“I will not. We have made a plan to find the human women, and collect those bounties.”
I clasp his hand. “And then we need to figure out what to do with the women.”
The women will need somewhere to live, a new world. A safe place where they can figure out the rest of their lives.
They’ll need therapy.
There’s so much to consider.
Thistle nods. “That will be the easy part as there are systems in place to help people adapt to new worlds or to life on a port or on a ship.”
In the living room, he picks up a metal case I have never seen before.
“Where did that come from?”
“It holds the skin generator. I packed it up and removed the shield.” He points to the wall where there is now a door. “The rest of the evidence is in there.”
A black plastic bag rests next to the case. This all looks horribly suspicious.
He adjusts his features until he once again looks like Doug.
Definitely suspicious. Everyone will think Doug killed me and went into hiding, which is probably the point.
After a final check of the apartment, we leave.
Doug’s car is parked on the street, but we walk straight past it and instead go into the building next door and up to the roof in the elevator, with Thistle busting locks and overriding security at every step.
This apartment doesn’t have a roof top garden and balcony like Doug’s. It’s for maintenance only. And at first, I can’t see anything amiss, certainly not two ships.
“They are perched there.” He points to the top of a brick structure that must house some important equipment.
Maybe if I squint, I can see a haze above it.
“You weren’t worried about Doug stealing it after you clamped your ship to his?”
“Ours is a little more high-tech. It relies on DNA and our voice to do anything more than open the door.”
“But he could have trashed it, so you can’t leave.”
He climbs up and moves his hand. A door appears. “There is a barrier preventing anyone from entering.”
Then he says something in another language and reaches a hand forward. It’s only then I can see the inside of the ship. A ladder unfolds—which is great, but getting the cases up there isn’t going to be easy.
A moment later, a drone flies out, grabs the silver case and disappears back in. It repeats the process with my case and then the plastic bag. While I’m standing there staring, he’s loaded the ship.
Thistle leans out the door. “Come on. I promise there is a bed.”
“Will I bang my head on anything as I climb up?”
“No.”
I go up the first couple of rungs and glance at him. “Can you see the two ships?”
“Not as you are used to seeing. I can see on different spectrums, so even though it is well shielded, I can sense the visual disruption.”
I make it to the top of the ladder and Thistle helps me into his ship.
It doesn’t seem to be any bigger than a camper van. All kinds of things are stowed on the sides. There is a small place that might be for preparing meals and seats up the front where I assume the driving happens.
