Chapter Five
<^> <^> <^>
Cam knew he should go, but walked back to the bed, leaned down and kissed Ria’s mouth briefly. She seemed deep in thought until he kissed her. Any more engaging lip locks would result in too much time going by. He needed to leave. He needed to see if the cruise liner had departed and how it managed to leave without Ria.
He tried to stay on his original train of thought, but every kiss, touch, and look sidetracked him. Ria was like a drug in his system, a dangerous one. He was grateful she wasn’t enamored of the man she was supposed to marry. Not that it would change anything. Arranged marriages were difficult to escape or dismiss unless both parties agreed to sever the agreement.
Having met her mother, Cam knew the Governess would never willingly give up a Technician’s son in favor of a colony outpost security man, as she’d sneeringly called him.
Ria smiled, slid gracefully out of his bed and stretched like a feline after a long afternoon nap. His shirt definitely looked better on her.
“I’ll be back shortly,” Cam said and hurried out before he stayed and lost total track of time. Again. He hopped into his small SUV and drove the short distance to the Big Bang Truck Stop for the second time that day.
He passed Aunt Dixie’s home and resisted the urge to whisper an incantation to ward off evil spirits as he drove by. Cam shook his head, remembering the day she moved in. His aunt spent quite a lot of time working on schemes to earn money for an old folks’ home, a place she didn’t actually live most of the time.
Having his very eccentric aunt reside only a few doors down was always interesting. She’d been known to drop by unannounced. He figured she wanted to catch him with a girl and grill him about his marriage intentions. She’d spent a month raving to Diesel about free milk and cows when his older brother started dating Juliana.
Mostly, Cam managed to avoid being the target of her wacky schemes. That didn’t mean it was out of the realm of possibility.
Aunt Dixie spent the bulk of her time haranguing his eldest brother Diesel, in his capacity as Fearless Leader and manager of the Big Bang Truck Stop, to approve her never-ending and completely outlandish ideas to make money for the old folks’ home. A recent one involved a wet T-shirt contest at the home using Big Bang Truck Stop T-shirts. Aunt Dixie insisted it would be good advertising for the upstairs side of the business.
Diesel put the brakes on that plan.
A month before that, she’d wanted to produce a very candid silver fox calendar and had already lined up twelve elderly volunteers to “drop trou,” as she put it, to “rake in the big bucks.” Diesel quashed that plan seconds after hearing it.
Cam felt sorry for his brother, but didn’t want to inherit the job of keeping Aunt Dixie in line if Diesel decided to run screaming from her seemingly endless schemes.
He parked his SUV in the truck stop’s side lot. He’d once helped carry Diesel’s Earther girlfriend, Juliana, to her car after shooting her with a Defender to make her forget about seeing a Moogalian alien on the loose in the side lot. At the time, they’d thought she was pure human, and had just witnessed the drunken half-sea creature, half-humanoid attempt to enter a forbidden door to the basement facility.
Diesel had been rather perturbed, but Cam had just been doing his job as chief of security. He smiled at the memory, but quickly frowned as he thought about Ria being zapped and forgetting things about their time together.
She was an Alpha, which meant the Defender wouldn’t work on her. It was a great tool to keep earthlings from finding out about what really went on at the Big Bang Truck Stop’s basement facility. He realized now he had a better understanding of his big brother’s supreme frustration with him over the matter back then, even though it was the right call. He was also lucky Juliana forgave him.
Last night, he’d contemplated the possible need to use the device on Ria if she found out about his alien identity, but hoped it would never come to that. Well, now it never would come to that. Alphas were immune to the effects of the Defender and his Ria was a beautiful, free-spirited Alpha…and very nearly promised forever to another man.
He frowned and tried to think of something other than dwelling on her possible future with someone else.
Cam wasn’t certain he wanted to talk to Axel just yet. Would Diesel know about the cruise liner and what had happened? Surely he would. With his quick plan in place, he raced downstairs and headed toward his office to discuss the matter with someone—anyone—other than Axel.
Diesel spotted him before he made it to the sanctuary of his office and waved him over. As Cam approached, one of three women from the recovery team dispatched last month to Nocturne Falls, appeared from the basement entrance right next to Diesel.
“Elise Greene, as I live and breathe,” Diesel said. “How are you doing after your adventures in Georgia?” Elise’s gaze cut to Cam, her boss, as if she wasn’t certain how to answer. Cam knew exactly why.
“Diesel, what’s wrong with you? Her last name is Midori, not Greene. Victoria’s last name is Greene.”
His brother frowned, turning to Elise for confirmation. She looked sheepish and said, “That’s right. Midori, not Greene.”
“Wait a minute. How long have I had your name wrong?” Diesel’s horrified expression as he asked the question was likely answer enough.
Cam chose not to let it go. His team member deserved his support. “Well, gee, Diesel. How long did you think her name was Greene and not Midori?”
Elise Midori, Victoria Greene and their cousin Stella Grey had been dispatched after a UFO from Alpha-Prime crashed near Nocturne Falls on its way to Alienn, Arkansas’s underground way station. Their mission had been to retrieve the pilot, guard and prisoner on the transport, and conceal the existence of extraterrestrials on Earth. They’d found a lot more than they bargained for, but that was a story for another day.
His brother shrugged. “Well, I guess…since she’s worked here.” He looked confused and dismayed over his mistake. “But Midori means green, doesn’t it, in Italian?”
“And yet her name remains Midori and not Greene in whatever language you choose.”
Elise smiled indulgently. “Honestly, I don’t think you’ve ever called me by the wrong last name before. Usually, you just say, ‘Hey there, Elise’ and move on.”
Diesel pushed out a sigh. “Well, I’m sorry I’ve had it wrong in my head all this time, but—”
Cam broke in. “Wait for it, Elise, he’s about to play the ‘I’m a lovesick dude’ card because he’s got a woman in his life.”
“Bite me, Cam,” Diesel said with a grin. To Elise he said, “Again, my apologies for the error and, yes, I’m also a lovesick dude, by way of explanation.”
“I accept your apology even though it isn’t needed, and I hope you aren’t further thrown off when I tell you that my last name isn’t Midori anymore.”
“It’s not?”
Cam narrowed his gaze. “You changed your name? Really?”
“Well, it’s not common knowledge yet, but Riker and I eloped. We wanted to have a ceremony in Alienn with Riker’s brother Draeken before we head back to Alpha-Prime.”
Diesel and Cam both said at the same time, “You married The Calderian? Awesome!” The Calderian was Alpha-Prime’s top law enforcement entity. Riker Phoenix was just as well known on Earth as on their home planet.
Cam and Diesel looked at each other and said, “Jinx! You owe me a soda.” They also punched each other in the shoulder.
Elise laughed. “Thanks. I think he’s awesome, too.”
Diesel said in a low, urgent tone, “Okay. Elise Phoenix. Elise Phoenix. Elise Phoenix. Maybe if I keep chanting it, I’ll remember.”
“Good luck with that, old timer,” Cam said. “Elise, I’m sorry to lose such a good operative, but you have my sincere congratulations. When do you leave?”
“Well, I can stay until things are sorted in the roster. I certainly don’t want to leave you in a bind—”
Cam stopped her with an upheld hand. “I’m sure The Calderian is needed back on Alpha-Prime, and that you’re both eager to start your lives there together. Let me worry about the schedule. I’ll also make sure you have glowing references from me and our Fearless Leader here to take with you.”
Her cheeks colored and her eyes glistened with emotion. “Thanks, Cam. That means a lot to me.”
“Like I said, you’ll be missed. With your experience, you won’t have any trouble finding a suitable position on Alpha-Prime.” Uncomfortable, Cam looked at Diesel. “Now, back to why I’m even here on my day off. Have you seen Axel today?”
Diesel said, “Nope.” Elise shook her head.
So far, so good. “Did you know that the Royal Caldera Forte had to leave early?”
“Yep. I saw the memo. Something about a volcanic ash plume in space on the scheduled route, right?”
Cam nodded.
“Do I win something?” Diesel’s expression suddenly sobered. “Wait a minute. You took a day off? When a ship was docked in Alienn? What’s the matter with you?”
“Bite me, Diesel.” He expected his brother to mention something about the missing passenger, but he didn’t. “Axel had it covered.” Sort of, until he called me about the missing passenger and then the ship left without her.
Did Diesel know a passenger had been missing? Better not find out right now. He’d suck it up and speak to a hostile Axel before admitting anything like that to his eldest brother. A meeting of the council of elders might be called and a judgment rendered. And if anyone there found out where the missing passenger was—rustling up breakfast in Cam’s kitchen after spending the better part of a night and morning rolling around with him in bed—or that an imposter was now aboard the ship, he wasn’t certain what would happen.
Now he was back to discussing this matter with Axel. Diesel would give him a further rash of grief if he admitted to sleeping with or actively hiding the missing passenger.
He left Diesel, who laughed at him openly. Elise at least had good manners. She tried not to smile behind the fingers over her mouth, but her eyes were amused. Cam headed toward Axel’s office with the intention of leaving a note for his brother to call him. No such luck. He ran into Axel right outside his office door.
Axel’s eyes widened in surprise, but he snorted. “What are you doing here? I thought your sacred time off would keep you at home.” His brother was obviously holding a grudge. Cam sighed deeply and bore up to deal with this issue.
“Very funny. I was so exhausted that I went to bed and conked out the moment I got home.” Axel didn’t have to know what happened before he fell asleep. “I swear, I was only going to rest for a minute…and then you called and I wasn’t awake enough for a second conversation, either.”
“Oh?” Axel seemed to understand he wasn’t getting the whole story, but didn’t press. “What are you doing here now?”
Cam cleared his throat. “I’m here because of your earlier phone call.” This would be a good time to make nice with his brother. He did owe him.
“What about it?”
Cam rolled his shoulders to help relax his stiff posture. “I regret not helping you find the passenger.”
Axel crossed his arms and leaned a shoulder against the doorframe. “Really? You have regrets?”
“Yes. Really. I get it. You were doing me a favor by taking care of this situation even though it’s my day off. I should have been more considerate instead of going home to…take a much needed nap.” Eventually.
“Who are you? And what have you done with my brother, Cam?”
“Very funny.”
“Is this your way of saying you’re sorry?”
He shrugged. “Maybe.”
Axel grinned. “Okay. I graciously accept your thoughtful, totally sincere and totally regret-filled apology.”
“Don’t get crazy now.” Axel laughed and Cam knew he was forgiven. “So, tell me what happened with the missing passenger.”
Axel tilted his head to one side, like a dog trying to understand what its human was saying. “I told you already. She walked onto the ship through the Elite passenger door and, moments later, the cruise liner left the dock. Boom. Ka-pow.” He clapped his hands together once and then made a gesture like something taking off into the wild blue yonder. “They even made it five minutes ahead of schedule, which must have pleased Director Patmore to no end.”
Cam didn’t have a good feeling about this. “So you personally saw her get aboard?”
“Yes. I saw her board the ship myself. Why? What’s wrong?”
Cam couldn’t very well tell him the truth…exactly. At least not yet.
“Nothing’s wrong. You sounded irritated when you called. I wanted to make sure nothing else was going on beyond me not helping with the search.” Cam knew precisely why his brother had been angry.
Axel’s eyes narrowed. “You left and went home and purposely didn’t look for the missing passenger. So, yeah, I’ll admit I was a little annoyed. But now you’ve said you’re woefully sorry, that you simply couldn’t go another second without my forgiveness and you’ll never, ever leave me hanging out to dry again. I have accepted your courteous regrets even though you didn’t really have a good reason not to help me.”
Cam repeated what was likely the lamest excuse in the world. “Well, I was really tired.”
“From what, having a day off?”
Cam shrugged. “Well. Yeah. Maybe I went out and partied and then came home late last night.” He’d been exhausted from staying up all night with Ria.
“Oh? You partied all night? What’s her name?”
Cam managed a quick, “No comment.”
“That means you were with someone.”
“It was my day off.” Without admitting he was with a woman and especially not saying her nickname or who she really was, he said, “Let’s just say I didn’t turn in early last night expecting to go to work this morning. Your call was unforeseen.”
Axel shrugged. “Are you saying that it was my fault you didn’t look for the missing passenger when you knew it was only the two of us out there searching?”
Cam put his hands up in surrender. “No. That’s not what I said. I just wondered what happened and where you found her.”
“Why? What difference does it make?”
“Maybe I’ll add it to the watch list under where to look for escaped aliens off recently docked cruise liners at the way station. I know you were annoyed you had to look for her all by yourself. But can you get over it long enough to tell me where you found her? I just wondered where she was hiding out.” To ensure no one looks at my house.
It was Axel’s turn to look sheepish. “I didn’t find her. She came in of her own accord.”
Cam frowned. Someone came in, but not Ria. Who was it? “Explain.”
“Well, she came in with her lady’s maid,” Axel amended.
“She had a maid? I didn’t hear about that. So there were two Alphas loose in town this morning?” He threw his hands in the air as if truly put out, but wasn’t.
“Not exactly. You see, after her mother talked to us and was apparently unimpressed with what she called the ‘lackluster security systems’ in place on this backwater colony, she sent their personal lady’s maid out to help look for Alexandria. I got back from my useless search just in time to learn about the lady’s maid and then see the missing passenger return with the maid following dutifully along behind.”
“Where did this Alexandria say she’d been?”
“She didn’t,” Axel said. “At least not to me. I saw her board the ship through the Elite Class door along with her lady’s maid. Director Patmore also watched them climb aboard. He was the one who allowed the maid to go off on her own to find her. Once the two returned, he signed the manifest confirming he had a complete roster of passengers, gave me a copy and away they went.”
“Huh. Interesting.”
“Is it? What’s so interesting?”
A question Cam couldn’t answer. He didn’t know who’d gotten on the ship, but it wasn’t Ria. “I don’t know. That her maid brought her back, I guess. How did she know where to look? Why wasn’t she present during our meeting with her mother? Why did we have to look for her if her lady’s maid was going to be dispatched to find her right away? And it had to be somewhere in the facility, right? Otherwise, the maid would’ve had to leave the vicinity, which she most definitely didn’t have permission to do.”
Axel nodded, his expression shifting to one of resolve. “Good point. You’re probably right. The lady’s maid likely knew exactly where the girl was the whole time and simply fetched her.”
“Maybe,” Cam murmured, knowing that wasn’t the truth at all. But if the lady’s maid did go somewhere, who came back with her? Please, please don’t let it be some stray earthling you picked up along the side of the road.
The calamitous possibility of earthling exposure to aliens flying around the galaxy on a cruise liner not scheduled to return for ten days flitted through his mind. Cam’s heart skipped a beat. What can I do? What should I do?
Maybe Cam should get a carefully worded message ready to send to the ship, warning the crew to be on the lookout for any wide-eyed earthlings found aboard ogling all the aliens. Then again, if it wasn’t an earthling, he didn’t want to stir up trouble.
Cam noticed Axel’s rare serious expression and stopped his mental speculation.
“What is wrong with you, Bro?” Axel asked.
He shrugged. “I don’t know what you mean.” He turned to go.
“Your tense face alone could worry the horns off a billy goat.”
Cam rolled his eyes. He was not tense. He was the exact opposite after spending the night with Ria. “No. Wrong. I’m not tense, just tired. You called me out of a sound sleep on my day off to look for someone who came back on her own without me being involved at all. If you’d never called me, I’d likely still be asleep. I should be the one perturbed, not you.”
“Oh, a thousand pardons for disturbing you, my liege,” Axel said with extra sarcasm. “Next time there’s a problem, I’ll let chaos run rampant before disturbing your beauty sleep. I can see you need every second. Your attitude is fairly crappy when you don’t get enough shut-eye.”
“Funny.” Cam blew out a short breath. “Keep in mind I’ll also remember this the next time you have a day off.”
“Whatever. Go. I promise I won’t bother you again.”
“Thanks. Much appreciated.” Cam walked away with several thoughts zipping through his head. The only one worth worrying about was whether an earthling was aboard the Royal Caldera Forte. The ship would return in ten days. No matter how much he wanted it to, his invention wouldn’t be able to wipe that much time from an earthling’s memory. The max range of a Defender was thirty minutes. He’d have to employ an older method of removing the earthling’s memories.
Once the ship returned to Earth, he’d simply corner the impersonator and ensure she got either a mega zap from an experimental deluxe Defender that erased several days’ worth of memories, or they’d have to use the memory serum and a hypodermic needle to ensure no memories of the trip through space remained in the human’s brain.
Cam’s overriding concern had more to do with how many others might discover an earthling had been loose on an alien ship for ten days, while the way station’s security chief entertained an AWOL Alpha without alerting anyone.
That would set off a space potato storm of epic proportions.