“
I’m sorry you got hurt,” I said.
“
It wasn’t your fault. I’m the idiot that grabbed a thirty-foot-tall alien by the leg.”
I wanted to say more, but Miranda pulled up in a red Toyota minivan. I helped John into the passenger seat and then hopped in the back. She peeled away from the Perkin’s parking lot and accelerated toward the county airport.
“
We have a little cash but not enough to buy a plane,” I said.
“
We’ll simply borrow the plane and return it next week,” she said.
“
You’re going to hotwire an airplane?” I asked.
“
Some planes don’t even use keys, and those that do sometimes have the keys in them because pilots don’t usually have to worry about other people just taking their planes for a joy ride. If we have to, though, yes, I’ll hotwire it.”
“
Sexy,” I said, and I could see her smile at the compliment by the light of the dash.
When we pulled into the airport parking lot, and she hopped out. “I’ll get a plane. Help him walk to the tarmac,” she said.
She jumped away and I helped John out of the car. By the time we walked out onto the tarmac, a twin-engine plane was coming our way. It came to a stop a few feet from us. I helped John into the back and I sat up front.
“
This is a Beech Baron 58,” she said. “We’ll be back at HQ in three hours or so.”
“
Hang in there,” I told John. “It won’t be long.”
We were cruising through the dark sky in a few minutes, and I could make out sparkling towns sprawling across hills and through valleys. Whenever we passed through rural areas, it was difficult to tell how high up we were. All you could see below us was blackness.
When we landed three hours later, John looked worse for wear. His skin was pale and sweaty, and he barely opened his eyes when I told him we were safe.
The moment we were stopped, Miranda climbed from the plane and darted away. I stayed with John.
“
Miranda will be here with help in a moment, sheriff,” I said.
“
Call me John,” he said.
“
Okay, John. Hang in there a little longer,” I said.
He closed his eyes.
“
Keep your eyes open,” I urged. “Just a little longer.”
He didn’t open his eyes, though. The medics arrived a moment later and whisked him away to the infirmary.
“
Come on out,” Miranda said.
I nodded and stepped out of the plane. “I hope he doesn’t die,” I whispered. “Everybody around me always ends up dead—or worse.”
She stepped in close to me and put both arms around my neck. “I didn’t.”
I leaned my forehead against hers. “I thought you were going to, though.”
We stood for a while like that, forehead-to-forehead, and then she took my hand and led me back to the Command Center. Captain Johnson was the last person I wanted to talk to, but I knew we had to debrief.
Miranda put her hand on the metal door panel and it slid open. She stepped through, but when I went to follow, the door shut on me, pinching my arm until it hurt. Then it opened up enough for me to pull my arm free before shutting again. Apparently the AI was still holding a grudge.
“
Hey, computer. Who’s your daddy?”
The door opened. “Passcode accepted. Have a pleasant day.”
Who knew that old game-cheat codes worked on AI?
“
Agents Miranda and Maximus,” the captain said, a hint of sarcasm in his tone.
“
Yes, sir,” Miranda and I said in unison.
He looked at me. “Agent Maximus, you aren’t wearing a shirt.”
“
Very perceptive of you, sir.”
“
You’ve come back in the middle of the night in a stolen plane with a civilian.”
“
He helped us on the mission, sir,” I said.
“
He needs medical attention, sir,” Miranda added.
“
So you thought you could bring him here?” the captain asked. “Does this look like a party house to you?”
“
He’s an intergalactic citizen, sir. He needs the kind of medical attention only the infirmary can offer,” I said.
Captain Johnson looked away. “I understand that you took care of your ping.”
“
Yes, sir,” Miranda said.
“
I thought you were going to bring Agent Wendy in for questioning.”
“
She wasn’t brought in?” I asked.
“
We sent a team to pick her up as you requested, but the team didn’t come back,” he said. “When you call for a pick-up, you are supposed to have a secured package. The team wasn’t trained to take down an agent.”
“
But…”
“
I’d like to bust you down to desk duty, but my two best agents were killed in action today and I have another mission. So I’m going to have to send you two, once you’ve cleaned up.” Then he looked at Miranda. “Unless you don’t want to be his partner anymore. Nobody else has lasted more than one assignment.”
I looked at the ground. Most of my partners hadn’t actually died, I wanted to say. They only ended up seriously injured or debilitated in some way. Miranda didn’t answer him.
“
Get some rest. You leave for Chicago in the morning. Bring formal wear. John will brief you in the morning.”
“
Yes, sir,” we said in unison. Apparently, they had found a replacement for Wendy already.
Miranda and I walked out of the command center. I was exhausted but felt a strange relief that Miranda would still be my partner. I had been afraid she would outright object to another mission by my side.
“
Wendy is going to be looking for you,” she said.
“
I’ll be sure to bring cuffs so we can bring her in.”
She grabbed my hand and held it tight. “Just try to keep your clothes on.”
“
Well, I’ll have a partner with me to make sure I’m dressed properly,” I said.
She looked away as we walked to the sleeping quarters hand-in-hand. We stopped at the door to the female dormitory.
“
Good night.” She pulled her hand away slowly.
“
See you in the morning,” I said.
She hesitated at the door, gave me a last long look, and then went in.
I wandered down the hall to the male dormitory and collapsed on my bunk.
Chapter 42. Miranda
I was exhausted, but I had something to do before going to bed. I pulled out my gal-com recorder and set it up on my nightstand. I hit the call button and took a step back.
“
Initial connection four hundred credits plus ten credits for each additional minute. Do you authorize these charges to your account?” a computer voice asked.
“
Yes,” I said.
“
Please wait while I connect you,” the computer said.
Moments passed while I tried to comb through my tangled hair using my fingers. Curly hair can be such a curse sometimes. The gal-com recorder beeped. “Transmission commencing,” the computer voice said.
Holograms of my mother and father appeared. If you didn’t look carefully at my mother, who is quite tall, you might mistake her for human, but instead of hair, soft black feathers frame her face. My father reminds me of a retired action movie star. His hair is gray but he is still in good shape.
“
Hey Mom and Dad,” I said. “How are things on Cavalletia?”
“
We’re fine dear,” my mother answered. “Usually we talk on the Earth lunar cycle. Has something happened?”
“
I’m not sure I’m cut out to be an agent, Mom.”
“
Oh, sweetie. If you need to take a break and come see us for a bit, you know you always have a home here,” my mom said.
My dad cleared his throat. “Honey, you’re mother is right. You are always welcome here. But isn’t this the job that you’ve always wanted?”
“
I thought it was, but now…” I looked away so I wouldn’t see my father’s disappointment. “I don’t know.”
“
Don’t decide now,” my mother said. “Think it over. We’ll get the guestroom ready, and you can come if you decide to.”
My father grimaced. “Sleep on it. I don’t know what happened today, but maybe it’ll look better in the morning.”
I nodded. “Thanks for understanding, Mom,” I said. “Dad, I’ll sleep on it and talk to you guys soon. I need to go before I spend my whole paycheck.”
“
Good bye, sweetie,” my mom said.
“
Sleep tight,” my dad said.
I hung up the call and looked at my bed, but I couldn’t get in yet. I decided to walk down to the infirmary to see my former partner, Riley, even though he wouldn’t know he had a visitor.
The dimmed hall lights brightened for me as I walked. I didn’t meet anybody on my way and I felt like a ghost haunting the place I used to dream of working at—the dream was tarnished. I always thought it would be exciting to work for the Service, to go new places, to see the world, and even to travel the universe sometimes. Instructors had warned me of how dangerous the job was, but that never concerned me. I never minded taking a few calculated risks, but I didn’t consider that it would be somebody else paying for my miscalculations.
I walked into the infirmary. Curtains were drawn around each of the beds, but I walked quietly to the last bed, where Riley lay unconscious. I peeked in and saw him still lying where I left him. He looked the same as I remembered him—still covered in pus-filled red welts.
“
Hey, Riley,” I said.
The only answer I got was the drip of his IV and the soft clicking of the medical devices monitoring him. I sat on the chair next to his bed.
“
So… How have you been?”
Silence.
“
Yeah, things have been crazy busy for me, too.”
Click, click, click.
“
I wish we could really talk. I need some advice.” I sighed. “I don’t think I’m really cut out for this agent business.”
Somebody coughed from one of the other curtained-off beds.
“
I thought that the academy would prepare me. I thought that this would be an exciting job.” I had to wipe a tear from my cheek. “Well, it is exciting, I suppose, but I didn’t think it would be like this.” I gestured to him. “I mean, you did everything by the book. You did everything perfectly, and look at what happened to you. I keep thinking that if only I had…” I shrugged.
A voice from a nearby curtained bed spoke. “Agents save the world nearly every week and nobody notices. When an agent gets hurt or dies, nobody notices. Agents do it anyway, because they believe in giving humans a chance to become something more than they are. It’s a choice every agent has to make.”
I walked to the next bed and peeked through the curtain. John was lying in a bed with clean, white linens pulled up to his chest. He was smiling and looked uninjured.
“
I made the wrong choice,” he said. “I gave up on the humans, and it wasn’t the right thing to do.”