by Lisa Lace
The moment disappeared, and I watched his vulnerability go as he transformed into his usual arrogant self.
"I am," I breathed.
"Good. I can't have you thinking that work is supposed to be fun, like kissing my beautiful, smart, sexy wife all the time. You'd never let me quit."
"Are you thinking about asking to stop?" I said, trying to show no reaction to his startling news. I managed to keep a straight face as we navigated through the crowd.
He put his hand on the small of my back and the possessive nature of the gesture didn't escape me. He was showing the men in the room I belonged to him.
I liked it.
"I already told them at work. Gave my two weeks notice, so to speak."
He couldn't be completely transparent in public, but he didn't seem to be talking about his lifeguard job.
"But what about…?"
"I just have to finish this thing I'm doing. Then I'm free to do whatever I want. Whatever, or whomever," he said, in a tone of voice that made my pulse race.
I wondered what he meant. Was he saying that I wouldn't have to want him forever? Was he saying that we could try having a real relationship without his secret agent issues being an obstacle?
The last thought that raced through my head was "Marriage first, then dating". That was when the first shots rang out.
"Get down, Sam!" I ducked my head and turned my back to the sounds of blaster fire, which had turned into sounds of screams and chaos. People ran for the doors. Jori had crouched down beside me and urged me back towards the entrance.
More shots fired. This time, I saw bodies fall to the ground.
They looked just like Jori and me.
One of our team members — Joley, the blonde — crossed our path as we scurried to the doors.
"Plan B," she said to Jori. "Route number 2. 1 is already closed off."
Jori didn't acknowledge or look at her. He merely nodded and continued pulling me away. The rate of blaster fire increased, with no respite in between the shots. I kept my eyes on the door, feeling sure we would make it safely out of the building.
I felt something hit my arm. The pain was excruciating, and I couldn't help screaming. We should have gotten body triples. Through the haze of agony, I heard Jori muttering. "We have to get out of here. You might be hurting now, but it will hurt more if we stay."
The fear in his expression scared me more than the pain in my arm and shot adrenaline through my body. We darted out the door. Outside was safe for the moment; the only blaster fire came from inside. The lawn was overflowing with a crowd of people. More were pouring out of the building and trying to get off the property. They were crazy and panicking. Jori grabbed my good hand and dragged me across the vast lawn.
The thought occurred to me that Harrington had a degree of wealth I had not imagined before. He had so much land he could grow grass on it. Land, of course, was at a premium on Vandwa.
"We've got to get out of here before they close off all the exit points."
It seemed that most of them were shut down already, but we hoped ours was still intact. When the blonde had mentioned a backup route, she was referring to a manufactured tunnel.
A twelve foot high wall surrounded Harrington's property with a barbed wire fence and an electrical force field that would shock anyone who approached. Jori's team had dug a hole under the wall. The entrance was small because they could not disturb the electrical wires powering the force field. I hadn't cared about the size of the tunnel before, but I wasn't expecting to use it at the time.
"Here we go," he said, his arm around my waist.
I stared at the ugly, small hole in the ground. I didn't think I could crawl through it and winced, drawing to a complete stop.
"I can't do it," I said.
"You have to, Sam," he said, urgently. "We don't know the extent of their operation, but we have to assume they will discover us soon."
"That is a hole, not a tunnel."
The thought of wiggling through the tiny hole with my arm radiating pain seemed impossible. The darkness of the hole made me feel claustrophobic, and the notion of being pursued by dangerous predators made my feet feel like stone.
"Samantha," Jori said, touching my face.
Suddenly he was pulling off his clothes. That got my attention. "Take off your dress. With only your bodysuit on, it will be easier to slip through."
The hole was so small that my dress might catch on something? It felt painted on my body. I shouldn't have eaten those appetizers.
When I didn't move, he tore the dress off me. I briefly wished it had been under different circumstances.
"Sam," he said, "I need you to go through the hole first."
"I can't," I croaked out. "You go. I'll figure something out."
"I'm afraid that's not an option anymore, Sam." Jori's voice had turned cold. "If you're caught, he'll find out everything we've told you. He won't ask you in a pleasant manner. I can't lose you like I lost my mother."
For some reason, those words touched me. When he laid himself bare, I felt a fierce sense of courage and protectiveness. Jori had suffered enough pain in his past. I needed to be strong because he needed me.
I wondered if I needed him too.
I knelt down by the hole in the ground and tears started rushing down my face. I couldn't imagine Jori stuffing himself inside.
"That's it, Sammy. Wiggle through. I know it's going to hurt your arm, but you have to be brave. I'll take care of you."
I swallowed and stretched my arms out in front of me, getting down on my stomach to slither into the tunnel. The pain made me bite back a whimper. Jori didn't say anything, but I knew he was back there, pushing against my legs.
I began to wiggle through the hole. Once I started, I felt as if I would never get out of the dark, dank earth again. My arm hurt every time I moved it. The tunnel felt as if it was closing in and clawing at me, trying to hold me back with every struggling movement I made to go forward.
When I was halfway through, I felt myself get stuck. My mother always told me I had childbearing hips, and my baby makers were much wider than the legs the little people in the Vandwan secret service used to dig the hellish little hole. Fuck.
I wriggled and wrenched, feeling like I would never escape. Jori was pushing hard on my ass, and my hands found a root that I pulled on with my good hand. With a bone-jarring wrench, I felt myself come free. Soon I was scrambling out of the dirt onto the sand on the other side of the fence.
Jori popped out of the hole a moment later and was by my side in a heartbeat.
"Sam, are you okay?"
I nodded, my good hand holding my hurt arm against my chest. I felt disoriented.
Then I was suddenly staring up at the distant Vandwan stars as my vision faded to black and I was out cold.
Chapter 10
JORI
When Sam passed out on the sand beside the outer wall of Harrington's estate, I managed to remain calm. She was still breathing, and I thought her arm was only bruised, not broken.
I filled in our side of the hole with dirt, digging madly. I used the energy from my fright - I hadn't known if Sam would be able to escape.
If I stayed here, we would be found when they performed a perimeter search. If I left, I would have to carry Sam. I didn't know how far I could take her. She wasn't a large woman, but I had caught an off-planet fever in prison. It had weakened me in unexpected ways. I still didn't have the muscle mass from before I went in. I had been working out and trying to gain weight, but it was a slow process.
I heard voices. They were close to us. We had to move. I didn't have a long time to make a decision. I lifted Sam up, but I knew I wouldn't be able to take her far. The only thing I could think of was to bring her into the ocean with me. I could swim underwater quickly, pulling her along with her head above the water, allowing her to breathe. It was easy to improve my cardiovascular fitness, but difficult to regain muscle.
I walked into the warm water to te
st her buoyancy; I was relieved when I realized the water would support most of her weight. As I towed Sam into deeper water, a wave washed over her, splashing her in the face. She gasped and woke up, coughing and spluttering.
"Jori, what's happening?"
I clapped a hand over her mouth. Sound travels easily in water. A whisper can be heard a long distance away. We would be lucky if we had not given away our position already. But soon we'd be far away, and I hoped they wouldn't know where to go. The ocean would cover our tracks.
I pulled her ear to my mouth.
"Hold on to my back and stay out of the way of my arms. I'm going to swim underwater. It's your job to keep your head out and breathe. We're going to move fast."
She nodded. She was still waking up but looked determined.
I turned onto my front and showed her how to wrap her arms around my chest and under one arm. This way, she wouldn't pull on my neck. She gasped when I accidentally stretched her hurt arm, but I didn't have time to worry about her pain.
I ducked under the surface, not bothering to inhale before my head disappeared below the water. I quickly flipped my clear inner eyelid down and opened my eyes, seeing everything below the surface.
I took a deep breath through my underwater breathing organs and began to move, using the fastest stroke I knew. Vandwans have about twenty more strokes than humans. I suppose we are more interested in swimming because we spend more time in the water. Ashlyn and I had discussed the subject when I had stayed at their house. She was a good swimmer, for a human.
The stroke I chose kept my arms away from Sam's grip and allowed me to leave my head underwater and swim faster. I raced through the ocean. If our pursuers were tracking us visually, I wanted to make us as hard to find as possible.
I had instructed Samantha to tap my back if she was in trouble underwater. She hadn't indicated distress, so I assumed she was fine and kept swimming. I felt myself tiring quickly. I was out of shape, and I would need a break soon. Running and swimming used different muscles.
When I could swim no further, I slowed down and angled back towards the beach. We were getting a little close to The Barrier, too, which was making me nervous. At this point, we were close to land. It would be better to go ashore, rest, and decide what to do.
When the water was shallow enough, I let Sam down onto the sand, and we staggered out of the ocean. She was weak from her arm injury. I was weak from exhaustion. We made quite a pair.
As we crept farther along the beach, I thought I recognized the skyline. We were close to the neighboring city. I had come further than I had expected. Either I wasn't as weak as I thought, or I had a lot of adrenaline in my system.
"Which city is that?" Sam asked.
"It's Oora," I told her.
"That's impossible. It's too far away."
"Vandwans can swim quickly, Sam. We're not like you people." I could see by her expression that she didn't believe me. "I was worried about us, and I wanted to make sure we'd escape. Maybe I overdid it."
She looked impressed. "What do we do now, Jori?" she said, cradling her hurt arm with the other hand.
"We're going to have to walk," I said. We hadn't gone far when I asked a question that had been bothering me. "Does your arm hurt much?" She was walking stiffly and looked like she was in pain.
"I can take it," she said. I didn't think it was the truth, but it might have been a necessary lie. I needed her to keep walking. I didn't contradict her.
A few minutes later, I thought I noticed someone behind us on the beach. I looked nervously at Sam to see if she had seen them yet. From the grimace on her face, I knew she had. When they started running, we had to start moving too. She struggled immediately.
Running on sand is arduous, and I could tell she didn't have much experience with it. I wondered why they weren't firing at us yet.
The bullets came again, and I felt something hit me in the upper back of my bodysuit. Thank goodness Harrington's men were terrible shots.
"Come on," I said. "We have to get back in the water. It will be harder for them to shoot us."
We ran into the waves. As soon as we were deep enough, she wrapped her arms around me, and I began cutting through the water again. Moving underwater felt more draining than the first time. After a few minutes, I could feel I was tiring already but I pressed on. When Sam tapped a distress signal on my back, I slowed down and lifted my head, breathing slowly.
"There's a ship, Jori," she said, indicating it with a flick of her head. She clung to me as I treaded water more quickly than a human ever could, easily keeping us afloat.
I looked out to sea and had a hard time making out the shape of a galleon. The sun was setting behind the ship, casting shadows on our side. Once my eyes became accustomed to the light and I remembered to flip back my inner eyelid, which had been making things blurry, I saw a door open on the side of the ship. They were lowering a cage into the water.
"I can't believe it," I muttered to myself. The only thing that would be in that cage was a rogahz, and it would be coming to eat us. I took off quickly. Sam wasn't ready and got a face full of water. I heard her coughing and hacking on my back, but it was better to cough than to die.
The fear of the rogahz's teeth helped me accelerate even though I was tired. My terror gave me more energy than I had thought I had left. We were going so fast that when we hit shallow water, we plowed into the sand. I dragged Sam to her feet and helped her onto the shore. I only let her take a break when we were far away from the water.
"Jori, what is the matter with you?" she shouted. I motioned to the water, and her face went white when she spotted the terrible creature circling in the area where we had just been. It was frustrated now that we had denied it a meal.
Her legs gave out, and she sank onto the sand.
"What is that thing?" she asked. She was shaking.
I didn't say anything. I was exhausted and shocked, filled with the thought that we had barely escaped a horrible death. We rarely encountered rogahz in the wild. They were one of the reasons why we created The Barrier. We wanted to keep them away from civilization. Not only were people trying to shoot us, but they were also attacking us in the water as well, using deadly predators.
Samantha looked up and pulled me down beside her. She wrapped her arms around me. I felt her warm tears on my neck. She never made a sound.
I was facing the sea. I saw when they called the rogahz back and returned it to the cage on the ship. The sun had set by now, and the shadows concealed our location. Harrington would be coming after us because he knew who I was and he wanted me dead. I was a threat to everything he held dear, and he wouldn't stop until the threat was completely nullified.
I rose to my feet.
"Jori, what are you doing? You need to rest. We need to stay here until we regain our strength." I shook my head.
"They'll be coming after us."
I couldn't explain more. I didn't have the energy, but she seemed to understand.
"Where should we go?" she murmured.
"The docks in the city," I said, tilting my head. She was already on her feet, taking my hand. "It's busy with lots of people. It should be easy to hide."
"Okay. Come on," she said. This time, it was her hand that pulled me and gave me strength.
* * *
"Jori? We're just a few feet from the docks. Do you think you can make it?"
I cut my eyes over towards her, not bothering to turn my head and waste energy. I gave a tiny nod and continued putting one foot in front of the other. Samantha looked worried, but squeezed my hand and kept walking. Soon we arrived at a boardwalk stretching out to the docks. All the ships came to port and transferred cargo here.
"Won't we stand out in our bodysuits?" Sam whispered to me.
I shook my head, not bothering to explain. She would see soon enough. The atmosphere at the docks was crazy. It wasn't just where ships loaded and unloaded, but it was also a fair where hundreds of sellers came to hock their wares. Th
ere were performers and all sorts of unusual people. We would blend in with all the other weirdos. As soon as we walked into the crowd, I saw her smile. She understood.
Our relief was short-lived. There was a shout behind us. Sam turned her head, and said, "Jori. It's them."
I didn't ask if she were sure. I didn't ask how she knew. I moved, dragging the last bit of energy out of my body to force my tired arms and legs to run one last time. We took off down the fairgrounds area of the docks, dodging around people and booths. There was another boardwalk further on that would take us back to land. I guided us in that direction, turning sharply without altering my speed.
As I ran, Sam suddenly put on the brakes and tried to drag me back.
"Wait!" she yelled.
I lost my footing and slipped, crashing into a chain. Sam yanked my arm. I couldn't believe she had all that strength packed into a little body. I landed on my ass, cursing in my mind because I didn't have the energy to speak.
"Jori. I can't read the signs, but it's under construction," she said. "There's nothing to walk on."
I finally looked where I was rushing and saw a dark yawning abyss below us. At the bottom of the long drop was a pile of sharp rocks in shallow water, waiting to break my back.
Samantha wasn't looking at me, but she pulled me to my feet again. I groaned.
"Come on, Jori," she said. Her voice quavered. "They're still coming."
When I looked back, I saw our pursuers had been slowed by the crowd and had lost sight of us for the moment. I made a decision and took off at a slow jog with Sam by my side.
We ran down one of the arms of the docks, where ships of all sizes were moored, loading and unloading their cargo. We shouldn't have run; it may have made us stand out in the crowd. Our assailants caught sight of us and moved in our direction.
"Jori, where do we go?" Sam wailed. There was no way out of our location. Each arm of the docks stretched out but ended at the ocean. If we wanted to go back, we would have to retrace our steps.
I tried to stay calm and remember my training. There was always a way out. Scan. Look for it. Something will be here, but it might not be obvious at first glance. I quickly searched around us.