Page 32 of Alien Rescue

He sighed. Overly dramatically if you asked her. “Your puny brain cannot comprehend superior Zyrgin technology.”

She stabbed one of the buttons flashing on the screen in front of them, to punish him for that bit of arrogance. “Don’t bet on it.”

He flashed a mouthful of sharp teeth and took her hand off the panel. “I always bet on it.”

There was something seriously wrong with her because his smile wasn’t as ugly as she thought it in the beginning and she enjoyed sparring with this alien who was the enemy. “Before you start patting yourself on the back, just remember that your so-called superior technology can’t track those scientists.”

“Why would I want to pat my own back.” He grunted and the shuttle vibrated.

She briefly looked up at the roof and shook her head. “Never mind.”

Rose watched closely while he barely touched the console and grunted at the same time. She figured the grunting might be his language, which meant he flew the shuttle with a combination of spoken commands and touching buttons. She couldn’t see any logic or sequence to the way he touched the buttons. And unless she learned to grunt like an alien, she was going to need him to do the flying—for now, because if it was the last thing she did, she’d steal this spaceship. Even if she had to tow it with a donkey.

“You may pat my back anytime,” he said once they were in the air.

The landscape sped past beneath them at incredible speed; she was awed at the experience. Flying was for the rich and powerful, and even her family only had one very old plane. She’d never flown on it. “Are we flying faster than a plane?”

“Of course, your planes are unwieldy and dangerous.”

“They are not.” Actually she’d never volunteer to fly in the family plane, but she wasn’t about to admit it to him.

“Humans haven’t built any new planes for at least fifty years. The existing planes are dangerous to be in.”

She didn’t know that. But now that she thought about it, she hadn’t heard of any of the powerful families having new planes.

“Parnell is not the human you think him,” he said suddenly, New York’s distinctive skyline appearing in the distance.

“Don’t you dare insult the Director again. Nothing will convince me he had anything to do with the raider camps.” He’d been quite loud in his displeasure at the way they managed to multiply. At least she had no doubts on that score. “You’re not fit to lick his boots.”

“I do not wish to lick his boots.” Pure disdain. “He did create the raider camps and was involved with the murder of your previous president.”

White-hot rage jerked her around to glare at him. “How dare you say that? Take that back. Mr. Parnell was, is like a father to me.” She had to believe he was still alive and that she’d manage to free him eventually.

“A father does not bury his daughter alive,” he said with no discernable emotion.

“Yeah, right, like parents don’t abandon their babies in the desert.” She bit her lip. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.” No matter if he was the enemy, she knew the pain he must’ve felt when his family abandoned him.

Chapter Eleven

He was silent for a long time, and she was desperately thinking of a way to get past her unthoughtful words when he said, “It is the truth.”

“Still, I shouldn’t have said that.” He might have been trying to sound matter-of-fact, but she heard the underlying pain.

She would find a way to free the Director. He’d promised her when she’d proved herself, that he would help her with her family. Again, she had that unsettling doubt creeping into her mind. Proving herself had seemed so logical. Seeing it through Zanr’s eyes changed the picture. But if he was right, she’d been a monumental fool. No, he was just trying to turn her against her own people. This last year had honed her, focused her, and made her stronger.

“Stop saying that. It’s all lies, and it doesn’t matter how many times you say it, it will never be true.” The Director laughed with Morgan when he put you in the hole. She firmly quashed that little voice. The distinctive skyline of New York City appeared in the distance.

But a niggle of doubt remained and she blamed the blasted alien for putting ideas into her head. It was just a tactic to turn her against Parnell, she had to remember that. Faster than she thought possible, they reached the city. She leaned forward, eager to see more. When she joined the department, she’d thought she would travel and see the country. Instead she’d spent more time in a shallow grave, proving herself. Now she was eager to see as much of New York as she could.

She flinched when they narrowly missed a building. “Is it wise to fly this low?”

He flashed her that mouth full of teeth again. “No, but it is more fun.” He was right, it was scary and exhilarating. New York had gone through several disastrous epidemics and riots, about a century ago, and an earthquake had flattened a large area of the city and caused a massive flood. Somehow the people of New York always managed to rise again—to save their city. Even now, with disease rife, many of the inhabitants refused to leave. Most of the areas close to the water line had to be abandoned. Some iconic buildings had been moved piece by piece in the Golden Age and were erected again away from the rising waters. Some had been duplicated by people determined to keep their distinctive skyline. The image Morgan had left on the concrete slab had been of one of the iconic buildings built many centuries ago.

“Aren’t you afraid someone will see us and shoot at us?” A big part of the city was overrun with well-armed criminals. The original city was permanently flooded, but desperate sections of humanity and some very dangerous people lived in the buildings where the water was ankle deep in areas and hip deep in others.

“We are camouflaged.” He glanced at her and then back at the controls.

“You mean no one can see us? Can they hear us?” She’d heard some of the other agents talk about similar technology they’d had in the Golden Age. Among those were rumored to be weapons that rendered you invisible. But Rose had her doubts about that one. It had become fashionable among her colleagues to pretend knowledge of fantastical weapons that existed in the Golden Age, and that some lucky agent would find them and get promoted for it.

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