Trespassers: a science-fiction novel (27 page)

Inside the Juniper Hotel, Dexim, Tobi, and Jin were welcomed by the desk clerk with a friendly
hello
.

“
I have a possible match. Three males,
”
New Guy whispered. They fit the description given by the pilot.

Upstairs, all eyes turned to Stewart. This was coming sooner than any of them expected.
“
Be ready,
”
Stewart said.
“
This could be it.
”

Grizzly and a nephew stood against the wall. They psyched themselves up on cue and seemed to be ready for anything. Web was focused on the transmitter. It was crucial that he keep the signal alive.

Mindy had a sudden realization: alien trespassers
—
criminals, no less
—
were on their way up.
Damn, this room is small
, she thought. What would she do if things went bad? She could probably jump from the second floor, but the window wasn
’
t the kind that opened. Perhaps she could smash through the window with a chair if she had to. She imagined herself swinging the heavy piece of furniture at the window.
No
, she quickly decided. She wasn
’
t going to be the special agent who threw a chair through a window and sprang from the second floor in a hail of shattered glass, leaving her team behind as soon as she heard a knock on the door. She would stand her ground and do whatever needed to be done. If she had to wield that chair, it would be to fight, not to flee.

On the iPad, Stewart watched the three figures walk past the front desk and right past the elevator. The tracker in Jin
’
s hands was leading them down the hallway to the first-floor rooms, directly below Web
’
s decoy signal.

“
They can
’
t tell the elevation, yet,
”
Stewart explained.

As Jin made his way farther down the hall, he tipped the tracking device toward the ceiling and the arrow aligned.

“
The second floor,
”
he said.

Back in the lobby, New Guy couldn
’
t believe his eyes.
“
I think Bruner
’
s here,
”
he whispered.

“
What!?
”
Stewart exclaimed, to no one in particular.

The hairs on the back of Mindy
’
s neck stood up. Her jaw muscles clenched. Her emotions were taking Stewart
’
s lead and magnifying it. Any hairline crack in his armor looked to her like a gaping hole.

“
What?
”
Stewart repeated.

“
Yeah, it
’
s Bruner. He
’
s getting in the elevator,
”
New Guy reported.

Mindy watched on her iPhone as New Guy followed Bruner into the small elevator. The doors closed, and the two men began their ascent.

“
Don
’
t do anything, yet,
”
Stewart instructed.

The desk clerk had told Bruner that Stewart was in Room 215. It hadn
’
t occurred to the desk clerk that Agent Bruner was the enemy, though it did strike him as odd that someone would ask for Stewart Faulkner by name during an undercover operation.

“
And who are you?
”
the desk clerk had asked, thrusting an authoritative and suspicious glare at the man.

“
Federal Agent Karl Bruner,
”
was the quick and even more authoritative response. That was one of the perks of the job: a title that commanded respect.

With a swipe of her finger, Mindy changed the image on her iPhone from the elevator to the lobby. She saw the three trespassers collect at the elevator, waiting for it to return. Another swipe of the finger showed Bruner stepping onto the second floor. New Guy stayed back, holding the door open to keep the elevator from descending.

In the downstairs utility closet, Michael-James and a nephew watched the action on their phones.

“
Which ones are aliens?
”
the nephew asked.

“
I think the one with the sunglasses is an alien,
”
Michael-James said, pointing at the screen.

“
I don
’
t know. I don
’
t think aliens wear sunglasses.
”

Stewart
’
s iPad showed the trespassers giving up and heading to a nearby door.

“
They
’
re taking the stairs,
”
Stewart reported.
“
Get to that door on the second floor and hold it shut. Don
’
t let them up here, yet.
”

New Guy rounded the corner and found the door marked
EXIT
. He gripped the knob and braced himself against the wall. Stewart focused on the back of the hotel-room door. He could feel doom approaching. Bruner would be there any second.

“
We have to get rid of him,
”
Stewart said.

“
What do we do?
”
Web whispered. Nephew looked to Grizzly. Grizzly looked to Stewart. No one seemed to have the answer. Suddenly, Mindy popped out of her seat and moved with such purpose that the whole room took note.

She disappeared into the bathroom and closed the door.

Was she really hiding in the bathroom?
Web wondered.

Everyone shifted to get a better look as they heard water hissing from the shower. A moment later, she emerged with a towel around her torso and tucked under her arms, leaving her clothes in a pile by the tub. She headed to the hotel-room door with her wet hair stuck to her neck, beads of water rolling down her skin and disappearing into the fluffy, white towel.

Everyone stared at her in amazement, not from this odd behavior, but because there was a desperate need for a plan and she appeared to have one.

Knock! Knock! Knock!
Bruner
’
s fist was against the door. Mindy
’
s hand was quickly on the knob. She pulled the door slightly open and pressed her face into the crack that appeared.

“
Yes?
”
Her eyes locked with Bruner
’
s. The sight of her brought a smile to his face. The towel that hugged her ribcage and the sound of the shower in the background told him that he was interrupting.

“
I
’
m sorry,
”
he said.
“
I was looking for Stewart Faulkner.
”

Just behind the door, Stewart
’
s brow pinched with curiosity. Mindy played it perfectly.
“
He
’
s in the shower.
”
She flashed a coy smile.
“
Give us about an hour.
”

Bruner gave the smile right back, accompanied by the involuntary gleam of the eye one gets when a woman lets you know, in no uncertain terms, that she
’
s about to have sex.

“
I see,
”
he responded, less coolly than he would have liked. His hand rose from his pocket and flashed a business card.
“
Could you tell him I
’
ll stop back by in about .
.
. ninety minutes?
”

“
Great.
”
Her moist fingers clamped on to the card. The door sealed shut, and Bruner took a slow, happy breath as he pictured her towel on the floor.

Inside the room, there were silent cheers. Grizzly gave a thumbs-up, and nephew pumped his fist in the air. Web raised both hands in victory.

Stewart
’
s mind was racing. He had a lot of data to process. What Bruner was doing here, how he knew Stewart
’
s name, and what he wanted, along with the three aliens who were making their way up the stairs .
.
. all of this could wait. He would have to address the most important issue first. Why had Mindy pretended
—
of all things
—
that she was taking a shower with him? The thought had come to her so quickly, as if she had been thinking it already. And she pulled it off so naturally. She wore it like an old familiar sweater. But to Stewart, the thought of it had all the itches of a brand new shirt with the tags still attached.

His earpiece interrupted his thoughts, like a cold glass of reality to the face.

“
They
’
re getting close,
”
New Guy said.

“
Let them through,
”
Stewart ordered.

New Guy released the knob and stepped back. The hall was gripped by an atmosphere akin to slow motion, as Dexim, Jin, and Tobi stepped into the hall and sauntered toward the approaching Bruner. Neither party had reason to suspect the other, but each was accustomed to being suspicious without cause. Their eyes did a generic scan of one another, just for good measure, and they exchanged polite nods as they passed. Jin made sure to conceal the tracking device against his hip.

Bruner stopped at the elevator and looked back. Not at the aliens walking down the hall, but past them, at the door he just left. This was when Mindy
’
s perfect plan kicked in for the second time with lingering effectiveness. Bruner still had questions, and had she merely said Stewart was out, Bruner would have gone back to the door and knocked again, to see what information he could sift out of her. But the way Mindy left it changed everything. He couldn
’
t go back
—
not for ninety minutes. First, he would be committing the most heinous crime against social etiquette: he would be uncoupling a couple. Second, he would run a very high risk of coming off as a creep who wanted to get another look at a wet girl in a towel. No, he couldn
’
t return. He would just have to wait the ninety minutes. He turned and boarded the elevator. The sliding doors squeezed out his view of the three undercover aliens.

The digital arrow led them to Room 215. Behind that door, Mindy was hurrying back into her skirt and pulling her shirt back on. The bounty hunters psyched themselves up for a confrontation.

“
New Guy, you ready?
”
Stewart asked.

Stewart heard him tap his mic twice as a sign of silent acknowledgment.

“
Count us down,
”
Stewart instructed.

Three taps
. New Guy nonchalantly strolled down the hall toward the trio of trespassers.
Two taps
. He drew near.
One tap
. He was right on them now. Right on cue, door 215 flew open. Grizzly, nephew, and Stewart bounded out, with Web joining a step or two later. The trespassers were quickly overpowered and placed in handcuffs. It couldn
’
t have gone any better.

With their hands cuffed behind their backs, Dexim, Jin, and Tobi were marched down the stairs to the lobby, where they were surrounded by the whole team. Mindy was the last to arrive. Just as she began soaking in the victory, she got the sense that things were about to go wrong. It was something she saw out the corner of her eye. By the time she was aware of it, it was too late.

A bone jarring snap echoed through the lobby as Michael-James fell to his knees and grabbed his arm, wailing in pain. At the sight of this, Mindy
’
s legs froze. She was as agile as a statue and just as mobile. Lyntic stepped from the fallen bounty hunter and quickly locked her arm around Mindy
’
s neck, holding her from behind as a human shield.

If Mindy had been able to think, she probably would have wondered how Lyntic managed to break Michael-James
’
s arm. The answer to that unasked question was being carried in Lyntic
’
s right hand: a wooden cube that was quite effective at focusing energy in very specific ways. All eyes turned to see Lyntic press this quoret against Mindy
’
s temple. No one knew what it would do to Mindy if it went off against her skull, but judging from the shrieks of pain coming from Michael-James, it wouldn
’
t be good.