Cosmic Diamonds (Whitney Powers Paranormal Adventures Book 4)

by Jason Paul Rice

  “You piece of shit.”

  “You said that one last night. Sorry, be right back.” Trent left the room and she started screaming.

  He really didn’t want to have to do this. He picked up the long piece of white fabric from the couch and took it into the bedroom. He folded it over and pushed it into her mouth, narrowly avoiding a vicious bite. He tied it several times around the top of her neck.

  She tried to talk but only incomprehensible mumbling sounds came out. He closed the door on his way out of the room and called for a Cab. In three days, his wife was facing a lethal injection and he needed to stop it. The hoverCab pulled up to the bar in the city and sank down to the ground.

  14

  Roxelle

  The diamond crew sat around the meeting table in the back room of the Buzzed Being. The smell of coffee and vanilla filled the air as Glint entered the room.

  He said, “Still can’t get ahold of her. Checked the murder and arrest reports and she wasn’t on either. She just up and disappeared. Maybe I’ll destroy her planet on the way out of here.”

  Roxelle said, “On the way out of where? We need her to make this happen. Now we are down three people and I don’t think you can just start planet hopping to make more substitutions.”

  Glint smirked. “Perhaps I can.”

  “No. I don’t want a bunch of outsiders that we can’t trust. Being down one person, we can handle, but being down a BREAKER, sorry to sound stupid, is a deal breaker.”

  Mimick pointed out, “We have a BREAKER and a great watchdog if you would just bail the girl out. All the problems would be solved if we got her back. They both seemed pretty trustworthy if you asked me.”

  Oswell said, “They are swabbed humans. Who knows what they are capable of?”

  Mimick argued, “They aren’t AI machines running amok. They seem like a couple of lovers that would be ecstatic to live out their days in paradise. That’s just me. What do I know about love?”

  Roxelle stared at her lover. She normally would say something to insult his manhood, but the words got caught in her throat. She just gazed at him adoringly.

  Boggle said, “Why don’t we put it to a vote?”

  Glint objected, “So who votes? Everyone or just the people who will have to pay to get her out?”

  Oswell said, “Come on, Glint. Don’t be like that. If I had the money I would have already offered.”

  Glint retorted, “HA. That’s what everyone who doesn’t have money says. Blah, blah, blah. Woulda, coulda, shoulda.”

  Harrins scratched her chin. “If you’re just going to act like an asshole, then we should call it a day. I’m sure most of us would rather be getting drunk right now. It’s my day off, honey, and it’s shaping up to be a shitty day.”

  Roxelle turned to Glint. “Forget a vote. We still must figure out what happened to the new BREAKER. I’d feel much better going into this with a full complement of actors. Try to track her down again.”

  Marlowe said, “I heard she was getting wasted with Trent at the green bar last night. My source said they looked pretty cozy too.”

  Glint asked in a jealous tone, “So he’s banging her too?”

  Marlowe replied, “I don’t know. I just know that he might have an idea or two on where she might be. That’s all I am saying, Glint. That’s it. Just maybe you should try to find him.”

  “I guess I can manage that,” Glint’s voice trailed away as he left the room.

  Roxelle made sure Glint was outside earshot. “I’ll convince Glint to split the bail money with me. And if not, I’ll get that bitch out myself. Enough of all this nonsense and bickering. Let’s do whatever it takes to do this job within the next three days. I’m tired of all this.”

  “Me too,” chimed in Boggle and Harrins.

  Mimick said, “Everyone needs to be careful. Don’t do anything stupid. I know we all like to get hammered, but we need to control our drinking too. It’s gotten most of us in trouble and we can’t afford that right now.”

  Roxelle said, “He’s right. If we lose another person or have to replace anyone else from here, I’m calling it quits on the heist. We’ve pushed it as far as we can. If we are going to live out the rest of our days together, we can’t start out by being at each other’s throats.”

  The door flew open and Glint came in with Trent on his heels.

  Glint said, “That wasn’t hard. He was sitting at the bar.”

  Roxelle said, “So we heard you were pretty cozy at the bar with our mutual friend last night?”

  Trent said, “What’s it to you?”

  Glint shouted, “Because she’s missing now, you shit bag.”

  Trent replied, “Huh. You guys use shit bag here too. Look, if you are going to kill me, let’s do it. I’m already dead inside.”

  Marlowe said, “My sources said you didn’t look too sad last night.”

  Trent said, “What? Are you spying on me?”

  Marlowe nodded. “That’s what I do. So you are sad today but you were happy last night. I don’t understand how that can be.”

  “It’s called drinking. Lots of drinking in fact. Now if you will excuse me, I’m going to get back to my drinking.”

  Roxelle said, “So you don’t know anything at all about her?”

  “I didn’t say that. I know probably a lot more than all of you.”

  Harrins purred, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It means I talked to her for a while last night and I know where her head was at involving the heist.”

  Glint spun a chair around and sat backwards on it. “Spill it, human.”

  “Fine. You think people like being plucked out of their home planets to be used to pull off the biggest crime ever?”

  Glint shrugged his shoulders and Trent continued, “She was scared. Alright. Plain and simple. She didn’t want to get busted and end up dying. Apparently, not everyone is convinced this plan will go off without a hitch.”

  Glint argued, “She has no way of getting home. Why would she abandon this project on a planet where she doesn’t know anyone?”

  “She seemed pretty convinced that she could find a ride home. I’m not saying that’s what she has done. I’m just saying she wasn’t too fired up about the diamond heist.”

  Glint lamented. “Does she have any idea how much I spent just to get to her planet? We are definitely blowing it up on our way to paradise.”

  Roxelle said, “Forget your stupid grudge with this girl and let’s get this over with. Let’s bail that human bitch out and do this within the next two days.”

  Trent eyes almost popped out of their sockets as Glint said, “But it’s so much money. And now we are down a being so that adds another element of danger.”

  Roxelle said, “Stop it. Stop it right now. We need to take all the excuses and shove them in the trash. It’s our time. All the worry and anticipation has been killing us. Let’s do this.”

  “Come on, Glint,” Harrins encouraged, and a few others joined in.

  Glint slowly nodded his head up and down. Trent screamed and jumped out of his chair. He pumped his fist and did a weird dance. The other beings seemed amused by his excitement.

  “Good thing you can shoot because that is some horrendous dancing there. It’s true. Humans can’t dance. You’re coming with me so we can get your bitch out of the tin.” Roxelle stood up and pushed her braids behind her shoulders. She could still smell the lavender shampoo that Mimick had used on her.

  Trent was right on her heels as they left the meeting room. They walked through the bar and out onto the street. A small ladder lowered from a hoverCar that looked like a rocket ship.

  “Is this yours?” Trent asked.

  Roxelle nodded. “Start climbing.”

  15

  Trent

  Trent and Roxelle approached the front desk at the Police Building. A creamy orange being with black hair stood up from his stool. A scent of clove filled the air as Trent put his elbow on the desk.

&nb
sp; Trent said, “We’re here to bail out Whitney Powers.”

  The man with a thick mustache shuffled some papers around on the desk. Trent was surprised to see that they still used paper on such an advanced planet.

  Roxelle said, “It’s the woman from Earth 43.”

  The officer nodded. “That makes it easy enough.” He found the paper quickly and squinted to read it. “That’s going to be a million and a half. Who’s paying?”

  Roxelle took a deep breath and reluctantly said, “I’m paying.”

  The officer smiled widely as he scanned Roxelle’s wrist tracker. She signed a few papers and about ten minutes later, Trent was reunited with his wife.

  A blue officer came from the back with a clipboard. He spoke to another officer. “You reverse the code and put the ankle bracelet on?”

  The other officer said, “Yes I did. She is all ready to get out of here.”

  Whitney rushed across the small room and Trent scooped her up in his arms. He picked her up off the floor and pressed his weary lips to his wife’s. Order had been restored again and they left the Police Building.

  Roxelle drove them to their rental property and stopped out front. She said, “Be back at the Buzzed Being at 23 diaz. We will go over the plan in detail because I want to move in two days, no questions asked.”

  “Sounds good to me.” Trent got out of the car and he and Whitney walked to the front door.

  Trent had almost forgotten about his houseguest. “So I need to warn you about something before we go in. I had to do something to get you out.”

  “What?”

  “Alright, so they had found a new BREAKER, which would have made you useless in that vein. She was a girl that seemed to be interested in my looks.”

  “What did you do?” She asked as they stood outside the door.

  “Nothing. That is the main point of all of this. Well, maybe a little something. But nothing major.”

  “Did you have sex with another woman?”

  “No. God no. Never. Let’s go inside and when you see, you might understand even better. I feel like if I try to explain it here, you’re just going to get mad.” He waved the key in front of the call box.

  “Don’t think I’m going to be more understanding if you did something to tarnish our marriage. I need my Chap Stick, right now.”

  The couple moved inside. Trent led her down the hallway and his heart threatened to jump from his chest. He nervously pushed open the door to the bedroom. He let Whitney pass him and go in first.

  “What the hell is this?” she asked.

  “Alright. Here’s the explanation.” He stopped and stared at an empty bed. “There was someone just here.” Trent ran around the entire house looking for her.

  He ran into Whitney as he turned down the hallway. She said, “What is going on? What are you doing?”

  “Okay, there was someone else here. I basically kidnapped the BREAKER. I had her tied up in our bed and somehow, she escaped. If she goes back to Glint, I’m cooked. I just lied to them today and told them that I didn’t know what happened to her. Oh, this is not good at all.”

  “Relax for a second. You’re rambling like a maniac.” Whitney grabbed her Chap Stick and smeared some on her dry lips.

  “If she goes back to them, she’s going to tell them everything. Roxelle just spent 1.5 million whatever the currency is here.”

  “Trolodytes,” Whitney said.

  “Whatever. She shelled out that dough because I convinced them that the other BREAKER had abandoned them. She really didn’t want to spend that money on you, I hate to say.”

  “I think I know that. I sat in that place for three days thinking I was going to get the needle. I’m still not happy with her even though she did eventually get me out.”

  “We could walk right into our deaths if we go back to the Buzzed Being later. How the hell did she get loose? I made those knots extra tight. I can’t believe this has happened.”

  “Why don’t we sit down on the couch and try to figure this out? Are you sure she would go back to them? Maybe she didn’t want to take part in the heist anyway.”

  “It’s funny that you say that because she wasn’t too fired up about the whole thing. She said that Glint promised her a diamond the size of her head to do the job but she didn’t want to die.”

  “Exactly. And then she gets kidnapped by some crazy man. That probably chased her away more than anything. How much or many diamonds do you think they are going to steal?”

  “We.”

  “What?”

  “We are in on this too. So, how much are we stealing? I never heard an actual amount but just the word ‘warehouse’ leads me to believe that there is a pretty big reserve. She mines it from a planet made from diamond so I guess there’s a good bit to go around.”

  Whitney massaged his tense shoulders and the two exhausted lovers fell asleep on the couch.

  An alert for a text message woke Whitney up. She checked her armScreen and didn’t see any new messages.

  She nudged Trent. “Check your message, hon.”

  Trent opened his sleepy eyes and looked at his Screen. “It’s Boggle. We’re supposed to meet at the bar soon to go over the plan in greater detail.”

  “Does it sound suspicious?”

  “It’s a text. Not sure how it could sound suspicious.”

  “You said if that girl went to them about what you did, they might be angry.”

  Trent yawned and stretched out his arms. “We don’t really have a choice at this point. We go in through the main entrance and don’t go into the back if we feel like something funny is going on.”

  “I don’t get it. You were all fired up about this a few hours ago and now you don’t care.”

  “Maybe I’m just tired. Maybe I’m tired of this whole space adventure. Whatever is going to happen is going to happen.”

  “That’s not exactly the spirit I was looking for.”

  “It doesn’t mean I’m going to give any less than one hundred percent. I did enough worrying while you were in that holding cell. I think those vitamins had me fired up.”

  “Speaking of which, we should take one before we go back to the bar.”

  Whitney and Trent arrived at the Buzzed Being around dusk. Boggle and Mimick waved from the corner of the bar near the entrance. Whitney tried to read the body language of her cohorts but didn’t detect anything out of the ordinary.

  The couple walked over and Mimick handed each of them a dark brown liquid in a plastic rocks glass.

  “Congrats on the release,” he said to Whitney. “Bottoms up.”

  “Thank you,” Whitney said and chugged the cinnamon flavored liquor. “What’s that called?”

  Mimick responded, “It’s called a Sharpened Sprocket. They say it puts hair on your chest. It doesn’t though. Don’t worry.” He smiled at Whitney.

  She trusted Mimick more than any of the other members of the crew. Maybe they sent him out here because they know that and they are trying to set us up.

  Trent casually asked, “Any word from that new BREAKER that went missing in action?”

  Boggle answered, “Not yet.” She looked around and lowered her voice. “I know I would be creeped out if a guy like Glint came to my home planet and plucked me out of there.”

  Everyone laughed and Whitney started to get more comfortable as she sat down on a barstool. Oswell ducked his bald head to get through the low entrance. Whitney turned her back on the hairless man and didn’t want to talk to him. She still felt like he had abandoned her during her stolen code adventure.

  Oswell approached the corner of the bar and said hi. He put his hand on Whitney’s shoulder. “Sorry about what happened. I stayed as long as I could. Once I heard the sirens, I got the hell out of there.”

  “Bullshit. I was outside before the sirens and you weren’t there. You thought you could get rid of me. Don’t try to make yourself look good in front of your friends. You’re lying.”

  “I’m trying to be n
ice to you, but if you want to run your big mouth, no more courtesy for you. Who has a drink for me?”

  Mimick had four Sharpened Sprockets in front of him on the bar and handed one to Oswell. The brownish-red man chugged it and threw it behind the bar. He asked, “Could I get another one? I feel like we are going to hear more of this one’s big mouth in the meeting.” He pointed to Whitney.

  Whitney stood up and turned around to face Oswell. He towered over her, but she stood with her head staring at his chest and said, “This one? Shit, I’m more important than you are now, so you better listen to what I have to say. I have more value to this operation than you. How’s that feel?”

  Boggle separated them. “Children, children. Let’s stop this now as we have bigger issues to worry about. We don’t have to like each other but we need to respect one another and work together. Why don’t we take this into the backroom now?”

  Whitney reached out and held Trent’s sweaty hand as they walked through the side door in the bar. They walked down the short hallway and Whitney’s heart bounced up and down in her chest. She entered the meeting room before Trent.

  Whitney didn’t notice anyone new. She turned to Trent and the smirk on his face indicated that they were safe for now at least. The usual suspects sat or stood around the table.

  Harrins Lowry purred, “Good to see you got out.”

  “Thanks,” Whitney responded.

  Roxelle said, “She should be thanking me. Me and Glint are the ones who put down the dough for you to get out.”

  Whitney spoke in a snotty tone. “I would thank you if you had immediately got me out. Don’t act like you weren’t ready to let me die until it became absolutely necessary that you needed me.”

  “Semantics. There’s a bottom line here. You would be dead if I didn’t get you out of there. Your man couldn’t do it. I’m the one who made sure you got out. Bitch about it if you want, but damn, some people don’t appreciate anything.”

  Marlowe Reed walked through the open door and slammed it shut. “Looks like everyone is here. Oh wait, where is Glint?”