Touched by an Alien

by Gini Koch

  “No.”

  “What’s going on between you and Christopher?”

  I’d hit the target. Martini’s eyes narrowed. “Nothing.”

  “You know, none of you can actually lie, not even Paul.”

  “Time to go through the gate.” He shoved me, gently, toward the bathroom stall.

  I refused to budge. “No. I want some answers. Christopher being a jerk seems like his natural state of being, but you’re not acting like what I’d call normal. For you, I mean.”

  “Look, I don’t want to talk about this here. We just spent a lot of time and energy so we could get you and your mother out of here safely. Let’s not have all that go to waste, okay?”

  “No. The last time I asked you a question you didn’t want to answer, we ended up in New York. I want the answer to this question before we end up God knows where. Now, what’s going on that’s making you act like this?”

  He wasn’t lying, I could tell—but the answer was a bit of a surprise. “You. Now, let’s get moving.”

  “You’re mad at me?” I didn’t know what I’d done differently that would have caused him to be this upset.

  Martini gave a growl of exasperation. “No, I’m not mad at you! I’m crazy about you! Yes, I know, less than a day. Empath, remember? Gives you certain insights into people. Now, can we please go?”

  I let him move me to the stall while I digested this. “So Christopher doesn’t want you with me, does he?”

  Martini snorted. “That’s for sure.”

  “Well, who cares what he wants? But that’s no reason to be nasty to those other agents.”

  “Fine. I’ll send them all a fruit basket once we’re out of here. Now, step through, please. So I can step through, and we can get to safety.”

  He seemed so stressed out and upset, and he was leaning over me, trying to get me fully into the stall and through the gate. I didn’t think about it, I just leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. “Okay, I’ll be good.”

  Martini gave me a slow smile. “Nah, I like you just like you are.” Then he bent down and kissed me back, but not on my cheek. And I forgot about where we were, evil things trying to kill me, or anything else.

  CHAPTER 16

  THE ONLY SEMI-COHERENT THOUGHT I could muster was, if his kiss was any indication, Martini wasn’t lying when he said he was great in bed. Because I was ready to find out, right then and there.

  His mouth covered mine—soft pillowy lips you could fall into and a tongue that knew just how to twine with mine to make my knees go weak. His arms went around me, pulling me away from the stall and turning me so my body was fully against his. My arms went around his neck, and I kissed him back as deeply as he was kissing me. He had one hand behind my head and the other at the small of my back; we were pressed so tightly together I almost couldn’t breathe, but I didn’t want to pull away. I was perfectly willing to stay like this for the next several hours.

  Finally, he ended our kiss—gradually and sensuously. As we drew apart, I slowly opened my eyes to see his smoldering back at me. “I’d be happy to continue this conversation somewhere else, when I know nothing’s going to show up to try to kill us,” he said with a small smile.

  I managed to stop myself from suggesting we not worry about anything but getting out of our clothes as quickly as possible. I may have just had the most mind-blowing kiss of my life, but it hadn’t turned off my brain completely.

  I didn’t say anything, just nodded. He gently turned me around and moved me back to the stall.

  “Jeff, what do I do?”

  “Wow, one kiss and you’re finally calling me Jeff? I’ve still got it.” He bent down and nuzzled my ear. I had to stop my eyes from rolling back—maybe I really had fainted the first time because his lips were so close to mine. “You just walk through. I’ll be right behind you, so don’t dawdle.” He kissed the side of my head, and I stifled a moan of pleasure.

  He stroked my arms and let go. On my own. Forced to walk into a men’s toilet stall all by myself. I took a deep breath and stepped in. Just before I hit the toilet, a totally unappealing idea based on its cleanliness level, the bathroom disappeared and the horrible whooshing feeling started right up.

  For me, nothing wipes out the happy glow of intimacy faster than feeling nauseated. I was still moving, I could tell I was, but I felt as if I were standing still and the world was moving past me. My foot seemed to be moving in slow motion. When it finally hit the ground and the destination jolt hit me, it was just in time. I didn’t want to exit the gate barfing, and it had been a close call.

  I finished stepping through, and Martini came out seconds after me. Clearly, the journey didn’t take as long as it had felt like.

  “You okay?” He put his hand on my lower back.

  “Sort of.” I figured he was picking up the nausea.

  I looked around to see Christopher glaring at me, his arms crossed over his chest. “Took you long enough.”

  “I had to send your boys off,” Martini said before I could think up a suitable reply.

  “They were supposed to wait.” Christopher sounded furious.

  “I didn’t want them to,” Martini said with a shrug, while he moved us away from the gate.

  “I’ll bet you didn’t,” Christopher snarled. “You aren’t authorized to give them direction.”

  Martini stopped and walked over to his cousin, until he was right in Christopher’s face. “I know what this is about,” he said in a low growl. “You want to play games, fine. This isn’t a game to me.”

  “They’re all games to you.” Christopher was matching Martini’s tone and facial expression. The anger was rolling off both of them, I didn’t have to be an empath to feel it, and I wondered whether they were going to start a cage fight without the cage.

  I heard a woman clear her throat. “Kitty, could you come help me with something for a minute?”

  I looked over my shoulder to see Mom standing there. She had that funny look on her face again, and I decided it might be wise not to be nearby if Martini and Christopher started to really go at each other.

  Mom grabbed my arm and dragged me off. I looked back to see both men watching us. Christopher still looked angry, but Martini looked upset.

  We got out of sight of them, and I noticed we were in what seemed like a huge cavern, loaded with more computers, desks, and screens than I’d seen at Home Base, or ever, really. “Did we land in the Bat Cave?”

  Mom made her exasperated mother sound. “No. This is the Dulce Science Center for Extraterrestrial Studies.”

  “Or, next stop on the UFO Tour, whichever you can say three times faster.”

  Mom shook her head. “You’re really a joy to work with.” She stopped dragging me along. “Look, you need to stop baiting Christopher.”

  “I beg your pardon? What are you talking about? There’s nothing I’m doing on purpose to piss him off. He’s just a jerk, to me and about me.”

  Mom rubbed her forehead. “God, are you dense.”

  I was about to demand an explanation for this insult when I heard someone call my name. “Kitty, over here!”

  I looked around and saw Reader waving at me from across the room. He was gesturing, and it was clear he wanted me over there. I sighed. “Mom, duty calls. You can explain my density later.”

  “Trust me,” I heard Mom mutter as I headed for Reader.

  Unlike Home Base, this place was loaded with women. I was glad I’d changed now—I felt dowdy enough next to most of them in the relatively clean clothes I had on. In my bedraggled suit I might not have been able to make it to Reader without self-destructing from embarrassment.

  I could tell they weren’t human, though. Not that they had antlers or something growing out of their heads, but they all seemed genuinely nice. I was stopped by many of them as I walked across the large room, and every one asked if I was okay, told me my mother was the greatest, said I was a really brave young woman, or gave me some other atta-girl sentiment. It was as i
f I’d fallen onto the Planet of the Honestly Nice Cheerleaders. I didn’t fit in, but, boy, was I glad they didn’t seem to notice.

  When I finally made it to Reader, I wondered why Martini would even know I was alive, let alone be interested in kissing me. He had more gorgeous women around him in this room alone than there were in the entire American Southwest.

  Reader gave me a commiserating grin. “Now you know how I felt when I first joined up.”

  “But you were a top male model—the top for a long time.”

  He shrugged. “You’ve taken a look. It’s one thing to be attractive when other people around you are ordinary. When everyone’s gorgeous, you have to figure you’re not that great.”

  The idea that Reader would have had any kind of self-consciousness or felt unworthy lookswise with this group had never occurred to me. “Paul doesn’t seem to mind,” was all I could come up with that wasn’t going to make me sound both stupid and unobservant.

  “Yeah.” He gave me a big smile. “And he had a lot of gorgeous to compare me to.”

  “Oh, my feelings of total inadequacy in the looks department were showing?”

  “Just a little. Trust me, they’re both really into you for yourself. Including how you look. Which is great, take it from the gay man.”

  “Both?” I was going to ask him who he was talking about when White came over.

  “Finally. Miss Katt, I’d like to have you debrief us on your experiences with both the superbeing you eliminated and Mephistopheles.”

  “Nice to see you again, too. I’m fine thanks, how are you?” He didn’t crack a smile. Oh, well. No sense of humor in the son, why was I expecting one in the father? “What’s to debrief? Your agents were around for both, and I’ve already told you pretty much all that happened.”

  “Yes,” White said with a show of forced patience. “But I’d like you to debrief our lead scientific team.” He gestured behind him at several women who would have made Raquel Welch green with envy. The only saving grace was some of them looked about Raquel’s age, so I could tell myself Mom should be the one feeling inferior, not me. Of course, I knew my mother and doubted she’d feel inadequate against anyone.

  “Are you Angela’s girl?” one of them asked me.

  Angela? She’d been here no more than five minutes longer than me and she was already on a first name basis with the beauty queens?

  “Yep, that’s me.” I remembered Reader had said all the female A-Cs were scientists. Great, so they were better looking and smarter than me. For this I’d gotten up this morning?

  “Your mother is just the most amazing woman,” another one offered. “We’re totally in awe of her.”

  “Me, too.” I mean, I’d spent most of this day in total awe, over just about everything, including my mother.

  “Now, now,” I heard Mom’s voice behind me. She was chuckling in that way people do when they’re being complimented and want to pretend they don’t actually want to hear it. “This is really Kitty’s time.”

  Oh, great. This was my initiation into the Kick-Ass Females Club, wasn’t it? I mean, every one of the A-C women looked as though they could easily run as far and as fast, if not faster, than any of the men. There were some I could say looked downright Amazonian. All of them were stunning, and they ran the gamut to ensure that no man would ever be short of his “type.”

  And then there was me. I wasn’t Mossad trained. I wasn’t from Planet Dazzling. I was just a marketing manager from Pueblo Caliente, Arizona, who could wield a mean pen.

  I caught Reader’s eye. He grinned. “Welcome, fully, to my world.”

  CHAPTER 17

  WHITE LED US INTO A GOOD-SIZED CONFERENCE room. Martini and Christopher were already in there, sitting at opposite ends of the long, oval table, glaring at each other. What a fun meeting this was going to be.

  The conference table gleamed in an odd way, and I assumed it was alien made or at least influenced. The chairs were all black and looked reasonably comfortable. There was no phone, screen, or whiteboard, though. Just glass panes on each side, so meeting in here would be like meeting in a fishbowl. I couldn’t wait.

  I pointedly sat next to Martini, who was at the far end of the room, earning another glare from Christopher. I glared right back and then turned to watch White usher everyone else in.

  Several of the Dazzling Sisters filed by and took seats around the table, then Mom, Gower, and Reader came in as well. Mom leaned down and said something privately to Christopher, who nodded, and looked away from me and Martini. Then she came and sat next to me.

  “Please try to remain civil,” she said as my personal aside.

  I wasn’t thrilled with her choosing to side with my enemy. “Sure, no worries,” I muttered back. “I’m used to him being a total jerk. So, is he the son you’ve always secretly wanted or what?”

  “Boy, do we need to talk,” Mom said with a sigh.

  More women came in and a few more male agents as well. The conference room was packed. Gower and Reader were across from each other in the middle of the table, but standing with their backs against the glass walls, as were the other male agents. In fact, the only men sitting were Christopher, Martini, and White. I found this yet another interesting tidbit to file away in hopes of it meaning something more later.

  “We’ll dispense with the introductions,” White said by way of calling the meeting to order. “Miss Katt’s had a long day, and I don’t want to lose any of her information to delay or fatigue.”

  Martini made some motion on the table, and suddenly it was a movie screen, albeit a weird one. It appeared to be showing only one picture, but as I looked down in front of me, I could see the images closer up, as if the screen had adapted just for me. I looked out of the corners of my eyes and could see it was the same for Mom and Martini.

  We watched the news report of what had happened. “You know, I’m never buying linen again,” I said to Mom. “I look like I’ve slept in that suit.”

  “It’s you. I just figured you had.” My mother, the standup comic.

  “Do I really run like that?”

  “Yep,” Martini confirmed. “Don’t worry, I think it’s sexy.”

  “Thank God. I think I look like a cheetah on drugs.” I looked over to White. “Why are we watching this? This is the fake.”

  He nodded. “I wanted you to see what the news media’s shown. It may matter later on.”

  “Like when Mephistopheles or one of his pals comes to try to kill me or ask me to join their exclusive club?”

  He had the grace to look unhappy. “Yes.”

  “Fine. Seen it. It was more exciting in real life.”

  White nodded, and the picture changed. This time, it was the real thing. I watched the man sprout wings again, saw the carnage. Only it was worse this way. In real life I’d only seen him kill his wife, and I’d stopped watching that to focus on how to stop him. Now, I knew he was stopped, and I was able to see what he’d done. It was sickening, in all the worst ways.

  Martini reached under the table, took my hand, and gave it a little squeeze. I squeezed back, harder, and didn’t let go. The benefits of being with an empathic man were starting to look pretty good.

  “What can you tell us that we can’t already see?” White asked me.

  “I have no idea,” I had to admit, as I scanned everything I hadn’t seen before, which was a lot. “Your cameras really caught everything, more than I saw at the time.”

  “Not our cameras,” Christopher corrected. “This is a compilation we made from the variety of amateur shots taken.” He glanced at his father. “At least a dozen different camera phones and a couple of video cameras caught some or all of this. We had to alter them all and then make sure they matched each other.” White didn’t seem impressed one way or the other.

  However, in the interest of remaining civil, I decided to be Suzy Supportive. “Nice job. Very smooth, not choppy at all.”

  “I’ll let my team know you appreciate their work,”
Christopher said, snarl and glare both set to low.

  “Panoramic, even.” In fact, I had to figure at least one of the photographers had been there doing something else, because there was a lot of detail far away from the main action. “Someone was really focused on the top of the building, weren’t they?” As I said this, I noticed a movement in the upper level of the courthouse and a flash of color that didn’t fit. “Um, can we do a rewind?”

  “Sure,” Martini said and made some different hand motions. “Tell me what you’re looking for.”

  As the picture rewound, I saw it again. “There, stop, go forward . . . right there.”

  Martini froze the picture, and I pointed to the ninth story. There was something familiar there. “Can this zoom in?” No sooner asked than done. We were now all staring at a window on the ninth floor of the courthouse. There were some people standing at the window, watching the carnage below. Two of them were very close to the glass. And one was wearing a suit that looked very familiar.

  We all stared at this image for a few long moments. “What’s the big deal about this window?” Mom asked finally. I assumed she was speaking for the entire room.

  Nothing that had happened all day surprised me more than who spoke up. “I see it,” Christopher said, and for the first time all day he didn’t sound angry or nasty—he sounded freaked out. “How can Kitty be down on the street, killing a superbeing, if she’s up in that window, watching the action?”

  “Get a load of who ‘I’m’ with,” I added, as I tried not to panic and failed utterly, if Martini’s hand squeeze was any indication. The picture zoomed in even more. Now it was easy to see “me” and the man next to me, even though the picture was fuzzy.

  “Ronald Yates.” Mom’s voice was like lead.

  In a room full of humans, I figured pandemonium would be breaking out right about now. In a room full of aliens, not so much. Everyone was staring at the pictures, studying them. What I found a particular relief was that no one was asking me how I’d managed to be in two places at once.