Chapter 12 #2
“Fine, but be quick. I have one more prisoner for you to sign off on.” He gestures to the papers that we haven’t signed at all.
Shit, maybe we need to do that, because then at least Mark and Susie will be our responsibility.
Eric must feel the same way, because he casually leans forward with a loud sigh, like it’s all too much work for him.
“Fine, we will sign these and catch the warlock up on the situation, then he can then ascertain the truth of the alien status of the two we are suspicious about. If they are aliens, we will take them with us, and if not, they will remain your responsibility.” Smith’s eyes light with excitement.
I think he’s expecting them to be human, and that worries me.
I don’t like the idea of leaving my friends behind.
They are on this agency’s radar now for associating with aliens, and that can’t be good.
This is why I wanted their memories removed in the first place, so nobody could use it against them.
“Excellent. I will give you exactly ten minutes. I am a busy man, and I don’t have time to waste.” Smith leaves us again.
I start to talk, but again, Eric stops me.
“Xavier, if you could fix the listening ears, please.”
Xavier waves a mist shrouded hand, and a bubble of purple smoke appears and wraps around us, cocooning us from the cameras. Xavier lets his own mist pull back and reaches for me at the same time I push my chair back and leap into his arms.
I release a sigh of relief as his strong arms wrap around me, all the tension I’d been holding drifting away.
Xavier is slimmer than both Saxon and Caspian, but being in his arms offers no less comfort.
He practically radiates power and reassurance.
I feel him draw some of the tension out of my body, feeding on it and easing it for me.
“Thank you,” I tell him, my forehead resting against his chest.
“Anything for you, phoeall.”
“Right, this is a clusterfuck.” Eric gave us our moment, but now his patience is gone.
“Somehow, Aura and their family have gotten arrested. It sounds like a setup, and Susie and Mark are involved. Aura is claiming both Susie and Mark are aliens, and if they are, then they become our responsibility.”
“So do we want the truth or for me to lie so that we don’t leave them in the hands of this creep?” Xavier asks, playing devil’s advocate so wonderfully.
“Lie,” I say at the same time Eric says, “Truth.”
I look at my grandpa in disbelief. “And what, leave them in this asshole’s hands? Over my dead body.”
“No, of course not, but it might start a witch hunt. If they are, what’s to say there aren’t others here on Earth?
Do you think the agency would be happy that some might have slipped through the cracks?
No, they will start hunting, and no extraterrestrials will be safe.
I’m sure there are some who are hiding relationships with humans. It’s bound to happen.”
I think about what he is saying. “I guess you’re right. So you think Aura is lying to protect Susie and Mark?”
“Almost certainly. Neither of them remotely registered as anything but human,” Eric replies, and I cock an eyebrow.
“And you can tell this?” I ask in disbelief, and he at least has the grace to look sheepish when he shakes his head.
“No, not exactly, but Xavier could have.” He points at the man still wrapped around me, and I feel him huff a chortle of amusement.
“It wasn’t really something that crossed my mind to test for. As far as I was concerned, they were one hundred percent human.”
Eric waves his hand impatiently. “Yes, well, no matter, let’s just get on with this.
I have a bad feeling about the situation.
If Aura is being deported, then who is running the Pleasure Inn now, and will they be taking care of the workers like Aura did, or will they be exploiting them?
” He gnaws on his lip, his worry showing when he’s been calm and collected so far.
“Is that our concern?” I ask, stepping out of Xavier’s arms and looking between the two men. Both are frowning, and Xavier nods.
“Kind of. We are the only way on and off this rock. If something happens and they need an escape, then they have to wait until we come back around.”
“Are there any backup escape plans? Or a kind of alien witness protection or safehouse, so to speak, they can go to?”
Grandpa Eric sighs and looks sad. “Yes, there was. Your parents were the ones who ran it. When they were killed in the car accident and you disappeared, we decided to leave the house abandoned. Over the years, people believed it was just an old, deserted house with no family to come and claim it, but underneath is a large network of safe rooms for aliens needing to hide until we return. They are still able to access the facility through a hidden tunnel that starts in an old mine shaft about a mile away from the house. Anyone who needs us will activate a beacon when they arrive, so we know to do a trip there and extract anyone who needs it.”
“Oh.” Finding out more things about my parents is kind of bittersweet.
“We haven’t had anyone use it in a really long time. I wonder if everyone remembers it’s there. Maybe we need to send a reminder bulletin to all aliens on Earth—kind of a heads-up that maybe the agency isn’t being as tolerant as they have in the past and to watch their backs.”
“What about aliens on other continents?” My curiosity is getting the better of me again.
“There are safehouses on all continents. We have the ability to beam aboard the big ship from any of those locations,” Xavier explains as Eric taps the paperwork in front of me.
“Okay, enough with this topic. I still haven’t heard the charges for the prisoner we originally came here for, but you can sign these and claim responsibility for the others.”
I sign in all the places indicated on every sheet. “Are we now going to return the others to their home planets?”
Eric shakes his head. “It varies from case to case and the charges. What Aura and their family have done doesn’t warrant any punishment, so they are free to choose where they’ll go.
They just won’t be able to return to Earth for the time being.
If the charges were serious, then there would be a process that we would need to go through.
We would advise their home planet, and then they would decide whether they chose to retrieve them or have them charged by the galaxy federation, but it is the home planet’s responsibility to retrieve them from us. ”
The door slams open, and I hear Agent Smith call, “Time’s up.
” I’m surprised I can actually hear him, because I know he can’t hear us, otherwise Xavier and Eric wouldn’t have talked so bluntly.
I also know he hasn’t given us the allotted ten minutes, but I’m pretty sure Agent Douche is pissed because he can’t hear what we’re saying and he’s being petty.
Xavier’s mist seeps out, covering him from sight, and then the purple smoke surrounding us peels back.
“If you would follow me, I will have some guards escort us to the prisoners in case they decide to be difficult.”
Xavier laughs out loud. “I am more than enough to handle the prisoners.”
The smarmy smile that suddenly creeps across Smith’s lips creates a small lump in my throat. He looks awfully pleased with himself, and that can’t be good. At all.
“Oh, I wouldn’t be too sure of that if I were you. The only thing keeping you all safe from one of the prisoners is this.”
He holds up a little black remote, and both Xavier and Eric blanche.
“Those are only supposed to be used on prisoners if they are a known dangerous and deadly species, and as far as I know, there are none on Earth that would require that,” Eric snaps, finally revealing how agitated he is to Smith.
“Well, I guess you don’t know everything. There wasn’t just one unregistered alien on Earth, there were two, and if there are two, how many more are out there?” Agent Douche’s words are exactly what Xavier and Eric were worried about.
“What race demands the use of the control collar?” Xavier questions, and although we can’t see him, we can hear he means business.
Agent Smith smirks like he just won the fucking lottery. “Aaz’axian.”