“This has all been some kind of elaborate game, hasn’t it? Do you even work for NASA, or the intelligence bureau? Or are you some crazy stalker who gets his kicks lying to helpless women?”
Drake stood slowly, his eyes sad. “I’m sorry that you’re upset. I wish I could have told you sooner. But I had to maintain my cover so that the enemy didn’t realize that I was on Earth. It was the only way to gather data.”
“Stop lying! You’re not an alien.”
Drake took her shoulders in his hands but she tugged herself out of his grasp. “Okay, if you’re such an alien, how come you look like any average old human, huh? Where are the tentacles, or eye stalks, or whatever weird thing aliens are supposed to have?”
“I’m disguised as a human. If I had come to this planet in my real form, I wouldn’t have made it into the building before I’d been captured.”
“So you expect me to believe there’s some kind of alien body in there?”
“Yes,” he replied simply. “There is. I told you that our enemy is a shape-shifting race. We managed to capture one, or actually, Captain Brooklyn’s crewman captured one with the help of one of our lieutenants. Our scientists figured out a way to use their shape-shifting capabilities to disguise my real shape.”
“So you are not Dr. Lance Cargraves,” Herman piped up. “I did not think you were.”
Drake gave a small laugh. “You’re right. My real name is Drak’Karren Rasveen, Minister of Defense to the planet Zanthar.”
Jamie buried her head in her hands, fighting off hysterical laughter. “Okay, Dracula Ratsfeet, or whatever your name is, if you don’t look like a human, what do you look like?”
“You’re going to find out soon enough,” he said. “The shape-shifters can only hold their shapes for a certain length of time, and we’ve almost reached the end of that period. They then have to revert to their original form. Which means in the next half hour, this suit is going to melt off my body into a red puddle of jelly. It will stay that way for about ten minutes, and then reform to the shape you see right now.”
“So that’s why you were so worried about getting out of her in time?”
“Yes,” he said, his eyes seemingly trying to gauge her belief.
“So,” she said, facing him, “were you always crazy, or did you recently lose your mind?”
