Eva carried her shoes with her, waving to the Lieutenant Grenadier who stood by his aircraft.
“I’ll be out in a jiffy,” she said, sure he wouldn’t understand the word but would wait patiently anyway.
As soon as she got inside, she ran for the bedroom. She heard Juan stop what he was doing and head towards where she was.
She rooted through her suitcase until she found what she was looking for.
“Juan, can you get me a glass of water, please?” she asked.
“Where have you been?”
She put her finger over her mouth.
“You know,” she said slyly. She mimed writing something on paper and also a drink. Juan shrugged and left.
She rooted around the bedroom, finally finding a notepad. Cream-colored pages decorated with kittens. She couldn’t find a pen.
Juan returned with her water.
“Thank you,” she said, taking the glass and miming writing on the pad. Juan left again.
He came back as she was taking her pill.
“What’s that?” he asked.
She held up her finger over her mouth again. He reached out a pen.
I don’t know if they can hear us, she wrote. Don’t blow my cover.
How could they hear us? Juan wrote.
Idk. Parabolic mics, I could be bugged. She shrugged.
She set the pad down and took her pill with the water.
What are you taking? he wrote.
Morning after pill.
“Eva,” he groaned.
She tore off a sheet. Burn these when we’re done. Wait two hours, then take truck back. Report everything. She underlined ‘everything’ several times.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“The Lord Admiral invited me to stay with him for a while,” she replied in a normal voice. “I accepted.” She dug through her clutch while she spoke, and pulled out a small data drive.
Make sure this gets checked out, she wrote.
What’s on it?
Idk. Important. btw, if we leave Griffith, we’re going to Hearst Castle.
Why?
Long story.
While the Lord Admiral scratched her back, he had asked her if she’d stay in the palace with him. He spoke solemnly, as if the weight of the world rested on her answer.
“The palace?” she asked in reply.
He looked confused.
“This is an observatory. You know that, right? Griffith Observatory?” she asked.
He stumbled getting out of bed, the sheet tangled around his legs, hunting for his tablet. Eva wanted to laugh.
“I mean, you’ve done wonders with it. It looks amazing,” she added.
He ignored her compliment. He scrolled his tablet up, then down, then up again, frustrated. He stopped.
“Say that word again.” He held the tablet up to her and she could see the strange characters that must have been his language’s alphabet.
“Observatory?” she said with hesitation.
“Observatory,” he spoke into the tablet also
“No,” he said simply when he saw the result.
“It’s a beautiful place with an amazing view. When my father and I moved to Los Angeles, he’d take me running on these hills. I’ve always loved it up here. But it’s not a palace.”
To his credit, the Lord Admiral didn’t even try to defend his mistake. He just stared at her. He looked like he wanted to kill something.
“If you want a real palace in California, Hearst Castle is the place. It’s the fanciest castle in America and probably ranks right up there with European ones.”
“Hearst Castle?”
Anger turned to curiosity.
“It’s a tourist attraction now. It was too expensive to maintain and the government had to take it over. But you gotta see it to believe it.”
She’d never actually been there, but she’d heard it was impressive. If the way Griffith had been renovated meant anything, it meant the Lord Admiral liked impressive things.
“You’ll stay with me there?”
“Of course. I’d love to,” she said, putting her hand on his arm and smiling like she’d just won the lottery. In a way, she had. She never expected to get this far infiltrating the aliens.
“Where is this castle, my dear?”
“I can take you there.”
“Could you take the Lieutenant Grenadier there? I trust his judgment.” His eyes scowled as if he planned something.
“I’d rather show you,” Eva said, emphasizing the ‘you’. The look on his face made her realize she’d pushed a little too far.
“I’m busy. I trust the Lieutenant Grenadier.”
“I understand.” She tried to sound matter of fact. She couldn’t play the clingy girlfriend right now. “I have some things I need to pick up. I can’t wear that thing all the time.” She pointed to her dress lying over the back of a chair.
“Bring your running clothes. I expect you to exercise with me every day.”
She grinned. “Deal.”
The Lord Admiral escorted her out of Griffith Observatory, some of the soldiers at the docking ports staring in surprise at the girl in the little black dress accompanying their commander so early in the morning. None of them said anything, though.
The Lieutenant Grenadier rushed up to them, speaking rapidly in the alien tongue.
“One of your comrades has been injured, my dear,” the Lord Admiral said to her in English when his lieutenant finished. “We have no other details at the moment.”
“My comrades?” She immediately thought of Juan. How would the Lord Admiral know about him? Then she remembered the Hrwang had learned English originally from television and radio broadcasts. Things they said didn’t always fit the situation.
“The Ambassador. Come with me. You should meet him.”
Eva had questions but followed the Lord Admiral out of the building instead. Both followed some sort of medical team out to a craft that had just landed. The team went inside with a stretcher and came out with a man strapped to it. They carried the stretcher over to the Lord Admiral and Eva.
“Ambassador!” the Lord Admiral said to the man in a sarcastically friendly voice. “How are you today?”
“Uhhh. Got shot,” the Ambassador replied. He slurred his words. Clearly heavily medicated.
“How bad do you think he is, my dear?” the Lord Admiral asked Eva.
How should she know? A bunch of medics stood around the man in the stretcher. Wouldn’t they know more?
She maneuvered past the Lord Admiral to the man’s side. He looked at her, closed his eyes, then opened them and looked at her again. His head lolled a little. His arm and shoulder on his other side were heavily bandaged, fresh blood soaking through nonetheless.
He tried to focus on Eva, but the medication hindered him. He didn’t appear to have any major injuries, except his shoulder.
“Hi,” she said timidly, acting her part.
“You may know the Ambassador,” the Lord Admiral said behind her. “He was Captain of a spaceship in orbit around Mars.”
“You’re an astronaut?” Eva asked. She didn’t recognize him, but then astronauts were a dime a dozen these days.
“Important,” the Ambassador groaned. He put his good hand on her arm. She thought she felt something rough on her skin.
“Yes, yes, the Ambassador is quite important,” the Lord Admiral said impatiently. “Do you think he’ll live?”
“I’m not an expert,” Eva said. The Ambassador’s hand slipped down towards hers and something definitely scratched her skin. She moved so her hand went into his. He was trying to slip her something. “But with surgery, I think he’ll make it.”
“Good. Do you know of a hospital?”
She immediately thought of the facility the Agency used in Palmdale. It was probably a straight-up hospital, just used, sup
ported, and protected by the Agency. How risky would it be to send the Hrwang there?
“No,” she lied. She wasn’t going to take that risk.
She held the man’s hand and something was definitely in it. She had to palm it away from him and stash it quickly with the Lord Admiral standing right behind her. The man seemed ready to pass out. She turned nonchalantly back to the Lord Admiral, twisting her hand in the man’s and pulling the item out of it into hers. It was small, like a data drive, and she made a pretense of getting behind the Lord Admiral so he could take a turn talking to the man. She slipped it into her clutch.
“Can your team operate on him?” she asked when it was safe to allow someone to look at her. She spoke with as much concern as she could muster.
The Lord Admiral bent over the Ambassador and exchanged words with some of the medics.
“He’s better off than the Colonel I sent with him,” the Lord Admiral said. “I’m told he’s dead.”
“Saved me,” the Ambassador whispered.
“So I’m told.”
The Lord Admiral turned to Eva. “We’re going to have to take him up to one of our hospital facilities in orbit. We’re going to use my shuttle and I’m going to go with him. Do you mind using a troopship to take the Lieutenant Grenadier to Hearst Castle?”
“Of course not.” She put her hand on the Lord Admiral’s arm. “Take care of your friend.”
He made a sarcastic face, but said instead, “He will be well taken care of. The Ambassador is important.”
Eva nodded. The Hrwang liked nodding. They tilted their head a little to the side when they did it and it showed respect.
She asked, as if it were an afterthought, “Are you okay if I still go back to my home for a few minutes? I need to pick up some things.”
“I would expect nothing else. Bring your whole wardrobe.” He leered at her dress.
“Thank you, Lord Admiral,” she said, leaning up and giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. “I’ll see you when you get back.”
Who was the Ambassador and what had he given her? What was on it?
She assumed he was human, not Hrwang, since the Lord Admiral had described him as an astronaut on a mission to Mars. And he clearly was trying to hide the data drive from the Hrwang. That meant it could be important. The man had said as much, even though the Lord Admiral had misinterpreted what he meant. Eva was sure the man had meant the data drive, not himself. Her mind whirled the entire ride back to the Widow Brennan’s trying to sort things out and not open her clutch and look more closely at the drive.
She hoped Juan got it safely to the Director.
What you’re doing is dangerous, Juan wrote.
“I’m really sorry,” she said. “I’m really sorry about what I did to you earlier, also. But it’s for the best.” She wanted to convince any listeners, if there were any, that she was leaving Juan, or something. Best to keep it vague, she thought.
I made you look at me naked because I needed to practice, she wrote.
Practice!!!???
I needed to be able to be comfortable with a stranger, if it came to that.
“I’m not a stranger, I’m your...” and Eva put her hand on Juan’s mouth. He stopped talking.
“I’m sorry,” she repeated. She put both her hands on his face. “Just do what I ask, okay?”
And get me birth control pills. I only have one month’s worth. I do not, and she underlined the ‘not’, want to get pregnant with an alien.
“Ewww,” Juan cried.
And tell the Director ‘orchids’.
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