by Zara Zenia
"Nice to meet you, your Royal Highness," he said, extending a hand. "Did I get that even close to right?"
"This first time," I said. "Sir is fine for every time thereafter. What can I do for you, Special Agent Yadav?"
"Actually, it's what we can do for you, sir." He knelt on the tiles and balanced his briefcase on his knee. With a sharp click, he opened it, pulling out a UEG model pad. The body was similar to Trilyn pads, but so thin it could snap with little force. Why did the Humans prefer their technology so fragile?
"When I sent this to my superiors, they put me on the first plane here," David said.
The pad held a black and white photograph of a Human woman. Her chin-length hair and large sunglasses formed a near perfect disguise. I couldn't see anything distinct about her, except a general sour disposition.
"I don't recognize her," I said. Nor did I wish to.
"Does the name Nora Morse mean anything to you, sir?"
A wave a rage tore through me. I balled my fists against it and struggled to keep my breathing under control. "Alarms would be a better word."
Nora Morse and an accomplice had orchestrated my family's second great embarrassment. Through cleverness and subterfuge, they had faked a match through the genetic scanners for the second time. Fortune was with us, and Darbnix’s proper match, Rose, came to him despite Nora Morse's schemes, but the damage had been done. If not for her schemes, Jinurak and I would still be speaking.
"This is her," David said, though I did not need him to. "Arriving at the Baltimore airport about a month ago."
The pad trembled in my fingers. I passed it back to Special Agent Yadav, for fear of breaking it accidentally. Our first encounter with Nora Morse was almost disastrous. Her accomplice, a vile woman who had nearly tricked her way into being my brother's mate, had exploded before revealing anything to us. We never figured out if Tia knew Nora had implanted the bomb in her. For her sake, I hope she had. Nobody deserved to die with their own body turning suddenly and violently against them.
"Why were we not informed?" I asked through gritted teeth. "If I had found my match in that time—"
David held his hands up defensively. "I'm not the one who missed it, sir. I'm just the one who found it. Look, I've been chasing Nora Morse for years. Nobody is more piss— annoyed by this than me."
I raised my eyebrow at Yadav's slip of the tongue. His face flushed and his mustache wiggled in sudden motion that struck me as so comical I would have laughed had I not moments before been enraged enough to break his device.
"The sentiment is appreciated, Agent, but it hardly helps. Do you have her under surveillance in the city? Has she been to any of our facilities?"
"Nowhere near them that we can tell," Yadav said. "And we don't expect her to in all honesty. Tia was a big blow to her operation."
"Not large enough." I walked back to the table, gesturing for Agent Yadav to take the empty chair. "You can't imagine the blow losing those scanners has been to us, Agent Yadav. And yes, I know that Ms. Morse was not behind their loss, but one of our own people. Still. The Royal council is committed to this project. Four of my brothers have found their brides. There is only me, my twin and Rawklix left. I do not wish for Ms. Morse to do us more damage."
Yadav flopped down into his chair. His eyes bulged as he glanced down at the breakfast spread for the first time. From the lustful look in his eyes, only the greatest restraint kept him from licking his lips.
"Please, help yourself, Agent. I don't imagine you've eaten this early."
"Um... you know what, I think I will." His polite protest abandoned before it was ever uttered, Yadav grabbed a cloth napkin from the table and placed it in his lap. He speared a sausage with his fork and brought it up to his lips as if it were on a skewer. A small trail of juice dribbled from the corner of his mouth as he sank his teeth into it.
My stomach growled in protest, reminding me that I hadn't eaten since the night before. I plucked one of the peeled oranges from the pile and popped it into my mouth. The sweet juice running down my throat was a much appreciated delight in the middle of the ugly discussion.
The lull in the conversation gave me just enough time to consider the implications of Nora Morse being in Baltimore at precisely this time. The woman was fixated on my family. More than that, she had proven that she wasn't above violence or disposing of her underlings in brutal and unexpected ways.
This wasn't a safe environment to be courting Kelly Fillmore. Not liking that answer, I mulled the details over in my head again as Agent Yadav helped himself to a warm roll slathered liberally in fresh butter. The result was the same.
"If you don't mind me asking, are you all right, sir?" Yadav asked.
I suppressed the jerk that came from being hauled from my thoughts before finished with them. "My work kept me awake late into the night. If I seem inattentive, I beg your pardon."
"No, I was talking about the attack at the cultural center," David said, finally wiping away the trail of sausage grease from his chin. "I heard about it just before I left."
"I was uninjured as were most of my guests." It was the kindest thing I could say about the fiasco surrounding the terrorist attack. "Do you think this Nora Morse had something to do with that?"
He shrugged, pursing his lips so far that his mustache sat parallel to his nose. "Hard to say, sir. So far hostage situations haven't been her style."
"Explosions have been," I said. "But she didn't allow her underling to survive that plan's failure."
"Hm, no, she didn't allow Tia Teller to survive exposure." Yadav grabbed an orange and ripped away a slice, tucking it into his cheek before he continued. "The report I read said they had the ringleader in custody?"
"He was definitely the leader on the ground that night. But my sources tell me Jacob Corbin didn't exist before a few years ago. Three, to be exact."
"Around the time Nora developed her little fixation," he said. "That can't be a coincidence."
"A wise man would not believe so, no." I leaned back in my chair, turning my eyes to the viewport and the city below.
From my window, I could see the clusters of nature that surrounded me, and then led to the carved gray streaks of civilization that made up Baltimore. The view was breathtaking in late spring, as the trees sprang to life, and again in the autumn when a flash of color marked the arrival of winter. At either time of year, I might have simply flown Kelly Fillmore into the wild, a feast from my kitchens in tow. But the weather was far too cold, and the trees had already gone brown.
These weren't courting times. These were times of danger. Times where men with passion and anger threw their own people in harm's way for a small chance at harming us. As a Trilyn, and as a Prince of my people, I should have cancelled my date with her and put the whole thing out of my head. But that might have meant never seeing her again. And that was a risk I couldn't take.
"Do you know of any impressive restaurants in the city, Agent Yadav?" I asked. "I've been searching on my own and I'm afraid I'm at a loss."
The good agent furrowed his brow. "Tired of your chef? I'm sure there's half a dozen here in Baltimore that would love to have you on their resume."
"I'm delighted with my cook, but my company for the evening prefers less formidable surroundings."
Yadav raised an eyebrow, barely managing to hide his smile behind his mustache. "Congratulations, sir."
"They are not in order, yet. It will be our first time in each other's company for personal reasons. From what I gather of Human courtship, the odds of failure are astronomical."
"Take that and double it," he said. "But you've got a few legs up on the standard issue Human."
"Legs?" I asked, furrowing my brow. "I've only the two."
Agent Yadav froze and blinked. I was sure the smile widened, but in the next second it was gone. "Are you looking for a particular type of cuisine or a flashy place?"
I stroked my chin, considering the options. "The latter would be better, I think. If the k
itchen isn't up to my standard, I can bring my own food in."
Yadav pulled out his phone, shaking his head and muttering about wealth under his breath. "You want Jezebel. It's not a woman, it's a fancy fusion restaurant in the Evergreen Hotel. It's impressive, but not flashy."
Yadav passed his phone to me, letting me scroll through the establishment's website. He was right, impressive was the perfect word for it by both Human and Trilyn standards. It couldn't compare to my palace, but it had a certain intimacy that seemed less threatening and therefore more fitting.
"It's perfect," I said, placing the phone on the table. "Nora Morse and the Corbin brothers have caused enough trouble for my family. I need these situations resolved, Agent Yadav. But the Baltimore Police tell me they have no leads."
"I'm already working on the first one," Yadav said. "As for the second, when the Baltimore PD realized the brothers had come from out of state, they should have kicked it up to the FBI. And since it involves you, they'll kick it up to the UEG as fast as Humanly possible."
As he spoke, Agent Yadav grabbed his phone and scrolled through the screen.
"Bingo. As of twenty minutes ago, the thwarted attack at the cultural center is under UEG's jurisdiction. Which means it's perfectly legal for you and me to go down to holding and have a chat with Jacob Corbin." Yadav slid his phone back into his pocket and shoved the rest of his orange into his mouth.
"Fast as Humanly possible?" I asked. "If I didn't know better, I would say the FBI is reluctant to take a case involving a Trilyn."
Yadav swallowed hard. "It's nothing personal, sir. Nobody wants to risk putting their career on ice by accidentally offending a foreign Prince."
"But you aren't worried?"
He shrugged and climbed to his feet. "I'm more interested in the truth than politics and I'm happy where I am. We should get going if we want to beat traffic."
At that moment, I decided I liked Special Agent David Yadav.
With my transport, the trip to the holding facility took only a few minutes. Special Agent Yadav was less than thrilled at the idea of flying in such a small vehicle, but he hid his nerves well. Yadav presented his credentials to the officers. Strangely, they didn't require confirmation of my identity.
They led us to a windowless room constructed mostly of painted cinderblock. A plastic white table and gray metal chairs were the only furnishings in the room. Did the Humans think if they deprived their subject of stimuli, they would be more likely to confess to their crimes?
Yadav and I sat in the room— in the achingly small metal chairs —for ten minutes before a guard returned with Jacob Corbin. Beneath the cold white light of the interview room, his cheeks were hollower than I remembered. In fact, his entire frame held almost no fat and scant amounts of muscle. No wonder he had caved so easily when I hit him. A strong breeze could have toppled him over.
"Your Majesty," Corbin spat as his watery gray eyes landed on me. "What a kick in the ass to see you again. And look, you brought a friend!"
I realized with a start that Jacob Corbin and Kelly Fillmore had the same color eyes. But where hers seemed to possess a sheen and sparkle of life, his eyes had the cloudy look of the dead. I wanted to look away from them, but I couldn't. To show such weakness in front of him— weakness that might get back to his brother and whoever else had helped him —would have cost us too much.
"I'm the one that brought him, Jacob," Yadav said. "I can call you Jacob, right?"
"You can shove the nice guy routine up your puckered ass," Corbin spat, without looking at Agent Yadav. "I know they've got you all on leashes. Did you boys fly right in from the slave ship, or did you detour somewhere nice and official so this looks less like a violation of my civil rights?"
"See now, there's the problem, Jake. Turns out technically when you commit a crime on foreign soil you don't have so much as rights and friendly graces."
Corbin froze. "My ass. If that were true I'd been wearing a metal collar instead of sitting in a flimsy cage. As if that can fucking hold me."
"You're here because it pleased me to give your people the chance to take out their own trash," I said.
"And you're here because they're not up to the job." Corbin's lips turned up at the corners, spreading into a chilling smile. "How's it feel to be outplayed by your future slaves, your Majesty?"
"That's the second time you've used that word. Why?"
"Does the name Nora Morse mean anything to you, Jake?" Yadav asked.
Jake Corbin's twisted smile widened further. He leaned back against the wall, bracing his left foot against the white cinderblock. "Never heard of her."
"I do not believe you, Jacob Corbin," I said.
"How gullible do you people think we are?" he asked. "You may have the government fooled, but there's some of us who still have brains and see what's going on. Dating service. Pretty fancy name for a scouting party."
I took a deep breath to steady myself, but the rage was building within me. "My people have done nothing but offer to help the Humans."
"In exchange for enslaving seven of our choicest women. And you haven't delivered jack shit."
"There's this thing about deals, Jake. Both sides have to keep up their end of the bargain, and they have delivered on the tech. How else do you think we managed to develop AIs?" Yadav said. "And now that we have, his royal Highness here and at least two of his brothers are still single and ready to mingle."
"They can do it on their own fucking planet," Corbin spat. "Our women are ours."
"Is that why you went after the cultural center, Jake?" Yadav asked, his voice smooth and gentle. "To save our women from possible slavery?"
"Hmph. Nice try. You guys have nothing connecting me to anything except the gun and nobody got hurt with that."
Yadav rolled his eyes. "And the detonator to all of the explosives. And then there is the unlawful imprisonment, Jake. There's not statutory maximum for that and each person in that building is a separate charge. Add the attempted terrorism up charge and you're looking at spending the rest of your life as a permanent guest of the UEG. Or the Trilyn Royal House."
"Specifically, me," I said. "And I vow, I will spend every spare moment I have searching for the deepest, darkest pit on my continent and having my artisans construct a suitable prison in it. No matter how long it takes."
If Jacob Corbin was shaken by my threat, he gave no outward sign. It didn't matter, I didn't make the vow to him. I made it to myself and to my twin, in the hope this petty squabble would be behind us before long. I made it to my brothers and my people, in the hopes that our suffering would soon be behind us and we would find hope amid so much darkness.
I made it to Kelly Fillmore and whatever tiny spark had grown between us. Let it grow to a flame, and let it survive the plots and plans of Jacob Corbin, Nora Morse, and whoever else this planet could throw at us.
"If I'm to be a sacrifice in the war, so be it," Jake Corbin said. "You won't take Humanity or Mother Earth without a fight. And as you've seen, we're ready."
Corbin stomped to the door and kicked it repeatedly until the guard opened it. On Yadav's nod, the guard led the still handcuffed red-haired Human man down the hallway, presumably back to his cell.
"That was tough talk, sir," Yadav said after a few seconds of silence. "I didn't know you had it in you."
I grunted in acknowledgement, but I felt anything but powerful then. Corbin had come and gone without giving us any useful information.
"I do not believe that man has the level of critical thought required to orchestrate the attack on the cultural center," I said.
Yadav shrugged. "He is the one behind the detonator they found at the scene. But he could just be a poor guy who thought he'd be somebody by now and decided you and your brothers were to blame for his poor choices. Unfortunately, we have a lot of those here."
"As do my people," I said. "We thought we would be parents and grandparents. Families. If this message of hate continues to spread through the populat
ion of Earth—"
"That won't happen, sir," Yadav said, putting a hand on my shoulder. "We'll nail whoever is behind this first. Whether it was Nora Morse or someone else."
Special Agent Yadav and I parted ways outside the holding facility. He preferred wheeled transport to flying. I arrived back at my palace in minutes. Agent Yadav would be lucky to arrive back at his hotel before lunch time. I would have liked to discuss his thoughts about the case more, but my usual business couldn't be put off for any longer if I hoped to have dinner with Kelly that night. Besides that, I wasn't in the mood to sit in traffic on the ground. In fact, the longer I spent on Earth, the more weary of its daily grind I grew. There was only one ray of bright hope holding me here.
Kelly Fillmore. One of the innocent people here in Baltimore who would get caught in harm's way if Nora Morse and the Corbin brothers weren't checked. If we didn't find our mates and deliver on the rest of our promises to the Humans. But after four years believing they were under siege or being enslaved, it was possible the damage had been done.
I pulled out my pad and sent a copy of the restaurant details to the number she had given me. My eyes never left the phone as I waited for her response.
Chapter 10
Kelly
Just breathe in and out. It's just a date. A deliberately bad first date with stakes that would make a high roller in Vegas spit his whiskey sour all over the dealer, but still just a normal date.
The pep talk, most of it direct quotes from my last conversation with Mei, repeated in my head ad nauseam as I paced outside of my hotel where I’d decided to return after my bout of drinking two bottles of wine at my apartment. Now, the Prince's transport was due any minute. I didn't want anybody going to the front desk to find me if I wasn't outside exactly on time. I didn't think the Prince would buy that Human reporters traveled under assumed names.