Charlotte

 

Stepping off the elevator on the fourth floor of the sprawling building on C Street that housed the State Department, I headed directly for the Public Affairs offices where I worked.

Fewer people were around than usual--no surprise there. The ones I did see were all frantically busy fielding phone calls or gathered in small groups talking anxiously.

Even so, before I got more than a few steps, I became aware of conversations stopping, heads swiveling, and eyes following me every step of the way.

I hadn’t made it in for the all-hands and I got that many of my colleagues had probably been there all night. But I hadn’t grown a second head, had I?

What was going on?

“Charlotte!” Derek all but exploded out of his cube, skittering to a halt in front of me. Abruptly noticing the attention coming my way, he dropped his voice to a tense whisper. “Are you all right? I feel so guilty. I’m the one who called you in. What the hell happened?”

“I’m sorry I didn’t get here. I ran into some trouble--”

“Trouble? Is that what you call almost getting trampled to death in a riot in front of the K embassy?”

Startled, I asked, “How do you know about that?”

Jarek had said that Secretary of State Loomis had been informed of my whereabouts but surely that kind of highest level official contact hadn’t already trickled down to my fellow cube dwellers?

“How could I not?” he countered. “The video of what happened to you is getting so many views it’s almost crashed YouTube. Coming on top of that incident in Saudi Arabia--”

I didn’t want to think about what had happened there. But I didn’t want to believe what Derek was saying either.  If there was one thing I never wanted to do in my life, it was go viral.

“There’s a video--?”

 “Believe it! That K, holy crap, he came out of nowhere, leaped right over the wall in a single bound, picked you up as if you were nothing and the look on his face... I gotta tell you, a lot of us thought we were never going to see you again.”

Struggling not to think of Jarek sweeping me into his arms and carrying me away from danger, I said, “I don’t remember any of that.”

“Trust me. You’re all over Twitter. Hashtag #hotK and #freeCharlotte are both trending. Half the world thinks he’s a super stud, the other half is convinced the Ks are here to steal our women, and the rest are down with both.”

Either math wasn’t Derek’s strong suit or he was just really strung out. Not that it mattered.

If I’d had any doubt that the world was entirely nuts, I didn’t anymore.  Maybe the K shouldn’t have made getting rid of nukes their top priority. They might have been smarter to take out social media instead.

“This is fascinating but there must be some work to do.”

He slapped his forehead. “Damn, how could I forget? The Secretary wants to see you pronto.”

“What secretary?”

We didn’t have the kind that sat behind desks and answered phones; those were all PAs. My own boss was an acting assistant secretary, which made the status of the Public Affairs department pretty clear. People generally just called her Kathy.

“Loomis,” Derek said. “He wants to see you. You should already be up on the seventh floor.”

My stomach dropped. The seventh floor was the domain of the highest of the high, the men and a few women seen emerging from airplanes emblazoned with the Stars and Stripes, bustling in and out of the White House, and showing up on the Sunday morning talk shows to tell us all what to believe about the state of the world.

“Harry Loomis, the Secretary of State wants to see me personally?”  He couldn’t just palm me off on one of his army of brown nosing flunkies the way he usually did with everything else?

“Pronto. His office called a few minutes ago.”

The day was just getting better and better. I was a career department employee, not a political appointee. Which meant that at least theoretically, I wasn’t supposed to be political at all. But I really didn’t like Loomis. Until now, the best part of being a lowly cog in a vast diplomatic machine was that he didn’t know I existed.

Unfortunately, that had changed. Resisting the urge to suddenly decide that I needed a sick day, I said, “Well, then, I should--”

“Go up there. Yeah, you should.” On a kinder note, Derek added, “He probably just wants to make sure you’re okay.”

Sure he did. And after he was finished doing that, I could go watch the pigs as they flew by. Happy little porkers, turning somersaults in the air, wearing those cute little porkpie hats…

Mentally admonishing myself to get a grip, I trudged my way to the elevators. My stomach was clenched in a knot and I could feel the cold sweat between my shoulder blades. As much as I told myself that I hadn’t done anything wrong, I was dreading whatever was coming.

As it turned out, it was even worse than I expected.

Loomis was sitting at a desk the size of a small handball court. He had a spectacular view out toward the Lincoln Memorial and the Potomac. Silver-haired, tanned and trim, he looked the epitome of the successful businessman or politician. No one would have guessed that he was in the midst of a global crisis triggered by an alien invasion… Arrival, not invasion. I really needed to get the diplo-speak right.

“Miss Hughes,” he said, rising and crossing the room to greet me. “What a pleasure. How are you?”

Girding myself, I said, “I’m fine, sir, thank you.”

“Good, good. Excellent really. We’ve been very concerned, haven’t we, guys?”

Only then did I notice that we weren’t alone. Three other people were in the room, two men and a woman. I guessed the ‘guy’ thing was generic. None of them were smiling.

“Come and sit down,” Loomis directed, leading me over to a couch and chairs arranged near the windows. 

When we were settled, with Loomis directly across from me, he said, “You’ve had quite an adventure, haven’t you?”

“If you say so, sir. Of course, I’m grateful for the care I received.”

“You spent the night at the Krinar embassy,” the woman chimed in, cutting to the chase. She was in her thirties, buffed and polished , camera ready, frosty enough that ice cream wouldn’t have melted in her panties. Her no-prisoners smile quashed any hope I had of being wrong about the nature of this meeting.

“By our calculation,” she added, “you were there just under sixteen hours. Is that correct?”

“I suppose…it was almost curfew when I left my apartment to come here so--”

“We’d like you to do more than ‘suppose’, Miss Hughes,” one of the men said. He looked like a male clone of the woman. “We need for you to be precise.”

“About what?”

“Everything you saw or heard or perceived in any way. Everything that was done to you. And most importantly, everyone you interacted with starting with Counselor Jarek.”

“I see…” I could understand the need for a debrief. But being interrogated by people who were supposed to be on my side wasn’t exactly pleasant. Especially not when I had something to hide. No way were they going to hear about that kiss.

“I’m not sure how much help I can be. I was unconscious when I was taken into the embassy. I came to in what I was told was their medical facility but by then any procedures done on me had been completed. The only person I interacted with was Counselor Jarek himself.”

All three started to speak at once but Loomis easily overrode them.

I remembered then that he’d made his fortune on Wall Street where he was known as the biggest of the big swinging dicks; sorry, but that’s what guys like him are called and they’re proud of it. After losing a brass-knuckle primaries fight to the current president, he’d been given the State Department as a consolation prize. Rumor had it he was just biding his time before making another run for the White House.

In my experience, people who were so all-consumed by ambition didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about the well-being of others.

“What was your impression of him?” he asked, steepling his fingers and staring at me over them.

As resolved as I was to do my job to the best of my ability, reluctance to reveal anything about Jarek to the likes of Loomis made me hesitate.

Finally, I said, “I’m grateful to the Counselor for rescuing me from the mob. Apart from that, he was very cordial.”

 “Yeah,” Loomis said curtly, “he’s a real prince. What did he have to say for himself?”

 “We talked a little about the current situation this morning and then he dropped me off here.”

“Counselor Jarek drove you here himself?” the woman asked. She sounded astonished and not a little envious.

“Yes, in a silver Lamborghini, if that matters.  Apparently, he likes cars.”

Privately, I admitted that surprised me. The man had space ships at his command. But maybe it was some universal guy thing.

“Make a note of that,” Loomis said to no one in particular. It didn’t matter, all three of them started tapping on their tablets. “We should find him a couple of nice ones--American made, of course. He have anything else to say?”

“Not really.” Apart from giving me the distinct impression that he wasn’t buying my ‘momentary lapse’ argument.

I could still feel the warmth of Jarek’s breath against my cheek as he had helped me out of the car in front of the State Department and drawn me to him. His softly murmured, “Until we meet again, Charlotte” had sent a hot flare of desire from my head to my toes that was still reverberating.

I shifted a little in my seat and hoped no one noticed.

 “Did you learn anything about them at all?” the woman demanded.

Jerked back to reality, I rummaged through my head for something, anything that was safely impersonal.

“They like plants.”

“What?”

“Plants, the Krinar are very into nature. I saw lots of plants. Big ones, little ones, all varieties.”

“That’s it?”

“Their furniture floats and they have tubes to move between the floors of the embassy instead of elevators.” Speculating wildly, I added, “I think there might be some form of gravity control involved.”

“We’ll get DARPA on that,” Loomis said, referencing the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency charged with developing breakthrough technologies for national security. These days, they were scrambling to make up lost ground.

“Anything else?” he asked.

I shrugged. “I’m sorry but I don’t know what more I can tell you.”

Abruptly, he waved a hand. “Out.”

For one blissful moment, I thought he meant me. Sadly, that wasn’t the case.

The clone trio scurried off, closing the door behind them. I was alone with the big swinging dick.

Who promptly looked at me and said, “You’re a very beautiful woman, Charlotte.”

I swallowed my surprise and the wariness that came with it. Coolly, I asked, “How is that relevant, sir?”

His eyes went flat. Apparently, BSDs didn’t like being called out on their inappropriateness.

Waving a manicured hand, he said, “Don’t let anyone kid you, it’s always relevant. It wasn’t just sentiment that got you in the door here.”

He paused before remembering to add the usual qualifier. “Although of course, everyone is very sorry about what happened to your parents.”

I really didn’t want Loomis speaking of them. He had no right to.

“That was twelve years ago. I expect to earn my own way.”

 “Good, I’m glad to hear it.  Counselor Jarek called me right after he dropped you off.”

“He did?” I didn’t exactly squeak in surprise but I came close.

“Indeed. He’s very…impressed with you.”

The leer that went along with that suggested Loomis assumed he knew why but it amused him to play along and pretend that I was something other than just a face and body.

“He liked your ideas about dealing with this panic we can’t seem to get control of.”

Well aware that as an extremely low level employee of the State Department, I wasn’t supposed to have ideas about anything, I said, “We had a very general conversation. I wasn’t putting forward ideas, certainly not in any formal or official sense. I’m certain that Counselor Jarek did not take what I said as such.”

With a frosty smile, Loomis said. “Now there you’ve got an example of what really isn’t relevant.”

He gave me a moment to absorb that he was petty enough not to overlook my standing up to him before he said, “The Krinar are setting up a joint human/Krinar task force to find a way to calm things down. Counselor Jarek wants you to be our representative on it.  The first meeting is at their embassy this afternoon, 3:00 pm.”

“He what?” I couldn’t have heard that right. Loomis would have to be crazy to agree to put me on any task force. That kind of plum position would go only to the very favored few.

At least I still had enough sense not to blurt that out. Instead, I pitched to his ego.

“With all respect, Mister Secretary, it’s not Counselor Jarek’s place to decide who should represent us and besides, I’m very junior--”

Loomis ignored me. He stood and headed for the door. I had no choice but to take the hint and follow him.

“We all have to start somewhere, Charlotte,” he said, striding across the expanse of plush carpet emblazoned with the seal of the State Department. The spread-winged eagle clutching arrows in one talon and an olive branch glared up at him.

 “In your case, that happens to be inside an alien embassy helping to determine the fate of the world. With the stakes that high, I’m assuming you’ll do whatever is necessary.”

At the door, he paused, looked me up and down with skin crawling thoroughness and said,  “The good news is that there really aren’t as many differences between Krinar and humans as we thought when they first arrived. At least not as far as the male of the species goes.”

In a blatant display of the power that he presumed insulated him from even the most basic work place rules, he added, “Turns out that they like fucking our women as much as we do. I’d say that’s a pretty good starting point to negotiate an understanding with them.”

I refused to give him the reaction I was sure he wanted--shock followed by submission to what was nothing more than an attempt at blatant intimidation.

Instead, I squared my shoulders, looked at him coolly and said, “That’s quite a theory, Mister Secretary. But I’ve seen for myself how advanced the Krinar are. I wouldn’t bet the planet on them falling for any kind of honey trap.”

His smile couldn’t have been more unpleasant. For all the undoubted expense of his dental work, he suddenly reminded me of a rabid ferret.

“For your sake, Charlotte, I hope you reconsider. You’ll have time to think about it while you’re in medical. They want a thorough look at you.”

Of course, they did.

An hour later, I was wearing one of those thin little paper robes and lying on an examining table that was a lot less comfortable than the Krinar version. We’d finished with the MRI and the CAT scan, thank heavens, but the fun wasn’t over yet. Two doctors were on hand to test my reflexes, shine bright lights into my eyes and take enough blood to at least merit a cookie and a cup of orange juice.

I got neither but as a consolation prize, I did get Miss Charm, as I’d decided to think of her, from Loomis’ trio who arrived to speed brief me on what had become my mission inside the Krinar Embassy.

“Your instructions are simple and clear,” she said as she sat rigidly erect on a stool beside me, reading off her tablet. Her tone suggested that I couldn’t be expected to deal with anything else.

“You will at all times uphold the sovereignty of the United States of America. That means you will make it clear that all decisions taken by this task force must be ratified by our authorities and carried out by our personnel in accordance with our system of law.”

As much as I disliked Miss Charm, I couldn’t have agreed with her more on that score.

“Absolutely, nothing is more important than maintaining our independence from the Krinar.”

She shot me a look that suggested I’d surprised her but went right on.

“Good. In addition, you will take every opportunity presented to you to observe and report on the following: the exact layout of the Krinar embassy, any technology you encounter, a description and assessment of all Krinar personnel you meet, and most especially anything you learn from or about Counselor Jarek. We assess him to be an alpha influencer in the Krinar hierarchy so we want to get as close to him as possible.”

“You want me to be a spy?” I hadn’t signed on for that. Even more to the point, I had no idea how to do it. Between Loomis’ leering and this little bombshell, I was in dire need of Mata Hari’s phone number. There was an opening at State that she’d be perfect for. Me, not so much. I was feeling more awkward and self-conscious with each passing moment.

“We want you to perform your job.” Miss C raised an eyebrow and pointed her gaze directly at my breasts under the thin robe. “Whatever that takes.”

Resentment welled up in me. I was young and I’d barely gotten my feet wet at State but that was no reason to treat me or any woman--or man for that matter--like an object to be pimped out. Worse yet, I couldn’t just blame Loomis. I was on the task force because of Jarek. Because he was so impressed by the thoughts I’d been naïve enough to share with him? Or because--as America’s top diplomat had so succinctly put it--he wanted to fuck me?

That was bad enough but the hardest part was how overwhelmed I felt by my own response to him. I’d have been shocked to react that way to any man but to an alien? The potential conqueror of my species? I was face-to-face with a baffling and frankly frightening side of myself I’d never encountered before and I had no idea how to handle it.

I was still struggling to come to terms with that when one of the doctors stuck his head into the room.

Ignoring me, he said, “Tell the Secretary that we haven’t been able to find anything.”

Miss Charm frowned. “Nothing at all?”

He shook his head. “Whatever they used to heal her or anything else they did, it’s beyond our ability to detect.”

Anything else????

I clutched the paper robe tightly enough to risk shredding it. “What else could they have done?”

The doctor sighed. “They’re aliens, Miss Hughes. Incredibly powerful aliens with technology we cannot even begin to comprehend. They could have done absolutely anything to you and we would have no way of knowing.”

“Which is why I argued against trusting you to represent this country,” Miss Charm said. With a chilling look, she added, “The fact is that you’ve been compromised. Once you’re inside their embassy, you’ll be entirely on your own.” 

A shiver ran through me. I was used to taking care of myself but this was different. It had been years since I’d felt so vulnerable and alone. I had Jarek to thank for that.

If he thought for a moment that I could be offered up as some little human toy for him to amuse himself with, he was in for a rude awakening. It was time for one Krinar at least to discover that a human could fight back on her own terms. And win.