"Strangers?" I said, raising an eyebrow.
"Anyone. I wouldn't lie with her unless we were alone. Even after marriage, upon visiting family, a couple doesn't sleep in the same bed."
I let my chin rest on my fist. "How long have you been together?"
"Seven years, your time. Betrothed for one. I always knew of her, of course. She is Hamech's daughter. It never occurred to me to try to win her affection. She seemed so out of reach. One day, her unit was assigned as security to an exploratory mission, my first as a senior science officer. She saved my life. We were friends first, and then she--by some miracle--fell in love with me. I know she seems cold, but she was raised without any margin for error. She doesn't tolerate weakness"--he laughed once--"well...except for me. We are to be married when I return. Hopefully, after this debacle, Hamech will still allow it. Hopefully, she'll still allow it."
"Why wouldn't she?"
"My friendship with you...unsettles her."
"Should it?"
Cy looked down to the floor. "No."
I smiled. "It's okay. I can see that you love her."
"If I've...if I've seemed confused about the nature of our friendship, please accept my apologies. Being here, so far from home, and spending so much time with you...you make it very easy to forget."
"I'll take that as a compliment."
"You should."
I settled back onto my side, listening to the awkward silence we'd left in the air, until I heard a ruffle coming from Cy's direction.
"It's so strange to feel so strongly about two women who are so different. Sometimes, I wish the situation were different. But it's not, and it's wrong of me to think that."
"So, stop."
"You don't know how much I wish I could."
"You said it yourself, Cy. You love me... as a friend. I had a friend once that I loved that much. She was like a sister to me. And then I had Benji. And now I have you...for a few more hours at least."
"You're an incredible human. I shouldn't be surprised that the way I feel about you is so confusing."
"Love is the most overused word in the English language. It's confusing to everyone. Some people live their whole lives and never get it right."
"Thank you. I don't think I would have truly understood if I hadn't met you."
"Well, how about that? I finally get to be the one to say, you're welcome."
I'D FOUND MYSELF IN WONDERLAND, a place where the impossible wasn't pretend anymore. A time when death was temporary and believing that humans were the only intelligent beings was nothing less than arrogant. Secret government organizations and spaceships. The end of the world.
When I peeled my eyes open, it was the first time that my dreams were more realistic than real life. It was also the first time I felt Benji Reynolds draped over me like a blanket and wished I could stay there forever.
The humans were still on the floor, and the aliens were awake, testing the equipment. It at least appeared to be working. Now, they were trying to calibrate it so Hamech's ship could pick up the frequency.
I wriggled out from under Benji and joined the others in the booth. "How's it going?"
"Almost there," Apolonia said, a trace of a smile on her face.
"Would you care? If we all were blown to smithereens?" I asked and immediately regretted it. "Wow. I don't even know why I said that."
Cy looked to Apolonia, but he wasn't annoyed. "Didn't I tell you? She loves danger."
"Clearly," Apolonia said, still smiling slightly.
"Did someone somehow procure coffee this morning? You're both questionably chipper."
Tsavi laughed once and then covered her mouth. "No. We just enjoyed watching your snuggle time with Benji."
My cheeks instantly set fire. "Glad we could entertain you." Embarrassing, yes, but it was good to see Apolonia and Cy in a better place.
Dr. Z hobbled from his pallet, stretching, yawning, farting, and groaning. "I've had worse nights, but that was brutal for this old man."
He sat on the worn red fabric of the rolling DJ's chair and took the headphones from Apolonia. A look of disgust replaced her smile.
Dr. Z scratched his whiskers, and his eyes squinted at the control panel. "We need to redirect the signal, yes?"
"Correct," Cy said. "We've tried diverting the beam with unsuccessful results."
"What about transfiguring it to a microwave frequency?" Benji asked, pulling his coat tighter around him.
"Transfiguration..." Dr. Z pondered Benji's idea for a bit and then looked up at Cy. "It's worth a try."
While Cy and Dr. Z began working with renewed enthusiasm, Benji and I stood back. I had been sick and cold since we arrived at the radio station and hadn't eaten any real food in almost twenty-four hours. I was happy to let them figure it out.
"Their moods seem strangely upbeat," Benji said quietly.
"Last night's spooning likely satisfied the warrior princess that I wasn't after her fiance."
"Oh. So, they're engaged?"
"Allegedly."
"And how do you feel about this alleged engagement?"
I turned to Benji. "I feel fine. Do we have any water left?"
"We do," he said, pulling a bottle from behind him and holding it out to me. "See? You do need people."
"It's not a good thing." I glanced at Cy. "As you can see, they just leave."
"I won't," Benji said without hesitation. "I'll be here for as long as you'll let me."
I pulled up one side of my mouth, trying to form some sort of a smile. Snuggles was rubbing up against Benji's leg. "Must be time for breakfast."
Benji made me take the water. "Try drinking this first."
I took a sip.
"Does this earn me a first date?"
"I fuck on the first date, so nope," I said, walking to the back of the building.
"You do not," Benji called after me.
Any moment, Cy and the professor would make the magic connection to allow Apolonia to make contact with her father. They would save the world without anyone knowing. Hamech would float down in his king-sized space module and pick them up. They would locate the rock and then dispose of it at the Bad Rock Disposal. Cy and Apolonia would be married quickly after that--however long it took them to get home--and they would have two-point-five beautiful and hostile alien babies.
Dr. Z would go back to campus and find something else to obsess about. Benji would go back to living alone at Charlie's--unless he kept the cat--and I would keep being Dr. Z's research assistant...and maybe even grow out my hair. Maybe.
How could we experience something so life-changing, only to return to our mundane existence? Although, maybe it was more likely that the professor, Benji, and I would be arrested and sent to federal prison, but not before Apolonia's daddy blows us all to hell.
For some strange reason, I was more okay with the latter. I glanced over at Benji. No, it wouldn't be okay. Maybe it just made more sense for something bad to happen to me.
I looked over my shoulder at Cy and Apolonia standing very close but not touching. Tsavi stood over Dr. Z, watching him work. Benji was across the room, fiddling with the ugly cat. We were all connected, and this group made sense in a weird, hodgepodge way. We were six people who had no business being in each other's lives, much less caring about one another, but decisions were made years ago that shaped us like puzzle pieces, and now, we fit together.
"I, uh...I think I have something. I think I have something! Quiet!" Dr. Z said, holding his hand in the air.
Cy leaned over Dr. Z, speaking Ahnktesh quickly but beautifully into the microphone.
I walked toward the front area, but before I made it to the doorway, a loud boom threw me in the opposite direction. I landed on my back. A terrible high-pitched ringing in my ears drowned out all other noise. A few seconds later, Benji was above me, his face covered in dust and dirt, and small pieces of debris littered his hair. He was speaking, but I couldn't hear him above the ringing.
Benji shoo
k his head and then pulled me up and across the back room to the back door. Tsavi was already outside, using her strange weapon to take out the knees and shoulders of the soldiers shooting at us. She grabbed my arm and pulled me across the alleyway to the next building. It was still dark in the early hours of the morning.
Benji stayed behind, trading punches with a soldier and finally getting him on the ground. I glanced back, pulling away from Tsavi, to see Benji grab the soldier's weapon and then run to catch up. By the time he joined us, the ringing in my ears was beginning to subside. Tsavi was barking orders at Benji, who was holding an AK-47 as if he'd held one since birth.
"Rory? You okay?"
I nodded and then pulled my arm from Tsavi's grasp. "Feeling a little manhandled at the moment."
"You were stunned," Tsavi said. "We didn't have time to wait."
"Where are Dr. Z and the others?" I asked.
"Last I saw, Apolonia was engaged in some serious hand-to-hand combat while Cy was helping Dr. Zorba out," Benji said.
"So, they're coming?" I asked.
Benji shook his head and then looked to Tsavi. A soldier came around the corner, and Benji gunned him down.
"Shit! Benji! You just killed him!" I said, covering my mouth.
"We can't stay here," Benji said. "We're vulnerable. We've got to keep moving."
Tsavi nodded once. "Agreed. We can circle back and get the car."
"In theory," Benji said. "Let's move." Benji took my arm and kept me with him, pointing the AK-47 in every direction he looked, which was a lot of directions. He looked less like the Benji I knew and more like the soldiers I saw in the Nayara.
We weaved in and out of the shadows. The farther we trekked from the radio station, the more I worried that we would lose the others.
"Your dad taught you to shoot one of those?" I asked.
"He taught me to shoot a lot of things," Benji said so quietly that it was barely audible. He didn't look at me when he spoke. Instead, he glanced around corners, up, down, and behind us.
"You didn't bring us out here to kill us, did you?"
Benji stopped and looked down at me. "What?"
"We're separated from the others. You could kill Tsavi and me, and you could tell them any story you wanted."
Benji glanced at Tsavi, who was several feet ahead and checking the street we were about to cross. He stared into my eyes and gripped his weapon. "I'm sorry," he said, frowning, "but what's it going to take for me to dig up that seed that Cyrus planted? Do you honestly think I could ever hurt you? Kill you, Rory? Seriously? That hurts."
I looked down at his rifle. "You're carrying a huge, crazy-looking gun. You took out a highly trained soldier to get it. I don't know what to think, except that there's a whole side of you that I don't really know at all."
Benji searched my eyes for a moment and then touched my face gently. I opened my mouth to speak, but he put his mouth on mine, slow and tender. His mouth was warm and soft, exactly the way I remembered. He pulled away, touching his forehead to mine. "You know me. I'm the guy who's been following you around, gladly taking your crap for two years. I'm not any different, except maybe not as pathetic as you thought."
I shook my head, but the rest of my body was frozen. "I never thought you were pathetic. Too happy, yes."
"Too happy?" he said, raising one eyebrow.
"Annoyingly so."
He grinned. "Maybe it was just being around you."
Tsavi sighed, clearly uncomfortable witnessing our exchange. "Okay, you two. It's time to circle back. I haven't heard gunfire in a while, and I just saw a fleet of military Humvees driving east."
Benji took my hand, and we followed Tsavi, but we didn't circle back. We ovaled back, taking the route that was parallel to the way we escaped.
More people were in the street, looking stunned and confused, pointing at the hole in the KIXR building.
Tsavi stopped and climbed into the backyard of a house sitting across from the radio station. There was no car in the drive, and the lights were dark.
"The police will show up here soon," I said.
Benji shook his head. "They're not in charge anymore."
I began to get nervous. The entire northwest corner of the building was gone, bricks and concrete reduced to rubble. If Cy, Apolonia, or Dr. Z were still inside, I was afraid they weren't coming out.
With each passing minute, panic began to set in. Benji's Mustang was still parked in the same place, covered by large pieces of metal siding and smaller pieces of concrete. Hopefully, the front windshield was still intact.
"Stay here," Benji whispered. "I'm going to check for tracers and things."
"Tracers and things?" I said, feeling anxious about him going over there alone. "What are tracers? And what things?"
"A tracer is basically an expensive GPS. Things could be something more...invasive...like explosives."
My eyebrows shot up. "Oh, so are you saying your dad also taught you how to defuse a bomb?"
"That he did not," Benji said, cradling his rifle under his arm and running across the street. He immediately slid under his Mustang like he was Chuck Norris.
"I think he's enjoying this," I said.
"That's a defensible notion," Tsavi said, nodding a few times before grinning down at me.
The people in the street seemed to be too afraid to get to close to the building, but some of them were on their cell phones, pointing at Benji.
"We should go look for them," I said. "What if they're hurt?"
"Patience," Tsavi said, her voice low and calm.
"I don't believe it," I said, seeing the ugly, smelly cat. It was rubbing against Benji's green sneakers, which were poking out from under the Mustang as he searched the underbelly of his car.
"Wasn't the cat inside when they blew up the front half?" Tsavi asked, bewildered.
I wasn't even going to make a nine-lives reference. It was too easy.
Benji scooted out from under his car and petted Snuggles.
"Really? Is he really going to do this now?" I said.
Benji jogged back to our side of the street, huffing as if he'd just finished his daily run.
"What was that all about?" I asked.
"You want the good news or the good news?"
"Uh, the good news."
"No explosives. I did find a tracer though. That could explain how they found us."
"How is that good news?" I asked.
"I also found a piece of string, and Snuggles now has a pretty new collar with a shiny tracer for a tag."
Tsavi nodded. "Well done."
"Thanks," Benji said with a wide smile.
Tsavi tensed and motioned for us not to move. She made a noise that sounded kind of like a bird. The noise echoed back, and she nodded. "It's them. Let's go."
We ran back across the street, meeting Cy and Apolonia at the Mustang. Dr. Z hobbled around the corner, clearly in pain.
"Christ, are you okay?" I asked, helping Cy help Dr. Z to the car.
"How many times have I told you not to call me Christ?" Dr. Z said, winking at me.
I rolled my eyes. "He's fine."
Dr. Z and Tsavi sat in the back. Apolonia sat on Tsavi's lap, and I sat on Cy's lap while Benji drove. Benji didn't seem happy about the new seating arrangement at all, but Cy and Apolonia weren't comfortable with the lap situation. Tsavi paled when we suggested she sit on Cy's lap, and there was no way I was going to plant my ass on Apolonia's thighs.
"What now?" Benji asked, backing away from the radio station. "The only other station in town is on campus."
Cy thought for a moment. "We are running out of time and options. We still don't know where the specimen is, and Hamech could be heading toward the Nayara at any moment."
"The warehouse," I said. "That's where they took Cy. They set up shop, and it didn't look temporary. The rock could be there, and hopefully, they'll have equipment we can use to contact Hamech."
"What if you're wrong?" Cy asked. "What if we get
there, and they've gone? That's not exactly a plan."
Benji pressed on the gas. "It's the only plan we have."
BENJI PULLED THE MUSTANG into a field half a mile east of the warehouse. The engine was loud, and none of us felt announcing our arrival was a good idea. I climbed out of the passenger-side door, and Cy followed, quickly leaning the seat forward for Apolonia and Tsavi to climb out. Benji struggled to help the professor.
"Maybe Dr. Zorba should sit in the front next time?" Benji said.
"I'm fine," Dr. Z said. "Stop fussing. You're making me feel older than I already do."
We walked quietly through the field, staying off the road. The warehouse and surrounding grounds were brightly lit. They were still there and didn't want surprises.
"So, what's the plan when we get there?" Benji asked in a soft voice. "How are we going to get in with the perimeter lit up like they're interrogating the grass?"
"The humans are going to stay outside," Cy whispered. "We're going to have to make a pretty far leap onto the roof."
"The way we got out?" I asked.
"Rory!" Dr. Z said, almost too loudly. He bent over and put one hand on his forehead. Silver was lying over on her side, wet and muddy. The professor sat her upright and pushed the kickstand down with his boot. "This is...unacceptable!"
"Shh!" Cy said, holding out his hands. "I understand you're upset, but we can't get caught over a moped."
"Silver is not just a moped! I saved for months for her. She is garage kept. She's nearly fifteen and look at her! Perfect condition. That doesn't just happen, you know."
Apolonia and Tsavi stood together, their faces displaying the confusion and astonishment at the professor's behavior. Dr. Z used the sleeves of his alien jacket to try to rub off some of the mud but gave up.
He turned to me, clearly angry. "If you treat my prized possessions this way, then don't borrow them!" he seethed.
"Yes, sir," I said, cowering. As my eyes focused on the muddy ground beneath my feet, I tried to stifle a smile. No one had gotten angry at me like that since I had parents. It felt pretty fantastic.
We continued on without Silver, creeping low and quietly through the tall grass of the field. Some parts of the ground had finally dried. Some were still muddy. No one knew which areas until one of us stepped ankle-deep into the muck.
Where the spotlights of the warehouse met with the darkness, we waited.
"Do you have a plan yet?" I asked.
Cy gestured for me to walk over to him. I joined him just out of earshot of the others.