Caitlyn awakened to sunlight streaming through a crack in the drapes. Memories rushed back: the flight to Costa Rica, being carried through the jungle, a wonderful dinner, incredible sex and amazing orgasms at Arak’s residence. What she didn’t remember was arriving home.
How had she gotten here? The last thing she recalled was snuggling in Arak’s arms—after he’d insisted she use the products Ellet had given her. She had been quite sore from the strenuous fucking, but the little magic bullets had erased the pain.
She stretched, feeling no residual effects, and the blanket slid down to her lap. Arak’s, from Lenkarda. It had been on his bed. He’d brought her home wrapped in a blanket?
What time was it? She glanced at her cell phone.
“Oh no.” She sprang up, tripping over the blanket. She was fifteen minutes late for the meeting at VN. She dashed into the shower, wishing she had some K technology to dry her hair. Being tardy wouldn’t make a good impression when she was already in trouble.
She had a good excuse—if she’d be able to use it, but telling Mike she’d gone to Costa Rica and back in an evening in an invisible car-plane would lead to questions she wished to avoid. The angle of her story had changed—if she reported one. No one knew how fast the Ks could travel, or that they could manufacture articles out of thin air. If they could do that, imagine what else they could do.
The possibilities would spark panic again.
Instead of the exposer of Krinar secrets, I’ve become the keeper. A colluder, the Resistance would say. A traitor.
It was time for people to get over their prejudices. The Ks were here to stay, and it was time for everyone to get along and be happy.
Caitlyn toweled off and dried her hair as quickly as she could. She dressed in her most professional outfit, a skirt with a simple blouse and a jacket. Slipping on some flats, she tossed her phone into her purse and dashed out.
* * * *
“You’re late.” Mike pointed out the obvious as she ran into the conference room.
Traffic had been light, and she’d hit all the green lights, so she wasn’t as tardy as she could have been. An hour. But she could see the steam coming out of Mike’s ears, and Jack, VN’s big boss—glowered. She gulped. This didn’t bode well.
“Sorry,” she said, and offered up a lie. “I had car trouble.”
“Sit down,” Jack said.
She slid into her chair.
“What happened to the equipment?” No hello, no how-are-you, no sympathy for her fake car trouble—he got right to business.
She gripped the chair’s arms to avoid fidgeting. The truth would reveal too much. “I took off the pendant, and it fell into the drain and got washed into the sewer system.”
“And the transceiver?”
“The transceiver stopped working when it fell into the swimming pool.” She omitted she’d been wearing it when Arak picked her up and jumped in.
“Swimming pool?” Jack’s eyebrows rose.
“At K Technologies.”
“Why were you swimming?” Mike spoke up.
“Arak gave me a tour of the facility.” She scowled. “You know that.”
“And you thought swimming would further the story, how?” Mike leaned back in his chair.
She didn’t care for his tone. The man had been a pain in the butt right up until the transceiver had ended up in the pool. She should have tossed it into the drink herself at the start.
“I thought it best if I played along. I saw a lot of things.” Lenkarda. A K restaurant. Arak’s residence, his penis…
“And what did you find out?” Jack asked.
She shrugged. “The Ks are more technologically advanced than us, but I didn’t notice anything alarming or that you weren’t already aware of.” Unless you counted fixtures that absorbed electronics, vehicles popping out of nowhere, or that said vehicles could become invisible and fly, covering a distance of twenty-seven hundred plus miles in minutes. Nope, she hadn’t learned anything important.
Mike would say she was naïve or had been coerced, but she wasn’t. The Ks were what they claimed: the progenitors of earthlings who now intended to occupy the planet—peacefully, if humans allowed it.
“So, what did you see?” Jack asked.
“The cafeteria, the waiting room, the swimming pool,” Mike answered for her with a scowl. “The K was hitting on her.”
“He was not,” she lied, feeling her face heat.
“Did you see anything other than the things Mike mentioned?”
“No, but it was my first day.”
Both men shook their heads.
“I can still get a good human interest story out of it. We can make it a series. We’ll get a ton of views,” she rushed in. “Arak is willing to sit for an interview—”
“Oh, it’s Arak, is it?” Mike arched his eyebrows.
“Yes, it’s Arak,” she snapped. “Ks don’t have last names.”
Jack exchanged a look with Mike, before turning back to her. “Your producer has relayed the conversations you had with the K, and, given what you’ve reported so far, it’s obvious you’ve lost your objectivity and have become too close to the subject.”
Lost her objectivity? No. Just the opposite. She considered herself more objective than they because she had set aside her prejudices and kept an open mind. Jack and Mike wouldn’t recognize the truth if it marched right up to them and slapped them in the face. They were the ones who weren’t objective in their campaign to bring down the Ks.
I used to believe what they believe, too.
She had to tread carefully. Mike and Jack might yank her from the story and send someone who would deliver the hatchet job. “I’ve developed some good connections.”
“Viral News isn’t interested in some feel-good, human interest fluff piece. You were sent in for an investigative—”
Oh no, they’re pulling me from the story. “I was only there one day.”
“You’ve lost your objectivity. Your actions resulted in the loss of equipment totaling about twenty thousand dollars. I’m sorry to say we no longer have a position for you at Viral News.”
Her stomach dropped to the floor. “You’re firing me?”
“You’re young and inexperienced. When you become more seasoned, you’ll make a fine investigative reporter, but, at the present, you’re not a good fit for VN.”
“B-but the story was my idea.”
“You’ll receive two weeks’ severance in addition to the salary you’re owed and unused vacation time. I have confidence you’ll find another position. We wish you well in your future endeavors.” Jack pushed away from the table and left the room.
That was a polite way of saying don’t let the door hit you on the ass.
Mike spoke. “I’m sorry—”
“Don’t.” She held up her hand. “Just, don’t.” She’d never been fired before. It hurt they thought her incompetent. She twisted her mouth. “Well, at least I have my position with the mayor’s office.” She would still be the liaison to K Technologies. That was better, anyway. She could help the world understand the Ks weren’t going to harm them, and their two peoples could coexist. She would see Arak every day. Yes, this was much more in line with what she wanted to do.
“About that…” Mike shook his head. “Jack phoned the mayor’s office this morning. You’re no longer on staff there, either.”
That was gone, too? “He had made his decision before he talked to me?” She jumped to her feet. How could they do this to her? She’d committed one little mistake—and it wasn’t her fault. She hadn’t thrown the transceiver into the pool. How could she have guessed the bench would absorb the pendant? They’d sent her into a building occupied by the Ks, for goodness sake. They had to expect the unexpected.
Humiliated, she rushed for the exit.
“Wait,” Mike called, but she ignored him.
She ran down the hall. Her former coworkers prairie dogged, popping up to peer at her over cube walls. Did they know she’d been sacked? Cleaning out her desk while everyone watched with pity would be too embarrassing. She scanned her brain to recall if she had anything at the office she couldn’t live without. No, nothing.
She was almost to the main exit when Mike caught up with her and blocked her path.
“Listen,” he said. “I really am sorry.”
“Yeah, right.” She planted her hands on her hips. “What did you tell Jack, anyway?”
“Not as much as you think. He’s a bean counter, more concerned with profitability than the news, so he’s more focused on the loss of equipment than anything else.” He glanced at the receptionist sitting a distance away, her head bowed over her computer. “But I started to get worried about what I was seeing and hearing,” he said in a lower voice.
She tossed her head. “And what’s that?”
“You and the K getting chummy. Before the camera went dark and the sound cut out, the sexual tension was as obvious as a heart attack. From the video feed, I saw the way he ogled you. He was coming on to you big time—and you weren’t discouraging him.”
Had they been that obvious? “I played along, to get him to talk.” What had happened between her and Arak was none of Mike’s business.
“It seemed like a lot more than that.”
“Well, it wasn’t.” She lied to protect Arak, but it felt like a betrayal to disavow their connection. She couldn’t risk revealing they had something special.
“You’re not the first woman to be fooled. Those aliens can be smooth and charming. Why do you think so many women hang out at the K Clubs?”
For the sex, she almost quipped, but thought better of it. And she didn’t know that she would describe Arak as smooth. Sexy as hell, but his appeal emanated from his dominance, his commanding, demanding nature. Mike would perceive her having slept with Arak as a conflict of interest, and she supposed, technically, it was. Or had been. Getting fired left her free to follow her passion. “You have no idea what you’re talking about,” she said.
“You don’t know what the Ks are like.” He tapped his head. “They’ve influenced a lot of people. They might have some kind of secret psychic power to brainwash a person.”
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll put a metal colander on my head, and I’ll be okay,” she said.
“It’s not funny.”
“You sound like one of those conspiracy theorists.”
“Maybe they’re not far from wrong. Listen, nobody disputes their technology is more advanced than ours. Or that they’re more intelligent. But that’s the problem. You believe Ks and humans can be friends. Do you realize what happens to people befriended by more advanced beings? The best that can happen is you become their pet. You won’t be any different than a dog led around on a leash or a pretty bird kept in a gilded cage. Is that what you want—to become some K’s charl?”
“A charl isn’t a pet.”
Mike’s eyes narrowed. “And what do you know about charl?”
“More than you. A charl is a K’s human mate.”
He released a low, scoffing laugh. “That’s what you think you are to him? You have been brainwashed.”
“That’s ridiculous,” she said. “But, at this point, why would you care? You fired me.”
“Jack fired you, not me.” His intense gaze locked on hers. “I saw how that K looked at you—like a starving man eying a plate of nachos with extra cheese. You didn’t stand a chance. He wasn’t going to take no for an answer. I could tell you were falling under his spell. Why do you think I talked so much? I was trying to distract you.”
“If you were so worried, why didn’t you pull me out of there?”
“I should have. I considered it, but I miscalculated. I never guessed he’d try something on the first day. But it was obvious he lusted after you. Stay away from him. He’s dangerous.”
“You don’t have the right to tell me what to do anymore.” She pushed around him and left the building.
Fired. She couldn’t believe it. Her savings would last about two months, so she had to get another job fast. She’d stop at K Tech and tell Arak what had happened, that she wouldn’t be showing up every day to dog his every step. He could get some work done. And on off hours, they could see each other like a regular couple.
Mike’s ideas were crazy. Brainwashing. Keeping pet humans. Ridiculous.
Isn’t it?
Arak had pursued and seduced her within hours of meeting her. She’d never slept with a man before, had held out against pressure from several boyfriends because it hadn’t felt right, but she’d surrendered her virginity to Arak without hesitation. That wasn’t brainwashing, though. More…mutual attraction, mutual pleasure.
Arak had controlled what she saw and did around K Tech, but he hadn’t known if he could trust her and needed to protect Krinar secrets. Of course the Ks had secrets—so did humans. She flung her purse into the passenger seat of her car and got in. His vehicle had been amazing. She still couldn’t believe how fast they’d gotten to Costa Rica, zipping through the sky, invisible to the traffic. The trip to Lenkarda had been a wonderful surprise, engineered by Arak then followed by delicious Krinar cuisine, which Arak had ordered. Then came the mind-blowing sex. Arak was a masterful, dominant lover. Finally, he’d carried her home and deposited her in her very own bed.
He controlled everything.
Oh my god. Could Mike be right? Arak had directed everything: what she saw, what she did, where she went. Even the sex. He decided when, how, and how much. Had her response been her own—or had he mesmerized her with some mental mojo? Of all the times in her life, why now had she hopped into bed with a man she’d just met? She’d been attracted to a lot of men without losing her head. Or her virginity.
Arak had seduced her…had he manipulated her, too?
Damn Mike for planting the seeds of doubt.