“Is he heading there?”
“No. And his vessel is unable to travel at the moment as it is clamped to ours. It is not the vessel he uses to transport women off world. We have not located that.”
“Okay, while I drive, you hack the laptop—I’m assuming you can? Perhaps he has a file called ‘top secret human trafficking operation’.”
“Of course I can hack the human laptop. I doubt he has called the file top secret human trafficking operation. That is that the kind of name human criminals use.”
“I wish.” That would make life easy. We go down to the parking beneath the building. It’s easy to find Doug’s sleek silver sedan. I unlock it and slide into the leather seat, giving myself one breath to enjoy before adjusting the seat and the mirrors so I can drive it.
I glance at Thistle. “Ready?”
“This vehicle is not safe.”
“This is top of the range Earth tech. I’m sorry, it’s too primitive for you.”
“It was not meant to be an insult.” Thistle opens the human laptop. With his face looking like Doug’s, it recognizes him and the screen fills with open files.
No hacking required.
I blink and shake my head. “You might want to put your seatbelt on.”
Thistle glances at me. I try not to shudder and fail. The face is Doug’s, but the expression is not.
“Seatbelt?”
“Yeah.” I reach over him and pull it out. “Stops you from going through the windscreen if we’re in an accident.”
He takes the belt from me and watches as I clip mine in.
“Prism, this keeps getting worse. This piece of cloth—”
I start the car and rev the engine, because I can, cutting off his complaints about my primitive world. I peel out onto the street, heading for Doug’s favorite restaurant and hoping that it’s not alien central.
“If Earth is so primitive, why is he here? Why take human women?” I can guess, it’s the same reason women are taken by humans. But I need to hear why aliens want us.
Thistle is staring at the screen as if he is deliberately ignoring the other vehicles on the road. “A primitive planet is not looking for aliens or off world activity. Doug likes that. Human women are neutral enough to be enjoyed by many species.”
“What do you mean by that?” I glance at him as I sit behind three taxis waiting at the red light. I should call this in and get back up, but again, talking about aliens seems like a quick way to kill my career.
His expression is almost sad. “Do you really want to know?”
“Yes. I’m a cop. I chase after bad guys every day.” Or deal with domestics or crowd control, it depends on the day.
“They are edible to some species and pleasure pets to others.”
My stomach rolls and I regret asking. “If humans are good eating, why not take men too?”
Not that taking men makes it any better.
“If the woman doesn’t sell as a pleasure pet, she can be sold as food for a lower price. As for the males, there are other species where the men are better suited to being pleasure pets. Human men are not well equipped.”
The car behind honks because I don’t take off fast enough. “Did you just say human men have small dicks?”
“I did. Are you offended again?”
“No.” I press my lips together, fighting the smile that wants to form because it’s so inappropriate. “I am amused that by galactic standards, human men don’t measure up.”
“Doug’s next run is in three days. The women have been tagged, and he planned—”
