Page 43 of Alien Rescue

To take her mind off that horrible reality, she did a quick scan of the apartment. It had to be rented. Tired furniture, covered with brown upholstery and beige curtains, that had seen better days, was not Morgan’s speed. He seemed to be alone, but she knew Zanr would make sure there were no surprises lurking. “You really hate me. What I want to know is why?”

He leaned toward her and she flinched, not out of fear of him, but from the hatred burning behind his eyes. It was as if it was consuming him alive. “All you need to know is that I hate you, and I am going to enjoy every endlessly long second of your agonising death.”

Rose clutched her arms around her middle. “But why? It doesn’t make sense. I’ve never done anything to you. Why would you want me to suffer? You were Parnell’s favorite.”

“That doesn’t matter—nothing matters but that you die.”

This was getting her nowhere. “What did Abel inject me with? Why did they do it?” She couldn’t quite take the plaintive note out of her voice. How could anyone inject a fellow human being with who knows what? Simply to see what would happen to that person?

His smile was fierce, the hatred in his eyes alive as if it was its own sentience. “It was nanos, you bitch—nothing can save you now. Not even the alien technology. As for why?” He shrugged. “Parnell didn’t find your pathetic attempts to prove yourself amusing anymore; he wanted to see what the effect of the nanos were.”

She took a step back before she could stop herself. His lip curled with satisfaction. “You’re lying,” she whispered.

“Am I?” He was playing with her. But she could see in his mean eyes that he was telling the truth.

She watched the TC, knew what nanos were, and the thought of small robots in her bloodstream made her want to puke. “Is there an antidote?”

Morgan threw back his head and laughed. ‘There was, but it exploded with the building.”

Rose stared at him for a long time and then went to the door. If she lingered too long, Zanr was going to kill Morgan, and they might need to get more information out of him. “Why do you hate me?” She didn’t expect him to answer.

“Your family took everything from me. I will take everything from them,” he spat, spittle flying out of his mouth.

Rose froze. “What did they take? Tell me.”

He went to stand at the window, his back to her. “Figure it out, bitch. I’m not going to make it easy for you.” In spite of the vitriol in his voice, he sounded weary. Sad. She almost felt sorry for him.

She walked through the door, but then turned back to face him. “If you harm my family, I will hurt you in ways you cannot imagine.” They might have rejected her, but she would always love and protect them.

His laugh was bitter. “You can try, little failure. You asked so many questions, but you never asked me about the Director.” He turned to face her. “You were the resident joke and he laughed at you. All the other stupid bitches had to be forced into that hole, but you volunteered to go in.”

Rose turned and walked away. She couldn’t listen to his hatred anymore.

“He kept you isolated for nine months, putting you in that hole time after time, and you allowed it like the pathetic excuse for a woman that you are,” he screamed after her.

Rose and Zanr were silent as they walked down the stairs. Rose felt numb, her brain refusing to acknowledge that she could be dying. She couldn’t focus on what Parnell had done now. She only had the strength to deal with one issue. She stopped and glared at Zanr. “How come your doctor didn’t find the nanos? He drew my blood and examined me with his superior technology?”

“Viglar and I will cross swords if he was negligent,” he said with such grim intent she regretted asking. He seemed to think it over. “Viglar would never be negligent or lie about results.”

They reached the bottom of the steps and he stepped in front of her, shielding her from the two men who entered the building. He was in his human disguise and they barely looked at him as they passed them on the steps. “I do not know much about nanos, but I do know they can be programmed to be dormant until a certain time,” he said.

Rose didn’t want to hear it, but she couldn’t run away from this. The more she knew, the better she’d fight the little monsters in her body.

When the men were out of sight, they descended the last few steps and left the building. Zanr helped her onto the bike and got on before her. Rose put her arms around his welcoming warm body, and putting her cheek against his back, she held on for dear life. They rode back to where he’d parked the shuttle in silence. Once, Zanr reached behind him and hugged her, and she blinked away tears.

They landed and Rose got off and rushed to the shuttle. Once there, she didn’t know what to do with herself. She wanted to scratch the little robots out of her skin, but all she’d do was injure herself.

Zanr came in and went to the machine that made the coffee and food.

“It’s too stuffy in here,” she gasped and stumbled outside. She took deep breaths of the foul-smelling air, but it was better than being cooped up in the shuttle. What if something went wrong with the door and they were trapped in there forever? Rose took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down. Getting hysterical wouldn’t get the nanos out of her blood.

Zanr came out, as well, and she smelled the coffee before he handed her a cup. He hadn’t caught on to the fact that coffee kept you awake, and she wasn’t about to inform him.

“I trusted him.”

“Parnell?”

“Yes. He buried me alive, and now I have to wonder if it was for some sick reason. Not to mention tiny robots swimming around in my body.” She slapped the hand not holding the cup against his chest. “I want to beat the stuffing out of Abel and Parnell, but I don’t know where they are. How can they try to kill me for no reason?”

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