Manipulate (Alien Cadets)

by Corrie [kids] Garrett

  “I’ve had Snowflake for a year, but most of the others are new. I just moved to this apartment,” the alien said.

  The alien lived in an upscale studio apartment in West Hollywood. The whole living room/bedroom section had been converted into a hamster haven. A liberal layer of wood chips and stuffing covered the hard wood floor, and aside from the couch, the floor was covered with hamster wheels, cat houses (the low ones that the hamsters could climb on top of and inside), and lots of bowls of dry hamster food.

  Normally Claudia would report something like this to the SPCA or the apartment manager, but the aliens had their own law. The smell of hamsters wasn’t as bad as she would have expected, though. The whole apartment smelled like a pet store, of course, but a clean, well-kept pet store. The alien must work hard to keep it clean.

  “You just moved here, so the stress of a new environment could cause Snowflake’s immune systems to go down. And the wood bedding you’re using…” Claudia scooped up a handful of wood shavings and held it to her nose. “It smells like cedar?”

  “Yes. Cedar. I got it at the pet store,” she said.

  “Well, they should have told you. Cedar and pine bedding contains oils called phenols; they make hamsters ill. We’ve got to get all this stuff out of here. Only aspen or paper bedding for hamsters.”

  “Oh! Poor Snowflake. Don’t melt little one.” The alien took the hamster from Claudia and kept massaging him.

  “He needs to be kept warm, and he needs a good decongestant. Thyme is good for that.”

  The alien looked confused. “Time? I just wait?”

  “Thyme,” Claudia repeated, “it’s an herb for cooking.”

  “Oh. I have no thyme,” the alien said. “Can I leave Snowflake here while I go get some?”

  “Probably shouldn’t,” Claudia said. “Why don’t you wrap him in a towel and work on getting all this cedar out of here? I’ll see if any of your neighbors has a little thyme we can borrow.”

  The guy in Apartment 34 was home. He didn’t seem really happy to help out his Spo neighbor. Claudia wasn’t sure if that was simply because the neighbor was Spo or because the smell of hamsters permeated the entire floor. He had some dried thyme in a spice rack on his counter though, so he gave the small jar to Claudia.

  “Just keep it,” he said. “I’ve never used it.”

  Claudia boiled some water and poured it into a bowl over the thyme. The alien had quarantined the hamsters in the bathroom and used a large broom to sweep the floor clean. Claudia had to admit that she was pretty efficient, though it was weird to see the alien hold the broom with one of her clawed feet.

  Claudia gave some of the cooled thyme water to the hamster with a dropper. Then she crushed a few more dried leaves under his nose. Hamsters had such a fast metabolism, they could get well in a matter of hours, as quickly as they got sick

  The alien bagged up the cedar shavings and took them outside. Then she used a safe cleaning product to mop the floor.

  “How is my Snowflake?” she asked.

  “Already doing better,” Claudia said. “He’s stopped clicking while he breathes, which means the mucus is clearing out of his throat. He needs more massage to keep warm, and another few droppers of thyme water in the next few hours. Then he should be fine.”

  The alien was very thankful. She paid Claudia with cash, as Chris had planned. This was the third ‘favor’ she had done for Chris in the last few days, and all her Spo clients paid generously in cash. Claudia couldn’t deny she was thankful for the money. She wasn’t getting paid during her extended vacation from the clinic.

  She still didn’t like the Spo, but she had to admit that they weren’t as bad as she thought. The Spo she met seemed genuinely fond of their pets. And they all had pets. The Spo had a sincere liking for Earth’s animals, and Claudia couldn’t help liking them a tiny bit for it.

  Claudia’s cell phone rang while she was on her way to Spo headquarters to see another Spo pet. The number was local, but not one she recognized.

  “Hello?” she said.

  “Hi. It’s Sam.”

  “Oh. Oh!” Claudia said. She’d seen his TV interview and his speech in Chicago. “So tell me at once, is your conversion to humanity real or is it a Spo plot?”

  “It’s… I’m starting to suspect it’s both,” Sam said ruefully. “But it’s real enough for me. You want to come back to Pepperdine?”

  Claudia’s fingers danced on the steering wheel. He sounded like the kid she remembered. Not like the stiff, depressed cadet she’d spoken to before.

  “What?” Claudia asked. “You’re not going to ask nicely? Like, ‘Gee, Claudia, thanks for sticking around LA waiting for me to detox and come to my senses?"

  Sam laughed, though he sounded tired. “You’re still my big sister, huh? You want me to beg?”

  “No, just hearing you laugh is good enough. When should I come?”

  “This evening would be good. I’ve got some questions for you,” Sam said.

  “I’ll be there. Can I bring Chris?”

  Claudia knocked on Sam’s door two hours later. Chris stayed right next to her. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that, but he’d earned a right to stay if he wanted.

  Sam’s door opened and a giant trouncer reared up in the doorway.

  Claudia screamed, not at all ashamed of sounding sensitive and feminine for the moment. The trouncer planted its front legs against the door frame and croak-roared at her. Her tennis shoes felt glued to the carpet, but Chris grabbed her arm, jerking her away from the door. He pulled her half behind him as he backed them both away from the animal.

  “No Nebbie,” Sam said, coming into the hall. “Don’t scare my guests.”

  The trouncer dropped back onto all fours and pushed its head affectionately against Sam’s thigh.

  “That’s right,” Sam said, “You be a good boy.” He rubbed the animal’s neck. “I’m sorry about that, I forgot to warn you. Um, are you alright?”

  Claudia and Chris were frozen. Chris’s breath came in short gasps. Claudia tried to get control of her own racing heart and pumping adrenaline, but since she knew those were autonomous functions, she quickly gave up the attempt and turned to Chris.

  He was pale and his eyes were bloodshot.

  “It’s – It’s – the smell,” he choked out. “I’ll be fine in a second.”

  His arm was still in a sling, slashed at the airport less than two weeks ago. Smell was one of the strongest sensory reminders of memory… and the smell of the trouncer was intense. It brought back the airport chaos to her as well.

  “It’s okay,” she said, trying to ease him back against the wall.

  He laughed breathlessly and pushed her away.

  “I’m fine now. Just had a brief flashback.” He looked closely at Sam’s trouncer, the way Sam fondled its neck and it purred at his touch.

  “In fact,” Chris said, “I bet this trouncer was the cause of the trouble.” He shook his head. “This must be the pet trouncer of General Gustav’s wife. No wonder he’s so tame – he must have gotten switched with a wild one during the trip.”

  “Huh. Regardless, could you get that thing out of here?” Claudia asked Sam. “One of those nearly killed him a couple weeks ago. Scared the crap out of me, too.”

  “Ah. My bad,” Sam said. He called Nebbie back to his room and shut him inside. “Most people haven’t seen the trouncers, so they’re not so afraid of them. I didn’t know you’d had an encounter.” He laughed. “Of the third kind.”

  Claudia was about to chew him out, her emotions still high, but Chris chuckled.

  “That’s good. I didn’t think you’d have much sense of humor about the Spo,” Chris said.

  Sam laughed darkly. “We were kidnapped by aliens. Do you have any idea how many jokes kids’ll come up with in six years?”

  Chris chuckled again, his breathing slowing to a lighter pant. “I’m just glad you’re not all self-pitying and morose. I can’t stand that.”

&nbs
p; “I’ll try to keep it upbeat,” Sam said. But his moment of lightness was already slipping away. “I’ve got some serious stuff to ask you though."

  They couldn’t go back to Sam’s room, so he took them for a walk around campus while giving them a run down on the cadet killer, Jonathan’s poisoning, the vandalism, Jia, Nat and Akemi, and now Oh Li.

  “We don’t know if they’re related. Three of them were violent, angry crimes. But Nat and Akemi were kidnapped by a methodical, or at the very least, competent person. Jonathan was kidnapped and returned, but poisoned. Why would they kidnap instead of kill? Or if they did kill Nat and her sister,” Sam paused for the briefest moment, and Claudia saw the denial in his eyes, “Why would they bother to hide those bodies and not the others?”

  “Do the Spo have any theories?” Chris asked.

  “They do… but I’d like to hear your take on it before I tell you their opinion. Claudia, particularly, did Akemi say or do anything that might shed light on this? Did she mention any new friends? Any plans for seeing Nat again? Anything.”

  Claudia frowned. “We talked a lot that day. Mostly she had a crazy plot to embarrass the Spo and get Nat back…but I think she knew there was nothing she could really do. As far as taking both of them…well, Nat and Akemi are very smart, aren’t they? Akemi told me she was supposed to go with the Spo, but Nat took her place.

  Sam was still for a minute.

  “Okay,” he said, not blinking away the moisture in his eyes, but letting it dry up on its own. “Somebody who knew Akemi was cadet material might have taken the both of them.”

  “Or someone knew Akemi would be good leverage on Nat,” Chris offered. “If she would do that for her sister, what wouldn’t she do?”

  “But leverage for what?” Claudia asked. They all pondered for a moment.

  “It’s essentially a matter of limited intel.” Chris said. “Who knew Akemi was cadet material? The Spo choices for cadets were certainly not common knowledge here on Earth. You say the cadets didn’t know either. So that leaves Akemi’s family… and the Spo. Have you considered that this is an inside job? Not to mention the way the killings happen here, at your school, instead of Spo headquarters or the network studios or somewhere like that?”

  “An inside job…” Sam repeated. “That’s interesting.” They walked for a few moments in silence, passing the Olympic size swimming pool next to the gym.

  “Let me tell you the Spo theory,” Sam said. “I’ve just learned it today. The Rik, another alien species who want Earth, might have taken Nat. They might try to use her to… infiltrate the cadets. In fact, they might already have infiltrated somehow.” He sighed. “Your take on the murders fits with the Spo. They think it must be someone close to us. Maybe the Rik got to one of the staff here, there are some humans who just work here, or maybe even one of the Spo.”

  “This other species, the Rik, they can brainwash or something?” Chris asked.

  “More like body hop,” Sam explained.

  “Why would they kill the others then, rather than kidnapping them?” Claudia said.

  “I don’t know. That’s a big hole. They would definitely want to disrupt the sentiency trial, and slaughtering random cadets is one way to do that. But it’s not very efficient. It’s not very Rik. That’s why it seems like two people are working here.”

  They were silent for a minute, and Claudia said, “Maybe Shara knows something.”

  “Shara?” Sam asked.

  “A girl I met at the Spo embassy a few days ago. She told me she’s doing uniforms for the Spo, I think. We got to talking when I went to look at another Spo pet at the embassy. She asked how I got mixed up with the Spo, and I told her how I was waiting to see you again. Somehow we realized that we both knew Akemi. Shara met her on a flight to Japan. Anyway, she offered to let me stay at her place, and I was thinking of accepting, because the friend I’m staying with is ready to have her couch back.”

  Chris and Sam stopped walking.

  “On a flight to Japan?” Sam clarified. “And then she met you? What was this girl doing in Japan?”

  “Uh, I don’t know exactly,” Claudia said. “Something to do with her work for the Spo, some research I think.”

  “And she just happened to make contact with two different family members of the cadets in a few days? And she offered to let you live with her?”

  “Well, yeah. She’s really friendly, and she invited me to stay with her. She’s from New Jersey and she’s lonely in L.A. all by herself… ” Claudia trailed off. “I saw her again this afternoon, when I picked Chris up at his office at the Spo headquarters. I even told her you’d called me. She seemed really happy for me.”

  Chris squinted in thought. “Is this the little blonde girl with spiky hair?” he asked. “I watched you talking to her in the lobby.”

  Claudia raised an eyebrow. “You watched me?”

  “Guilty,” Chris said. “You can call me out for stalking later. I think we should check her out.”

  “But she’s not an alien,” Claudia said. “She’s from New Jersey. She’s really nice.”

  Chris laughed. “People always say that about serial killers.”

  “She may be nobody,” Sam said, cutting across the grass to the office building. “But I’m not liking coincidence these days.

  Chapter 24

  Shara knew it was time to split, as the humans would say. She’d learned at headquarters that Chris and Claudia were going to the alien academy, at Sam’s invitation.

  This was bad! Her plan hadn’t worked fast enough. Shara had jumped in her car and was now heading east on the 134, toward the high desert.

  She had planned to get Claudia to invite Sam to her place, where she could dispatch them both, but she’d definitely told Claudia too much in their first conversation. She’d been trying to establish common ground with her, but she never should have used Akemi as her conversation point. If Claudia mentioned it, and if Sam was as smart as she thought he was, he could put it together. Then somebody would be coming for her.

  She couldn’t believe she’d made the mistake of telling Claudia about Akemi. She knew the moment it was out of her mouth that she’d messed up. It had worked, making Claudia trust and confide in her, but it had also created a link between herself and the disappearances. That was stupid. Her superiors would not appreciate it.

  Overall, she hadn’t done as well as they expected. She’d delivered Akemi and Nat, sure. And she’d wiped Jonathan dry. But that wasn’t much. Mostly she’d sat back and let Downy slice his way through the cadets. But with all his stratagems and blood-obsession, somehow he’d failed to kill Sam – the most important target of all! And she’d failed too. She’d cultivated Claudia with a view to baiting Sam, or perhaps luring him into a false sense of security. But now that work was for nothing.

  Shara honked and swerved, narrowly missing an SUV.

  On the other hand… Claudia could still be useful. If she spilled about Shara, and Sam put it together, he’d be on his way to Shara’s apartment immediately. Claudia would lead him right to her. Shara could run, sure, but as a failed operative, she would be executed when the Rik took over Earth. On the other hand, if she killed Sam at the last minute, she would be a hero.

  Shara exited. She couldn’t run yet. In the trunk of her car were two guns. One was a simple Remy .44, the other a rather impressive sniper rifle. She didn’t really know much about it, except the wooden stock was a beautiful creamy brown. She’d practiced with it at a specialized shooting range, and her aim was excellent.

  Waiting for Sam inside the apartment would be suicide. If he suspected her, he’d come with reinforcements, probably Spo, or police.

  Shara would wait at a distance. She U-turned, getting back on the highway, heading back toward L.A.

  Her apartment building stood across a busy street from a three-story Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart’s roof would be a perfect vantage point. Good line of sight and decent range from her apartment building. She could shoot him getti
ng out of his car, walking along the pathway, or on the exterior stairs that led to her second floor apartment. Plenty of chances. In fact, if the fates were kind, Downy would accompany him, and she could take him out too. That would effectively silence his traitorous tongue, and get rid of a crazy and ineffective ally.

  At Wal-Mart, Shara pulled her guns out of the trunk and stuck them in a large duffle bag. She plunked the bag in one of the red shopping carts standing in the parking lot and rolled it inside. She fished a random receipt out of her purse and waved it at the attendant standing at the door.

  “Just making a return,” she said cheerfully.

  He waved her in, without checking the contents of her bag. Wow, she was getting good at the human thing.

  Two gigantic elevators were situated in the middle of the store, next to two escalators: one for people, one for carts. She took the escalator to the second floor, putting her cart on the separate escalator that grabbed it with a teethed conveyer belt and took it up. At the top, she waited and grabbed her cart as it came to the top with a bump. There were no escalators to the third floor, which was only for storage and inventory. These elevators could go to the third floor, but only if you had a key to unlock the controls. She didn’t have a key, so she’d need to get to the employee-only elevator to access the third floor.

  Wal-Mart overflowed with after-school shoppers, which meant lots of noisy kids, clumps of teenagers, and tired moms filled the aisles. They kept the Wal-Mart employees plenty busy as Shara threaded her way to the small employee section at the back. She passed through the kid section, full of strollers and car seats and colorful bounce chairs that looked like Rik torture devices. She passed through the Spo section of the store, and was rather impressed at Wal-Mart’s selection of Spo outerwear and food. Finally she pushed through the double doors that said, “Employees Only."

  She saw no one. Perfect.

  The employees used another set of elevators, for moving freight, and they went to the third floor and the roof. She pushed the call button and waited.

  When the elevator opened, a short, dark guy was on it, his hands resting on an empty dolly.