John accepted the praise with a laugh. “It’s just a sandwich, but thanks all the same.”
“Okay, that’s enough for today’s episode of ‘Xalanites Who Are Amazed by Earth Mundanities.’ We have bigger issues to talk about.”
Director Ann’s tone was grave. I wiped condiment from my mouth with a napkin as she began.
“As we suspected, we’ve all been labeled as turncoats by the media and whoever is heading the AARO in my stead. There’s not a single news outlet that’s painted us in a beneficial light, and even the president is calling for our heads on a platter.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “T’raat, ignore half of that. I don’t mean it literally. Lots of human phrasing in there.”
I nodded my understanding. “You have not rotated your outer garments, humans cannot paint with light, and we are not to be beheaded.”
“That’s … actually correct. Well, I’m not one hundred percent on the beheading. We might just be in that much trouble. The charges against us are not light, and though the United States doesn’t do beheadings as a sentence anymore, I wouldn’t put it past someone toaccidentallydo away with our heads in the process of apprehending us.”
I pause to consider her intonation. “You are being sarcastic.”
“Precisely. If we end up dead as a result of this, I doubt it will be by accident.”
Leigh’s healthy blush faded over the course of the conversation, and her skin took on a greyish tone. She paused with her food halfway to her mouth. “Y-you really think they’ll kill us over this?”
“It’s possible that they’ll try, sweetie.”
My mate set down her unfinished sandwich.
“Leigh? Are you no longer hungry?” I grew concerned. She had just expended many calories over the course of several hours; she needed to replenish.
“Nah. Kinda lost my appetite.”
I slammed my fist on the table. “Director Ann, these rodents must be stopped!”
Blank stares met me across the room. “Rodents?”
“The moles. The ones who turned on us.” I jabbed a finger into my opposite palm while I struggled to make myself understood. “There were four men with you when you came to the farm for me. Four rodents. We must find these men and confront them.”
Agent Timber answered first. “T’raat, it’s not that simple. We don’t know if all four agents were dirty, or if it was just one or two of them. We don’t even know if it was any of them. It couldhave been someone else at the AARO who set us all up. Those four men might have been killed and replaced by rogue agents when we were still on the road. We can’t vilify those men when we’re not even sure of their guilt.”
I scowled, crossing my arms over my chest. “I do not like that. If we do not know that the men accompanying you were the guilty parties, how can we possibly know who we can trust?”
“We can’t.” The director sighed. “T’raat, right now as far as the rest of the world is concerned, we are the guilty parties. Whoever set us up concocted plenty of stories to keep the media and other authorities at our heels for a while. It’ll take us months to clear this up and clear our names, and that’s only if we can locate and apprehend the moles.”
Timber nodded. “Right. Unless we can prove our innocence and prove the guilt of whoever set us up, we’re stuck.”
Leigh wrapped her hands around her glass of water and turned the cup in circles, staring at the liquid. “You said the men who arrived on the farm with you might have been killed,” she said quietly. “Why do you think this? Weren’t they the ones who blabbed to the news?”
Ann shook her head. “No. Or at least, not that we can prove. Reports indicate that the four agents who came to the farm with Timber and me are all missing and presumed dead—by our hands, I might add. Now, they could be dead, and that would be a tragedy, but they also could be hiding out and spreading news of their deaths to make our situation worse. We just don’t have enough information yet.”
A low, rumbling growl began in my throat. I did not like this. There was no clear plan of action.
“If we had my ship, we could flee to safety until this is resolved,” I grumbled.
“T’raat, your ship has long since been confiscated. There’s no way we can get to it now.”
“But director, there are other Xalanite ships on Earth. Your intake center is full of them! Why do we not appropriate one of these?”
She shook her head. “Security is too tight. We wouldn’t get five feet onto the property before we were apprehended, and apprehension is if we’re lucky. They might order us shot on sight. The intake center simply isn’t an option.”
The room fell silent for several moments. Then …
“What if we had a ship sent straight from Xalan to us?”
Everyone turned to look at Agent Timber, and Director Ann’s lips spread in a wicked grin.
