As she emerged from the shuttle at her stop it finally dawned on her why she’d been afraid the moment she’d seen his uniform. Morris had claimed him as a neighbor and the only reason a home guardsman would’ve been living in old town was because he’d been planted there to ferret out rebels.
That thought instantly sent her into panic mode again and it was all she could do to pretend even a modicum of nonchalance as she headed out of the terminal and turned toward her apartment. As she focused on restraining the urge to run for all she was worth toward the only safe harbor that came to mind, she felt the watchful eye of the vids she passed beneath boring into her like lasers.
She’d already reached her apartment building and stepped into the lift tube before it dawned on her that her apartment was the last destination she should have in mind if she really thought they were after her. They could be waiting for her when she got there.
But what about Morris? And what about Nigel?
They could be blindsided if the home guard really was bent on arresting her for something.
There was no stopping the damned lift, though. She’d already punched in her level like a bot before her mind had even begun to make sense of her situation.
She wasn’t certain it was making sense even now. The sensation of being herded like prey had totally demolished her reasoning ability. She could do little more than allow her instincts to guide her--and her main instinct was to run for cover.
The corridor was empty when she reached her level. Goosebumps immediately erupted and chased up her spine.
Trying to ignore the alarm that sent through her, Lena’s hand tightened on her tote as she strode briskly down the corridor toward her door, her ears pricked for any sound that seemed out of place.
The apartment was empty. She knew that the moment she stepped inside and whirled to bolt the door behind her. “Morris?”
She wasn’t terribly reassured when she didn’t get a response. Striding through the apartment, she dropped the grocery tote on the counter in the kitchen and then, after looking around for something she could use to defend herself, searched the apartment with her wooden meat mallet. It wasn’t much of a weapon. The thing probably didn’t weigh more than a few ounces. At worst, swinging it as hard as she could probably wouldn’t cause more damage than a bad bruise, but she had nothing else that looked even vaguely threatening. On the rare occasions that she actually had real meat, she used the laser slicer. The closest thing she had to a knife was her butter knives and she would’ve had to saw somebody’s head off with one of them. The forks were probably more lethal.
She was somewhat relieved when she’d reassured herself that she really was alone in the apartment. If, as she’d thought, the home guard was after her for some reason, they would’ve been waiting for her--probably outside the building, certainly inside the apartment.
Those thoughts brought her little comfort though.
Ignoring the food she’d abandoned on the counter of her kitchen, she began pacing the living area, trying to make sense of her fears. Was she over reacting? Was the only threat in her mind?
She blushed when it occurred to her to wonder if the guy had merely recognized her and decided to further their acquaintance.
That was just wishful thinking, she realized almost at once. They hadn’t even been introduced, for god’s sake! She seriously doubted he remembered that very brief meeting.
Besides, there was no doubt that he had been looking for someone. It wasn’t paranoid to assume it was her he’d been after all the time when he’d come straight toward her. He wouldn’t have simply abandoned an order to locate someone to flirt with her.
Why had he been alone, though? If he’d been sent to find her, or anyone, wouldn’t there have been at least one other guard with him?
Becoming weary from her pacing and her wrecked emotions, Lena finally paused near the window and glanced at her timepiece. “Shit! Brainless idiot!” she muttered as it abruptly dawned on her that she should have tried to head Nigel off. If there really was trouble and it wasn’t all in her mind, he would be heading into it right now when they should both be headed in the other direction.
He would’ve left work by now, she realized. She should’ve just waited at the terminal. Deciding that was probably her best bet--just in case--she glanced around, wondering if she should worry about taking anything with her.
She’d left the food out, she remembered abruptly. As tempted as she was to simply abandon it, she had a deep seated antipathy for wastefulness, especially with something so expensive and hard to get as real meat. Sighing, she rushed into the kitchen, grabbed the tote, and tossed the entire bag inside the refrigeration unit without worrying about unpacking it and sorting it.
As she closed the door again, she heard the distinctive sound of the front door lock being deactivated. Torn between alarm that it might be the home guard and hope that it was Morris returning, she dashed into the hallway and skidded to a halt.
The woman who stepped through the door and closed it firmly behind her had a laser pistol leveled at her.
When she finally managed to drag her gaze from the muzzle of the pistol, a shockwave washed over her.
The woman staring back at her wasn’t just of the same general build, color, weight, and age as she was. It was her.
* * * *
Shock sent Lena’s mind instantly spiraling beyond any ability to reason. Nothing but disjointed words flashed in her mind, impossible to connect into a coherent thought. Pure instinct spurred her to flee. Since the woman was blocking the only exit, Lena leapt backwards into the kitchen and beyond her view little more than a split second before an angry red beam seared a hole through the wall directly behind the position Lena had occupied an instant before.
Racing around thekitchen in a mindless panic, Lena grabbed up and discarded a half a dozen items in a primal need to find something, anything, to defend herself with. Turning up nothing even vaguely lethal, she whirled and hurled the bowl she held in her hand as she heard the scrape of a foot on the tile at the door of the kitchen, diving toward her evil twin at almost the same moment.
Luck was with her.
The woman jerked a hand up instinctively to shield herself from the flying object.
