Page 101 of Claimed by an Alien Warrior

Stantz left the cigarette to dangle between his lips and returned his hand to the desk.

The pieces: one escaped EBE — extraterrestrial biological entity — one twenty-seven-year-old Caucasian woman, five dead bodies, an injured police officer, and a growing trail of sightings. There was evidence in California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and Kansas, and rumors from at least six other states.

A picture of Weston and Specimen Ten outside a Kansas rest stop. A stolen car with Colorado plates, reported missing in Vail on the day of the infamous video, found on a Kansas City backstreet. A small string of electronic terminals hacked from Colorado Springs to Indianapolis — four gas pumps and an ATM, the latter of which was in Kansas City, not far from the stolen car.

He slid a mouse and keyboard closer and pinpointed the events and sightings on the map, from the Mojave to the Midwest. The Fox had slunk eastward since escaping. The trail seemed too perfect now, too obvious, for Stantz not to have guessed sooner. He’d have to commend the tech who’d discovered the small chain of hacked electronics, when this was all done.

Stantz’s gaze flowed across the map. Ohio, next. They’d be in Ohio, and then…

The cigarette fell from his mouth as he grinned. He didn’t notice the ash burning his hand. His phone rang, and he ignored it.

Within five minutes, Stantz got Fairborough and all the techs back into the trailer and at their posts. He looked them over; they were a disheveled bunch, wearing their exhaustion openly, but they’d done decent work.

They listened as he gave them their orders, and they dutifully set to their tasks. Only Fairborough hesitated, wearing that damnably judgmental look.

“What about the woman?” Fairborough asked.

“The woman doesn’t matter, beyond holding some kind of significance for my specimen,” Stantz replied. “Her presence will slow him down, but we can’t take special precautions for her sake, especially after she’s betrayed her country and her species. If she dies, at least her life will have contributed to the realization of something meaningful. If she lives, that’ll be one more subject to study.”

“Sir, that’s…”

“Necessary. A few deaths are meaningless compared to what we stand to gain from this.” Stantz placed a hand on Fairborough’s shoulder and squeezed. “Now do your job and round up those helicopters.”

Fairborough’s throat bobbed nervously, but he nodded and walked to his station.

The Fox was priority one, and Stantz knew where he was heading now. They’d get the specimen, shut the director up, and push forward on their research with renewed energy and inspiration.

Stantz glanced at Fairborough.

And then a few assets that were incapable of comprehending the grand vision could be retired.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Zoey woke with an excited flutter in her chest, a surprising but welcome change from the anxiety that had pervaded her since leaving the cabin. There was plenty of uncertainty ahead — they were going to leave Earth! She didn’t know what awaited her in space, didn’t know what awaited on his planet, didn’t know if his people would accept her.

But she knew without a doubt that she could face anything with Rendash at her side.

They left before the sun had fully risen. The day was overcast and dreary, and the wet roads meant she had to use the windshield washer fluid constantly to wipe away the dirty mist kicked up by other cars. Zoey refused to let the weather bring her down.

Ren guided her northeast, following the inner sense that linked him to his ship; he thought they were close enough to arrive before nightfall, if they were lucky.

She enjoyed the conversation and the scenery. The country seemed increasingly forested the farther east they traveled, and it was unlike anywhere else she’d been. She’d spent most of her childhood in Midwestern farmland, where everything was green, brown, and gold, carefully ordered and cultivated. So much of this area seemed so wild, so primal.

Their route took them through northern Ohio, across the northwestern corner of Pennsylvania, and finally into New York. It was nothing like she’d imagined — any mention of New York usually conjured images of a city that made Los Angeles look tame in comparison, with towering concrete on all sides, millions of taxis, and people who’d sooner trample you than give you the time of day. She knew at heart those images were myths, at least to some degree, but it was so ingrained into American culture that it was hard to shake.

This part of New York state was dense forestland that appeared unbroken for huge expanses. She wondered what it looked like when everything was green and alive, bathed in the sunlight, or when the autumn chill turned the leaves orange, red, and yellow.

The drive was strangely relaxing, even if she kept checking the mirrors and oncoming traffic for signs of government agents in pursuit.

I-90 took them along Lake Erie — which, to her disappointment, she didn’t get many good looks at along the way. They stopped for food somewhere south of Buffalo, and, despite the danger, she considered following the signs to Niagara Falls. It was an opportunity she’d never get again.

Instead, she picked up a New York State highway map and spread it across the middle of the dashboard so she and Ren could look it over together.

They used the SUV’s onboard compass to determine what direction they were facing, guessed at their current location, and tried to piece together some sort of plan.

“It is somewhere around here,” Ren said, tapping his finger over a large, forested area on the map near the Adirondack Mountains.

“That’s a pretty big search area. How do you know for sure it’s there?”

---