The detective tapped her fingers on her knee for a moment, seemingly lost in thought. “It’s kind of a shame all your stuff got left behind when we ditched the hotel. I bet if you could hook meup with some nanites, we could understand each other better, huh? I might even learn some Xalanite words here and there.”
Her comment took me by surprise. I had not thought she would be interested in acquiring nanites of her own. She seemed more interested in getting rid of me, getting me to the intake center, than learning anything more about me and my people.
If I had access to the proper tools, I could possibly build something simulating nanite translators, but Detective Timber waved off the idea when I suggested it.
“Oh, no! I’m not letting you build a bomb or something on accident.”
The mere notion that I would make such a grave error offended me. “Incendiary devices require entirely different parts than translators. I could use your phone to make a translator, for instance, but it does not have any parts that would combust under those circumstances. At worst, it could be used to make a remote detonator for an incendiary device, but I could not make it a bomb in itself.”
“Why is it somehow less comforting to know that you have that kind of knowledge?” she asked as the device began to chime. I glanced at the screen and saw the name S. Peterson on the display. Her contact in the government agency that regulated my peoples’ visits to Earth. “Hello?”
“Is the phone on speaker? I need to talk to you privately, if it’s at all possible.”
“Yeah, I can turn off the speaker. Just a sec.”
I didn’t know why she bothered. In the quiet, enclosed space of the car, I could hear almost every word just as easily, regardless of whether she used the speaker capabilities of her phone or not.
“Am I off speaker? Yes? Good. I have some bad news.”
This intrigued me. What could be going on?
“Your partner was arrested for the shooting at the hotel, and he spilled some beans. Turns out he was hired to kill our guest. Hired by Xalanites, no less! He had a stash of theirkrinin his house, along with some other Xalanite goods that are considered contraband for humans to own without very specific permits. Some of the stuff he had we’re not supposed to own evenwithpermits, and a lot of it was packed like he was about to ship it somewhere. Looks like he’s been dealing on the black market, but until we can have a Xalanite expert look at the goods, we don’t even know what half of it does.”
Detective Timber frowned. “Do we know who’s responsible for the hit? Xalanites aren’t supposed to have much contact outside of the intake center and the surrounding areas yet. From what I understand, you guys at the AARO regulate all incoming and outgoing communications pretty strictly. Where would Jim have even come in contact with a Xalanite before last night?”
“Unfortunately, your partner didn’t elaborate on who hired him. He seemed almost frightened of them, like the Xalanites who hired him could still get to him, even in lockup.”
“My own people betrayed me?”
The detective’s eyes widened in shock, but her voice remained calm. “Well, I can’t bring him to you guys now. What if the Xalanite traitor is staying at the intake center? He’ll be totally vulnerable there.”
“I know. Do you have anywhere else you can take him? Maybe somewhere Jim wouldn’t associate with you?”Even through the phone, the agent’s voice carried a sense of urgency.“Since we don’t know where the leak might be on our end, if that’s even where it is, we can’t trust anyone here to keep N’kal’s location a secret.”
She paused. “I have an idea. We’ll take the scenic route. Spend some time on the road, give our princely guest a tour.”
Why did that not sound as fun as the nanites translated it to be?
“Just don’t tell me where you’re going. And invest in a burner. The CPD and the AARO are likely tracking your phone right now.”
“No shit, Sherlock. We’ve been kind of preoccupied, what with the ER visit and everything.”
“Yeah, I know.”
After some brief parting words, the detective hung up her phone and put the car in gear. “Come on,” she said, “we’re gonna hit a gas station and get me a new phone, and once I’ve transferred the numbers I need, we’ll see about getting you some non-bloody clothes. Maybe a nice, big hoodie. A hat. Some sunglasses. Anything, really, to disguise you as much as we can.”
I frowned and picked at a piece of peeling vinyl on my seat. “Won’t someone be worried that you have not returned home, Detective Timber? From what I’ve seen of human programming, you are expected to return nightly to your families. You have not called anyone to notify them of where you are, nor has anyone besides Agent Peterson called you.” I saw her knuckles whiten on the steering circle as she gripped it tighter. “I am inconveniencing you.”
She pulled into a different parking lot, a fueling facility, and turned off the engine. “Listen, N’kal, since we’re stuck with each other for the foreseeable future, how about some ground rules?”
I nodded my agreement.
“Okay. Rule one: Call me Timber. Not Detective Timber or Detective or Ms. Millwood. Just Timber.Capice?”
The new word tripped me for a moment, but I finally caught on. “Yes, De—Yes, Timber. I understand.”
“Cool. Rule number two: No more asking about my personal life. Who I call or who calls me is my business, not yours. And rule three: Stop being so hard on yourself. You’re not aninconvenience. Not directly. Someone out there is determined to make you one, but it’s through no fault of your own. Well, aside from the whole ship-stealing, draft-dodging, planet-hopping thing.”
“All right.” I was a little confused as to how I was not an inconvenience, but I had stated that I would comply with her wishes.
