Star Fallen Lover

by Lakes, Lynde

  He winked like he’d seen men do in the movies. “Yes. A dozen of the longest stemmed ones.”

  “Thank you, Greg. Shall I get someone to bring the company car around for you?” Her voice was crisp and efficient, but her eyes glowed.

  “No, call a private limousine. I can use the time en route to study the current financial statements.” Mona had helped him get a replacement driver’s license and a credit card when he told her he’d lost his in the mugging. But that didn’t help in this instance. He couldn’t tell Ellen he had to get someone to drive him. Even though he’d been to Mona’s house six months ago when she escorted him from Honolulu, the mugging had dulled his senses and he hadn’t paid attention how to get there.

  After the limousine arrived and they were underway, Cortz noticed that the blue car pulled out of the driveway only seconds behind them, and then it disappeared into traffic. He tried to tell himself it was a coincidence, but instinct warned him otherwise.

  On his way to Mona’s, Cortz asked the driver to stop at a toy store where he purchased a three-foot-high teddy bear with the company credit card Mona had given to him. He would replace the funds with cash from the sale of the diamonds.

  He returned to the limousine, humming his lilting tune. He took notes as the driver maneuvered the vehicle along a busy thoroughfare, on and off Interstate 10, then from one surface road to the next. They turned onto a sparely-traveled, tree-lined road which took them into a neighborhood of large homes set far apart on lush, green, sculptured grounds.

  Suddenly he didn’t feel like humming. The blue car was behind them again. Apparently it had lagged behind since he’d left the office. He felt sure the spy had something to do with Fox…the Navy…the government. And he couldn’t do a thing about it.

  As his driver guided the car along, Cortz knew he would have been lost had he tried to manage the drive himself. But had he been driving, he would have found a way to lose the blue car. He couldn’t ask the driver to elude the pursuer. Again acting paranoid would raise questions, questions he didn’t want to answer.

  The chauffeur pulled into the circular drive of a large, elegant, colonial home. The blue car parked a distance down the street. The spy probably thought he was too far away to be seen. But he didn’t know who he was dealing with. Uraticean eyes could see further than human eyes. Cortz frowned. The blue car’s driver was definitely following him…watching him.

  The chauffeur opened the door. Cortz stepped out with the teddy bear tucked under his arm, and his briefcase in his hand. He had to ignore the spy and appear normal.

  Mona ran out to greet him. She gave him a big hug and drew him into the house. Cortz sniffed and recognized the spicy smell of spaghetti. “Something smells good.”

  “Your favorite, lasagna.”

  Wrong again, he thought. So many different names for the same aromas. It didn’t matter. He’d found the diet of Earthlings to be more varied and tasty than the food he’d been accustomed to on Uraticus. Each meal was a new and usually pleasant experience.

  Cortz heard muffled steps and a baby’s laughter. Ricky was in Richard’s arms, twisting his fingers into his dad’s hair until it looked like a snarled crown of brown seaweed.

  “Good to see you,” Richard said as he hurried down the last few steps of the wide stairway and shook Cortz’s hand. He looked more like a burly football player than a doctor.

  Mona kissed Ricky’s pudgy fingers. “You three men go in the den while I stick the garlic bread in the broiler.”

  Richard explained his duties at the hospital, while Cortz spun the world globe by the desk, looking for the Hawaiian Islands. He had just found Oahu, where Darli waited for him, when Mona called them to the table.

  During dinner Cortz felt like a man watching his life unfold. Only it wasn’t his life, it was Greg’s. He experienced the gentle teasing of a sibling and what it would be like to have a sister like Mona. He liked it, more than was safe. He almost wished he really was Greg—it would make his life on Earth much simpler—make loving Darli less risky.

  After dinner, Mona dimmed the dinning room lights and stepped into the darkened area with a cake decorated with one flickering candle. Ricky clapped his chubby hands. His laugh was an adorable hiccup. Tears stung the back of Cortz’s eyes. He blinked them back, puzzled by the emotions welling up inside him.

  Richard followed behind Mona and began singing “Happy Birthday” in a falsetto voice.

  Candlelight illuminated a net of suspended balloons. Cortz placed the teddy bear on the table next to the two large packages with shiny red bows.

  Mona placed the cake in front of Ricky and helped him blow out the candle. Ricky stuck his finger into the frosting and they all laughed. Cortz regretted the good times Uraticeans missed by not celebrating birthdays.

  After the party ended and Mona wiped the frosting off Ricky’s hands and face, Cortz lifted him out of his high chair and held him on his lap. How warm and soft he was. Cortz touched his lips to the infant’s golden hair. Would he and Darli ever have a baby like this? It would probably be colorless, with ruby eyes. A baby like that might be an outcast here on Earth. Or worse yet, the government would want to probe and study such an infant. He couldn’t let Darli get pregnant…not until they were safely on their way to Uraticus. How would he ever persuade her to go? What a ridiculous question, especially since she didn’t believe such a place existed. His stomach knotted. How long would he have to live this lie?

  Cortz carried Ricky to the window and peered out. A car was parked across the street. His pulse quickened. The street light wasn’t bright enough to determine the color, but instinct told him it was blue.

  “Greg,” Mona called, “come look at these photographs of us. You’ll have to admit we were cute little tykes.”

  The family albums were a road map to who Greg was. Cortz liked him, more than he wanted to. Mona delighted in teasing him about the picture and their youthful pranks.

  He was in awe when he saw Greg’s adult likeness. It was like looking in a mirror. Taurus had done a flawless job.

  “Remember this picture?” Mona asked. “You only got to use that baseball mitt once. I thought I was helping when I put it in the washing machine. Did you ever forgive me?”

  He looked up and smiled. “You’ve more than made it up to me.”

  Cortz stood and stretched, then he went to the window again. The car was still there. If it was someone from the Navy, had they learned enough to close the net on him?

  “What’s so interesting out that window?” Mona asked.

  “Nothing.” Since he didn’t want to call any attention to himself, or risk being accused of paranoia, there was nothing he could do but wait for the spy to make the first move.

  Cortz glanced over at Ricky, asleep in Richard’s arms. He wished he could be so at peace. Richard closed the child’s storybook. “Greg, how was your trip to Hawaii?” he asked.

  “Everything I dreamed and more. Leaving was the difficult part.”

  “Why you love-sick pup!” Mona said. “It’s serious, isn’t it?”

  “We’re getting married. You’re invited.”

  “I knew it!” Mona said. “When?”

  As Cortz spoke of the wedding plans and Darli, his longing grew. A warning premonition twisted his gut and told him the sooner he got back to her the better.

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Determined to return to Darli as quickly as possible, Cortz worked day and night, setting up the Honolulu operation. He’d caught sight of the blue car only a few times. He had tightened security around the buildings, but he had a hunch that a clever spy could breach it. Several times he felt sure it had been violated. Once he stepped back into the doorway when he heard a delivery man interrogating Ellen about Greg. Cortz smiled when she’d refused to answer more than cursory questions. The next day David interrupted a man disguised as a janitor fumbling through the new designs. David said he chased the man, but the guy had escaped by diving through an open window.


  Cortz issued orders to tighten security even more, but he wondered what the snoops had already found out. He touched the retriever attached to his belt. If necessary he would leave Earth. He raked his hand through his hair. That would mean leaving Darli. He would consider it only as a last option.

  His super-busy schedule gave him little time to worry about the possibility. He worked closely with David Backus and the other inventors. While considering which designs to improve, he selected only those with technologies that Earth was ready to handle. Using the advanced knowledge he’d gained on Uraticus, he re-drew the satellite booster design until it was perfect. He pressured Gordon Waverly to progress quickly from planning to market testing. He calculated the return-ratio and proved to himself and the board that not only could Operations produce an acceptable profit margin above the production break-even point, but the advanced concept would save users a fortune.

  David Backus suggested that the people sneaking around, going through the files and rifling designs, could be spies from a competitor. Cortz felt sure they were far more dangerous to him than that. It was tied into the Navy’s interest in him.

  Several days went by without any signs of spies or people rifling through files. And suddenly the blue car was gone from the employee parking lot. Did that mean the Navy had discovered enough evidence to lock him away? When no one came for him in the days that followed, he began to relax. Ellen was a more immediate threat. Her intimate knowledge of the real Greg and her quick grasp of the new concepts made her as dangerous as she was valuable. Each time she looked at him in that piercing way of hers, he was sure he’d been found out.

  The tension between them remained until one day, after an especially rigorous morning, she smiled and said, “Sounds like the old Greg is back.” It was then he knew he’d finally won her over.

  He found it easier and easier to function as Greg without strangers hanging around, and without the fear of being discovered by coworkers. Soon, he had a clear picture of what Greg had been like from Mona and by the way the employees responded to him with admiration and respect. In spite of his reluctance to do so, he had to admit that he could not only function as Greg, but in some strange way, he had become Greg, and Earth was beginning to feel like home.

  Until the day of his outpatient session with Dr. Steina, he had left the work site only twice, once to have dinner with Mona and once to go to the diamond auction. He tried not to think about the ways the doctor might trip him up. He tried to concentrate on the satellite designs in progress, while the limousine driver sped across thoroughfares, freeways, and up the winding road that led to the secluded private hospital in the mountains above the valley.

  Dr. Steina was seated at her desk making copious notes into someone’s file when Cortz walked into her office. She glanced up. “Greg, glad to see you.” She closed the file, placed it on top of a large stack of folders, and stood briefly to shake his hand. “Thanks for the roses,” she said, gesturing for him to sit down. “It was thoughtful of you to remember how much I love them.”

  “It was easy. You always had fresh roses on your desk.”

  She studied him a moment. “How are you feeling?”

  “Never better,” Cortz said. “Darli and I are getting married in a few days.”

  “Well, congratulations.” The doctor relaxed into her chair and smiled widely. “She’ll be good for you, stabilizing.”

  “It will be a small wedding at a little chapel by the sea.”

  “It sounds lovely.”

  It would be quite pleasant. But it was after the ceremony he looked forward to. Darli had the softest skin…

  “Suppose we get started.” The doctor’s tone turned crisp and professional.

  He didn’t mind that, and surprisingly, he didn’t mind her questions. He’d answered similar ones before. Nevertheless, he couldn’t stop himself from glancing at his watch in anticipation of the end of the session.

  “Do you have another appointment?” Dr. Steina asked.

  “No. Sorry. I fear my work schedule has turned me into a clock-watcher.”

  “Yes, I wanted to talk to you about that.” She looked at him with an assessing gaze. “When I talked to Mona the other day, she mentioned you were working too hard, staying at your office, working through half of the night.” The doctor’s intense eyes held his. “What’s that all about?”

  Cortz fought a sudden uneasiness. He knew what she was thinking that perhaps his mind was unstable again. “For me, the schedule is reasonable. In fact, I thrive on it.”

  “You do seem relaxed and in control. But what is so important that you can’t do it within normal working hours?”

  “I’m opening a branch plant in Honolulu. The sooner I complete the setup plans, the sooner I can join Darli. Permanently.”

  Her gaze was assessing. “Shock, stress, and overwork is partly what got you into trouble before.”

  He didn’t like where she was going with this. “I don’t intend to keep up the pace for longer than three more weeks.”

  “Glad to hear that. I don’t intend to police you, Greg, but I do want to assure a smooth transition back to your normal life.” She studied him silently for a moment. “What about nightmares? Depression?”

  “No nightmares. No depression.”

  Dr. Steina wrote something in his file, then smiled. “Your memory seems sharp now.”

  Cortz smiled. “Like a well-programmed computer.”

  “Is there anything I can help you with, a problem of any kind?” Her smile told him the worst was over. His shoulder muscles relaxed. “Not with regard to myself, but I would like to see Hap while I’m here.” He stood to indicate that as far as he was concerned the session was over.

  He was relieved when the doctor stood too. “You’re welcome to see him whenever you’d like. Hap stays by himself too much. The stimulus of a visitor now and then would be good for him. I’ll have Jones locate him for you.”

  “If it’s all right, I’ll just wander around and find him myself. I know where he usually hangs out this time of the day,” Cortz said, using the slang he’d picked up working with Earthlings.

  “I don’t see any problem with that, but don’t be disappointed if he doesn’t recognize you. He hasn’t been very lucid for the last couple of weeks.”

  Cortz shook hands with the doctor and quickly left her office.

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Half walking and half running, he crossed the manicured lawn toward the sycamore tree where he and Hap had whiled away aimless hours.

  There Hap was, his spine curved into a half circle. He looked older and thinner than Cortz remembered. It seemed as though he’d been away longer than three weeks. As Cortz approached, Hap looked up. He rose, straightened himself the best he could, and moved toward Cortz in a speed no one would have believed possible.

  “Greg!” He shouted hoarsely. “Never thought I’d see you again. Are you back to stay?” His grayish eyes sparkled.

  “Just a visit. How are you, Hap?” Cortz forced the words past the lump in his throat.

  “Fine,” Hap said, “but since you left, I don’t like it here anymore.”

  “Maybe we can do something about that.” Cortz patted Hap on the back. He felt like hugging him, but he feared that would be too emotional for a man like Hap. “I’ve missed you, Hap.”

  “The days’re longer now that I don’t have you to talk to.” Mischief twinkled in Hap’s eyes. “Which, I guess, means I miss you too.” He laughed. “What’s the world like out there now? Are ya glad to be free of this place?”

  “Very glad. Which reminds me, I’m getting married.”

  “Well, I’ll be damned. Congratulations, Greg!” Hap said, as he slapped Cortz on the back.

  “If I can arrange it, would you like live in Honolulu, so we can see each other often?”

  “Couldn’t ya jus’ come see me here?”

  “Yes, and I will. But when I move to Honolulu it will be too far to come often.”

  “
Can’t you come in your spaceship? I’d like to see it.”

  “That wouldn’t be safe. But perhaps if you come to Hawaii… I don’t know yet what can be done. But with your permission, I would like to have my attorney work on it.”

  “Do I have to promise to go?” Hap asked, with a hint of apprehension in his voice. “Hate to get too far away from the castle, ya know.”

  Cortz studied Hap’s face. “No, you just have to say it’s all right for me to find out what can be done. No pressure, just one friend investigating possibilities for another.”

  “Okay. But remember, I don’t promise anything. I’ve never been one to make promises, not even to the ladies.” Hap laughed. “I would jus’ tell ‘em how pretty they were and that was all it took.”

  Cortz visited with Hap a while longer, then he headed back. He hated to leave the old man. He suspected Hap would do better if he had outside interests and less medication.

  ****

  In the days that followed, Cortz met with his California attorney many times and talked on the phone with the Honolulu attorney.

  Even though he planned to come back after his marriage to complete the transfer of the California business to Mona, he had a great deal to do before he left. He spent hours going over the financial statements with Phil. But he spent most of his time with Mona, Blake, and Gordon, learning the operation. He immersed himself in every facet of the enterprise so he could make the Honolulu firm successful.

  Government contracts were an important part of the business, yet any contact with those who could lock him up unnerved him. In spite of his apprehensions, he sought the contracts. Ellen handled the reams of paperwork required to prepare bid packages.

  She knew the procedures, plus she was his insulation against all face to face contact.

  After Ellen returned to her office late one evening, Cortz called Darli. The phone rang only twice before she answered. “Hello?” His heart skipped a beat. Her voice was soft, and as youthful as a teenager. He pictured her with a big smile on her face, her beautiful hair loose and brushing her waist.