by Josie Litton
“By our calculation,” she added, “you were there just under sixteen hours. Is that correct?”
“I suppose…it was almost curfew when I left my apartment to come here so--”
“We’d like you to do more than ‘suppose’, Miss Hughes,” one of the men said. He looked like a male clone of the woman. “We need for you to be precise.”
“About what?”
“Everything you saw or heard or perceived in any way. Everything that was done to you. And most importantly, everyone you interacted with starting with Counselor Jarek.”
“I see…” I could understand the need for a debrief. But being interrogated by people who were supposed to be on my side wasn’t exactly pleasant. Especially not when I had something to hide. No way were they going to hear about that kiss.
“I’m not sure how much help I can be. I was unconscious when I was taken into the embassy. I came to in what I was told was their medical facility but by then any procedures done on me had been completed. The only person I interacted with was Counselor Jarek himself.”
All three started to speak at once but Loomis easily overrode them.
I remembered then that he’d made his fortune on Wall Street where he was known as the biggest of the big swinging dicks; sorry, but that’s what guys like him are called and they’re proud of it. After losing a brass-knuckle primaries fight to the current president, he’d been given the State Department as a consolation prize. Rumor had it he was just biding his time before making another run for the White House.
In my experience, people who were so all-consumed by ambition didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about the well-being of others.
“What was your impression of him?” he asked, steepling his fingers and staring at me over them.
As resolved as I was to do my job to the best of my ability, reluctance to reveal anything about Jarek to the likes of Loomis made me hesitate.
Finally, I said, “I’m grateful to the Counselor for rescuing me from the mob. Apart from that, he was very cordial.”
“Yeah,” Loomis said curtly, “he’s a real prince. What did he have to say for himself?”
“We talked a little about the current situation this morning and then he dropped me off here.”
“Counselor Jarek drove you here himself?” the woman asked. She sounded astonished and not a little envious.
“Yes, in a silver Lamborghini, if that matters. Apparently, he likes cars.”
Privately, I admitted that surprised me. The man had space ships at his command. But maybe it was some universal guy thing.
“Make a note of that,” Loomis said to no one in particular. It didn’t matter, all three of them started tapping on their tablets. “We should find him a couple of nice ones--American made, of course. He have anything else to say?”
“Not really.” Apart from giving me the distinct impression that he wasn’t buying my ‘momentary lapse’ argument.
I could still feel the warmth of Jarek’s breath against my cheek as he had helped me out of the car in front of the State Department and drawn me to him. His softly murmured, “Until we meet again, Charlotte” had sent a hot flare of desire from my head to my toes that was still reverberating.
I shifted a little in my seat and hoped no one noticed.
“Did you learn anything about them at all?” the woman demanded.
Jerked back to reality, I rummaged through my head for something, anything that was safely impersonal.
“They like plants.”
“What?”
“Plants, the Krinar are very into nature. I saw lots of plants. Big ones, little ones, all varieties.”
“That’s it?”
“Their furniture floats and they have tubes to move between the floors of the embassy instead of elevators.” Speculating wildly, I added, “I think there might be some form of gravity control involved.”
“We’ll get DARPA on that,” Loomis said, referencing the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency charged with developing breakthrough technologies for national security. These days, they were scrambling to make up lost ground.
“Anything else?” he asked.
I shrugged. “I’m sorry but I don’t know what more I can tell you.”
Abruptly, he waved a hand. “Out.”
For one blissful moment, I thought he meant me. Sadly, that wasn’t the case.
The clone trio scurried off, closing the door behind them. I was alone with the big swinging dick.
Who promptly looked at me and said, “You’re a very beautiful woman, Charlotte.”
I swallowed my surprise and the wariness that came with it. Coolly, I asked, “How is that relevant, sir?”
His eyes went flat. Apparently, BSDs didn’t like being called out on their inappropriateness.
Waving a manicured hand, he said, “Don’t let anyone kid you, it’s always relevant. It wasn’t just sentiment that got you in the door here.”
He paused before remembering to add the usual qualifier. “Although of course, everyone is very sorry about what happened to your parents.”
I really didn’t want Loomis speaking of them. He had no right to.
“That was twelve years ago. I expect to earn my own way.”
“Good, I’m glad to hear it. Counselor Jarek called me right after he dropped you off.”
“He did?” I didn’t exactly squeak in surprise but I came close.
“Indeed. He’s very…impressed with you.”
The leer that went along with that suggested Loomis assumed he knew why but it amused him to play along and pretend that I was something other than just a face and body.
“He liked your ideas about dealing with this panic we can’t seem to get control of.”
Well aware that as an extremely low level employee of the State Department, I wasn’t supposed to have ideas about anything, I said, “We had a very general conversation. I wasn’t putting forward ideas, certainly not in any formal or official sense. I’m certain that Counselor Jarek did not take what I said as such.”
With a frosty smile, Loomis said. “Now there you’ve got an example of what really isn’t relevant.”
He gave me a moment to absorb that he was petty enough not to overlook my standing up to him before he said, “The Krinar are setting up a joint human/Krinar task force to find a way to calm things down. Counselor Jarek wants you to be our representative on it. The first meeting is at their embassy this afternoon, 3:00 pm.”
“He what?” I couldn’t have heard that right. Loomis would have to be crazy to agree to put me on any task force. That kind of plum position would go only to the very favored few.
At least I still had enough sense not to blurt that out. Instead, I pitched to his ego.
“With all respect, Mister Secretary, it’s not Counselor Jarek’s place to decide who should represent us and besides, I’m very junior--”
Loomis ignored me. He stood and headed for the door. I had no choice but to take the hint and follow him.
“We all have to start somewhere, Charlotte,” he said, striding across the expanse of plush carpet emblazoned with the seal of the State Department. The spread-winged eagle clutching arrows in one talon and an olive branch glared up at him.
“In your case, that happens to be inside an alien embassy helping to determine the fate of the world. With the stakes that high, I’m assuming you’ll do whatever is necessary.”
At the door, he paused, looked me up and down with skin crawling thoroughness and said, “The good news is that there really aren’t as many differences between Krinar and humans as we thought when they first arrived. At least not as far as the male of the species goes.”
In a blatant display of the power that he presumed insulated him from even the most basic work place rules, he added, “Turns out that they like fucking our women as much as we do. I’d say that’s a pretty good starting point to negotiate an understanding with them.”
I refused to give him the reaction I was sure h
e wanted--shock followed by submission to what was nothing more than an attempt at blatant intimidation.
Instead, I squared my shoulders, looked at him coolly and said, “That’s quite a theory, Mister Secretary. But I’ve seen for myself how advanced the Krinar are. I wouldn’t bet the planet on them falling for any kind of honey trap.”
His smile couldn’t have been more unpleasant. For all the undoubted expense of his dental work, he suddenly reminded me of a rabid ferret.
“For your sake, Charlotte, I hope you reconsider. You’ll have time to think about it while you’re in medical. They want a thorough look at you.”
Of course, they did.
An hour later, I was wearing one of those thin little paper robes and lying on an examining table that was a lot less comfortable than the Krinar version. We’d finished with the MRI and the CAT scan, thank heavens, but the fun wasn’t over yet. Two doctors were on hand to test my reflexes, shine bright lights into my eyes and take enough blood to at least merit a cookie and a cup of orange juice.
I got neither but as a consolation prize, I did get Miss Charm, as I’d decided to think of her, from Loomis’ trio who arrived to speed brief me on what had become my mission inside the Krinar Embassy.
“Your instructions are simple and clear,” she said as she sat rigidly erect on a stool beside me, reading off her tablet. Her tone suggested that I couldn’t be expected to deal with anything else.
“You will at all times uphold the sovereignty of the United States of America. That means you will make it clear that all decisions taken by this task force must be ratified by our authorities and carried out by our personnel in accordance with our system of law.”
As much as I disliked Miss Charm, I couldn’t have agreed with her more on that score.
“Absolutely, nothing is more important than maintaining our independence from the Krinar.”
She shot me a look that suggested I’d surprised her but went right on.
“Good. In addition, you will take every opportunity presented to you to observe and report on the following: the exact layout of the Krinar embassy, any technology you encounter, a description and assessment of all Krinar personnel you meet, and most especially anything you learn from or about Counselor Jarek. We assess him to be an alpha influencer in the Krinar hierarchy so we want to get as close to him as possible.”
“You want me to be a spy?” I hadn’t signed on for that. Even more to the point, I had no idea how to do it. Between Loomis’ leering and this little bombshell, I was in dire need of Mata Hari’s phone number. There was an opening at State that she’d be perfect for. Me, not so much. I was feeling more awkward and self-conscious with each passing moment.
“We want you to perform your job.” Miss C raised an eyebrow and pointed her gaze directly at my breasts under the thin robe. “Whatever that takes.”
Resentment welled up in me. I was young and I’d barely gotten my feet wet at State but that was no reason to treat me or any woman--or man for that matter--like an object to be pimped out. Worse yet, I couldn’t just blame Loomis. I was on the task force because of Jarek. Because he was so impressed by the thoughts I’d been naïve enough to share with him? Or because--as America’s top diplomat had so succinctly put it--he wanted to fuck me?
That was bad enough but the hardest part was how overwhelmed I felt by my own response to him. I’d have been shocked to react that way to any man but to an alien? The potential conqueror of my species? I was face-to-face with a baffling and frankly frightening side of myself I’d never encountered before and I had no idea how to handle it.
I was still struggling to come to terms with that when one of the doctors stuck his head into the room.
Ignoring me, he said, “Tell the Secretary that we haven’t been able to find anything.”
Miss Charm frowned. “Nothing at all?”
He shook his head. “Whatever they used to heal her or anything else they did, it’s beyond our ability to detect.”
Anything else????
I clutched the paper robe tightly enough to risk shredding it. “What else could they have done?”
The doctor sighed. “They’re aliens, Miss Hughes. Incredibly powerful aliens with technology we cannot even begin to comprehend. They could have done absolutely anything to you and we would have no way of knowing.”
“Which is why I argued against trusting you to represent this country,” Miss Charm said. With a chilling look, she added, “The fact is that you’ve been compromised. Once you’re inside their embassy, you’ll be entirely on your own.”
A shiver ran through me. I was used to taking care of myself but this was different. It had been years since I’d felt so vulnerable and alone. I had Jarek to thank for that.
If he thought for a moment that I could be offered up as some little human toy for him to amuse himself with, he was in for a rude awakening. It was time for one Krinar at least to discover that a human could fight back on her own terms. And win.
Chapter Seven
Jarek
The nanotracker that I’d had implanted in Charlotte the previous day before she regained consciousness told me that she’d left the State Department and was on her way back to the embassy. That was a relief. I’d been worried since the moment I dropped her off there.
I hadn’t hesitated to order the tracker. She wasn’t going back onto the streets of Washington, a city under a state of emergency, without my knowing exactly where she was and how to get to her quickly in case of trouble.
At the same time, I knew full well how a Krinar woman would react to being treated in such a high-handed fashion. I wasn’t willing to bet that Earth women were all that different. Charlotte didn’t need to know that I was monitoring her whereabouts, at least not before I’d had a chance to earn a little of that trust she talked about so earnestly.
Not that she wasn’t right to do so. Everything she’d said had impressed me deeply. She saw past the gloss of official cooperation to the real problems festering beneath. And she was honest enough to speak up about them. Either that or still so innocent about the ways of her world that she didn’t see the risk she was taking.
Loomis was a real slorpis, a species of slime-eating bottom dweller in the brine shallows of the ocean on Krinar that rarely saw the light of day. His immediate assumption that I had a personal interest in Charlotte angered me. Never mind that it was true; she was a smart, perceptive, dedicated member of his staff who deserved his respect. But Loomis wasn’t capable of that. He’d exploit her in any way possible.
The sooner she was beyond his reach, the better.
If I hadn’t already been convinced of that, I would have been the moment she walked through the doors of the embassy. I’d pre-cleared her through the gate and gone down to meet her as soon as I saw that she was arriving. Not a moment too soon. Her back was rigid, her cheeks flushed, and the look in her eyes suggested that a storm was brewing.
“Are you all right?” I asked as I stepped in front of her.
The lobby wasn’t crowded but a few other Krinar were coming and going. Inevitably, they would be curious about the sudden appearance of an Earth woman. My need to protect her extended to not allowing her emotions to be on display for them.
“You should have warned me,” she said.
About Loomis, I knew it! Damn it, I’d make him pay for whatever insult she had suffered. He’d--
“Is this some Krinar thing?” she asked, throwing me off stride. “You rescued me so now you get to order me around and control everything I do?”
That struck me as an excellent idea but I wasn’t about to admit it and face the fury of a justifiably outraged female. I was having enough trouble as it was coping with the conflicting desires she unleashed. Concern for her well-being clashed with the overwhelming urge to throw her over my shoulder, carry her off to my quarters, and make her come screaming my name in ecstasy.
With an effort, I dragged my mind in a more civilized direction.
“Of c
ourse not. I simply think that you’re the best person to represent Earth on the task force. Loomis merely had the sense to agree.”
“Sure he did, which is why he suggested that I take advantage of this opportunity and sleep with you. Apparently, he’s in no doubt about the real reason you want me here.”
No one ever said that a slorpis was stupid. Still, it was and always would be a bottom dweller.
She was coming out fighting. I appreciated that even if I wasn’t entirely certain how to deal with it. That being the case, I did the only thing a sensible man could do and ducked down behind the nearest distraction.
“Forget Loomis; he’s a fool. We don’t have much time. The task force will begin meeting in just a few minutes.”
Before she could object, I drew her along in the direction of a conference room looking out over the garden. Assembled a short time before at my request, it would be disassembled as soon as the need for it was past. A few hours from now, the same space might be incorporated with others for an entirely different purpose. The idea of static walls and entire buildings that stood unchanged for decades was truly alien. On Krinar, the only permanent spaces were outside, a part of nature.
“Who else is attending?” Charlotte asked.
I was counting on her commitment to duty to override her personal concerns, and she didn’t disappoint me. But I also heard the anxiety in her voice and regretted being the cause of it.
Even so, the sooner she understood the full extent of what would be happening, the better.
“Representatives of every major country will be joining us.”
Her breath faltered just a little. “On such short notice?”
“We have an advanced form of telepresence that they’ll be using. Do you need anything before we begin?”
My spirits lifted when I caught her glance quickly at me and blush.
“Thank you,” she said primly. “I’m fine.”
Smiling, I stepped aside so that she could enter the room. It was simply furnished with a floating plank that would serve as the conference table surrounded by smaller planks for use as chairs. Of course, most of them wouldn’t be holding actual people, just holographic representations of them.
