by J. Judkins
“I don’t have a phone.”
A good point. But Kim wasn’t about to admit it. She certainly wasn’t going to mention the hours spent late last night becoming more and more frantic with worry before it had finally dawned on her that Angel’s screwed-up sense of time was likely to blame. She’d felt like an idiot for not realizing it sooner.
Still did, actually.
Kim shooed Angel from her path and trudged down the hallway, heading past the living room and directly into the kitchen.
Angel followed after her. “I thought of several excuses during the drive home last night. The list might amuse you. Would you like to hear them?”
Kim hid her smile under cover of taking a Mountain Dew out of the refrigerator. “Go ahead.”
Angel cleared her throat. “Would you believe I became lost and only recently discovered the way back home?”
“No.”
“Would you believe I fully intended to return in a timely manner, but an orphanage had unexpectedly caught fire, and I felt compelled to stop and help rescue the children?”
“That sounds nice and heroic.” Kim twisted off the cap and drank the life-sustaining nectar of the gods directly from the bottle. A shudder ran through her entire body. “Did you make the news?”
Angel shook her head. “After it was over, I realized I hadn’t fully anticipated the bureaucratic, legal ramifications involved. They wanted me to fill out paperwork. I told them I needed to get home, as further delays would only make my beautiful girlfriend upset.”
“I like the subtle compliment, but that excuse isn’t any more believable.” Kim’s eyes narrowed. “You better not have set an orphanage on fire to give yourself credibility, either.”
Angel adopted an offended look. “I wouldn’t do that.”
“The truth, this time. What was your actual reason?”
“I lost track of time.”
Kim nodded. “It took me a few minutes, but I guessed as much.” A few minutes . . . plus or minus five hours.
“I’m not upset you were gone all day or never called,” Kim said, then thought better of it. “Okay, that’s not entirely true. I was upset. You’ve got a lousy sense of time, and I get that. But now you want to leave me behind and borrow the car again? Not just once, but twice? What in the world were you doing all day yesterday?”
“I’d rather not say.”
“Are you doing something secret behind my back?”
“Yes.”
Kim lost a moment to sheer incredulity. “I’m sorry?”
“I’m doing something secret behind your back,” Angel confirmed. “And I plan to do more of it today. Please, may I borrow the car?”
“I don’t believe it,” Kim whispered, half to herself.
Angel was taken aback. “What don’t you believe? I’m confirming your suspicions. I’m honestly planning something in secret.”
“That’s not what I meant. How much more proof do you need?”
“What do you mean?”
“Isn’t the entire reason you started looking for aliens in the first place because you wanted me to believe your background story?”
“Is that what you thought?” Angel seemed genuinely surprised. “That each time I asked you to believe me, you thought I meant, ‘believe my story’?”
Kim crossed her arms. “That isn’t it?”
“It may have started out that way, but being able to trust my story is only part of it. When I say I want you to trust me, it means I want you to believe me beyond all doubt when I tell you that I love you.”
Kim tried her very best to suppress the unexpected happy feeling welling up in her heart. When that didn’t work, she hid her grin behind the act of taking another drink.
Focus. Angel wants to leave for the day. You can’t let that happen!
Once she had successfully quelled all outward signs of her emotions, Kim set her drink aside. “If what you’re doing has something to do with the aliens, then why are you leaving me behind?”
“My reasons will become apparent.”
Kim snorted. The irony wasn’t lost on her, that Angel’s ultimate make-Kim-love-me plan required her to keep her distance.
“Can’t you give me a hint?”
Angel seemed to consider it, then relented. “You’ve often given hints as to what you truly want in life. I’m actively working toward that end. I want to make it happen. Trust me a little longer. All will be revealed in time.”
“Does this involve Naomi?”
“Yes, it does.”
Kim turned away. She’d suspected as much, and there it was. Confirmation. The old fear she’d thought long since buried returned to haunt her once again. The thought of Angel remembering her past and deciding that living on Earth, with her, wasn’t nearly as interesting as the life she’d left behind.
And what was worse, Kim knew, intellectually, that her fear wasn’t even a rational one. If Naomi desperately hoped to escape that life, why would Angel want to return to it? Logic told her that it shouldn’t matter if Angel risked remembering a life Naomi hated. It shouldn’t matter at all.
And yet, it did.
Why? Why did she feel that way? Kim wasn’t sure. Could she be jealous of a life best left forgotten?
Kim steeled her resolve. None of that mattered. This was the moment; the moment of truth. Angel wanted to leave, and Kim’s plans to seduce her couldn’t possibly succeed if Angel wasn’t around to be seduced.
“I don’t want you to leave,” Kim blurted.
Angel chose not to respond. She tilted her head slightly in her “curious” expression.
Things are a lot simpler when Angel takes the lead. Now that she was committed though, Kim pressed on. “This side-project you’ve got going, you’re ultimately doing it to show me that you love me, right?”
Angel nodded faintly. “I’m doing this out of love for you, yes.”
Kim pressed both hands against the kitchen table to keep them from trembling, hoping to make the action look casual. Courage, Kimmie. “In that case, if you really want to show me you love me . . .” Her throat went dry.
“Yes?”
Oh, God, I’m really doing this, aren’t I? Fear and excitement warred in Kim’s stomach, fighting for supremacy. “If you want to show me,” she tried again, “there’s another way. Something we can do together. Something I’d like to do to you. With you!” she corrected.
Angel smiled softly. “I believe I understand what you’re asking.”
Kim’s eyes remained fixed on the table.
“You’ve often spoken of this fear,” Angel said. “You’re upset that I might decide to leave. This worries you, and you’re hoping to persuade me to stay . . . longer. Is that it?”
“It isn’t that I’m worried about it.” Kim raised her chin, but still couldn’t muster the courage to look Angel in the eye. “You’re free to come and go as you want. I know you’ll come back.”
“I understand,” Angel whispered. “If you love someone, set them free.”
A finger gently bade Kim to look up. Angel framed Kim’s face with her hands and kissed her deeply, passionately.
“I love you, too,” Angel said, then swept the car keys off the counter and left the room. Kim heard the front door open and close.
She blinked in the sudden silence.
“Hey!”
Chapter Thirty-One
Naomi was not normally one to panic easily, but today marked a special occasion. She walked to the next group of people, her pace brisk but not hurried. The appearance of normalcy was everything. “Did any of you notice anything unusual about breakfast this morning?” she asked, for the fifth time that day.
The assorted office drones and wage-slaves stared back at her. Their response was the same: blank and uncaring stares all around, with varying levels of curiosity to make each individual reaction distinct. Naomi was far from reassured.
She took the stairs to the next floor.
Where could he be?
She
blamed herself for not thinking things through. It had never occurred to her that the humans would spend hours preparing breakfast before actually serving it. She’d arrived early in the morning, hoping to transfer her now deposed boss to a more secure location, and had been horrified to discover the subbasement bustling with human activity. Her frozen boss was nowhere to be found.
Naomi had been subtle with her inquiries, but had yet to discover anyone who might have witnessed anything.
If something happened to him . . .
Two offices were open for business on the next level—an insurance adjuster and a small-time private investigation firm. The rest were either closed or available to rent. Naomi made inquiries to any who would talk to her. None provided any useful insight.
Her time expended, Naomi felt she had no choice but to abandon her search. She rode the elevator to the sixteenth floor with a heavy heart, fate uncertain.
She opened her office door, and there was Brandon, sitting in one of her office chairs as if waiting for her.
“Brandon?” she blurted. “How did you . . . ?”
“Surprised to see me?” he asked.
“Oh, thank God you’re still alive!”
Brandon narrowed his gaze, as if weighing her words for insincerity, but Naomi knew there was no insincerity to be found. Her relief was genuine and heartfelt, and she didn’t mind showing it. An entire hour’s worth of accumulated stress drained away in an instant. The situation couldn’t be any more perfect. Brandon was here. It didn’t matter whether he had escaped, or been freed after the humans found him. A personal confrontation in her office was far preferable to being locked in restraints in front of a Central Authority armed tribunal.
“You poisoned me. You locked me in a freezer,” Brandon accused.
“It was necessary.”
“You poisoned me. You locked me in a freezer,” he repeated, a little louder this time, apparently on the off chance Naomi hadn’t heard or fully appreciated his words the first time.
“My actions were necessary. I realize now that you don’t understand. I needed you safely out of the way in order to protect you.”
“You poisoned me to protect me?”
“The modulator was stolen. Taken from us last Friday,” Naomi confessed.
Brandon half jerked in his chair. “What?”
“It was taken, and the apparent theft prompted a need for swift action. I’m certain you’ve taken the time necessary to fully evaluate my recent, unprecedented behavior, have you not? I can also assume you’ve become fully aware of my attempts to seize control and have doubtless attempted to locate my stockpile of appropriated weapons.”
Brandon did another twitch and half jerk. “When was this?”
“It was necessary,” Naomi said again, not in the mood for games.
“You poisoned me . . .”
“There’s no need to repeat earlier accusations,” Naomi told him scornfully. “I see what you’re about. You’re attempting to demonstrate ignorance in the hopes I’ll reveal my dark plans, but what I’ve done goes well beyond petty world domination schemes. The modulator has been taken. This forced my hand. Without the modulator, our mission cannot be completed in a timely manner. I needed to act swiftly and decisively. My path regretfully required you to be safely removed from power and out of my way.”
“What have you done?”
“I’m getting to that.” Naomi sat down in the chair opposite Brandon and took a moment to clear her throat, hoping to add the weight of drama to her words. “Have you fully considered what will happen to the rest of us here if Central Authority discovers we’re behind schedule? Whether I’m found directly responsible for this tragedy or not is irrelevant. As your subordinate, I’d be forced to implicate you to save myself. I wouldn’t want to, but I would.” Naomi took a moment to breathe, allowing herself to get choked up. “Although doing so would break my heart!”
“What heart?” Brandon scoffed.
Naomi ignored him. “Can you imagine it? They would destroy you. Your entire career. Everything you ever worked for, and everything you ever hoped to aspire to.” She wrung her hands to demonstrate her angst. “All of it would be ruined, taken from you, and I couldn’t let that happen!”
Wide-eyed silence was her only response.
Naomi continued to pour it on. “It remains vital that you tell no one,” she said. “None of this goes beyond this room. This conversation will only become relevant if you call attention to it. Pretend you’re clueless, as before. Tell everyone I never tricked you and locked you in a freezer to seize control. Or better yet, tell them nothing.”
“You poisoned me—”
“Oh, give it a rest,” she snapped. “You’re still alive, aren’t you?”
“No thanks to you!”
“You’re acting as if you’re personally offended somehow. I’m certain this isn’t the first time you’ve been poisoned and stashed in an out-of-the-way location by a subordinate you’ve known and trusted for years.”
“How could you do this?”
Naomi turned away. Partially to convey guilt, but mostly because the sight of Brandon’s ever widening eyes was becoming distastefully disturbing. “I did it out of respect for you. You’ve always been there for me as an idealistic icon. A mentor. Someone protecting me, looking out for me. I couldn’t bear the guilt of seeing you destroyed by another.”
“So you decided to do it yourself?”
Naomi kept her face averted, turning as much as her chair allowed. Another idea occurred to her.
Once certain Brandon couldn’t see, she gently touched each eye with her forefinger. When she turned back to face him, her reddened eyes were flowing with tears. “Don’t you see? It was out of respect. I did it all to protect you. With you safely out of the way, they’d look to me and no further. As the team’s new self-appointed leader, I’d be blamed, and you’d be spared any further scrutiny.”
Despite her words, Brandon still seemed unimpressed and somewhat incredulous.
This isn’t working, Naomi realized. He’s not buying it.
Brandon rose to his feet, and Naomi half-rose in answer.
He raised his hand. Naomi readied herself.
“Thank you for explaining,” he said.
Naomi’s grip on the armrests slipped, and she slid halfway back into her chair. “What?” she gasped.
“I understand now. It all makes sense.”
Naomi felt herself relax.
Then Brandon shook his head. “No. No, wait. It doesn’t make sense. You lost the modulator? When? How did this happen?”
“It was taken—”
“No, you lost the modulator to outsiders and felt compelled to recover it. I understood that much. How is seizing power for yourself a solution?”
“It remains vital that we recover the modulator before Central Authority notices our collective failure and replaces us with a more competent crew. As a victim of a trusted but now proven competent subordinate who’d ruthlessly taken advantage and seized control, you’d be blameless and escape the purge.”
“It doesn’t work that way. I’m in charge. I’m the one responsible for you and your mistakes.”
“But my way is better,” Naomi insisted, now beginning to despair. Was Brandon too dim to understand the full complexity of her logic? “You trusted me. I removed you from power. My proven success and ambition elevates my competence! This won’t change even if I’m caught. I’ve proven myself. But if you’re left in charge despite my efforts, then it follows that you’re the leader responsible for an incompetent subordinate. A subordinate who was not only directly responsible for losing the modulator in the first place, but also failed to remove you from power in an effort to save herself.”
Brandon’s eyes went flat. “No. Your so-called solution leaves you in power. I’m not leaving you in charge of anything.”
“Better to be found guilty of misplaced trust than guilty of presiding over incompetent subordinates.”
“Bu
t it isn’t your power!” Brandon picked up a pen from Naomi’s desk, then threw it down again in an apparent effort to fully convey his growing frustration. “It isn’t yours! You stole it!”
“Nevertheless, it would be a mistake to take it back. Better to be guilty of misplaced trust in me one solitary time, than guilty of trusting me even after you’d been successfully disposed of and replaced. If you remain a victim of my takeover, your only crime would be misplaced trust.” Naomi drew back to demonstrate surprise and astonishment. “Are you suggesting you’d rather be seen as incompetent? How could that be a more favorable outcome?”
“Why shouldn’t I remove you now?”
“Why would you wish to?” Naomi countered. “At present, I’m the only one at fault. Are you prepared to remove me from power and assume full responsibility for my crimes?”
“It doesn’t work that way.”
“It doesn’t? How can you be certain? Can you afford to take that chance?”
“I am not leaving you in charge of anything!” Brandon thundered. Naomi assumed he spoke without contractions to better emphasize his words.
Undeterred by Brandon’s refusal to accept her version of reality at face value, Naomi tried another tactic. “Any attempts to remove me from power will fail. You can’t get rid of me.”
“Why can’t I?”
“Because I’m the only one with all the information.”
“What information?”
Naomi proceeded to reel him in, then symbolically threw him into a water-filled bucket to be cleaned and devoured at her leisure. “There are complex plans in motion,” she said slyly. “The cards are on the table, and I’m the only one who understands the rules. If you’re attempting to reassume power, it’s vital you know what steps I’ve taken, or risk further disaster.”
Brandon shielded his eyes, as if attempting to massage away a headache. This was the reaction Naomi had been hoping for, and she seized her opportunity.
Her hand snaked under the desk, searching . . . searching . . . there it was.
The weapon fit easily into her hand. It was roughly half the size of a credit card, a low-quality holdout from earlier times which wouldn’t trigger an immediate alarm. A quick glance confirmed it held a full charge.