by Cara Bristol
Fall in Southern California, rarely chilly, had taken an even warmer turn. How cold was Dakon? Minnesota, New York, Alaska, the north and east experienced freezing winters, epic storms, snow, and ice. People in those climes adapted. Why couldn’t I? How bad could Dakon get?
I’d be with Sixx.
Predictably, my mother had urged me to go with him. I needed impartial advice. I picked a straggly wildflower growing amongst the rocks.
I plucked a petal off and let it flutter to the ground. “Dream.”
“Sixx.” I pulled off another petal.
“Dream.”
“Sixx.”
“Dream.” Out of petals, I was left with a denuded pistil and an unsatisfying answer. I tossed away the stem in disgust and trudged up the path.
Over a small rise, the path leveled out, and, around the bend, Drake’s Lake came into view. Grass sprawled down to the edge of the irregular-shaped man-made pond. A concrete walking trail wound around the perimeter. Ducks, geese, and swans glided on the water and sunned themselves on the grassy banks.
Nobody was here yet. Perfect.
No Swimming – No Fishing read the sign posted beside an empty duck food dispenser. For five bucks you could buy a handful of pellets, except every time I’d been here, the dispenser had been empty. Either a lot of people fed the ducks, or the park staff didn’t refill it. I’d come prepared. At the grocery store, I’d bought some frozen peas.
I found a bench nearest the water and sat down to wait.
It didn’t take long.
A female mallard waddled over, wiggling her tail feathers and quacking expectantly. I tore open the first box of frozen peas, which had thawed on the ride over. I tossed her a couple. She’d no sooner gobbled them up than a flock of ducks descended. Grabbing a handful of peas, I flung them out.
Ducks lunged and stole from their friends in a feeding frenzy. A few on the outer edges of the flock missed out, so I threw some in their direction. They had two seconds to scarf them down before their compatriots charged.
More ducks came.
Three boxes didn’t last long. Within minutes, the peas disappeared. The ducks quacked at me.
I showed them my empty hands. “I’m out. That’s all I had. Sorry.” I felt bad for disappointing them. They hung around quacking, pecking at one another, assuming I had more. I shoved the empty boxes into the grocery bag and stood up. The ducks scattered. They demanded my food, but they weren’t going to let me get close.
Leaving my purse on the bench, I strode to a garbage can a short distance away. I shoved the sack through the flap. As I turned around, a guy in a T-shirt and jeans appeared out of nowhere and approached my bench. Something about the hunch of his shoulders struck me as familiar. He leaned over the bench, grabbed my purse, and took off.
What the hell? “Hey! Hey! That’s my purse. Stop!” I ran after him. I don’t know what I thought I would do if I caught up with him, but fate, that mercurial bitch with the warped sense of humor, intervened. I slipped in duck poop and went flying.
“Noooo!” I screamed and instinctively protected my already-injured hand, holding it up, and twisting so when I hit the ground, I landed with my bad arm in the air. Before I could get to my feet, Sixx streaked from the wooded trail and tackled the purse snatcher.
Chapter Fourteen
Sixx
I kept the mugger pinned while Moxie called the police. I recognized him from the previous attack. I was so relieved she hadn’t been hurt this time, but I was more determined than ever to take her back to my planet.
“Not that I’m not glad to see you—you saved me again—but what are you doing here?” she said.
“I couldn’t leave things as they were. I had to talk to you. I followed you from the office,” I confessed. “I would have been here sooner, but I took the wrong path. I got to a big field with a lot of dogs. I didn’t see you, and I realized you must have gone the other way.”
“Fucking asshole, let me up!” the man yelled.
“You shut up!” Moxie yelled back at him.
“Fuck you,” he said.
“Don’t you talk to my mate that way!” I ground his face into the grass. He didn’t have a chance of getting away this time. He was weaponless, I had a good grip on him, and I was bigger and stronger. “What is it you want from her so much? Why do you keep coming back?”
Moxie’s eyes widened with recognition. “It’s him! From before. I thought he looked familiar when he grabbed my bag, but I didn’t get a good look at his face the first time.”
“I did.” I tightened my lips, recalling with vivid mental detail how he’d knocked her down, stomped on her hand, broken her fingers, and stabbed me—all for a purse.
Moxie folded her arms. “I know what you’re thinking—Earth is dangerous.”
“That—and how much I love you and can’t stand to leave you.”
“I love you, too, and I can’t stand it, either,” she said.
“Aw, how sweet,” the man sneered. “Like two lovebirds.”
She glowered at him.
“Come with me,” I pleaded. I wished I could get up and hold her, show her how much I cared, but I couldn’t release the mugger.
Her eyes darkened with conflicted emotion. “Sixx…”
She didn’t say no! She didn’t say yes, but this time it wasn’t a no. Hope swelled in my chest. Maybe I had a chance! I stared at her, my throat thick with emotion.
“You can’t leave your son,” she said.
“No.”
“Have you had any contact with him since you left?”
“Once. It’s difficult to arrange, but Jessie at the IDA contacted Andrea Simmons, the Earth woman who operates our computer on Dakon. She connected us over the ’Net.” It had taken several days to coordinate. Andrea had to send a messenger to my tribe, who had to talk with Falla and arrange for her to bring Joho to the Meeting Place. Then a blizzard blew in on the appointed day and time, and the whole process had to be repeated. “He’s grown a lot since I last saw him and lost another tooth.” My chest tightened with an ache, but I smiled.
“You miss him a lot,” she said.
“Terribly.”
Moxie took a deep breath. She knotted her hands. “I’ll go.”
“Go where?”
“To Dakon. With you.”
“What?” Had I heard her right? “You will?”
“You’re more important to me than my company. I wish I could do both, but if I can’t, I pick you.”
“Obah!” I jumped up, grabbed her in a big hug, and swung her around. Laughing, I planted a kiss on her mouth. She tasted like joy and sunshine. “Are you sure?”
She kissed me back. “I love you. I’m conflicted, but I love you, and you can’t leave Joho, so this is the right thing to do. It’s not easy, but it’s right.”
I squeezed her in a tight embrace, my heart swelling with joy. “You’ve made me the happiest man in the galaxy.”
Moxie squealed and pointed. “Sixx! He’s getting away.”
The mugger raced across the field.
“Be right back!” I ran after him, but before I could catch up, two police officers emerged from the trail in the woods.
“The guy in the white T-shirt!” Moxie yelled. “He tried to steal my purse.”
The mugger veered away, sprinting into a flock of fowl waddling across the grass. Quacking and squawking with alarm, the birds launched into air. He beat at them as they flapped in his face. The police grabbed him and snapped metal cuffs around his wrists.
We gave our statements to the officers, who were interested to hear the mugger previously had assaulted her. We watched as the police herded him down the gravel path. After they had disappeared, Moxie said, “These attacks aren’t random. He targeted me. He stalked me. Why? I don’t have anything worth stealing.”
“You carry your computer with you,” I suggested. Earth people seemed to be attached to their devices.
“My tablet, yes. And, my phone. Expensive e
quipment, which is worth something if he can sell them, but not enough to stage another robbery. I don’t carry cash. Credit cards can be blocked. It doesn’t make sense.” She sighed. “At least he’s in custody, thanks to you. Two incidents—three if you count work getting vandalized—in a week is making me jumpy.”
All of which proved my point—Earth was dangerous; however, she wouldn’t appreciate me repeating the warning. Instead, I vowed not to let her out of my sight until we departed. I would stand guard outside her apartment if I had to. The month before I could whisk her to safety couldn’t go fast enough.
I enfolded her in a hug. She sighed and rested her head against my chest. We kissed, and I couldn’t imagine a better feeling than having her in my arms today and always. “On my planet, we have simple customs and traditions. A Dakonian’s word means everything. Our verbal agreements are binding.” I took a breath, getting nervous now.
Moxie peered up at me.
“All that is needed for a couple to be bonded is for the man to ask and the female to accept. I want you for my mate. I believe the Fates have intended us to be together. I feel it in the center of my being. From the first moment I saw you, I knew there could never be another. When we go back to Dakon, I want us to be together officially and forever. So…” I swallowed. “Will you be my mate?”
The smile breaking over her face glowed like pure sunshine. “Yes, Sixx, I will.”
“Obah! She said yes!” I shouted to the Fates.
We kissed, but although we laughed, I knew giving up her dream caused Moxie sadness. Having a mate was my dream, and I hated that I was the reason she couldn’t fulfill hers.
Chapter Fifteen
Moxie
We crawled through stop-and-go traffic on the 405, fighting our way to the IDA office. I drummed my fingers on the steering wheel. “Why do you think the match coordinator wants to speak to me?”
“I told her about your reluctance to come to Dakon because of your job. She said she’d help.”
“I’m not reluctant anymore, and I don’t know what assistance she could provide.” Decision made, rightness settled over me. I felt calmer than I ever had in my life. I still hated traffic. The car ahead of us inched forward, and I closed up the space. It would be a relief not to battle the freeways every day. I turned my head and smiled. “If her intention is to sell me on what a great catch you are, she doesn’t have to. I know you’re a great catch.”
My attitude had done a one-eighty overnight. When Sixx tackled the mugger, the last of my doubts had fallen away. I had a new dream now, a happy life with my alien mate. I wasn’t giving up on my old dream just tabling it. Maybe after Joho grew up, we could come back to Earth—or maybe I could introduce gaming to the Dakonians on their lone computer. It wouldn’t make me rich, but I would enjoy entertaining them. They might like playing a kel-hunting game during the long, cold winters. I’d have a monopoly on the market!
I still hadn’t broken the news of my departure to Miles or my mother. She would be thrilled I’d found love. Miles—not so much.
“Hit the road Jack and don’t you come back no more, no more…” Speak of the devil. Miles was probably pissed I hadn’t gone into work today. I’d texted him I was taking a “personal day” after my trauma of being robbed again.
I glanced at Sixx, made a face, and pressed the connect button on the steering wheel. “Yeah, Miles?”
“I, um, have some news.” He sounded odd, more hesitant than I’d ever heard him.
“Yeah?”
“Detective Orman contacted me.” He sighed.
“Yeah, he left me a message to call him. I haven’t gotten back to him yet.” I didn’t want anything to bring me back down to Earth, pardon my pun. I was slightly south of euphoric at the turn of events between me and Sixx, and being questioned by the detective would piss me off. I’d planned to return his call…eventually.
“He has some interesting developments in the case.”
“Such as?”
“Jordan’s been arrested.”
“Jordan? What the hell! Why? On what charges?” I couldn’t believe it. What could Jordan have done? He was a sweet kid.
“Burglary, vandalism, assault. He was behind the break-in at EGG. They’re questioning him to determine if other people were involved in trashing the office or if he acted alone.”
I was floored. And skeptical. This didn’t mesh with what I believed about Jordan, and I hadn’t forgotten how quickly they’d come to suspect me. “What makes them suspect him?”
“The guy who mugged you last week and tried to steal your purse yesterday? They offered him a deal, and he sang like a canary. Jordan hired him to go after you.”
I flinched, feeling like I’d been slapped. How? Why?
Sixx growled.
“What was that?” Miles asked.
“Sixx is with me. I’m in the car. You’re on speaker. What do you mean Jordan hired him to come after me?” I still couldn’t believe it! They had to be wrong. Jordan was so nice, so sweet, so helpful.
“Jordan isn’t who he claims. He’s not a grad student. He’s a baby-faced thief, not a prodigy. He’s a rival gamer who got himself hired to steal Zephyr.”
“So why mug me?”
“Because I kept security so tight, he didn’t have access to anything. As an intern, he wasn’t assigned to Zephyr. He spent more time getting coffee and running errands than he did on computer tasks. The closest he got to any program was when you asked him to type for you.”
I pressed my wrapped and splinted hand to my throat. “Oh my god, Miles, did he get anything, then?” I had no qualms about competing with him in the marketplace, but I would never condone stealing to get ahead.
“Fortunately, no.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, the system tracks logins, downloads, and uploads. Luckily, you hadn’t given Jordan your login code.”
Of course I hadn’t done that. Sharing your password with another employee was grounds for dismissal.
“He had my hand broken so he could help me?” Jordan had volunteered to assist me that day, I recalled. I’d been bemoaning my keyboarding hindrance when he’d jumped in and offered to be my “typist.”
“That’s what the mugger said.”
“Was stealing my purse a cover, then? And why send the guy after me a second time?”
“Jordan knew I considered you to be my number one employee. He hoped you had special privileges and could bring work home.”
“Oh, because bringing work home would be such a privilege,” I said drily.
“I’m guessing he believed you had thumb drives or something with you.”
“Guessing?”
“Jordan has lawyered up and has denied everything, but, between the mugger’s confession, the police investigation, and what my computer forensics expert uncovered, we’ve got a pretty tight case against him. Remember he said he heard about the break-in on the scanner? He lives twenty miles from the office. Cell tower records reveal he didn’t phone from home—he called from near the office. Most likely he was inside and accidentally tripped an alarm, so he called me to account for his presence on the scene.”
“I can understand him trying to steal gaming codes, but why trash EGG?”
“Maybe he thought if he destroyed the office, we’d be forced to make other accommodations, and security wouldn’t be as tight.”
“And my fingerprint on the pad?”
“He couldn’t use his own in case it was tracked—which it was. They got a search warrant for his house and car and found several pieces of tape with your thumbprint—and one with mine.”
“Well, that’s very low-tech,” I said drily. One would expect more from a computer prodigy, I thought—then reminded myself Jordan wasn’t one.
“He may have scanned some prints, too. I’m having computer forensics run a report of the times every staff members including myself printed in. I have a hunch some odd times will show up.”
The scheme blew me aw
ay. This was espionage. And I’d been targeted! Miles could have lost everything if not for his security obsession. Paranoia had saved the day.
“I’m sorry, Miles,” I said sincerely.
“I’m sorry, too,” he said. “I never should have suspected you. We had a thing once, and it was good.” He cleared his throat. “Listen…are you sure, absolutely sure about this alien you’re seeing?”
I glanced at Sixx. He glowered.
“Yes. And I need to talk to you about that. I’m going to do as much as I can to help you get Zephyr off the ground”—I felt I owed him that much—“but at the end of this month, I’m quitting. I’m going to Dakon.”
“I knew I couldn’t keep you forever. I kind of thought you’d quit to start your own gaming company—you’d become my rival. You’re too good to work for someone else.”
I blinked, glad he couldn’t see my face. “That’s the highest compliment you’ve ever paid me.”
“Well, you’re leaving now. Have to say, I never expected it would be to follow a guy—although I could tell from the way you looked at each other, you had something special. I don’t suppose doubling your salary would entice you to stay?”
“It is enticing, but…no.”
I heard him take a breath. “I want you to know I’m going to list you as an author on Zephyr. It’s only fair.”
“I appreciate that,” I said, although it didn’t matter as much as it would have a short while ago. Me going to Dakon worked in his favor—he’d have one fewer competitor. Knowing how he thought and worked would have given me a big advantage over others in the market. But it was not to be. “I’ll be in to work tomorrow,” I said.
* * * *
“Come in, come in!” Jessie, a pretty, plump freckle-faced redhead beckoned us into her office like she was inviting us into her home. “Can I get you anything? Water? Coffee? Candy?” She held out a dish filled with foil-wrapped chocolates.
Sixx and I each accepted a kiss from the dish then took our seats.
Jessie sat behind her desk, planted her hands atop it, and looked at me. “Sixx informed me about your situation, that he has a son on Dakon and has to return home, but you have a career in the video game industry and can’t leave.”
