Blue Maneuver (8 page)

“I won’t kill you. Yet.”

That was comforting. Sort of. “So the kiss…”

“I collected some of your CeeBees.”

My stomach roiled. How many times could a person throw up in a day? I’d already passed my personal best. Would I hit a world’s record? “Don’t you mean your CeeBees?”

“No.” He ran his thumb over the opal then pointed one end at his head. A red light shot out of the tip. Crimson dots danced across his lips and jaw before rushing to the mole just under his ear.

I wrinkled my nose. That was weird, even for the day I was having. Did I have green and blue dots thanks to his little key fob? Good Lord, what if I ended up looking like I had a Twister board plastered to my face? I released my death grip on the arms when I was parallel to the floor. Just a quarter turn more to go.

“The CeeBees are specifically tuned to your bio-signature now.” He flicked off the key fob. “And with that little sample, I can track you any where.”

“Gee, I didn’t know you cared.” Track was better than kill. At least I hoped so. With my luck, he could be some sadist, psychopath. I felt cold tiles brush my sneakers. Almost there. My gaze darted to the French door. Could I make it? Maybe if I wasn’t still tied up.

“I don’t care.” He bent over me as the chair righted itself. Using his arms, he bracketed me in and pushed the legs onto the floor. “You’re a means to an end.”

“Gee, I feel so special.” I pressed against the chair back. The man smelled like newly mown grass and mesquite, probably part of his Parks and Rec disguise to mask his real stench of doggy doo. “Let me guess, you’re going to use me to get to Konstantin.”

“If the occasion arises, I will kill him.” A spark of pleasure blazed in his green eyes.

Great. The man was a homicidal maniac. Was he really going to let me go? “And if I don’t bait your honey trap.”

“I’ll kill you.”

There seemed to be a common theme here. Could I live with being an accessory to murder? I knew I couldn’t live without it. Still…

“Then kill me now because I can’t…I won’t lure him to his death.” There. I’d been noble and brave. I raised my chin and ignored my heart trying to pummel its way out of my chest.

“Does he mean so much to you then,
obecht
?” He lifted my left hand and stroked the fingers, up and down.

My heart changed its rhythm to a more primitive beat. I tugged my hand free. “He’s a person, a human being. You can’t go around killing people you don’t like!”

Tobias stepped away from my chair. “He won’t hesitate to kill you,
obecht
.”

I snorted. This coming from a man who attacked me, tied me up, and threatened to torture and kill me? Yeah, he was a reliable source. I sidled out of the chair and backed up. “Are we finished here? Am I free to leave now that you have your Rae tracking device working?”

One side of his mouth curved up. “No.”

The breath rushed from my body as if he’d punched me. I glanced at the French door. Five steps. Six tops, then I’d be free. “But you said I could live.”

He sidestepped, planting himself between me and the exit. “True. Your fate is much, much worse.”

Was he serious? Sidling across the tile, I placed the dining room chair between me and Tobias Werner UED. There was no way I’d make it to the French door behind him but the front one lay wide open. Too open. He would be on me like a hungry cheetah, before I made it halfway across the great room. I was stuck and I knew it. So did he. I eyed the man. “There’s nothing worse than death.”

He flashed his pearly white eye teeth. “You haven’t heard what your fate is to be.”

No, I hadn’t heard about my fate. The sadistic prick kept that nugget to himself. I placed my hands on the chair back. My damp palms slipped on the polished cherry. Maybe I could smack him upside the head with the cane back chair, before running away.

And the Rae-tracking device provided by the CeeBees?

He could have lied about that. I mentally shook the stupid from my thoughts. Why would he? Telling me about my impending death gave him so much pleasure. I dried my hands on my baggy shorts.

“So if you aren’t going to kill me, what are you going to do to me?”

His teeth disappeared behind stiff lips. For a moment, his green-eyed gaze wandered to somewhere over my left shoulder and his jaw clamped shut.

Fear dried my mouth and my toes pointed toward the front door. Holy Toledo! Maybe there was something worse than death.

When he turned his attention back to me, his face shifted into a death mask. “You’re my new partner.”

“P—partner?” That didn’t sound too bad. Tension released my body and my muscles liquefied. I locked my arms and tightened my grip on the chair to keep from puddling onto the tile. Brain check.

The man was a killer who enjoyed his work.

“In what?” The questions squeaked out of my tight throat and landed in the space between us. What had I been thinking? I needed full body armor not a stupid chair for a defense. He would probably impale me on the spindles. I jerked my hands free and stepped back.

Slowly, he tucked the chair under the table and sauntered toward me. “Let us return to your domicile, and I’ll brief you.”

I didn’t want him in my condo. I didn’t want him anywhere near me. I backpedaled at a diagonal, until I reached the open kitchen. The cold granite countertop of the island cut across my back. Trapped. I clutched the bull-nose edge. “What if I don’t want to be part of any mission?”

Three feet away, he paused and cocked his head to the left. A shaft of morning sunlight illuminated his strong jaw. Stubborn and determined. “Then I’ll kill you.”

I sighed. And we were back to that again. The thought was oddly comforting. Still, the man needed to expand his repertoire. Chewing on my bottom lip, I edged along the kitchen island toward the front door.

I’d never killed anyone. I didn’t even think I could. But maybe if I could tip off the police to an impending hit and they arrested him… A ray of hope warmed me. Again with the single digit IQ thoughts. He
was
the government and would be out before the cops could slam the cell door shut.
Face it, Rae. You’re stuck
. “What if I agree to help you but can’t perform as expected and we fail?”

He scratched the stubble on his chin. “If you are not already dead, then I will kill you.”

Remembering my earlier thoughts, chagrin blistered my cheeks. What if those Cee-Bee thingies gave him mind-reading abilities? I’d already dismissed the plan, but there could be a time delay, before he knew I changed my mind. “Even if it’s not my fault?”

He nodded then shrugged.

Son of a monkey’s butt! Here I agree to help, somewhat reluctantly it’s true, and I would still lose. “That’s not fair!”

“It is what it is.” Tobias cupped my elbow and tugged me away from the counter.

I tried jerking free but his fingers dug in, not painfully just determined. He glided almost silently across the tile, while my loose sneakers slapped my heels. “You really need to work on your incentive program.”

He snorted and guided me toward the front door. “Living another day is a pretty big incentive for most sentient species.”

There was that. But I didn’t want another day. I wanted a handful of decades. Maybe even two handfuls. I leaned back slowing our progress. Once I passed through that door, my life would change forever. Here, in this room, I might still convince him to change his mind. “I think—”

“Don’t.” Where his voice had always been calm and monotone, it now brimmed with raw savagery.

Now what had I said? I tripped over my feet from the pain in his voice. The white tile rushed up to greet my face.

His arm snaked around my waist, catching me.

Before I could catch my breath, he had me turned and plastered against him. From chest to thigh, I touched every hard, unyielding inch of him. The contact was perversely un-nauseating and the heat radiating from his skin could practically raise blisters. He gripped my upper arms but the hold wasn’t bruising, merely detaining with determination. Anger painted red marks on his stubbly cheeks but didn’t touch the pain blazing in his eyes.

Tobias sucked in air through his straight teeth and his gaze was a branding iron at the back of my skull. Whatever he said I wouldn’t forget it. Ever. “Your ignorance and inexperience could cost many people their lives, if not the enslavement of the human race.”

Cost lives. Enslavement of the human race. My brain slammed against my skull from the over the top dramatics. I blinked. Holy Toledo! The man made a great straight man. And I had bought into the whole thing. Laughter bubbled up my throat before traipsing across my tongue. A hoax. This had all been a hoax.

“Wow! You really had me going. Until that last line, I’d believed you meant to kill me.” Muffling my giggles behind my palm, I backed up into the kitchen.

He let me go but his brows met above the bridge of his nose.

“I’ve been punked, right? Where are the cameras? Vivian, you can come out now.” I wagged a finger at
the actor
who’d played his part so well. “Naughty boy.”

“This is not a joking matter.” He set his hands on his hips and frowned at me.

A little too late for the serious act, buddy
. I choked off my laughter but felt my lips push into my cheeks. I owed whoever set this up. Big time. Still, maybe this would help me get a job. I’d been cool under pressure, hadn’t I? “Threatening to enslave the human race. If you have to say lines like that, you should get a tiara for being such a drama queen.”

Tobias’s eyes narrowed. “Because of your fondness for Konstantin, you’ve gotten yourself embroiled in a galactic mess.”

I shook my head. The man didn’t know when to give up. “Galactic, huh? What? Does ET want to phone home? I could lend you my phone, but I used up the last of my Milky Way minutes.”

He didn’t smile or grin. Confusion wrinkled his brow before the lines bracketing his mouth deepened. “No, you don’t understand. I—”

A knock on the door cut him off.

Finally. The camera crew had arrived and we could end this farce. Tobias seemed to be a little too into character. I reached for the door knob.

He leaned a shoulder against the oak panel and set one hand on mine. The other held the silver triangular key fob.

Right. I had forgotten about his fancy doodads. My hopes for this all being a practical joke burst. Crap on a cracker! Did that mean… My brain derailed that train of thought. No way could the human race be on the verge of enslavement. Just because his key chain shot rainbows that turned into handcuffs and gags or levitating and spinning rays, didn’t mean life existed on other planets.

No way.

Absolutely not!

Too bad, my own personal choir wasn’t echoing the sweet refrain.

The opal on his triangular fob darkened to pitch. “Are you expecting anyone?”

“No.” My thoughts circled back. Galactic mess. Human enslavement. A killer who suddenly decided to let me go. Right. I had forgotten. That key chain would help Big Brother brainwash me. To cover up the missing time, I’d soon believe I’d been abducted by little gray men. I shook off the insanity chomping on my brain. Obviously my blue-bug infection came with a side of craziness. “I don’t even live here, remember?”

Releasing my hand, he pulled out his Smartphone and flipped out the keyboard. He tapped a few of the keys and application icons scrolled across the screen. After a heartbeat, he selected one then aimed the phone’s camera at the door.

Rising on tip-toe, I inched forward and eyed the screen. Wing-dings drifted down the right side. A ghostly green image wavered on the wallpaper before a definite human shape materialized. The strange symbols stopped running up the screen to flash. Was that who was on the other side of the door? Cool beans. That thing would be much better at warding off the salesman and Jehovah’s Witnesses than a no soliciting sign. “What app is that?”

Please let me be able to afford it
. Heck, I’d eat Ramen noodles for a week to get that app on my phone.

“It’s not an app for any cell phone you can purchase on Earth.”

“Right.” Earth. Aliens. Tobias had found another rut to wallow in and it was just as unpleasant as the ‘I’ll kill you’ one. “It’s probably available only in the duty-free Milky Way gift shop.”

Sarcasm might be the last resort of the desperate but at least I kept to his theme. I hoped he appreciated my effort to cooperate with his brain washing.

With a grunt, he pushed his cell closed and tucked it into his orange shirt pocket. Setting his hand on the small of my back, he guided me into place. “Open the door.”

I set my hand on the clammy metal knob. This was it— the beginning of my delusions about alien abductions. My stomach churned, sending knots of anxiety into my throat. I swallowed the lumps. God I hoped I didn’t end up drooling in a padded cell.

He shifted into the shadows so he would be concealed when the door opened then nodded.

Right. Open door and let in the insanity. Should I cooperate? I took a shaky breath and looked out the peep hole. Through the glass bubble, I made out the swaying bone-white trunks of the eucalyptus trees and the blood-red spatter of the shedding bougainvilleas. Bullet-points of sunlight sprayed the pathway winding through the complex. I turned my head a little to the left then right, to get a complete view of the stoop. Empty. Relief soothed my churning stomach. Pulling back, I glanced at my keeper.

“I think they’re gone.” So why did I whisper instead of shouting the good news? Because my ordeal wasn’t over.

He shook his head. “It’s still out there. Open the door.”

It? My heart stopped before racing. Right. Aliens are not real no matter what he was about to make me believe. I twisted the knob and jerked open the door.

He set his palm against the door, stopping it from opening more than six inches. “Not too wide. Konstantin may still be lurking about.”

I nodded and licked my dry lips then focused on the stoop. I was beginning to dread the man’s name. My attention wandered outside. I blinked. Holy Toledo! This wasn’t a little gray man. This was… My brain grasped for definitions. This was a clear man shape partially filled with green corn syrupy liquid and two floating black cubes.