Timber smirked and shot off a round, hitting the man’s shoulder and causing him to drop his weapon. She dove behind a row of chairs as the others scrambled to arm themselves, and I took the opportunity to rush the stage.
I slammed into the closest enemy, knocking him into his compatriot and taking them both to the floor. Before they could fight back, I took a head in each hand and smacked their skulls together. Both men fell unconscious, and I rolled under the table before the remaining men could fire on me.
The leader cursed, and he bent to pick up his weapon. I snatched up the gun before he could reach it and aimed the barrel at his chest. I did not know the damage capacity of this weapon, but I wagered at this range it would be deadly enough.
With their leader disarmed, the other two men faltered. Another gunshot rang out, and one of the two fell to the ground. Blood pooled around his head. Timber. It must have been her.
“My partner and I have you dead to rights, sir. I suggest you two surrender while you have the chance.”
I did not understand why she was offering to let them give themselves up. Why not shoot them and end this quickly? I had to admit, though, I rather enjoyed hearing her refer to me as her partner, even if she meant it in a strictly professional sense.
The large man scowled and held his injured shoulder, but he did not submit. “Your ‘partner,’ huh? This alien freak is your partner? That mean you’re fucking him?” He chuckled, though there was no humor in the sound. “I bet you are. That’s why we gotta end these fuckers. They’ll mate us into extinction, just you watch. You’re probably already knocked up with this freak’s half-breed kid. Little hussy couldn’t keep her legs closed, huh? Just spread ‘em wide for the—”
I did not give him leave to finish. I shot him in his cold human heart before he could further insult Timber.
The heels of her boots clacked on the tile floor as she strode up to the front of the auditorium behind me. I kept my eyes—and my stolen weapon—trained on the final enemy. I was not going to give him the opportunity to fire at Timber.
“Last man standing, bud. Wanna risk it, or you want to set that gun of yours down and let me cuff you?”
To my surprise, the man submitted. He took his finger off the trigger of his device and raised his arms in surrender, slowly kneeling and laying his gun down before placing his hands on the back of his head. Timber trotted up the stairs to the stage and wrenched his arms behind his back, placing her metal wrist restraints on him. She then pulled some plastic straps from somewhere hidden on her person—I hadn’t known she carried them with her—and tied the unconscious men with the straps before taking out her phone.
I laid my stolen weapon down and crawled out from under the table as she phoned the local authorities. She gave them her name, department, and badge number, and she calmly explained what had happened, leaving out the part about mebeing armed. I wasn’t sure that part was wise, as an investigation would surely reveal that she had not fired the killing shot on the leader, but I did not interject.
Timber instructed me to unlock the door for the local authorities, and I rushed to comply. To my surprise, they had already arrived.
I sat in one of the audience chairs as Timber gave her report to the local police. They wrote down her every word, raising their brows when she lied and said she killed the leader, but they did not contest her on the matter. I noted that the weapon I used left a much different, much larger mark on my victim than hers had left with the two shots she fired, so it was likely that the policemen, more practiced in such observations than I, would have seen the same thing.
Thus ended my brief weekend of living in plain sight among the humans. We couldn’t keep up the pretense of me being in costume with the authorities, so Timber admitted that I was her charge, under her protection until she could get me to the AARO. She did not mention our affair in the hotel room, though, so I kept quiet about it.
The police questioned me as well, so I answered as truthfully as I could while still maintaining Timber’s story. I did not wish to get her in trouble by revealing her lie. They instructed me not to leave town, to which I agreed. After all, I had nowhere pressing to be.
Unfortunately, our time with the police took long enough that the media arrived. We had avoided them as much as possible given my conspicuous arrival, but now we couldn’t help but be caught on the cameras as they crowded us outside the scene. Timber held fast to my arm, pushing the reporters aside and declaring “No comment” as we headed back to the elevators to go to our room. Once the elevator doors slid shut, she heaved a sigh and rubbed her temples.
“We are so fucked. Now every anti-Xalanite in the hemisphere knows you’re here, and probably every Xalanite who has a beef with you, too. I can’t believe I let this happen.”
“It is not your fault. You tried to keep me safe.”
“Tried and failed.” She leaned against the wall as the elevator ascended. “This is not going to look good. Whatever group those armed men were with is going to play this up as proof of ill intentions by Xalanites on Earth. We killed two of them, for fuck’s sake. We had to do it, but nobody will care about that. They’ll just see you as a threat and me as an accomplice.”
I frowned. “You fought to protect the humans. We both did.”
Timber shook her head. “The public won’t see it that way. It’s not as much about the truth as the perception of what happened. Sure, we stopped those men from killing dozens of humans, but that doesn’t matter. We still, in their eyes, murdered two people.”
“Then they are idiots.”
She chuckled. “Well, the general public are often pretty dumb in cases like this, yeah. But hopefully we can get you to New York in a couple of days, and once you’re out of the public eye, things will quiet down.”
The thought of reaching the intake center sobered me. I didn’t want to end my time with Timber, but I knew that once I was in the hands of the AARO, she would likely return to Chicago. Back to her old life. Without me.
“We might have a couple more days, though?” I asked.
“Yeah. I mean, the local cops want us to stick around for at least that long while they investigate what happened today. Unless the AARO steps in and claims jurisdiction, we have no choice but to stay put.”
“Good.” I drew her into my arms. “I will cherish these days, then.”
A warm, wet drop landed on my chest, and I looked down to see Timber’s eyes filled with tears. Odd.
Chapter 13
