The Mouse

by Lauretta Hignett

  The dungeon was dark and dank; the atmosphere was overwhelmingly oppressive. It seemed to leech out all her motivation. Her energy disappeared. She could hear shouts from the parade ground and the odd static burst of gunfire, and she couldn’t think of anything else she could do to help.

  So she finally left, zooming in her pink string bikini top and blue and white boardies, straight up and out of North Korea, headed for home.

  Chapter 25

  He stood in the doorway, dark and grim, in faded grey jeans and a black hoodie. His eyes were narrowed and his jaw tight; not playfully angry as he had been with her in the past. He seemed genuinely mad. His hair was freshly shaved, his dark eyes brooding. He stood like a statue, silent, holding the door open for her.

  Sunny gulped and silently scuttled up the hallway to the loungeroom.

  It was dark in his apartment, with all the lights turned out except for a couple of downlights set very low in the kitchen. He’d pulled the blinds right back in all the windows running down the length of the kitchen through to the lounge room, so the cityscape outside was visible. The twinkling lights of the skyscrapers of Sydney peeped in on them in the darkness.

  Sensing the formality of the occasion, Sunny slid into a seat at the small dining room table and propped up her head with her hands. Hunter, glowering at her, stalked into the kitchen and rummaged around in the fridge.

  She couldn’t stand the silence any longer. “I’m sorry.” She looked down at the table so she could avoid his fuming face. “I know you told me not to go back there. But I just had to go and do something.”

  Hunter clattered around in the kitchen for a few minutes. Sunny could hear him approaching, but she didn’t dare look up at him. There was a thunk, as he dropped a bottle in front of her, and a scrape of the chair next to her as he sat down.

  She risked a peek at the bottle.

  He’d opened a beer for her. That was a good sign – he obviously thought she was over eighteen.

  Hunter sighed heavily. “I’m not mad at you about that.”

  She looked up at him, puzzled.

  He took a sip of his beer and slammed down his bottle. “Oh hell, yes I am,” he growled. “I’m furious about it. I told you not to go back there. We had it under control; all you were doing was risking yourself.”

  Sunny couldn’t think of what to say. She was frozen, staring at his unhappy face which started blurring inexplicable. To her horror, her eyes were filling with tears. She looked down at the table, too late to stop him from seeing.

  “Oh, damn it, no, don’t cry,” Hunter made as if to get up, but changing his mind hurriedly, he pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and chucked it at her.

  “I’m not crying,” she lied miserably, picking up the hanky and dabbing at her eyes. “And who the hell carries a hanky anymore? Haven’t you ever heard of tissues? Communicable diseases?”

  “They come in handy sometimes,” he muttered. “Wiping off prints, tourniquets, that sort of thing.”

  Sunny sniffled. “Did I not help? Not even a little bit?”

  “I couldn’t say. I don’t know what you did,” Hunter said sarcastically. “But the Allied army went in to storm the compound and came upon an entirely defenceless enemy. Only a couple of the soldiers had guns; they were put down quickly.” Hunter shrugged. “None of their trucks worked, so they couldn’t escape. The prisoner’s cells were wide open, some of them snuck out and took down the guards before we could even get in there.”

  Sunny was pleased and smiled to herself a little, but Hunter still wasn’t happy.

  “But the generals are all going crazy trying to find out what happened to the weapons, trying to find out where they hid them.”

  “Try six inches under the hard-packed ground,” Sunny murmured under her breath.

  He slammed his beer down on the table again, and Sunny jumped. “That’s what I mean,” he said, teeth clenched. “What you can do – what you have been doing - it’s getting hard to explain. Someone will figure out that a person with powers is doing it, and they’re going to find you!”

  Hunter’s eyes were blazing with anger, but it was gone as soon as it came. The light died, and he sat back lethargically.

  “Sorry,” she muttered again.

  She wasn’t sure what else to say. Hunter was overreacting wildly, but she didn’t want to point that out to him in case he got mad again. If she were caught, she wouldn’t talk. She wasn’t about to spill any secrets. He had nothing to worry about.

  Hunter took another sip of his beer and lapsed into silence. He seemed to be sulking.

  She couldn’t stand the awkward silence for very long. “But it helped?” Her voice sounded small to her ears.

  Hunter’s face softened, and he smiled, seemingly against his own will. It was like a warm bath after a cold afternoon in the snow. “Yes, you helped. We didn’t lose anyone. No injuries. All the prisoners were recovered. The enemy army was captured and is being held – humanely I might add – in our prison camps. And we’ve gotten some information out of their commanders, too.”

  “Anything interesting?” Sunny asked, taking a small sip of her beer. The liquid fizzed on her tongue.

  “Quite disturbing, actually. Kim Min-Jun is dead.”

  “Really? You got him as well?” She was surprised.

  “No. He committed suicide.”

  “Oh. So, he decided that life wasn’t worth living after the main compound was taken?”

  Hunter grimaced. “No. It happened before we even gave the order to advance. Apparently, it was right after he got word that the EMP had disappeared.”

  “Oh.” Sunny studied her beer for a few minutes. “I guess that means that he’s not part of Hellix then.”

  “You hit the nail on the head there,” Hunter replied unhappily. “We guess he’s a renter. He probably paid a fortune for your Swedish guy, and when he disappeared, he thought death would be preferable to facing Hellix and their wrath.”

  That meant that Hellix was still a very dangerous, faceless organization, one more powerful than any aggressive army. An organization that had far-reaching tentacles, henchman that would give their lives rather than to betray any information, and clients that would rather kill themselves than admit that they lost their property.

  An organization that might come for Sunny at any moment. She suddenly felt cold all over and shivered.

  “That’s one reason I’m mad at you,” Hunter said. “It’s not hard to figure out that something out of the ordinary had a hand in securing the compound for us. Someone will get suspicious, and start looking. They might not have to look far.”

  “How could they find me? I’ve been very careful. You’re the only person that knows about me.”

  “Even that’s not particularly safe,” Hunter growled. “I’m glad that you didn’t try anyone else. Hellix seem to have people even in intelligence organizations.”

  “Oh God, really?”

  “Everyone is susceptible to corruption, Mouse. I’ve suspected that there’s someone in Army Intelligence that might have been leaking information to Hellix for a long, long time. Going back almost thirty years, in fact. You remember the girl with the unbreakable hair?”

  “Yeah. Weird.”

  “It’s hard to know, it happened so long ago, but I’m pretty sure that Hellix took her. And the only way that they would know is if there was a leak.” Hunter ran his gaze over Sunny, looking at her carefully. “I’m a bit worried about anyone finding out how you got your power. Remember, I told you that Hellix had often targeted people who might have powers? They don’t need any evidence that you do to want to take you. Just that you might.”

  Sunny cleared her through and tried to sound casual. “So, what would they be looking for? People who have been electrocuted, you said?”

  “Stuff like that, yeah. Exposure to strange things. Possible alien abductions.”

  “Alien abductions?” She remembered he’d said that before, it was on the list of things to ask h
im, when she got around to it. “Um, about those…aliens. I mean…. Are they….”

  “Real? Very much.”

  “Really?”

  “Well, yeah. It’s not my department, but it’s common knowledge around the agency that they’ve been here.”

  “Wow.” Sunny was dumbfounded. “So, they walk among us?”

  “Probably,” Hunter replied. “Apparently, there’s a few different species that have visited us. They all know each other and interact well, but they’re a lot more civilized than we are so they prefer to remain unknown to humans.”

  “More civilized… how?” She found it hard to comprehend.

  “More gentle, inquisitive, and far more intelligent. They can’t understand how we treat each other, you know, the wars, violence, abuse, all that kind of stuff. To them, we are quite a horrible, brutal race.”

  “Well, that I can believe.”

  “So they observe, and sometimes do a bit of testing, but in the same way that the RSPCA would monitor a nest of vipers. Unobtrusively. Humanely.”

  “I think humanely is probably the wrong word, based on what you’ve told me,” Sunny interjected, taking a long swallow of her beer.

  “Alien-ly, then. Technically I don’t have clearance to know this stuff, but it’s common knowledge throughout all the intelligence agencies now. I’ve managed to get my hands on a couple of reports. Apparently, they’re very lovely. Creepy as hell, but cute in a ‘I-wish-you-cosmic-harmony’ kind of way. They’re so intelligent and evolved that they don’t even talk to each other, they communicate telepathically.”

  “Really? That’s awesome.”

  “Yeah.”

  The mood, having lifted somewhat during the alien talk, plummeted again as Hunter stared into his beer moodily.

  He finally stirred. “Look, I think we have to talk.”

  Sunny’s skin prickled at his words, and she felt a sick feeling in her stomach. “Yeah?” She was trying to remain casual.

  He crossed his arms over his chest in a defensive gesture. “I don’t think I can be your handler anymore,” he said bluntly, not looking at her.

  “Why? I’m sorry about disobeying your order; I apologized for that.” She reached across the table towards him involuntarily, then pulled back, realizing how desperate she was to touch him. “I won’t do it again. I’ll follow your instructions implicitly from now on, I promise.”

  “It’s not that,” he said, and he paused and tilted his head slightly. “Well, it is partly that. I can’t control you. You don’t do what I tell you. I’m not doing a very good job as your handler anyway.”

  “You’re doing a great job! Look at what we did this morning. We finished a war, with no loss of life and no injuries. How is that not a good thing?” Sunny lifted both palms up beseechingly. “We rescued the EMP guy. We’re doing amazingly!”

  “Well, to be fair, you did all that stuff yourself,” he gave her a half-smile, half-grimace.

  “But I couldn’t do any of that without your information.”

  “You could get that from someone else in the agency. I could recommend someone we can trust.”

  “But that would make things worse, Hunter. That’s someone else that knows about me, and it doubles my chances of being found out by someone evil!”

  “Then let’s stop everything. That’s probably the safest thing to do,” he muttered, looking down at the table. “In fact, it’s the perfect thing to do.” He looked up and fixed her with his dark, heated stare. “Stop doing what you can do. Then we won’t have to worry about you being in danger.”

  “I can’t!” Sunny cried, pushing back her chair and getting to her feet. “You don’t understand – I can help. I can stop people suffering. I can stop people from hurting each other. I’ve been given a gift, and if I just ignore it and refuse to help, then I’m as bad as the people doing all the hurting. I’m not going to stop doing what I can with what I’ve been given. It’s my responsibility.” She glowered at him. “And I need your help to do it! That’s your responsibility!”

  Hunter closed his eyes and put one hand on his head in a gesture of extreme discomfort. “I know that. I do.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and exhaled heavily. “I just don’t think this is going to lead anywhere good. We can’t carry on like this.”

  “Why?” Sunny begged again. “I can’t do this without you.”

  At her words, his head snapped up, and he met her gaze. His face fell, and he seemed to be struggling to choose his words.

  After a moment, he spoke. “I think that these… these… feelings are inappropriate.”

  Suddenly she realized what he was saying.

  He knew she was in love with him.

  And he didn’t like it. It was making him too uncomfortable.

  Humiliation rushed through her like a shot of adrenalin, suddenly she was powerfully, unbearably mortified. Her mouth dropped open and made an astonished O.

  She felt physical pain as her heart cracked in two.

  Sunny knew that it was hopeless, futile. But she didn’t realize how much it would hurt having him reject her so absolutely. He was saying that he couldn’t bear to work with her anymore. He couldn’t stand having a silly girl making puppy-eyes at him for any longer.

  Humiliation. Pain.

  But of course, it made perfect sense. Hunter was a god among men.

  He was the only example she’d ever seen of someone’s insides matching their outsides. He was brave, kind, gentle, strong, passionate, funny and intelligent. And it was all encased in the most gorgeous, sculpted, well-muscled body she had ever seen before. And she was just a naïve girl, flawed, weak, but doing her best with what she’d been given.

  Of course he would feel uncomfortable. He probably thought he was doing her a favor by resigning as her handler so that she wouldn’t be tortured by her stupid juvenile crush anymore.

  He watched her wrestle with her broken heart, trying to fit a bit of it back together, so she could take a breath deep enough to let her speak again. “Mouse, I…”

  “It’s okay,” she whispered. She blinked, her eyes suddenly burning, she was desperate to escape before the hot gush of tears began. “I’ve got to go anyway, it’s late, and I’m tired.”

  He looked slightly alarmed - he must have realized he’d hurt her. How could he not realize that he would hurt her? He got to his feet, pushing his chair back with a scrape. “Don’t go.” He reached out to her, but she flinched back, finding his pity unbearable. She gathered up the tattered shreds of her dignity and stumbled towards the door.

  “It’s okay. I’ll take a break anyway,” she mumbled with her back to him, walking away. “Since the Korea thing is over.”

  “Mouse, don’t leave it like this…” Hunter pleaded, moving around the table to join her but she was already halfway down the small hallway.

  “I guess maybe text me if there’s something else I can do.” The words sped out of her mouth. She held her breath to hold back the tears and disappeared before she even reached the front door.

  Chapter 26

  “Up to much today, Sunny?” Steph asked her as she slid over her finished plate of scrambled eggs.

  “You mean apart from school, genius? Nah.” Sunny shot back, without much venom. She didn’t have the energy for it. “I’ve got play rehearsal at lunchtime.” She pre-empted her stepmother’s next question. “I guess I’ll make my decision on whether to stick with it then.”

  It felt like all the joy had gone out of Sunny’s life. She’d cried on her pillow until it was soaked through, switched to another one, soaked it, and had to do without for the rest of the night. When sleep eventually came, it was cruel, and her dreams were saturated with images of Hunter.

  When the weak sunlight of dawn finally crept through her window, she was wide-eyed, blankly staring into space. While she hefted herself into the shower, she decided to not think about Hunter at all, and hopefully she’d be able to make it through the day.

  It wasn’t working. Sunny's
mind seemed to drift back to Hunter with everything she did.

  Feeling like it had taken a million years, she managed to get up and take a shower, limply tying her hair back and thumping down the stairs to the kitchen. Ben had already left for work, but Steph greeted her cheerily and handed Archie to her for a cuddle. He was even happier to see her and tried to grab both of her cheeks and stuff her face in his mouth. It was his version of kissing. It hurt, but it was so gorgeous that she let him do it every time. Steph hummed softly to herself and slid an egg onto some toast for Sunny, who accepted it without a word.

  Steph sat at the huge scrubbed table and slid Archie onto her lap. “Is Annabel back at school?”

  “Yeah, she thinks she’s well enough. She’s not contagious anymore, in any case.” Sunny involved herself in the conversation with Steph much more than she usually would, grateful to have something else for her mind to focus on than Hunter.

  “Does that mean Simon will be back too?”

  Sunny sighed. “I think I’m just going to have to accept the fact that while Annabel is a complete person, Simon isn’t a complete person without her around. It’s strange,” she mused, “I don’t know how he’s managed so far, I’m sure she’s been away from school before. And she goes skiing with her Dad in Canada once a year. I’m sure he made it out of doors then.”

  Steph seemed to be mulling this over. “You don’t think it might be because you’ve come along?”

  “What does that mean?” Sunny was stung. “I’m his friend now, too.”

  “I don’t know.” Steph looked thoughtful. “It just…that you’re right. It does seem weird that you three are such good friends, but he can’t hang out with you by yourself. And he seems ok to be by himself.” She shuffled Archie into his highchair and started shoveling porridge into his eager open mouth. “Give it time,” she smiled at Sunny. “You’ve only been at the school for four months. You might need to start broadening your network of friends.”

  “Thanks for the advice, Dr Phil,” Sunny sang sarcastically, as she gathered up her plate and shoved it unceremoniously in the dishwasher.