Captivate (Alien Cadets Book 2) Read online

  Athlete opened his carton. “I really don’t care, I’m hungry.”

  “I care,” Diva said. “I think humans are praying to their Creator Spirit, like the Crosspoint do. Isn’t that it, Claire?”

  “That’s the closest, I guess. Not all humans pray though, only the ones who believe in a god. And not all those who pray are thinking of the same god.” Claire ate a few more bites and they did too. “The Crosspoint believe in a god?” she added. “That’s interesting.”

  “Most species believe in some sort of deity,” Sage started, happily seizing the chance to explain something. “The Crosspoint are one of the only species who actively recruit... or, what’s the word... evangelize? Some people estimate that over half the galaxy believes in the Crosspoint god.”

  “Hmmm. What’s their god like?” Claire asked. Her stomach was starting to feel queasy and she stirred her food slowly.

  “Dangerous,” Athlete said.

  “Loving,” Diva said.

  “Controlling,” Sage said.

  They looked at each other. “Clearly that’s another thing we haven’t discussed,” Sage said. “You are so good for us.”

  When Claire stopped eating, with half her food still in the container, she curled up on the bed and fell asleep. When she woke up, the room was darker, lit only by green runner lights along the edges of the floor.

  "He'll be here any minute," somebody said, not even attempting to whisper. "We need to wake her up."

  "I'm awake," Claire said groggily. "But I don't feel good." She looked at them blankly, and then groaned. For a moment, waking from a deep sleep to the sound of human voices, she'd forgotten where she was. Her head was pounding, and her stomach felt terrible.

  "We have a problem," Sage said. "We're escaping tonight."

  "What?"

  "One of the night guards is going to get us out of here, he's been paid. He'll be here in less than half an hour."

  “What!” Claire said again. “That’s why you didn’t want me here?”

  Old Twin hissed, “Turn your face away from the window. Just in case.”

  Claire stared at her. “Why would I care if you got caught? I’m not Rik.”

  Sage put a hand on her shoulder, and Claire jerked away from him. “Don’t touch me.”

  “Sorry!" he said. "Look, I know humans have every reason to hate the Rik, but we didn’t choose this. We're not evil. We were chosen for our cultural attainments, we’re not assassins. Diva was a singer, actually, and… ”

  “Yes, yes. You’re all big cheese, I get it," Claire said crossly. "But I still don’t care if you get caught.” She automatically turned away from the mirror, though. Was it possible Basher was out there?”

  “I’ve got my own problems to deal with," Claire added.

  “We heard,” Sage said. “You stole something from a Merith?”

  “How did you know that?” Claire asked. “I did steal something, but mostly Faal's just angry that I escaped.”

  Sage’s eyebrows were almost in his hair. “Faal? Of Merith II? Or one of the other ones?”

  “Merith II.”

  Sage grimaced. “You do have problems.”

  Claire ran her fingers through her hair, digging them into her scalp. “I know. Basher told me that Faal might be able to press his case here since I stole his personal property."

  “Perhaps we can help each other. You see... we can’t have you hanging around, watching us escape, and getting a good look at our contact. And you can’t wait here to be given back to Faal.” He shuddered slightly. “I don’t envy you that enemy.”

  “So?”

  “So, come with us.”

  The room stilled. Then Old Twin reached forward and slapped the back of Sage’s head. “What’s the matter with you?”

  They engaged in a furious whisper war, while Claire considered his offer. Her choices were bad either way. If she stayed, she could be returned to Faal anytime. Perhaps Basher would come to believe that she was human and protect her... but perhaps he wouldn’t have time.

  If she escaped with the Rik, Basher would be completely convinced that she wasn’t human, but she could be far away from Faal. If only there was some way to prove she was human now.

  Claire took a deep breath. Her options were bad, but that was life. ‘Life is not cake and choices are not candy,’ her mom used to say.

  “I’ll go,” Claire told him.

  “Excellent!” Sage looked genuinely pleased and raised a hand, as if to pat her on the shoulder again, but then he remembered and put it down. “Here’s the plan...”

  Old Twin retired to her bunk, furious, but she didn’t fight with him anymore. Clearly Sage was the leader of this group. Claire wondered briefly what his position had been and why he was one of these dispossessed Rik.

  Anyway, the plan was simple. Sage had a friend on Selta who was willing to employ him and the four others. This employer was willing to put up the money for their escape, in return for twelve weeks of service. After that, the Rik would be free to stay or go as they chose. If they stayed, they would be paid fair wages.

  “What kind of work?” Claire asked dubiously.

  “I believe it’s a restaurant. A high-class café where they serve Human.”

  “They eat humans?”

  Sage burst out laughing and Claire immediately realized what he meant. “Oh. You mean they serve human food?”

  “Yes, of course. The owner wants human servers to make it more exotic, and apparently there aren't a lot of humans around. So Rik will do.”

  “Sounds simple,” Claire said.

  “It is simple.”

  Claire felt a surge of nausea and beat it back. “Escape is never simple.”

  CHAPTER 17

  Claire cursed her correctness. The guard came at midnight, as planned (a ridiculous time to escape, in Claire’s opinion), but he had no intention of helping a sixth person escape. He’d gotten no money for her.

  “So you’ll just leave me here to tell on you?” Claire said. Her head was pounding and she was beginning to feel distinctly light-headed.

  “No, I’ll kill you," the guard said coldly. "They will think the Rik murdered you before they left.”

  Sage looked from her to the guard, mouth hard. Suddenly he stooped and grabbed the Spo’s hand. He used one of the guard’s claws to cut a thin line on his own hand.

  Claire and the others gasped. The guard jerked his hand away.

  “Here. A Spo blood promise, right? I promise you will be paid for her.” Sage offered his hand to the guard.

  The guard looked at Sage suspiciously, but finally took his hand, smearing the blood. “A Spo promise I will accept. But if I don’t receive payment in a week, your employer will regret it. I may not know his name, but I know how to find him.”

  The guard brought out tools which he used to break the inside of the cell door. “This is how you escaped,” he said shortly. He had Athlete hold the tools to put his fingerprints on them.

  Claire followed the Rik into the hallway. It was almost pitch black and Claire kept a hand against the wall to keep her bearings.

  The Spo guard led them without hesitation. An orange light on his belt was the only bit of him Claire could see. They passed the medical quarters where she’d been questioned earlier, and Claire rubbed her injection spot. It was starting to itch, and she felt awful. Had they really just given her a vitamin injection?

  They passed a sort of desk station, and something on the surface of the desk winked orange, reflecting the tiny light on the guard's belt.

  "What's that?" Claire whispered, pausing. She put her hand out, feeling on the desk. She found a pair of glasses.

  "Come on," Sage whispered.

  "One sec!" She put the glasses on. Self-modulating glasses were becoming all the rage when she'd left Earth. They could automatically adjust as your vision got worse or better. Was there any chance these might work for her?

  She didn't have terrible eyesight, thank God, but she was definitely fa
r-sighted. She'd been without glasses for so long she was completely used to a bit of foreground fuzziness, but this might be her last chance to score a pair of glasses for a very long time.

  They were nice glasses, Ray Ban, and she wondered where they’d come from. She didn’t remember Basher having glasses.

  At first she still couldn’t see anything (the hall was so dark) but while she blinked and squinted at nothing, and the guard made an impatient noise with his throat, a dot began to flash on the center of each lens.

  Adjusting Depth of Field.

  Please Wait.

  The words appeared in light green, and looked as if they were hovering a foot in front of her, in thin air.

  The dot began to flash, and then disappeared.

  Vision: Optical shortening

  Adjusting Right Lens +2.5,

  Adjusting Left Lens +3.0

  "Yes!" Though still dark, so many details were suddenly visible to Claire. She could see the edges of the papers on the desk, the stains on her fingers from the silver polish she’d used on the ship, and the impatience in everyone’s eyes.

  “Sorry! I’m ready to go.”

  Sage looked dubious. “I don’t know if you should take those. What if they have a tracker in them?”

  “Like GPS? I doubt it. They’re made on Earth, they wouldn’t be calibrated to Selta, would they?”

  Sage frowned. "Probably not, but we should be sure -”

  “Take them or leave them but we must go now,” the guard said.

  “I’m taking them. I’m sick of blurriness.” Claire’s headache already felt a tiny bit better.

  The guard guided them to a set of stairs. “This is where you go alone.” He handed a token to Sage. It was a tiny electronic square, the size of a key fob. Basher had used one like it when he brought her into the embassy.

  “Interior doors will unlock for you, but only one exterior door. It will lead you to the Observation Deck under the lower level of the embassy. Go to the third down-spinner east, and slip down eight levels.” He gave them directions. “If you are caught, I will deny all this.”

  He paused, and in the dim light she saw the guard's eyestalks twitch toward Sage. “You owe me for her. If I don’t receive payment within the week... you will owe.” He shuffled away on his four legs and Claire wondered briefly how he was going to get away with this. Surely he would be suspected?

  Claire didn’t have long to ponder. Young Twin put a hand on her back to push her toward the stairs.

  They went up in a single-file, trying to be quiet in the dark stair well.

  "Don’t the Spo believe in exit lights?" Athlete asked.

  Sage shook his head without looking back. "They have excellent night vision."

  Claire began to shiver as they climbed the long flight of stairs. By the time they reached the top, her teeth were chattering. “Is it r-really cold in here?”

  Temperature: 78 Degrees F, 29 Degrees C.

  The words appeared on her glasses.

  “No, it’s not cold.” Sage caught her arm when she stumbled on the last step and would have fallen to the ground.

  She felt someone else’s hand on her forehead.

  “It works!” Diva said. “I can feel that she is very hot. She must be ill. How interesting.”

  “Another time it would be interesting. Not now!”

  They began to go down the last hall. Sage whispered that they were almost to their exit, but Claire was starting not to care. She came to a stop. “I forgot! I can’t believe it. I forgot to get Kit.”

  Sage’s hand was on her arm, he was dragging her forward. “I’m sorry, but we can’t go back.”

  “But – but – Basher’ll give him back to Faal. I’ve got to go get him!”

  Sage was still pulling. “More guards will be coming any moment.”

  The silence following his words was broken by the sound of a door opening at the end of the hall, behind them. Claire opened her mouth, but Sage clapped a hand over it. Old Twin opened a door beside her and they all piled in. Sage released Claire and silently pulled the door shut behind them.

  It was a tiny room and smelled more than ordinarily of bleach. Must be a janitor’s closet, Claire thought, stifling the urge to cough. There was barely room for them all. She found herself pressed against a wall, squashed between Sage and Athlete.

  Sage twisted to face her, and she could feel every motion he made. “Just stay still,” he whispered, his breath on her face. She could feel Athlete’s bulk, solid on her left, trapping her between them.

  Despite her climbing fever and clenching stomach, she had a brief moment of clarity.

  I am surrounded by aliens.

  Have I gone mad? I'm leaving the only real human I’ve seen in three years to join these Rik. And I only have their word for it that they won’t desert me or kill me or sell me for money...

  Claire could hear footsteps in the hall as someone passed their hiding place. Claire almost screamed. She took a deep breath and opened her mouth, but Sage felt it. He leaned his forehead against hers.

  “Trust us. Trust me. Please.”

  Claire paused. If he’d put his hand over her mouth again, she would have done it. She would have screamed and gotten them all caught. But his simple words, ‘trust me,’ made her pause. She felt the coolness of his forehead against her feverish one and wished it didn’t matter.

  Then the guard was gone and her feverish mind skipped a few beats. Suddenly they were all spilling back out into the hall. They ran to the end of it, where Sage expertly pressed the token to the correct spot on a large door. The large double panels unlocked with an audible thunk.

  Sage jerked the doors open and blue light spilled across his handsome face. “Let’s get away from here. Quickly.”

  ***

  Akemi was sleeping when the new glasses came online. Her sleep mode was interrupted with a data dump from the new glasses. They’d automatically calibrated (built-in software) when they’d detected sustained body heat. Now the particulars of the calibration popped up, plus the current speed, time, and temp, along with the camera view from the left lens.

  Akemi gave a mental yawn. It was fine with her if Basher wanted to try his glasses now, but if she’d known, she would have waited to sleep until he was done. She was always groggy when she woke up. That part of her teenage self was still very much the same.

  Basher was going out a door now, out of the embassy, with several others. He turned and looked back and – WHAT?

  Those were Rik! Akemi was wide awake now.

  Basher. What are you doing? she sent.

  “Uh,” an uncertain girl’s voice, hoarse and low pitched. “My glasses are saying something to me. Or uh, to Basher.”

  “Trash them.”

  “I don’t want to. I'm sick of not having glasses.”

  In a blink, Akemi understood the gist of what was happening, and was sending alerts to Sam and Nat. That cadet girl, the one they weren’t sure about, was escaping with the Rik.

  But of course, Sam and Nat were sleeping too, and while Nat usually slept with her glasses on (for Akemi’s sake), if she was deeply asleep, Akemi’s messages wouldn’t wake her. Akemi brought out the worst curse word she could think of (it wasn’t very bad), and tried to think what to do. It was so stupid that she couldn’t alert anyone to what was happening.

  “You can’t endanger us all,” one of the Rik was saying. “Give me the glasses.”

  Akemi thought fast. Claire wanted these glasses, but the others were scared. She had to convince them the glasses were harmless. If Claire kept the glasses, Akemi would be able to keep track of the Rik situation until someone woke up and could deal with this.

  Akemi needed to act dumb. Quickly.

  If this is another user,

  Please speak your name.

  Or say Menu Options.

  Please speak aloud.

  “It’s... giving me some kind of menu,” Claire said.

  "If you can't turn it off in the next thirty
seconds, they're gone," the other guy warned.

  Smart mode

  Simple mode

  Turn off access

  “Turn off access,” the girl said. "There, I did it. We can go."

  "Are you sure?!"

  Akemi made the letters fade slowly to nothing, and followed it up with a

  Shutting down now

  Squeeze nose piece to power on

  Then she waited, tensely.

  “I’ve turned it off, really,” Claire told them. She tripped on something and staggered for four steps before regaining her balance.

  One of the Rik steadied her, and touched her face. “She’s still very hot.”

  Akemi felt a surge of fear. She checked Claire’s temperature and found that it was nearly 106 degrees F.

  She was reacting to the blood test. She must be human.

  Akemi cursed her isolated state with renewed vigor. She’d been upset that these Rik were escaping, but it was nothing to how she felt knowing they were escaping and taking a human with them. With every step, Claire got further away from the embassy, further removed from help.

  Akemi didn’t exactly hate the Rik as a species, despite what they’d done to her, but she would never trust them. It killed her to see this girl fooled into following them. And why were they taking her with them? In Akemi’s experience, the answers were never good.

  For that matter, why on Earth was Claire escaping with these Rik? Basher might not know she was human, but Claire certainly did! What was she thinking?

  Akemi could play the dumb glasses role in order to spy on the Rik, but she’d willingly break her pretense and talk to Claire, if by doing so she could get her to stop. But what could Akemi say that would convince Claire fast enough? As soon as she said a thing, the Rik would toss the glasses and run. Even worse, if Akemi somehow got Claire to reconsider, would the Rik let her go back?

  Akemi writhed in frustration and indecision. She was visually screaming at Nat, but Nat wasn’t waking up, and Sam’s glasses were off.

  Claire stumbled forward with the Rik of her own free will and Akemi wanted to yell at her to come back. Didn’t Claire know what they could do to her?