“What are you doing here?” It was a guy in his forties who stepped out of line holding a sign that read “Abominations won’t be tolerated, Love the Lord.”
Jessie stopped, cocked her head and gave him the once-over with a critical eye. “What are you doing here?”
He frowned. “I’m using my right as an American to voice my opinion.”
She shrugged. “I’m here because my American ass wants to be.”
She advanced another five feet before the jerk moved, jumping in her way. She stopped, her body tensed and she evaluated him as a potential threat. He had about five inches in height on her and wasn’t in good shape with his beer gut and flabby arms. He glared at her bag with narrowed eyes.
“Are you staying here?”
“You’re really smart. Yes. That’s why I have a bag with me.”
He frowned, looking more pissed. “You can’t go in there. It’s a den of evil.”
Jessie flat out grinned.
That seemed to make the stranger madder. “Do you doubt me? I have the word of the Lord on my side. He told me to come here and let them know they aren’t welcome here in America. We’re a God-loving country.”
Jessie loved guys like these. He was just making her day as she laughed. “Wow. God talks to you? That’s great. Could you tell him that I’d like world peace and Elvis back? I dream about him hooking up with some cool metal band. They could make some kickass music together.”
The man gawked at her but finally closed his mouth. His eyes rounded while his face reddened. “You mock me? You mock God?”
“No. I’d never make fun of God. What I mock is that you’re an idiot who doesn’t seem to know it. Instead of wasting your time here you should be getting your own life together. I wonder what God has to say about judging others? Remember that one? I do, from Bible school. I never once saw a bumper sticker that says Jesus or God loves you unless…fill in the blanks. Get a life and realize that if God were really speaking to you, he’d have better things to tell you to do than wasting your time annoying good people. He’s about love and acceptance, not stupidity and hatred.” Her attention focused on his sign and then him. ”You might want to take some classes too since you don’t seem to know that comma should be a period. You might learn something like compassion too while you’re at it. I know it’s nice to walk outside and take in fresh air but do it in a park, not harassing good people who are trying to better their lives. You should try that sometime. It might make you a decent human being. Currently you are doing a shitty job of that.”
Jessie moved around him. He was pissed, sputtering and shocked. Jessie spotted two Species officers grinning from where they guarded the gate entrance. It was clear they’d overheard every word. She kept her hands where they could see them and tried to appear nonthreatening as she approached. They remained on the other side of the gates and were heavily armed.
“Hello. I’m Jessie Dupree. I’m going to reach into my front pocket and pull out my driver’s license slowly.”
One of them gave her permission. She pulled out her license and handed it through the bars. “Justice North spoke to Senator Jacob Hills early this morning and offered me a job at Homeland. I wasn’t expected at any certain time but here I am.”
One of them handed back her license. He hesitated before reaching for something on the wall out of her sight. He pulled out a clipboard and ran his finger down it. “Let her in. She’s on the list.”
The second officer unlocked the gate. Jessie walked inside, paused and watched the gate lock behind her. The first officer gave her a polite smile and indicated she should follow him. Jessie gave the protesters a one-fingered wave before she stepped out of sight. The walls around Homeland were thirty feet high and had walking corridors above where more Species officers patrolled.
“It’s standard procedure to check your bag. Everyone has to be searched. We also have to pat you down. I apologize but due to serious threats against the NSO it’s necessary. I can call a female officer to pat you down if you are uncomfortable with me touching you. I can have one here in under ten minutes. We have some bottled water and sodas available so you can comfortably wait. We do have to search your bag now though. We need to make sure there aren’t any weapons in it or bombs.”
“I understand. I usually carry a gun, I have a permit but I didn’t bring it with me. I realize it isn’t good here so I left it with my team.”
The man blinked. “What team?”
“I worked with the Retrieval Human Task Team to the NSO until this morning.”
He smiled. “I didn’t know they had any females.”
“I was the only one.” She turned to face the wall and spread her limbs. “Go ahead and pat me down.”
The man was efficient and didn’t make Jessie want to punch him. His hands ran over her breasts but they didn’t stop, squeeze or grope. He crouched down and started at her ankles and ran his hands all the way up. He used the back of his hand to make sure she wasn’t carrying a gun inside her panties. He stood and moved back. Jessie turned and stared up at him.
“Thank you. We have notified the office of your arrival and they are sending a Jeep for you, Miss Dupree.”
“It’s just Jessie. Thank you.”
He smiled. “I’m Flame and my partner over there glaring at the protesters is Slash. Thank you for the amusement when you talked to that man out there. He loves to taunt us.”
“My pleasure. When he starts up again just start chanting Elvis and I bet he’ll shut up.” She winked. “It’s the best way to deal with them. It will totally piss him off, he’ll know it’s an insult but it won’t sound that way to anyone but him.”
The officer laughed. “I’ll remember and pass it on to the others.”
“It’s only fair you give it back. I’m sure you have to put up with a hell of a lot. May I ask a personal question?”
He shrugged. “Sure.”
“Why did you pick Flame for your name? I could see it if you had bright red hair but yours is light red.”
He grinned. “I love watching a fire burn and often spend my nights sitting outside in front of a fire pit. The smell of burning wood is pleasant, the flames are beautiful and so lively.”
“I always like to ask. You’re lucky you get to pick your names. I got stuck with Jessica Marlee Dupree.” She shook her head. “My parents said it was pretty. I think they were smoking drugs to rhyme two of my names.”
He laughed.
“That’s why I insist on being called Jessie. I hear someone call me my full name and just cringe. It sounds like I should be crooning old country songs or something. You have meaning for your name.”
“You are a joy to be around.” He grinned. “Your parents did something right.”
“Thanks.”
“You are really going to work here?”
“Yes. I don’t know what I’ll be doing but I got canned from the team this morning. I was sent here.”
His smile slipped. “You mean fired? Why did they fire you?”
“I got shot. It was just a graze, really. I killed three assholes too but they deserved it. It’s a long story. It was a good shooting but my dad is Senator Jacob Hills so he freaked out. He fired me to make sure I’m not in danger anymore, or put in a situation where I might have to kill assholes.” She smiled to soften her words. “I guess he figured I’d be safer here.” She studied the high walls and armed Species officers patrolling above with large guns. “I can see this place is pretty secure.”
Flame grinned. “Where did you get shot?”
She turned to show him her back and reached up into her hair. In seconds, she’d parted it to reveal a shaved area about two inches long and an inch wide covered with a bandage. “It was just a graze. The bullet took some scalp but…” she released her hair and turned to face him. “Remember to always wear your vest on duty.” She glanced at his. “I took two rounds to mine in the back from a sniper.” She pointed to his vest. “They work well. All I have is a few bruis
es.”
“Amazing.” He grinned. “Do you have any friends here? Working with the task force must have made you some.”
“No. I’ve met a few people but no one I spent a lot of time with.” Except Justice. She didn’t mention him aloud though.
“Why don’t you give me a call when you get settled? We have a bar here. I’d love to buy you a beer and introduce you to everyone. I think you’ll make a lot of friends. You are really funny.”
“I’d like that. You can never have enough friends.”
“We have a phone directory. I’m listed inside. I’m just called Flame. I don’t have a last name. I haven’t had a reason to choose one yet.”
A Jeep being driven by a Species woman approached the gates. She was a big woman, obviously an experimental prototype and not a Gift Female. Jessie didn’t have much experience with those females except for the one she’d spent time with at Reservation. She’d liked Breeze a lot.
“There is your ride. I hope you enjoy living and working here, Jessie. It’s been a real pleasure meeting you. I hope to buy you a beer soon. Call me.” Flame waved.
She gripped her gym bag and waved back. “It was a pleasure meeting you too. I’ll be calling about that beer.” She headed for the Jeep.
The large Species female scowled. “Human, you are to come with me.”
“Hello. I’m Jessie. You’re my ride?”
“Yes.” She didn’t look happy. “I’m Midnight. Please climb in.”
Jessie tossed her gym bag into the backseat and sat in the passenger seat. She didn’t reach for her belt. There were no seat belt laws on New Species properties. They also didn’t have a lot of vehicle traffic or speeding issues. She mainly saw golf carts parked along most of the curbs. The driver turned the Jeep around and glanced at Jessie again, obviously not happy to be assigned to drive her anywhere.
“Do you not like humans in general or is it just me?” Jessie kept her smile in place.
“I don’t mean to be rude.” She glanced at Jessie with a softer look. “I’m not used to dealing with your kind and my experiences haven’t been good.”
“I see. Well, I’m a total smartass but I’m always nice to people unless they aren’t nice to me first. I don’t think you’re being rude. I just wish you’d give me a chance before you decide not to like me. I’m open-minded about you.”
Midnight smiled. “I see.”
Jessie had to learn how to break the ice all of her life. As the daughter of a public figure she’d had to deal with a lot of strangers in different types of scenarios. She could be more open and blunt with New Species than with humans and she liked that. Species didn’t play games or lie easily. They were straight up.
“So, are you the one who’s going to tell me where I work, what I do, where I’ll be sleeping and when I start? I’m kind of in the dark except that I have a job and I’m living here.”
Midnight flashed her blue gaze at Jessie. “I’m just supposed to pick you up and take you to one of the cottages. I was told to show you the home, wait around until you’re ready and then take you to the medical center. I don’t know anything else.”
These people need help with their job orientation program, Jessie decided. “Fair enough. Will I have to live with someone or do I get my own room?”
“You will get your own cottage. We don’t share living space unless we live at the women’s dorm but we all have our own apartments. We just share common areas. It’s for New Species only and visiting humans are assigned cottages. They are houses located in secured areas cut off from the rest of the general population.”
Jessie grew silent, allowing that information to sink in. Secure areas cut off from general population sounded pretty grim. Midnight wasn’t a talker and didn’t seem to mind the silence that stretched between them. Jessie glanced around her surroundings. There were a lot of buildings that didn’t have names but they did have letters to identify them. She realized she didn’t see any numbers at all, on anything. She shrugged it off. They left the buildings and drove through a large park. There were tons of trees and an obviously man-made lake.
“That’s really pretty.”
Midnight glanced at the water. “I like Reservation better. They have a really large lake and it’s pretty. I did four weeks there last month and want to go back.”
“What do you do there? Is it better than driving new employees around?” She meant it as a joke.
“Slade, he runs Reservation, requested female help while construction was being done there. He needed help with security so twenty of us lived there. Once everything was done we were brought back here. We missed it. This is nice but Reservation is better. Now we trade off shifts so I go for a month but then we switch. It works well and that way our females are divided equally between the two locations.”
“Is being divided equally important?”
Midnight hesitated. “We are a lot fewer than the males and they are protective of us. If something bad ever happens at one place they want to make sure not all of us are killed.” She paused. “We get threats all the time by your kind to blow us up and hunt us all down like animals. It makes the men worry about us and they divide our numbers evenly.”
“I understand. Humans can be pretty shitty, can’t they?”
Midnight shot her a surprised look.
“I know how flawed my people are.” Jessie shrugged. “Some of us are good while some of us deserve a bullet to the head.”
The Species woman smiled but tried to hide it by turning her head forward to watch the road. “We are also needed here because Justice and the council decided we should take care of all our people. Some of our females weren’t living here until recently and they need us stronger females to care for them.”
Jessie shifted on her seat. “You mean the Gift Females?”
Midnight’s suddenly wary gaze cut to Jessie’s and she frowned. “What do you know of them?”
“Actually, a hell of a lot. Until early this morning I was part of the team that retrieved them and helped return them to your people.”
The woman hit the brakes hard. Jessie almost slammed into the dash. The woman turned all the way on her seat to face Jessie, studying her hair. “You’re her! You’re that Jessie!” A grin broke out across Midnight’s face. “Tiny and Halfpint talk about you all the time! They all do but especially those two.”
Jessie recovered from almost being a bug on the inside of the windshield and shoved her ass back against the seat. “Tiny and Halfpint are here? Really? What happened to the women’s retreat they were living at?”
“Oh, we don’t send them there anymore. It became too dangerous. We didn’t want those nice human females or our females hurt. They were getting death threats for harboring Species.” Midnight still grinned. “Wait until I tell them you are here. They worship you. Whenever they are feeling frightened and scared, they think of you. You are small like them but they said you are fierce.” Midnight glanced at Jessie and her smile slipped. “You don’t look fierce. You look small and kind of weak.”
Jessie laughed. “I’m stronger and tougher than I look.”
Midnight didn’t seem convinced. “I will drive you to the cottage and to the medical center. I will tell the females you saved that you are here. They might bake you something. They are learning how and are proud of their skills.” Midnight lifted her boot off the brake and punched the gas. “Don’t hurt their feelings.” It sounded threatening.
Jessie leaned back against her seat. “I wouldn’t dream of it. I love baked goods and I’d love to see them.”
About two dozen really cute homes sat nestled on the other side of the lake. They were all different colors. Jessie hoped she got one with a view. They were larger than she thought they would be when she’d heard the word cottage. They didn’t really resemble cottages but she shrugged that off too. The houses she saw had to be about fifteen hundred square feet. Midnight didn’t slow the Jeep as they passed the gate leading to those homes.
“Weren
’t those the cottages?” Jessie stared behind them.
“Yes. I was told to take you to the other cottages.”
“There are more?”
“That was the human area for the humans who work or visit Homeland. You were assigned to the New Species side.”
Jessie frowned, turning to stare at Midnight. “New Species side, as in only New Species live there?”
“Yes. I don’t know why. I asked but was told do it. I do it.”
They came to another gated community. A guard shack with a Species officer in his black uniform waited. Midnight hit the brakes.
“Is this the human female?” The man peered at Jessie curiously.
“Yes,” Midnight announced. “It is her.”
The officer smiled. “Welcome. Your home has been prepared and I was told to tell you that if you need anything to let me know, Miss Dupree. If not me then whoever is here on duty. One will always be posted at the gates. You just push the button inside the door of your home to reach us. It is labeled clearly. It will let us know you need help.” His gaze turned to Midnight. “It is the rose-colored one by the dark blue. It’s the highest on top of the hill.” He pointed.
“Thank you.” Jessie forced a smile. Why would they put me here?
The officer opened the gate electronically and it swung wide. Midnight drove her through. Jessie looked at the cottages they passed. They were similar to the cottages they had passed where all humans lived. They were cute, newer homes but looked slightly bigger than the human ones. The community was built on a hill overlooking Homeland.
Midnight drove up the street to the top where one exceptionally large dark blue home sat away from all the other homes but the slightly smaller rose-colored one next to it. Large yard areas were located on each side of the two homes, spacing them from the other houses down the street.
“There it is.” Midnight pointed. “It is big for one person.”
“Yes.” Jessie was in shock. “I expected just being assigned to a room.”
Midnight parked in the driveway and climbed out. Jessie got out more slowly. She reached into the back and gripped her gym bag, following Midnight to the front door. A key had been left inserted in the lock. Midnight pulled it out and handed it to Jessie.
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