by Jay Cannon
“Bertha, you completely misunderstand me,” the captain said in a capitulating tone. “I’m always happy to help out Parliament in its time of need. I have no problem delaying my trip for a day or two to ensure that their mission goes off as scheduled. Please give my best to the Prime Minister.”
“Certainly, Shisal. Your material should arrive within a week.”
“I was told there would only be a couple of days delay. Why is it now a week?”
“Are you making demands on me, Shisal?” shouted Bertha as she pounded her fist on her desk.
“Not at all.” Shisal held up his hands, trying to calm her fury. “I was just trying to get clarification.”
“Good! Have a safe trip,” Bertha said with a smirk.
“Thank you, Bertha,” replied the captain as the screen went blank.
Shisal spoke into his control panel. “Mikael, respond.”
“Yes, captain,” came the response.
“It appears we may be departing up to a week late. What is our exposure in regard to the beings on the planet we are preparing to mine?”
“Well, captain, they are certain to notice that one of their giant planets is missing. The disappearance of the small planet next to their sun was probably rationalized away by their tiny brains. This new disappearance is likely to cause a panic. I can’t predict how they will respond, but we should monitor their actions.”
“That’s what I was concerned about. That is all, Mikael. Security!”
“Yes, captain.”
“What’s the status of the capture of the escaped alien?”
“Uan says he’s close and should have him taken care of soon,” replied the security officer.
“Send over one of our attack ships and hide it in one of the planet’s oceans. The ship’s mission is to prevent the launch or triggering of any nuclear devices. Inform our spy network that we are available to assist with preventative measures as needed. And tell Uan to hurry the hell up.”
“Aye aye, captain,” responded the security officer.
“XO, go ahead and take your leave. Just be back before we depart.”
“Aye aye, captain,” responded the XO.
CHAPTER 35
PICO FINDS THE KEYS
“Pico, why would they send an assassin to kill you? If you’re that valuable, wouldn’t they rather recapture you?” asked Morgan.
“I’m not sure,” replied Pico telepathically. “I can only guess that they are worried about me disrupting any plans they may have for this planet.”
“Can’t you read his mind and tell?”
“No, I can’t really read minds so much as sense what someone is currently thinking. The only thing that was on his mind was killing us.”
“We should be safe for now. We need to warn Denise, though.”
Morgan sat on a bench a few blocks from the hospital and tried to call Denise. The nurse outside his mother’s room told him the same thing she had told Calvin. Since Morgan had no other way to reach her, he would have to wait and call again the next day.
“Pico, I’m going to keep my appointment with Biffle. I need to continue to practice with him if I’m going to be a good doubles partner. If the aliens knew where we live they would have already tracked us down. Can you find the alien or determine if he is coming to attack us?”
“No to both,” replied Pico through their bond. “I can only determine if he is near us, but that could be too late. Beyond that, there isn’t much I can do. I will stay alert and let you know if I detect anything.”
“I wonder if we should try to warn the military?”
“If we went to your military they wouldn’t believe us. Even if they did, there isn’t much they could do. They would probably just take me into custody and start examining me.”
“I don’t want that to happen. Let’s just try to lay low and stay out of trouble.”
Morgan went to the sports club where he and Biffle played several sets of doubles against other players at the club. They won all but one of the sets, which they were unhappy about, but they were still developing their rhythm.
Morgan went straight home after tennis, being careful to stay away from major traffic areas. At home he found his foster mother in a tizzy. She was looking everywhere as if she’d lost something.
“Is everything okay, mom?” asked Morgan, only half interested.
“I lost my car keys, Morgan, and I’m supposed to take a cake to Sharon’s party that started five minutes ago.”
“Pico, can you help her find them?” Morgan asked telepathically.
“No, I can’t read minds like that. If she focused on what she did earlier I might be able to search surrounding memories for clues. Right now her mind is full of panicked thoughts.”
“Mom, sit down for a second and tell me when you last saw your keys.”
“Have you lost your damn mind? How is sitting down and telling you something I don’t know going to help me find my keys?”
“I heard it on Oprah.” Morgan lied because he knew she would do anything that Oprah said was okay.
“Oh, tell me what she said.” Cheryl sat on a couch in the living room.
“Okay, close your eyes and only think about what I ask you.”
“I’m listening.”
“When did you last have the keys?”
“I went to the store this morning to pick up the ingredients for the cake. Sharon likes black forest cake. She thinks she’s German, but she can’t even spell Germany,” she said, laughing to herself.
“What happened to the keys?” asked Morgan, trying to keep her focused.
“Oh yeah. I brought the groceries into the house and put my keys in my purse like I always do. I finished the cake and couldn’t find the little Porsche decoration I bought to put on top of the cake. She always wanted a Porsche and that is probably as close as she is going to get to owning one.”
“And then?” Morgan asked impatiently.
“I figured that it must have fallen out in the car so I got the keys and went back out to the car and found it on the floor of the back seat. I came back into the house and I thought put the keys back in my purse but they aren’t there.”
Pico jumped in through the bond. “She was wearing something different.”
“Were you wearing this nice dress at the time?”
“Yes, but I had an apron over it to keep clean. I checked the apron and they aren’t there.”
“The apron pocket has a hole in it,” Pico added.
Morgan ran into the kitchen to get the apron.
“Where are you going?” Cheryl shouted.
“Don’t move. I’ll be right back.”
Morgan reappeared, holding the apron with his fingers through the hole in the pocket. Cheryl noticed what Morgan was doing and it jogged her memory.
“I remember,” she said. “The keys fell through the hole in the pocket, but I didn’t see them on the floor anywhere. Maybe one of my crazy sons picked them up.”
As she accessed those memories, Pico did his best to follow her thoughts with the aid of his shaman stone. He saw her place the keys in the apron pocket while in the kitchen. The keys fell to the floor and she placed them on the counter, but was worried that one of her sons might walk off with them, so she placed them in a cup on the windowsill where they wouldn’t run across them.
“Check the cup on the windowsill,” said Pico to Morgan.
“Hold on,” shouted Morgan as he went back to the kitchen.
“Now what?” Cheryl asked.
Morgan returned with the cup and handed it to her. As soon as she saw the cup she remembered what she had done with the keys.
“How did you do that?” she asked in amazement.
“I just listened to you and put the pieces together.”
“You know, Morgan, I don’t know what’s gotten into you lately, but I like it. If it wasn’t for their father I might consider adopting you and making you my favorite son. Give me a hug.”
Morgan squirmed
under the intense embrace.
“When I get back from the party we are going to talk about an allowance for you with your Carnac the Magnificent routine.”
“Yes!” whispered Morgan, jumping in the air and almost jostling Pico from the quiver. “I guess I really won’t need that job.”
“Don’t get too excited. I’m not Oprah. Think minimum wage. Bye, and thanks for saving my butt on this one. I mean it.” She walked out and closed the door behind her.
“Pico, let’s tackle our chores and get some sleep. I want to get to the hospital early tomorrow.”
CHAPTER 36
THE XO PLOTS AN ASSASSINATION
The XO was at his favorite erotic bar on the planet Euclidia. He sat with one of his operatives, plotting Captain Shisal’s demise.
“This expedition will be particularly profitable for us. The primary planet that we are targeting has minerals, technology, and a wealth of life forms. This is the trifecta of finds. You can search a million worlds and not run across the wealth of resources that we have found on this one planet. Not to mention what we have already collected from the other planets in that solar system. The major payout doesn’t happen until we have finished with the entire campaign. The bulk of the proceeds will go to the captain, which will be me by the time this is over with.”
“How do you plan to make that happen?” asked Malcolm, an Ossie that the XO had hired for his security detail. Like Uan, he was a deadly killer, but he wasn’t about to take on a challenge with little chance of success.
“The ship has lots of security measures in place to protect the captain,” said the XO. “With all the monitoring devices they have there, it would be dangerous even to have this conversation on the ship. The message has always been clear that privacy doesn’t exist on company-owned vessels. Of course, there are protections for personal conversations, but I don’t think any court would judge this conversation to be anything other than treasonous.”
Malcolm said, “You could never get the captain killed on the ship without being found out. Everyone’s UCD is connected to the central computer. The computer knows about everything that happens on the ship and more than likely could track the assassination back to the killer. And from the killer to you. Zaron fleas would be a delight compared to what will happen to you if you are discovered.”
“Maybe so,” replied the XO. “But what if it happened while he was touring a planet? The ship’s sensors wouldn’t pick that up. The captain likes to go to inhabited planets to pick out special prizes for himself. That will be his downfall.”
“He always travels with his bodyguard. She is quite formidable. I don’t trust people that don’t sleep.”
“That’s your problem to solve. Find a way to kill him while he is on the planet, in a way that cannot be traced back to me. You have those stealth abilities. You should be able to come up with something.”
“It is still not going to be easy,” replied Malcolm.
“That’s why I’ll be paying you an enormous amount of money and getting you a post as deputy sheriff on one of our new outposts. You will be able to kill species of all kinds with impunity.”
“I can only do that if I survive assassinating him.”
“You’ll survive and retire wealthy with lots of opportunity for killing,” concluded the XO. “Enjoy the rest of your leave. I’m going to go do something bawdy for my last day or so here.”
CHAPTER 37
UAN FINDS MORGAN
The next morning Morgan called the hospital from an alley across the street, and asked for Denise.
“She’s here making her rounds,” said the nurse. “I saw her earlier with the guy that was looking for her yesterday.”
“Thanks, I’ll call back,” Morgan said and hung up. “Pico, let’s sneak up there. We have to warn Denise and make sure she’s not in trouble. You don’t think they would hurt her or my mom, do you?”
“I get the impression that they are trying to keep a low profile. I’m certain that they only want to kill us,” Pico responded.
“Thanks, I guess. Just keep watch so we don’t run into them.”
“Will do.”
***
“I’m sure that’s Morgan,” said Dr. Turner looking at the picture Calvin showed her.
“Really? Do you know Morgan’s last name?”
“It’s Stewart, like his mother.”
Do you know where he lives?”
“No, I only see him here.”
“How so?”
“You know his mother is a patient here, right?”
“No, I wasn’t aware of that. Is it okay if we pay our respects?”
“Sure, she’s right this way in Room 821. You know, Morgan comes to visit her almost every morning around nine. I’m sure if you wait a while you’ll run into him.”
They entered the room and Calvin said, “Okay, we’ll sit here for a few minutes and see if he shows up. If not, we’ll come by again later today. Thanks for your help.”
“Sure, glad to be of assistance,” said Dr. Turner. She walked out of the room.
Once the room was empty Uan removed what appeared to be a tiny allergy capsule from a pouch he carried. He removed the covering from an adhesive on the side of the device and stuck it to the side of Morgan’s mother’s bed, out of view.
“What’s that?” asked Calvin.
“Let me show you,” said Uan. He pulled out his UCD and showed Calvin the screen, which provided a view of the hospital room.
“Wow, that’s pretty cool. What’s the range of that thing?”
“It depends on the receiver. I should be able to get a decent signal from up to twenty miles away, depending on my altitude, before the curvature of the planet blocks the signal. It will ping me when someone new comes into view so I don’t have to constantly monitor it.”
“I need one of those for my lady’s house. I’m sure she has guys over when I’m out.”
“Why do you care?”
“I don’t want someone else getting a taste of my pie,” exclaimed Calvin.
“That is a bad analogy. You do not own her and you cannot tell if someone else tasted her. Anyway, there are many more women in this city than you can possibly experience in a lifetime.”
“You don’t understand. This one is special.”
“You are right. I do not understand. We should leave and find an out of view spot nearby so we can respond quickly if they show up.”
“There are benches in that little park across the street. That should work.”
At that, the two left the hospital using the elevator. At the same instant, Morgan was coming up the back stairs to the eighth floor with Pico in his quiver. He looked through the doors at the top of the stairwell and saw Denise standing by the nurse’s station. There was no sign of the assassin.
“Pico, can you send this penny over to her to get her attention?”
“Sure.”
He rolled the penny along the floor so it wouldn’t be noticed as something abnormal. When it reached Denise, Pico plopped it onto the pad that she was writing on, startling her. Once she noticed the penny Pico slid it off the pad and onto the floor back in their direction so Denise would notice them. She finally looked toward the stairwell where Morgan was standing behind a window in the door. Denise walked over and opened the door.
“Why are you standing way over here in the stairwell? You know, there were two men looking for you just a few minutes ago? They were in your mother’s room for a little while.”
“Where’d they go?”
“They went down the elevator.”
“They weren’t really men, Denise,” said Morgan, trying to keep his voice down. “At least one of them is an alien assassin that’s here to kill Pico and me.”
“What on Earth for?” asked Denise.
“They’re afraid that we might tell humans about their existence.”
“One of them did look pretty strange, as if he was wearing too much makeup. He sort of smelled like cinnamon. He neve
r said anything the whole time they were here. The other one said they would come back later.”
“Pico, do you sense anything?” asked Morgan.
“No, sense of him anywhere,” replied Pico.
“Pico can sense them when they’re close by, but he says they’re not,” Morgan told Denise. “I guess we can go see my mom. I want to continue her treatments.”
“Let’s go,” said Denise. She instructed a nurse, “If you see those two men that were here earlier, call security right away.”
“I certainly will, Dr. Turner,” replied the nurse.
They went to Denise’s office where she placed the CAT scan images on a viewer.
“Okay, Pico, where did you leave off?” she asked.
“I destroyed the two clumps that you circled at the top left side of the image,” said Pico to Denise telepathically.
“Great. There are seven other clumps, deeper inside her brain. I will have to perform another scan to pinpoint their location. We could work more efficiently if I could see what you are seeing.”
“In your current state you have too many distractions to focus on a connection between us. I could remove those distractions the way I did for Morgan, but there are some side effects.”
“Morgan, Pico said he could remove distractions from my head the way he did for you, but there would be some side effects. Can you tell me what he means by that?”
“It’s the most amazing sensation. It’s like your brain is super focused on whatever task you decide to accomplish. I can even communicate with Pico without talking. And I’m almost unbeatable in tennis.”
