Page 30 of Resisting the Alien Commander

Alik pauses. “Do you think?”

“What other explanation is there, if no one else has been hit this hard? The kanet powder appears to be working for the rest of the Bohnari population. It’s only gotten worse for you.”

He gestures with his head. “And now you.”

I swallow. At least it isn’t the entire population. Yet anyway. Will that change? Or is it only our bloodline? That’s not my most pressing concern yet.

“We’ll deal with it later.” There are more important things to discuss first. “A rebel—Janik, if he’s to be believed—accosted two of the humans in the city center this morning.”

Alik goes rigid. “Explain.”

I repeated what Quinn and her friend told me. About running into him and him quickly disappearing when he discovered the death caused by the machinery sabotage last night.

“Do you really think it was him? Do you also trust he knew nothing about Konek?” Alik asks.

Do I? “Up until now, the rebels have appeared to go out of their way to make sure no Bohnari have been injured, or worse, with their little uprising. But I also know that people who continuously don’t get what they want tend to become frustrated and change tactics in order to serve their purpose.”

Alik paces for several minutes before coming to a halt in the middle of the room. “Regardless of whether they intended for Konek to be killed or not doesn’t change the fact he’s dead. If the rebels sabotaged the equipment that caused it, then they should be punished. Which means we need to move forward with bringing them to justice. I want Janik and his people caught.”

I’d spent the entire, sleepless night coming up with any strategies to do that exact thing.

“We have options.”

“Besides a bounty on his head?” my cousin prompts.

I nod. “We can gather our forces and storm the rainforest. Full frontal attack. They’ll either surrender or they won’t.”

“Which we lead to a significant death count, I suspect.”

“Perhaps on both sides.” That is worst-case scenario. Considering the whole purpose of Alik negotiating with Earth for brides is because he doesn’t want more of our people to die. Which is why it doesn’t surprise me when he doesn’t agree.

“No one needs to die.” He pauses. “No oneelse.”

“We lure Janik out. Capture him and make him force those who follow his lead to surrender.”

“We’ve tried that, and he always manages to elude us.”

A fact that frustrates both of us to no end. “I can arrange a parlay.”

“You’ve attempted that already as well. Janik wasn’t interested.”

“That was before one of our people died because of him.”

Alik is quiet a moment longer before finally, he nods. “Do it.”

Chapter15

Quinn

“I still haven’t figured out what made you think something was wrong with your commander earlier.” Olivia won’t let the subject go.

“First off, he’s notmyanything. Second, I don’t know. It was just a…feeling.” I can’t explain it even to myself. “He rushed out of here so fast, and he looked off, I guess.”

“You must have been paying awfully close attention to have noticed.” She waggles her eyebrows at me. “Poor Bannik doesn’t stand a chance, does he?”

I glance over at the Bohnari guard, who’s out of uniform, thankful Liv’s barely talking above a whisper. He seated himself a few tables away after I invited him to join us, because he didn’t want to interrupt our time together. “Only one of them has asked me to spend time with him.”

“True. But you’re secretly wishing it was Horek, aren’t you?” She points her bare utensil in my direction. “Don’t think I didn’t notice you avoided answering my question.”

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