If I stay, I’m worried that I will be stitched up for Doug’s disappearance, and no one will believe me if I blame an alien bounty hunter with two bodies who can play with light and shadow.
I sulk in the bedroom while I scrape Doug off the walls and into the bag. I’m not sure how much goo Thistle needs to prove Doug’s death.
The door to the apartment opens and closes. There’s a slight struggle and a groan, which I’m guessing belongs to Mikhail.
Are they torturing him? I don’t know enough about Thistle to jump on a ship and flee Earth. What if he gets sick of me, and decides to sell me to the highest bidder?
I shudder.
I need to talk to Gabby to ask what she would do, but she wouldn’t believe me. That’s when I realize there’s no one I can talk to.
I decide I have enough Doug and return to the living room bag of goo in one hand and spoon in the other.
Mikhail no longer looks human. He is hairy and pink and not very happy. He bares teeth that make me think of the gorillas in the zoo, except he is much smaller.
There is a new pile of skin on the floor. My stomach rolls.
“What shall I do with this?” I hold up the bag.
“Put it in the freezer,” Light says without looking at me. He is holding Doug’s gun to Mikhail’s head while Shadow covers Mikhail’s eyes.
“Don’t put me in the freezer. I don’t like the cold,” Mikhail says. He is standing and shaking.
“Tell me where Doug takes the women before they are sent off world.”
I put the goo in the freezer, then turn on the air conditioner and dial it down as low as it will go. It takes a few seconds to click on, then frosty air is blasting out of the vents.
“I never wanted to help him, but I owed him, and he said I’d be stuck here if I don’t help him.”
“If you don’t help me find the women, I’ll leave you here with no skin generator. How long do you think you’ll last?” Light snarls.
I try to imagine Mikhail running around the city looking like some kind of small, weird, pink, hairy ape. Humans will panic, and someone will shoot him. Then people are going to find out about aliens fast.
“We take them to the ship,” Mikhail says.
“Where is the ship?”
Mikhail laughs. “Do you know anything?”
Light moves his hand. It’s glowing white hot, and he holds it near Mikhail’s throat.
Mikhail tries to twist away, but he can’t. His hands are bound with thick black tape, and so are his legs from ankle to knee.
Where did Light find that? Then I realize it must have been in the back of Doug’s car. He probably has a whole kidnap and murder kit in the trunk, and I never realized. Bile rises up my throat. Some cop I am when my boyfriend, ex-boyfriend, was running a criminal enterprise right under my nose.
The scent of burning hair fills the room.
“Where is the ship?” Light asks.
“There’s an abandoned hotel. It’s parked in the drained pool.”
Light removes his glowing hand. Shadow looks at me for confirmation that such a place exists.
I nod. I know exactly where he means. The building has been condemned, the site is fenced off, but no one has bought it to redevelop it, so it sits there as a prime spot for drug deals and such. Every so often the cops go in and clear out the area because it’s not safe, and if the people living there mumble about aliens or spaceships who would believe them?
Shadow shoots Mikhail with the alien gun, and Mikhail crumples. Not dead, but unconscious, again. There must be some side effect to being stunned like that.
Thistle, both of them, tuck away the weapons. “Where are we heading?”
