. She needed better clothes. Another search through the closets yielded a pair of pants and a sweater and jacket, all of them too big for her, but they would do. She took off the frilly monstrosity, put on the pants, and strapped a laser pistol to her ankle, and used the belt she’d found to keep the jeans from falling down her hips and to secure the knife in the back of the jeans.

She turned around and shrieked, “Eep.” He stood right behind her, staring with interest at her.

“How long have you been there?” She didn’t get any creepy vibes from him before, but the way he looked her over was rather disconcerting.

“Not long enough to see you naked.” She couldn’t figure out from his flat way of speaking if he didn’t care if he saw her naked, or regretted being too late. Or if he was telling the truth. Without a word, he took the backpack off her shoulder. “We should go. This area might have patrols.”

She nodded and led the way outside, then stopped abruptly. “I’ll be right back.” She ran back to the bedroom and carefully folded the dress. It might be a monstrosity, but she couldn’t bear to leave it behind. He didn’t comment on the dress in her arms, merely closed the door behind them, and she carefully locked the door and then went to the truck and got in. She frowned at him. “They have patrols?”

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