Mesmerized by the Alien Mercenary

by Ashlyn Hawkes

  “Sophia, you’re scaring me. Maybe just focus on whatever is going on that has you thinking you’re going to die. Unless… You don’t have cancer, do you?”

  “Not that I know of.”

  “That’s not exactly reassuring!”

  “I don’t have cancer.”

  "Good. Then get things settled, so your life isn't in danger, and then you haul your little ass over to that guy, shake it, do what you got to do, but you nail him."

  “Ines!”

  “I didn’t mean sex,” she protests. “Well, yes, I did, but go for it. Seriously. Once it’s safe. You only have one life. Take a chance and try to find love. You’ll be happier for it.”

  “And if it isn’t love?”

  “You mean it could be lust?”

  I shrug even though she can’t see me.

  “Lust isn’t so terrible of a thing, and maybe lust can lead to love. Who knows? Stranger things have happened like Jason volunteering to do dishes without having to be asked.”

  “Does he want something?” I ask dryly.

  Ines laughs. “I asked him what he wanted, and he was not amused. So far, anyway, it does seem like he didn’t have nefarious, ulterior motives for doing the dishes.”

  “Good. No eye rolling?”

  “Oh, he did when I asked the question, but I think I can let that slip.”

  I laugh and shake my head. “Yes, pick and choose your battles.”

  “You too. Fight for your life and fight for your heart, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  I hang up, and I sigh. My life is in danger. Wouldn't be the first time, but now I have to be on edge constantly, considering the threat isn't obvious like it normally is. The general is going to look into who took the hit out on me, and I'm going to do the same. I have enemies, yes, but I have allies too, more than just the general, and it's time I call in a few favors. What's the point of collecting the favors if you don't ever cash in?

  Which reminds me of the stockpile of cash I have for a rainy day. What if that rainy day never comes because I’m in a pine box?

  Damn it. And right when I thought I might be ready to think about taking a chance with a guy too. I haven’t thought about that in so very long.

  Oh well. Brain before heart. I have to think and not feel. If I feel, I’ll die. No fear, no lust, no nothing. Just smart calculations to stay alive and eliminate the threat.

  Yes. That’s what I need to do. Someone wants me dead.

  I’ll just kill them first.

  9

  Tox

  When I enter my office the next morning, I shake my head and turn around and head right back out again. I need more information on Sophia Clyde.

  Why? Why not? I want to know everything about her. The more I learn, the better I can keep her safe, right?

  Or maybe I’m just a stalker. I don’t know at this point. I don’t want her to die, and she won’t by my hand, but I also need to see if I can learn who else that silver-haired man might hire in my place.

  I try to go back to the people who directed me toward her house. I had to ask around a lot of people, and it was actually our waitress at the restaurant who pointed me in the direction of her place. The waitress had seen Sophia head that way many times because the waitress lives on that strip near that area.

  So, basically, dumb luck, and I can’t even find some of the other people who recognized her name when I mentioned her.

  Some detective I am.

  Finally, I find myself walking in front of a library, and I head inside. The woman working behind the counter is more than happy to help me. She sets me up at one of the computers, and I start to open a browser when I realize she's still hovering nearby.

  “You know how to use the computer?” she asks.

  “Yes,” I say flatly. “My mom has a computer on Kuria.”

  “Oh, she does? I didn’t realize. I, ah, very well then. If you need any help with anything else, just let me know. I’ll be happy to help.”

  She smiles, waves, awkwardly bends over slightly as if she’s in pain, and then she rushes away.

  Strange.

  I told the woman the truth. My mom does have a computer, but it's not like this one. She's told me about the internet, though, and I know it's a giant, open, air cloud of knowledge that you can harness at your fingertips. We have something similar to it in our chips, but unfortunately, our chips don't have information on every female and male on Earth.

  Imagine if it did. Imagine if there was a dossier on every female. What if all it took was for a Kurian to see the woman he’s supposed to be with? What if we could try to partner them up sooner rather than later? We could try to get the next generation of Kurians growing in uteruses far sooner.

  The picture of Sophia with a swollen belly comes to me, but I shove it away. She won't become pregnant if I can't figure out how to best save her, and I want to have a solid game plan in mind before I go to her. I'm also going to have to talk to her in code.

  I also might want to try to find the silver-haired man. That idea seizes me, and I opt to do some research on him first, but without a name, I can’t get anywhere at all. It’s pointless.

  All right, back to digging for intel on Sophia. Let’s see… Her parents had been Anna and Mark Clyde. They seemed to live a quiet life together until one day, their house was burned down. Several other houses had been burned down around that time, and the police had no leads as to the arsonist.

  Enter teenage Sophia. She did her own bit of police work, and she managed to uncover the identity of the arsonist. She went to the police about it, but they didn't believe her. Some of the articles I'm reading make it sound like her age or her gender is the reason for that, which baffles me. Just because she was young doesn't mean she doesn't know what she's talking about, and her gender? Women are intelligent, capable, and so much more. They aren't any less than a man. Who would think that, and why? Dad told me that all of the Novan doctors had been females before the Grots came and killed them all. Women are skilled.

  When the police wouldn’t look into the man she had uncovered as the arsonist, Sophia tricked the guy into committing it again at a specific building, and she filmed him in the act and hacked into the police station so that they saw the live footage. They scrambled to arrest the guy then.

  Damn, is she capable. I love that she had so much gumption, so much drive to be able to get the ovian bastard responsible. He set an additional five fires after her house and before the fire that he was caught setting. Five fires too many.

  The articles don’t specify how she tricked the guy into setting the building on fire. Maybe I can ask her about it.

  Let’s see…

  I read more and more articles about her, learning that she's well known for her profession. People know she's a bounty hunter, and that she's a good one too. She doesn't hide her job at all. That doesn't strike me as the safest of ideas, especially considering that others might want her dead too, even if they haven't put a bounty on her head.

  And then I start to see articles that paint a slightly different side of her.

  Sophia herself has committed arson. It was to capture one of her targets, but others had been in the building. No one was hurt, but still. It makes me question things a bit.

  And then there’s a time when she pulled over onto the side of the road and pretended to need assistance with her car. It was an act to try to get one of her targets to come to her, but someone else did. As a result, when a car came careening around the corner, the car plowed into the innocent man. An accident, yes, but if it weren’t for her profession, she wouldn’t have been there at that place and time, and that guy never would’ve stopped. The article doesn’t detail if Sophia ever did capture her target or not.

  Still, that’s a freak thing. She never meant for that guy to die.

  Or maybe she did. This article has a conspiracy theory that Sophia is using her profession as a means to play god and to take out her own bounties against those she thinks has wrong
ed others. That innocent man who pulled over to help her? He was wanted on rape charges.

  Now, I’m utterly confused, but I can’t stop reading. This article says she’s a blessing, that she’s helping to keep the peace, but this one states that she’s a menace who thinks she’s above the law, that the cops should bring her in.

  But then I read the most damning article of all.

  Sophia Clyde has done many things over the years, but the latest accusation against her is by far the worst.

  Sophia Clyde is a well-known bounty hunter, and why shouldn’t she be? She’s good at her job, maybe even a little too good. She’s willing to do what it takes to get her bounty, and she’ll hunt down anyone.

  Even kids.

  Yes, even kids.

  Her latest target was none other than the nine-year-old Mitchel Lionnel. Yes, the son of one of the officers of Global Countries of Earth. Why was there a bounty on Mitchel? No one knows, but what does that matter? Nothing at all to Sophia Clyde, that’s for sure, considering she kidnapped—excuse me. She collected a bounty on the young boy.

  Mitchel has since been returned to his father, but where had Sophia taken him? Why? What was the bounty for that would make Sophia willing to steal a young boy from his loving family?

  It's my opinion that Sophia Clyde should be put on trial for her crimes. She's not a bounty hunter. She's a kidnapper, and she deserves to spend time behind bars.

  Or maybe we should just let her fry. She’s willing to go to any lengths to make a buck. Why shouldn’t we save money and just allow her to be killed so she doesn’t take up any more of our precious resources?

  Now, clearly, this is a one-sided account, but I can’t help but agree. There’s no price I could be paid that would make me harm a child. What kind of a person is Sophia Clyde? If she’s willing to kidnap a young boy, then she’s not fit to be a mother.

  I don’t know her at all. I really don’t. Stox doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about. Just because I feel a connection to her doesn’t mean that we should be together, that she’s the one for me.

  It’s beyond clear to me that Sophia has done some questionable things in her past. Who hasn’t? But some of the things… I don’t know. I just don’t know. Maybe there’s a good reason for her to take Mitchel Lionnel.

  No. There’s no way to excuse kidnapping.

  Maybe I should just kill her after all.

  10

  Sophia

  I’ve checked and rechecked. The entire house is secure, and I manage to get some sleep. I can’t stay awake all of the time. A tired person has far slower reflexes, and if someone comes after me, I need to be on my A game.

  I’ve just finished showering and getting dressed, complete with arming myself, when there’s a knock at the door.

  I cross over to the door and peek through the peephole.

  All I see is blue.

  Tox? Why is he here?

  And then, I know.

  Damn mercenary.

  I open the door a tiny bit. “You found me.”

  “I did. I hope you don’t mind.”

  There's no smile, no smirk, nothing. His eyes are hard neon orbs that look inhuman. Inhumane too.

  “You’ve found me to kill me.”

  Tox blinks a few times.

  “You accepted the job to kill me. That’s why you’re here.”

  Slowly, as if in a daze, he nods.

  I open the door wide. “Come on in.”

  “You want me to come in?” he repeats.

  “I’m not going to say it again.”

  He slowly walks inside, and I shut the door and lean against it, my hand still on the knob, but within seconds, I can grab both a gun and a knife.

  If I need to.

  I hope I don’t need to.

  “Don’t worry,” I tell him. “I don’t have any hard feelings. Work is work, right? But how about this?”

  He blinks but says nothing.

  “How about I buy you off?”

  Tox says nothing. He just watches as I slowly remove my hands from behind me. I keep them raised to show that I’m not holding a weapon.

  Then, I remove my gun, my knife, my second gun, my dagger, my other dagger, and the dart that I have tucked into the locks of my hair. I lay out all of my weapons there on my coffee table, and then I sweep my arm toward it.

  “Go ahead and disarm so we can talk business,” I say.

  My heart is pounding in my chest hard, almost too hard. I'm not sure why. After all, I've negotiated with terrorists before. I've been able to talk my way out of terribly hard situations before. Deep down, I think and I hope that I can get out of this.

  But Tox is a wild card. I’ve never met anyone like him before, and right now, it almost seems like there’s a different Kurian standing before me. He’s hard and different. He seems calloused, somehow, as if he knows something about me that’s colored his opinion on me.

  Damn.

  “How much were you offered?” I ask him.

  “More than you can pay,” he says with a grunt.

  “How much?” I repeat. “And really, I have to insist that you disarm before we can talk business.”

  He scowls and lays down a strange-looking blade. I’ve never seen anything like it before, and I can’t help myself. I pick it up and examine it.

  “What is this?” I ask, wonder tinging my tone.

  “A krislasher.”

  “From Kuria?”

  He nods.

  I turn the weapon over. It’s lightweight, but the blade does have some weight to it. It’s not entirely balanced, but I think that will only serve to drive the blade deeper into any wound.

  With the way the blade is curved, I have to assume, “You wouldn’t use this for stabbing.”

  “Slashing.” He nods, and there’s a slight smile to his lips that instantly dies. “That’s what it’s a krislasher.”

  “Gotcha.” I place the weapon on top of the pile. “Care to sit?”

  “I’ll stand.”

  “How much were you offered?”

  “More—”

  “Do you want me to buy you off or not?” I ask, growing exasperated despite myself.

  “I want you to…”

  “You want me to die? Did a bit of reading on me before you came here, didn’t you? Who did you read? Which cases? Because the news never gets anything right. If you read about Cassie Medhurst, well, she poisoned her first two husbands. The Global Countries of Earth wanted to talk to her because the poisons she used? She created them. They now employ her. As for those husbands? The first abused her, and the second threatened her life. Was poisoning right? No, not at all, but I’m not going to judge her. It’s not my place.”

  “Mitchel,” he says hoarsely.

  I grin. “He’s a great kid.”

  “You took him.”

  “Yes.”

  “You kidnapped him.”

  “No.”

  Tox crosses his arms. His muscles flex with the movement, and I can’t help appreciating how strong he is.

  “You don’t believe me, and that’s fine. I understand. I’m not supposed to tell anyone what all happened, but if that’s what it’ll take for you to not kill me…”

  His lips purse into a thin line.

  “You don’t want to hear it? Fine.” I pick up his weapon and toss it back to him. “Go ahead. Slash me.”

  He snarls, and he heaves a sigh. “I don’t know.”

  “If you want to hear the truth?”

  “If we should talk.”

  “What should we do instead?” I ask, confused.

  Wait. He doesn’t have something else in mind, does he? That would be ridiculous. I mean, yes, I’m attracted to him, and I wanted to see about maybe starting something with him if I can open up to him…

  And here I am, trying to be open, even being open enough to tell him things that I’m not supposed to.

  And what does he do? Not want us to talk. What the hell? I can’t win for losing.
<
br />   Tox glances around.

  “What are you looking for?” I ask.

  He walks farther into the room and then walks up to the bookcase that I have in the dining room. Tox points to a book and then mimes writing.

  Paper and pen. He wants us to write everything? Seriously?

  Damn. This makes me worried about the person who hired Tox. Is Tox being watched to ensure that the task is done? He’s afraid we’re being listened to right now.

  In my house.

  My nostrils flare, and I cross over to my desk and grab two pads of papers and pens. I hand one of each to Tox and start to write.

  Mitchel is a great kid, but his mom had apparently been torn between two guys when she became pregnant. She wasn’t married yet, and she thought the man she then became engaged to and married, Thomas Lionnel, was the father. At the time, no one questioned it, and they were very happy.

  When Mitchel turned nine, he became sick. They tested his parents to see if they were a match. They weren’t, so they opened it up to outsiders.

  The other guy was a match.

  When his mom, Sally, found out, she freaked out. She wanted to have DNA testing done to see if Mitchell was Thomas’s or the other man, but she didn’t want anyone to know. She didn’t want there to be a scandal involved if it could be helped.

  I’m not done writing yet, but Tox stands behind me, reading. I watch his face as he reads, and then he nods, and I get back to writing.

  She asked me to come and take Mitchel for the day. We went out, had some fun, saw a movie, ate ice cream, and then I took him to a place she told me to so that a doctor could draw blood. Convoluted? Yes, but I’m not going to complain about it. The movie was good, the ice cream delicious, and like I said, Mitchel’s a great kid.

  I wait, and when Tox is done reading, he makes a gesture for me to keep going.

  I purse my lips and scratch the back of my head. I already said—well, wrote—more than I should’ve.

  I signed an NDA.

  He blinks and then nods.

  I really shouldn’t.