Page 41 of Alien Rescue

“No, I woke up, captured by the aliens.”

He stared at her. Hard. “If you were captured by them, how come you are here?”

She shrugged. “I escaped. They thought I was small and harmless.” It was mostly true.

“I see.” He didn’t believe her and didn’t make any effort to hide it.

“How is it that you escaped, but the Director was captured?”

He shrugged. “I was out on a job the day the aliens destroyed the building.”

Somehow, she doubted that. “Why didn’t you come and talk to me when I went to the building? Why leave such a cryptic message?”

“I thought the trucker might be a problem. And let’s face it, I don’t need you to rescue the Director.”

She leaned toward him. “You know where he is?” She was vaguely aware of the man with the leather coat grunting.

He shrugged. “I figure they have him at their mountain stronghold.”

She stared at him. “You know where their stronghold is and you haven’t tried to free him?” She should’ve tried harder to find out where they kept the Director. What if she’d run right past the house where they kept him?

“Have you watched any news at all since you escaped?”

“Not really.”

He snorted. “Figures.”

“What’s your problem with me?” She should’ve asked him this years ago.

His blue eyes chilled but he smiled, and she realized that it wasn’t only aliens that could look ugly when they showed that many teeth. “No problem.”

“No, you’ve hated me from day one. Why?”

He sneered at her and he didn’t try anymore to hide the hatred. “You want to be a big shot agent, figure it out.”

“Why did you leave that image for me if you didn’t want me here?” He was senior to her. Technically he could’ve ordered her to New York.

He got up, but then turned back to her. Smirked at her. “You’re asking the wrong questions. You should ask what Abel injected you with before your pathetic attempt to prove yourself.” He turned and disappeared into the crowd.

Rose sat stunned. Ice tinkled in the glass of the man sitting at the bar next to her. Like the ice in that glass, the blood in her veins slowly stalled. Became petrified.

Chapter Thirteen

Rose didn’t wait for Zanr. She ran after Morgan when her limbs would move again. Outside, the cold and wind hit her in the face like a slap, but between her fear and the protection of the alien gadget, she barely felt it. She looked up and down the street, but couldn’t see him.

“Idiot,” she called herself under her breath. Instead of standing there like an idiot, she should’ve followed him immediately.

Zanr appeared next to her and took her arm in his. “I heard. I can track him.”

They got on the hoverbike and he started slowly twisting and turning down streets. If she wasn’t infected with who knows what, she would’ve loved the experience—the wind in her face and hair, so different from the stifling building she’d worked in for so many years. After being buried alive every few weeks for almost a year. At her own insistence.

Her mind struggled to accept what had been done to her. She’d thought she would be given a big case to solve this time when she came out of that hellhole, but instead she’d woken to a changed world where aliens ruled.

“What do you think Abel injected me with? Surely I’d be dead if it was poison?” She said it in his ear and didn’t have to shout. Whatever shield he had around them, it allowed her to feel the wind tugging at her braid, without having to shout to be heard.

“I do not know, my breeder, but we will find out.” He suddenly turned and backtracked until they came to a small alley. He drove into it without hesitation. On her own, Rose would’ve avoided it like the plague. The smell of refuse and other unpleasant things hung in the air. “If it was something serious, Viglar would’ve found it.” If that was the case, why did he sound so worried?

“With your superior technology,” she said, but the joke fell flat.

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