Page 38 of Kissed By the Alien
I can’t believe Lutan arrested me.Andstuck me down here with Moses.
The day keeps getting better and better.
The drug and arms’ dealer’s been out cold for the past ten or twelve hours from whatever drugs or beating he received courtesy of the zyanthan guards who don’t answer my questions each time they’ve come down here to deliver food. Or blankets. Or the datapad with books on them.
“If you had killed the warrior, I would have been accused of murder right along with you, Moses. That wasn’t the deal I came to make with you.”
“Fair enough. Not like you’d outrun anyone with those thick thighs of yours.”
“Fuck off.”
“Can’t handle the truth?”
“It’s the company I don’t care for.”
“I like a woman with some meat. Nice and soft. If you ask real nice, maybe the guards will put you in with me and we can keep each other warm.”
I make a show of pulling my three blankets over me, one at a time. “I’m good.”
“How’d you get blankets?”
“The guards like me. And I didn’t have to put out either.” I smile wide at him because Lutan’s not here to torment, which makes Moses fair game.
Though I’d rather target my wrath at Lutan. When I get out of here, I’m gonna…
Damn, I don’t know how to finish the thought. I’m mad at him, but being mad never gets anyone anywhere. And he’s equally mad at me. I screwed up his op.
“Pass me one of those blankets,” Moses says. “I’ll return the favor when we’re out of this dump.”
“You’re three cells away.” I roll my eyes. He’s not as smart as I first thought.
“How’d you end up here, girlie?”
“Bad timing. Again. I was trying to make a buy. Didn’t know my contact was under surveillance.”
He laughs. “Keep the blanket. I don’t need any more of your bad luck rubbing off on me.”
“Yeah, that’s how it works.”
“What type of buy?” he asks. “I got connections. I’m guessing you’ll get out of here before me since you’ve got friends in high places. Pass along a message and I’ll get you a discount.”
“No, thanks. You already screwed me over with that gun. It’s a dud. Didn’t fire.”
Moses flashes a wide smile showing off the two gaps where his front teeth should be. “You didn’t buy no bullets, girlie. That’s extra. Didn’t you check the holes in the magazine to see it was empty?”
Now I feel like an idiot. I never handled a gun before. I thought Moses had sold me a fully loaded one. I had planned to ask him to show me how to use it, but that’s when Lutan showed up and turned my life upside down.
The guy made a huge impression on me that night. By the time he’d tucked the gun into the back of my dress, I lost all interest in it. Tucked it away in my clothing chest in my hideout until I got a lead on those blasters.
“Guards! I need another cell. No toilet in this one,” Moses yells.
I look around. He’s right. Four empty cells with toilets, but they put him in a cell that doesn’t have one. In fact, his cell has nothing. Not even a mattress. All the cells have different amenities. Mine appears to be the penthouse suite with a mattress on a frame, a small table at which to eat, a chair, sink, toilet with a privacy screen, and all those extra amenities the guards have brought to me. Fresh clothing, towel, soap, blankets, datapad, food and water. Decent food, too, not the mush they left in a bowl on the floor for Moses.
I don’t know why I’m getting the specialty treatment, especially compared to Moses. Though I wonder if they’re using me to play mind games with him. At my end of the basement, I have all the creature comforts. Moses has nothing. I can even move the privacy screen so I don’t have to look at Moses, but I don’t. Right now, any company is better than being alone. When I’m alone, my mind wanders, and I’d rather not think about Lutan right now.
The guy who thought putting me down here would make me talk. About what? I told him why I was there. My eyes roam the layout again, noting the cameras down here. Why does this place even have so many cells, anyway?
Unless it wasn’t built to be an embassy. Which begs the question what precisely are the zyanthans doing here.
