The bathroom door opened and Ulla sashayed out. She glanced at me, the napkin then the food and her lips curled.
I choked down the mouthful and cleared my throat. Right. I was the hostess on planet Earth. “I hope you’re not a vegetarian because we got pepperoni pizza.”
“Is Colonel Werner gone then?”
“Yes.” You’re stuck with me now. “Don’t worry; he wouldn’t have left us if he didn’t think we wouldn’t be safe.”
I frowned. Did I just use a double negative? Maybe. Who cared? I eyed the crust in my hand. Why couldn’t the pizza makers spread the sauce and cheese all the way to the edge? What a waste. I glanced down but didn’t spy a garbage can. There had to be one somewhere. Maybe on the side of the bed.
“I’m sure he thinks that’s true.” Ulla clasped her hands behind her back. “Tell me, did he find the data my husband sent with him?”
I tripped over a bubble in the carpet and caught myself on the corner of the bed. “Data?”
“And the UED says it values human life.” Silver flashed in her hand as she met me at the foot of the bed.
Knife. She has a knife. My body froze. What do I do?
“But you’re just as disposable as all the other chattel.” Ulla plunged the blade in my gut, angled it upward and twisted.
I braced for the pain. Yet I felt nothing, not even a tingle. Surreal! It seemed surreal.
“I—” The pizza crust plopped onto the carpet as my hands closed around hers. I was supposed to protect her, yet she stabbed me. “Why?”
“You’re right.” Ulla pulled the knife out, slicing my palms in the process.
Blood poured over my hands, yet I couldn’t feel its warmth or stickiness. Shouldn’t I be feeling something?
Ulla wiped the sides of the blade on my skin. Crimson streaked my pale flesh. “I find immense satisfaction in doing some things myself.”
I sank onto the mattress; my ears buzzed and liquid trickled down my legs. Blood not liquid. I was dying. No, I couldn’t die. I just had to put the blood back. I tried to scoop it up and return it to my body but my hands wouldn’t move. “Why?”
“Why? Because the Earth belongs to me and my kind.” She pushed my shoulder.
I tumbled onto the floor and landed on my face. That should have hurt, but didn’t. I felt nothing and… Son of a monkey’s butt! I couldn’t even hear my heart beat.
“We would already have made a deal with your government to provide protection if Rudd hadn’t messed up.” Setting the knife on the dresser top, she fluffed her hair in the mirror then opened her phone and dialed. “Where the hell are you? You missed the Colonel and the data.”
I vaguely heard a voice on the other. It sounded male but I couldn’t be sure.
“Incompetent fool!” She snapped the cell closed and turned. After prodding me with her shoe, she knelt next to me and reached for my neck. “Dead already? Hmm, maybe I’ll carve you up anyway. I have to do something while I wait.”
Ulla reached for the knife on the dresser.
Chapter Fourteen
I was dead.
I lay on the floor, staring at my murderer. My eyes didn’t blink. My chest didn’t rise and fall. My heart didn’t beat. Where was the light everyone talked about?
And shouldn’t I be leaving my body soon?
God only knew what Ulla had done to me.
Ulla leaned over me, a frown marring her pretty face. Light winked on the knife blade as she bunched my shirt under my breasts. “This really is no fun without the screaming.”
Right. Like I gave a flying rat’s ass if her entertainment was spoiled. She’d killed me for pity’s sake, stabbed me without even a twitch of remorse. I hoped she spent an eternity in Hell receiving the treatment she wanted to inflict on me. And I’d let my preferences be known with a higher power as soon as I left my body.
If I left my body.
This couldn’t be all there was, could it? Or… Crap on a cracker! What if I haunted this dive because I died violently? I so did not want to spend eternity as a ghost in this flea bag motel.
Ulla hummed an off-tune ditty.
Ohh, I really hated her right now and not just because she killed me. Although that was reason enough. I hated her because she was a bad guy. And bad guys weren’t supposed to win. Tobias had better make her pay for what she did to me and planned to do to everyone on Earth.
Ulla tilted her head to the side as she adjusted the knife in her hand. “I’d better sign my work so Colonel Werner doesn’t mistake who did this.”
Bitch! I rattled around my body, trapped inside decaying and carved-up flesh. Maybe I should stay a ghost and haunt her skinny butt.
A soft knock filled the room.
Now what? God, I hoped it wasn’t another psychopath come to join in the fun.
Ulla brushed the hair from her eyes with blood-stained fingers. “Come in.”
What was wrong with the woman? Why wasn’t she afraid of getting caught?
Hinges squeaked as the door opened and closed.
“Ulla Torunn,” a man rasped. “I thought there was a chill in the air.”
Oh no. It was Victor. He couldn’t see me like this. I tried to move, to twitch, and to breathe. Nothing. I couldn’t even turn my head. This was so not fair.
Ulla tossed back her long, honey-blond hair and glanced over her shoulder. “Victor Konstantin. You’re always a pleasure to look at.” She dug the tip of the knife into the carpet before pushing to her feet. “Then you open your mouth and disrespect for your betters just flows out.”
Victor snorted. “You’re not better than me, Ulla. You’re just lucky enough to be born into a wealthy family.”
Ha! Take that you witch. At least Victor didn’t buy all that malarkey about eugenics. So then why was he working for the Forth Worlder’s Astral Presidium?
Ulla dropped the knife on the tattered rug near my hip before stepping over me, heading toward the bathroom. “Your attitude is why we should never have to slum for hired help.”
“Is that why you contracted for outside labor to take care of Pascel?”
Pascel. I knew that name. How did I know that name? The original steward was Pascel. But wait… If Victor didn’t kill him, who did?
The bathroom light flickered on just before I heard the sound of rushing water.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Ulla’s voice echoed off the laminate bathroom.
“Ignorance isn’t very becoming, Ulla, and no amount of body modification will correct it.” A pregnant pause crowded the hotel room as the water shut off. “I thought the colonel had already left.”
Ulla’s stiletto heels tapped on the bathroom flooring. “He’s gone. No doubt to get the data my traitor of a husband stole from the APres.”
The carpet muffled Victor’s footfalls. “Then who have you tortured?”
When he cleared the edge of the bed, he came into view. Even dead, I could appreciate that he was handsome.
Anger ringed his lips in white and a vein throbbed at his temple. He closed his eyes, covering the hatred blazing in their sapphire depths. “Rae.”
For an assassin, he really seemed to care about me. Maybe he wasn’t all bad.
“Good Creator, Victor!” Ulla dropped a damp and dingy towel by my feet. “Do you have no self control?” Her lips puckered as her gaze swept me. “Or taste?”
“I have plenty of self-control, which is why I don’t indulge in senseless killing.” Victor dropped to one knee beside me. After sweeping my bangs aside, he gently rolled my shirt down, covering my belly.
“Yes, yes. You’re a killer with morals.” Ulla waved her hand dismissively. “It’s one of your more stupid traits.”
“Fiscal inbreeding has completely destroyed your humanity.” He shook his head and a lock of black hair dangled over his forehead. Regret flickered in his eyes before his face turned into a blank mask of flesh and bone. “Your kind should be prohibited from reproducing.”
“With the lower f
amilies, certainly.” Ulla placed her hands on her hips and tapped her shoe. “Fortunately, I’ve corrected that little mistake and taken care of Rudd and his spawn. Now that my line is unsullied, I’m free to reproduce with my kind.”
Oh, God. She killed her husband and children. What kind of monster was she?
“Let’s go.” Ulla doubled checked her hair in the mirror before strolling toward the door and out of sight. “The tracking device I installed in that crude transport is operating. We must get to the colonel before he finds the data and relays it to his bleeding heart supporters.”
“I am sorry, obecht.”
It’s okay. It’s not your fault. Even if he batted for the opposing team, he hadn’t stabbed me. Ulla had.
“I’m waiting Victor.”
Victor pushed to his feet and strode out of sight. A moment later the door opened and closed.
I listened until I couldn’t hear Ulla’s heels on the pavement.
Then listened to the sounds of doors slamming, people grunting and mattresses squeaking.
Then listened to cars start, engines die and voice ebb and flow.
Time passed.
Minutes.
Hours.
Days.
I didn’t know. Tobias didn’t return. The maid didn’t come. I was alone with my thoughts. And without a heartbeat to keep time, what meaning did time really have? Yet I wanted to know. I counted to five. Ten. Sixty-three. When I lost count, I started again.
Come on, I screamed inside my head. Let’s get this death business over with.
Do you really wish to live?
What kind of messed up question was that? Then again, my inner voice had never sounded like a munchkin doing whippets of helium. Hello?
We are awaiting input.
Input? Son of a monkey’s butt! God had gone digital. No, not God. This was so not heaven, neither could it be Hell. Purgatory? I dismissed the possibility. Something weird was going on. Who are you?
We are automated analytical control, study, recording and performance check input modules.
That explained absolutely nothing and was barely English.
Your kind refers to us as Cerebral Bots.
CeeBees? You’re the CeeBees. Holy Toledo! Tobias never mentioned that they talked. Hello, I didn’t need another voice inside my head.
That is also correct. Please supply us with the required input.
Input. Input. It took a moment, but I caught on. Yes. Yes, I wish to live.
Which meant I wasn’t dead. Maybe I was mostly dead. Unless I came back as the living dead. Good God, if aliens were real did that mean so were zombies? I didn’t want to be a zombie. They ate brains, didn’t they? Imagine the calories in that?
Input accepted. Define study parameters and goals.
Huh? I want to breathe, walk around, and have a heartbeat. I wracked my brain. Who knew all that the body did. I certainly didn’t. It just did what it needed to do right up until Ulla stabbed me. I don’t want to be dead.
Understood. Will you continue your assignment with UED and Tobias Werner, Colonel, Special Forces?
What was this? A failsafe of some kind. Either I agreed to do my job as alien steward or I’m terminated? Yes, I’ll do my job. I’ll be the best darn Witness Protection coordinator there ever was.
There. That should satisfy the blood-thirsty little Spam dots. I counted to ten. A fly landed on my nose and walked toward my eye. Ew. I still couldn’t blink or move or hear my heart.
Hey. I thought we had a deal. I live and do my job.
Repair and maintenance ninety-three percent complete. Systems will be reactivated in two-point-zero-seven-nine seconds.
Which was about how long it took to give me a countdown, but I was going to live and that’s what really mattered. Thank you.
Repairs completed. Subroutine encoded. Anomalous termination error recorded and justified. Study commencing. Data collection beginning. All systems will be fully functional in five Earth minutes.
Five minutes. I could wait that long. The fly buzzed away. A cockroach scrambled out from under the frayed edges of carpet and crawled up the wall. Wait a minute. What study is commencing?
Something told me the answer would be worse than big brother is watching me.
Study of Mary Jane Radiance Hemplewhite.
Oh no. No, no, no, no. I didn’t want to be put under a microscope and dissected or drool every time a bell rang. Me? You’re studying me? Why? What did you hope to learn?
More information will violate study protocols. Communications terminated.
Wait. The silence chaffed. Damn it. What had those Spam dots done to me?
More importantly, if they could bring me back from the dead, what else could they do?
Chapter Fifteen
Three-thousand-five Mississippis. Three-thousand-six— Heavy footsteps crunched on the gravel outside then the door opened and closed. Air blew across my feet. My toes twitched. Holy Toledo! I could move. I could feel things.
“Rae!” Tobias’s voice boomed through the room then he was there, kneeling by my side. “What have they done?” His hands massaged my scalp, neck and shoulders before stopping. His lips thinned as his gaze locked onto my belly. “By the Creator, I knew I shouldn’t have left you.”
I gasped for breath. Cold air slipped around my teeth. A mule-kick to the chest jumpstarted my heart then pins and needles raced across my skin before it caught fire. I hurt everywhere. God it felt good to be alive!
“Just lie still.” Tobias jumped to his feet and disappeared from sight.
Like I could do anything else? Well, maybe I could. I blinked. Yes!
Tobias ran back to my side with his duffel bag in hand and dropped it.
It landed on my foot. I felt the cool fabric drape around it and the weight press against my toes. Hmm. That should be a little uncomfortable. Maybe I wasn’t completely healed or the CeeBees were numbing any pain.
“You’ll be okay.” He leaned over me, concern and fear darkened his green eyes. He gently probed my belly.
I felt nothing.
“I swear it.” When he raised his fingers, they were crimson. “I swear it.”
I managed to turn my head and glance down my body. Son of a monkey’s butt! Dried blood left red and brown marbling on my legs. And, good Lord was I missing my baby toe? Motion in my peripheral vision caught my attention. My hands had curled into fists.
Ulla had done this to me.
Tobias ripped open the duffel. The zipper whined before the pull tab shot through the air and pinged against the head board. Digging inside, he tossed socks and tee-shirts in every direction before lifting out a red toiletries bag.
I shook my head then tried to lift it. Nothing doing. Pain radiated down my neck from the lead weights someone stuffed inside my skull when I wasn’t looking. I gasped for breath and noticed the terry cloth feel of my tongue. Darn but I was thirsty.
“I—” It was a pathetic croak, not even worthy of a toad, but I’d take it. I’d take anything because everything meant I was alive and recovering.
After snapping open his toiletries bag, he emptied the contents on the worn carpet and fished through the items. He set his hand on my forehead before lifting one eyelid then the other while shining a bright light against the back of my skull. “Don’t try to talk.”
There goes my Romeo and Juliet soliloquy I had planned to recite to celebrate my return from the dead.
After clicking off the light, he tossed it into the pile of stuff by my feet and rolled my tank top up my stomach. “I need to check your injuries. It shouldn’t hurt a bit.”
This time, I felt his warm, calloused fingers on my stomach but no pain. Was that a step forward or back? Concentrating on my hand, I managed to lift my fist an inch off the floor. Tears leaked from my eyes. Crap on a cracker! The CeeBees seemed to have mis-wired me.
He sucked air in through his teeth and a muscle flexed in his jaw. “Ulla did this.”
Was that a question? I th
ought I wasn’t supposed to talk. I smacked his thigh with my fist.
He gently unrolled my fingers then returned my hand to the floor. “That doesn’t require a response. She signed her work.”
My stomach bucked and sent bile into my mouth. I swallowed the bitterness. I really needed a drink, something much stronger than water. A fifth of vodka might do it. A low growl simmered in my gut. Unbelievable! I was hungry, ravenous. Those CeeBees had definitely mis-wired me. This combination was wrong on so many levels.
Unearthing a green square from the pile of stuff at my feet, he pinched two ends between his finger and thumb. A cone of light shot out and swept down my body. “No defensive wounds. How long after I left did she wait to attack you?”
I licked my dry lips and my tongue stuck to them. Carefully, I pulled them apart. “J-Just.”
Good Lord, saying one word felt like I’d coughed up razorblades. Think positive, Rae. Right. My voice worked and sounded sort of normal.
Nodding, Tobias dropped the green box and plucked some large bandages from the pile. “And the CeeBees have taken this long to revive you?”
“No.” I cleared my dry throat. The talking didn’t hurt as much as before. But I was still hungry and thirsty. “Five minutes.”
“They revived you five minutes ago?” Rocking back on his heels, he ran his hands through his short blond hair. “That means you were dead for more than fifteen minutes.”
From his tone, I took that to be a bad thing. Then again, I didn’t know when being dead was a good thing. Ever. Of course, it had spared me the pain of Ulla’s torture. So maybe I had found a death benefit.
“Given what Ulla did to you, the CeeBees protected you the best they could.” After shaking the bandage, he ripped the paper packaging apart. “Did she admit to killing her husband while she was…” He pursed his lips for a moment as if seeking the right word. “Working on you?”
I nodded. Oh joy, my head moved easier too. Now if only I could lift it. “The k-kids too.”
Tobias whistled while removing the plastic from the adhesive tabs of the bandages. “Her children too? God, what a bitch! I had my suspicions when I looked at Kim’s and Torunn’s bodies.”
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