by Mike Luoma
Chapter Twenty
Kit arrives in his personal transport ship for the dinner at Anita's.
"...and she thinks I have a very good chance of pleading self-defense, maybe even temporary insanity, brought on by being captured, stalked, hunted and locked in a box," Katie says to Alibi over salad.
"Sounds like a good case," Alibi agrees.
"Sounds like I have walked in on an interesting conversation," Kit observes as he enters the dining area.
"Kit! Good to see you!" Alibi greets him, standing up.
"Welcome, Kit. Glad you could come," Anita says.
"Hi Kit," Katie chimes in. "I was just telling Anita and Alibi about the plea my lawyer is working on. She thinks I might be able to get just probation!"
"That is good news, Katie," Kit agrees.
"My trial is set for five and a half months from now," Katie tells Kit.
"Did you take the Imperial Elite Cruiser this time?" Alibi asks Kit. Kit looks back at Alibi in silence for a moment before answering.
"No."
"Alibi?" Anita asks, using his name as a way of saying, "what is going on here?" "Are you making our guest uncomfortable for any good reason?"
"No," he answers her sheepishly.
"When we Dakhur go back to our ancestral homes, we often feel like young cublings again. I can see that your Aunt did a fine job raising you. You still respect her, like a cubling," Kit says.
"I'm not a cubling!" Alibi protests.
"Right," Katie and Anita say together.
"Your women mock you," Kit notes.
"We were fine until you got here," Alibi protests.
"I convinced the Dakhur we needed that ship, with the Sar'Tah sure to appear," Kit says, explaining himself to Alibi.
"Come, sit down, Kit," Anita says, getting up to pull out a chair for the cat-man. "The Sar'Tah said they have good relations with your people?" she asks him as he sits down at her table.
"We do. The Dakhur have always had good relations with the Sar'Tah and the Greater Tah," he tells her.
"I will be frank with you, Kit. Their talk of 'annexation' and 'territorial concerns' worries me," Anita admits to the Dakhur.
"You were negotiating with the Tek'Tah, were you not? Over places such as that planetoid Alibi and I first found Azhumet on?"
"And me," Katie interjects. "I'm glad you guys found me."
"We had some back channel discussions going on, not much more," Anita says. "The Tek'Tah did not seem to understand the concept of negotiating."
Kit lets out a series of hisses.
"No, they do not seem to 'get' that," the alien agrees. "The Sar'Tah are a bit more refined in their concepts."
Their talk continues over dinner. Kit tells Anita more about the Sar'Tah, mostly about how large and powerful the Greater Tah is. Alibi takes it all in as he eats.
"Alibi, you've been quiet," his aunt notes as the meal winds down.
"Just eating. Maybe thinking some, too."
"What are you thinking about?" Katie asks him.
"About how funny life is. How you can look at things from so many different points of view," Alibi says.
"Deep thoughts?" Kit asks.
"Not really. Just something Piccolo said to me once."
But his thoughts do run rather deep.
Life is all in how you look at it...
Alibi looks at his Aunt Anita. The woman who raised him. The woman who loves him like a mother. He looks over at Katie, the girl he thinks he might be in love with – at the very least, the girl he's sleeping with. He looks over at Kit, his new good friend, the cat-man who has his back, who has saved his life at least twice now.
Then he looks again at his "Aunt" Anita and sees a woman who is no relation to him, who was forced to raise him by circumstances beyond her control... and who hates it when she doesn't have control. Murder put him in her hands. He looks again at Katie and sees a murderer, a cold blooded killer, a woman wanted as property by a ruthless crimelord, pure trouble. Does she love him or is she merely hiding in his refuge? Murder drove her into his arms.
He again considers Kit, this alien Dakhur who now sits at the same table and yet refuses to answer any questions about who he is – except for when he tells Alibi he may have to kill him – honor and all that. They met and had to kill to escape the Tek'Tah prison cell. Murder put him at Alibi's side.
Love and death tie them to me. Tie us all together.
But then again...
Really is all in how you look at it.
Alibi looks around the table again and smiles. The black of deep space out a nearby viewport then catches his eye and he frowns. He feels like they won this round, but he's worried. It's not over. Somewhere out there, Azhumet has entered... or will soon be entering... a new body.
He has my DNA! For what THAT'S worth.
And in a dark laboratory on an unnamed world, lightning begins crackling around the figure of a muscular man chained to the wall of the building. Tensing, straining against his chains, his back arches off the wall as if he's being electrocuted. Then he settles down, still for a moment.
The man looks alert. He flexes his right arm and frees it from the manacle holding it. He does the same with his left, and then kicks his legs free of the chains that hold them in place. Now free, the figure steps out of the darkness and looks at himself in a nearby mirror. Azhumet watches himself breathe deep, observes his first breath in his new form.
Azhumet laughs.
###
Hi!
Mike Luoma, your author, checking in here at the end. Hope you've enjoyed this free eBook! Want more? Great! Alibi's adventures continue – get the next book in the series now, Alibi Jones and The Sunrise of Hur. Follow that with the short stories in Alibi Jones and the Time War of The Devrizium, and the third novel Alibi Jones and the Hornet's Nest. The next novel is in the works now, working title Alibi Jones and the Star Seeds of Earth.
Did you know the Alibi Jones books are available in print? Find them at all the usual booksellers. They look lovely on bookshelves... Let me know how you liked the book – find me on social media in the usual spots.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mikeluoma
Facebook: https://facebook.com/mikeluoma
My Sites: https://mikeluoma.com
https://glowinthedarkradio.com
https://alibijones.com
About the Author: Mike Luoma writes and publishes science fiction, comic books, the weekly "Glow-in-the-Dark Radio" podcast, and hosts middays on "The Point", Vermont's Independent Radio Network, where he's the Music Director. His science fiction novel Vatican Assassin introduced "BC", a killer for the New catholic Church in 2109. BC's story continues in Vatican Ambassador and Vatican Abdicator. Mike now writes The Adventures of Alibi Jones, BC's son: Alibi Jones, Alibi Jones and The Sunrise of Hur, Alibi Jones and the Time War of The Devrizium, the comic book The Adventures of Alibi Jones and latest novel Alibi Jones and The Hornet's Nest.
Hear Mike read his work free each week – look for "Mike Luoma" on iTunes for his Glow-in-the-Dark Radio podcast and free, downloadable audio books from Podiobooks.com.
Get books and details at https://glowinthedarkradio.com/
Books By Mike Luoma
The Vatican Assassin Trilogy:
Vatican Assassin (free eBook!)
Vatican Ambassador
Vatican Abdicator
The Vatican Assassin Trilogy Omnibus
The Adventures of Alibi Jones:
Alibi Jones (free eBook!)
Alibi Jones and The Sunrise of Hur
Alibi Jones and the Time War of The Devrizium
Alibi Jones and the Hornet's Nest
The Adventures of Alibi Jones Omnibus One
Souverain: The Kid (free eBook!)
-ms-filter: grayscale(100%); filter: grayscale(100%); " class="sharethis-inline-share-buttons">share
