Hunted by the Alien

by Dena Christy

  He press his lips to the top of her head and wished for a moment that they would never have to leave the little world they'd built for themselves. He wished that they had no cause to leave the bed in the other room, that the only thing they needed to concern themselves with was the giving and receiving of pleasure.

  He ran his hand over her skin and his fingers brushed against the bump on her ribs, and reality intruded on them when she froze against him. That little bump was the cause of their trouble, and as long as what was on it remained, there was no pretending that the only worry they had was how much they could love each other.

  Chapter 17

  Cheria's eyes drifted open and she turned her head to look at Rone still sleeping peacefully beside her. Last night had been the most incredible night of her life. Their passion for each other had been insatiable, and they had gone to bed and fallen asleep after making love in the wet room. She’d awoken in the middle of the night, afraid it had all been a dream.

  She needed to reassure herself that what happened was real so she reached for him in the dark. Their desire for each other had burned quickly out of control and the sex was just as intense as it had been the previous two times.

  Now as she lay there, she was torn between joy at what she'd found in his arms, and the sting of regret. Her regret did not come from sharing her body with him, but with the knowledge this was the worst time for her to have found him. Of course if it had been an opportune time she would never have met him. He would have no cause to come into her life, and she would have continued as she'd always had. Going from one job to the next, hoping that the pay out would finally be enough to fill the hole that was inside her. It never was.

  She pushed the thought aside as she studied his face. He looked so relaxed and peaceful in sleep. As if he could sense her eyes on him, he stirred beside her and his eyelids drifted open. His eyes were like warm silver and a smile drifted across his face as he pulled her close to him.

  He brushed his mouth against hers and she closed her eyes as she clung to him. She didn't want this to be over, she didn't want to leave here. But they couldn't pretend that there wasn't a machine hunting them, and they couldn't intrude on Landis' hospitality forever.

  As he kissed her, his hand drifted over her skin and his palm brushed against the cover of her chip. It would seem like a small bump, a little hardened piece of flesh to him, but it was a stark reminder for her that they were living in a fantasy world. No matter how much she wanted to block out reality, no matter how much she wanted to pretend that they could stay like this forever, the chip in her body was a reminder that the situation they were in was far from idilic.

  He pulled back and looked at her, a frown pulling his brows together. He ran the tip of his finger over the covered port that was on top of the chip, and she moved his hand away.

  "Does it hurt?" He moved his hand down to her waist, his big palm warm and soothing against her skin.

  "No. It feels like there is something against my ribs, and I suppose if you pushed hard on it it might hurt, but I don't feel anything if something brushes against it."

  "Do all couriers have these?"

  She shook her head. "No, I'm one of the few who has had this done. It is technology that was developed for government agents as a tool for espionage, and it is illegal for a civilian to have one. But if you really want one, you can find an installer who is willing to implant one for a fee hefty enough to compensate for the risk in breaking the law."

  "Why did you do it?" There was no censure in his eyes, it seemed that he genuinely wanted to know what had driven her to have something implanted in her body that was not only illegal, but that was causing a whole heap of trouble for her now.

  "I did it for the same reason that I became a courier in the first place. Money. I grew up with nothing, we struggled to survive, not knowing if we'd have a roof over our head from one month to the next. The things I remember most about my childhood was cold and hunger. And when my parents died and Remy took me in, I made a promise to myself that I would never feel those two things again."

  "And you became a courier."

  "Yes. And it was something I was good at. I had a talent for disguises, and Remy taught me how to cover my tracks. At first it was only going to be a one time thing, I was just going to do one delivery so I would have enough money to make a start. But one job led to another, until finally I was able to command a high price for my services. But in order to take things to the next level, in order to surpass the cap on my services, I needed to be able to handle information that was more sensitive. Having a storage chip installed was the way I did that. And things were good for a while, until Remy retired. And I moved to Tari A'Veloo, had a few handlers until a landed on Xander. And picking him as my handler was what started me down the path to where I am now."

  She moved away from him, and sat up on the edge of the bed. She didn't want to talk about this anymore, because as much as she wanted to blame Xander for the mess she was in, she knew that he was not to blame, at least not for all of it. She was the one who'd chosen an illegal, albeit lucrative career. She was the one who'd chosen to have the chip installed and she was the one who picked Xander in the first place. She'd ignored her instinct that he was not a good fit for her because of the money he'd promised she'd make if she stuck with him.

  And now all that money would do her no good, because the machine that hunted her had no need for it. She would not be able to use it to make it stop.

  She stood up and went into the wet room. After relieving herself, she went to the sink and washed her hands. A long hard look in the mirror didn't reveal a solution to her problems, and she turned away. When she walked back into the bedroom, Rone was standing in the middle of the room.

  There was only warmth in his eyes as he held his arms open to her, and she moved quickly toward him and was enfolded in his embrace. She rested her head against his chest, and closed her eyes for a second as he cradled her in his arms.

  "I wish I could have met you at a different time in my life." But she wondered if she would have used him to fill the lonely void inside her and then sent him on his way as she'd done so many times before. She wanted to think that she would not have but she would never know for sure. Perhaps like Remy so many years ago, he'd come into her life exactly when she'd needed him to.

  "We will find a way out of this."

  She wanted to believe him, but she couldn't see how. Until they found out more about what was on the chip, there was no way they could find out who was hunting them.

  They stood there for a long time, with him holding her in the middle of the room. A chime sounded, and Rone moved away.

  "Landis is calling us. We should get dressed and see what he wants."

  Rone turned and strode into the bathroom, and Cheria moved to her bag to get dressed. Once Rone came out of the bathroom it didn't take long for him to pull his clothes on.

  Regret swept through Cheria, and she wished for a moment that Landis had waited just a little longer before summoning them. Rone must have seen something in her face.

  "What is it?"

  "Nothing." A rueful smile crossed her face. "I just wish that reality hadn't intruded quite so fast."

  He held his hand out to her. "I know. But we can always come back here after we speak to Landis."

  He pulled her to him, and brought his mouth down on hers. He kissed her for several minutes, until the chimes sounded again.

  He pulled back and together they walked out of the bedroom and in the direction of Landis' office. Once they got there, Landis turned from his computer with a big smile on his face.

  "I think I've come up with something that will get the information off your chip."

  Of all the things she expected Landis to say, that was not one of them. Relief poured through her and she sagged into the chair by Landis' desk.

  "I'm so glad to hear you say that. Finally we can find out what is worth killing over."

  A look crossed Landis' face. "Ar
e you sure you want to know what it is? If someone is willing to kill to keep it secret, then knowing about it might not be the wisest of actions. We could get it off your chip and destroy it."

  "That would do no good. Four people have died, one of them your father, and the only way we will be able to stop whoever it was that sent the machine after us is buried somewhere in that information. I think it's safe to assume that each one of us will be killed if he finds us, so living in ignorance about what is on the chip is not the way to proceed. The only way we can protect ourselves is to find out what is being hidden, and to find a way to use it to extricate us out of this situation." Cheria leaned back in her chair and studied Landis. Rone's hand came down on her shoulder and she looked up at him. He was looking at Landis.

  "I agree with Cheria. The machine is hunting us regardless of what we do or don't know. We stand a better chance of hunting the machine's master if we know what they want to hide."

  Landis nodded, and stood up. He went over to one of the other desks in the enormous office and brought back a selection of port plugs, a storage device and two square pieces of equipment. One Cheria recognized as similar to the terminal she used to upload the information to her chip, but the other piece she'd never seen before. It had a tiny rectangular display screen and a few arrow buttons.

  "What is that?"

  "This is what will unlock the passcode. I'm going to plug it in to your chip, and connect it to the terminal. It's going to run a diagnostic and with any luck it will identify the passcode and unlock the information and it will then automatically download into the storage device."

  She wasn't sure that she felt confident about this when he'd said with any luck but this was the only alternative she had. Her client hadn't given her the download password, and Xander hadn't had it either, so this was the only way they were going to be able to get the information off the chip and onto a computer where it could be read.

  "How long is it going to take, do you know?"

  Landis looked thoughtful. "I have no idea. The diagnostic should take under a minute, but depending on how complex the password is it could take several more minutes or even longer."

  "The chip is embedded in her side, so if it is going to take some time it would be best if she is comfortable." Rone spoke from behind her, and Landis nodded. He grabbed the equipment and stood up.

  "We don't need to be in here for the procedure, so why don't we go to the atrium where you can relax." Landis walked out of the office, and Rone pulled Cheria to her feet. He gave her hand a squeeze and she smiled up at him.

  "Soon this burden will be taken from you."

  Yes it would, and hopefully it would be the first step in extricating themselves from the game they were currently playing with the killer. This had to work.

  * * *

  Rone stood by while Cheria settled in a lounge chair and lifted her shirt enough to allow Landis access to the port of her chip. His mouth tightened but there was nothing he could say because he knew this had to be done. And because of the location of Cheria's chip, she had to expose her skin and allow him to touch her body.

  "He will do nothing untoward to her." Cale spoke quietly beside him, and Rone glanced over at him. He was certain that his feelings were no secret because he was more than likely wearing them on his face. And Cale would know just how possessive a Thonaxian warrior could be when it came to his woman. It was a part of their warriors' code that females were to be protected, and the one who matter most was the woman who was the closest. And now that Cheria had shared her body with him, he felt closer to her and that sent all his possessiveness and protectiveness into hyperdrive.

  "I know he will not." Landis would not be that bold, especially not with him standing there. In his head he knew that Landis did not have designs on Cheria, that he was doing this to help them all. It still did not stop his hands from clenching at his side when Landis braced his hand on Cheria's waist in order to plug his device into her chip's port. Landis was his friend, and yet seeing him put his hand on her, however innocently, made Rone want to rip him away from her.

  "Do you need to spar again?"

  Rone shook his head. "I will not do anything to him. He is finished now."

  Now that Landis had Cheria set up with his device and had moved away to watch the screen, Cheria had discreetly lowered her top so her bare skin was now covered.

  Rone moved over to where she was, pulled a chair close and sat down on it. She smiled at him, but he could see the nervousness in her eyes. He knew that so much rested on this working.

  "Does it hurt?" Rone took her hand and stroked it.

  "No. I hope it doesn't take too long because it will eventually get uncomfortable if I have to sit like this for hours."

  The device resting beside her on the lounge beeped and Landis picked it up to look at it.

  "The diagnostic is finished, now it's going to attempt to find the password." Landis put the device back down on the lounge and stood up. He moved away and walked around the atrium.

  "What if it doesn't work?" Now that Landis was out of earshot, Cheria turned to him and asked what he knew had been bothering her.

  "Then we think of something else. We will find out who is responsible for all this and deal with him." He lifted her hand and kissed the back.

  "What will you do when it's all over?"

  "I do not know what I will do. This was meant to be my last job, then I was going to go home. I had hoped that I would finally have enough money to help my brother. With Angis gone, I do not know if I want to hunt for someone else." More than anything he wanted to go home, but he didn't know if he would be able to look at his brother slowly dying, knowing that he'd failed him.

  "What is wrong with your brother?"

  "He has a wasting disease. I have been here trying to raise enough money to find a cure for him."

  A look of sadness crossed her face. "I'm sorry."

  He knew by the look on her face that she was feeling guilt that he would not be receiving the payment from her bounty. And he wanted to make sure she knew that there was nothing for her to feel guilty about.

  "There is no reason for you to be sorry. You did not make my brother ill. And it is clear that whoever put up the bounty had no intention of paying it."

  She nodded and they sat quietly for several moments. She looked down at the device attached to her and sighed.

  "Is it doing anything?"

  "No. Other than the blinking light, it is not doing anything. What will you do when this is all over?" He took her hand and raised it to his lips, kissing the back.

  "I haven't really thought about it. I'm sure you can appreciate that all I have been thinking about is what will happening in the next moment, the next few hours. I guess I've been afraid to think too far ahead because I'm afraid if I do, that our luck will turn and we won't make it out of this."

  "We will make it out of this. Machines can be destroyed. Whoever is behind this will be found out." He cupped her cheek and caressed her skin. "When this is over, will you go back to being a courier?"

  He thought that would be the worst thing she could do, but he kept his face neutral. When she shook her head, relief went through him that she would no longer be doing a job that put her life at risk.

  "I can't go back to the life I had. This whole situation is a very clear message to me that this life is not one that promotes longevity. I have been contemplating retiring for a while. This is just the impetus I need to finally move in that direction."

  He wanted to ask her where she would live. For himself, he knew that he did not want to live on this planet permanently. He missed his home too much, he missed living amongst his people. Dare he ask her to come to his home with him when this was all over? It was much too soon to contemplate that, and there were other worries that needed to be focused on.

  The device attached to Cheria's chip emitted triple beeps in rapid succession, almost like an alarm of some sort was going off.

  "Landis, what is happe
ning?" There was a small amount of trepidation in Cheria's voice as Landis rushed over to where they were sitting. Rone squeezed her hand and she held on tight to him.

  "It means that we've finally had a win. The device has found the password." Landis picked up the device and depressed the button on it. The beeping stopped and Rone could see a light flash green on it. "It's downloading now. Only a little longer, and we'll finally be able to see what was on your chip."

  The three of them stared intently at the equipment that was still in Landis' hand. Time seemed to slow down, and for a moment Rone thought that nothing further would happen. After what felt like an eternity, a blue light came on the terminal. Landis pulled the cord feeding into it out.

  "Finally." Cheria sat up straighter, and lifted the edge of her shirt. Landis moved to unplug the cord still attached to her chip, but she shook her head. "I can do it. You get the device to your office."

  Landis nodded, stood up and walked rapidly to the other end of the atrium.

  Cheria pulled the cord out and shifted the small flesh colored disk over the chip's port, and it now just looked like a tiny bump again. Rone stood up and held his hand out to as she arranged her clothing so that her skin was covered again.

  They were alone in the atrium, and when she took his hand he pulled her to her feet.

  She seemed lighter than she had only a few minutes ago. "We're getting close to getting out of this."

  Were they moving closer to the moment when they would need to say goodbye?

  She put her arms around his waist and he held on to her. He didn't know where that thought had come from, and he shoved it aside. She was here in his arms and that was all that mattered. She tipped her head back to look at him, and he could not keep himself from leaning down.

  He kissed her and she clung to him with her arms around his neck. His hunger for her, ever present beneath the surface of his skin, awoke but he suppressed it. There would be plenty of time for them to have sex later, but he was sure that she wanted to know what was on the chip as much as he did.