His mom had raised him alone, and during a time when it was still not that acceptable to be a single mother.He didn’t know much about his dad, other than that he hadn’t stayed after Lavender was born.
It had made a deep impression on him, growing up knowing his father hadn’t wanted to know him or his sister.He’d vowed to never do that, to never willingly leave children to grow up without him.And that meant not taking risks with women.
“Can you see it now?”she asked again.
He stepped around the foot of the bed and leaned over involuntarily inhaling the clean scent of her, so refreshing in the stuffy room.
The skin of her shoulder was smooth and pale—except for a very small bump in the area that had set off the detector.
He was glad he’d found the bump.The sight of her skin had made the small room feel even hotter than before.
He touched the spot.“I think it’s there.”
He pulled his finger back, curling it into his palm as if the would contain the small electric shocks traveling up his hand and arm.
She peered over her shoulder, but the bump was too high.“There’s a medical kit in my pack.”
Con found it and crossed back to her, holding it out.Rita opened it and rummaged through it, extracting a smaller pack.From that she removed a device that looked like a very thick pen.
“Here’s an extractor.”
She held it out to him.
Of course she held it out to him.She couldn’t do it.He took it, felt the sweat beading on his forehead.
She presented her back while he studied the small device.
“Just put it against the spot and push the indentation,” she directed.
He did as she’d asked.At least he didn’t have to be the one to touch her.The skin seemed to illuminate briefly, then a small track of blood appeared.
“Here, use this now.”
It looked like a small spray can.He took the extractor out of contact with her skin.A small device, like the one in her pack, was now on the surface of her skin and the flow of blood increased a little.He plucked the device free and sprayed the area.
The wound sealed immediately, though the spot was still visible.
“It will heal quickly,” she said.
If he’d had any doubts she was from the future, she’d just erased them.Unless she really was an alien.
“What do you mean her tracker signal is gone?”John spoke into a headset, inside the chopper he’d brought back with him.
They were parked in the desert, well away from the military activity around the crashed ship.Air ballon, he corrected himself.
“We aren’t getting a signal from her room either.”
The voice of his agent was flat, as befitted his role as a man in black.To make into that corp required good skills in being monochromatic in all areas of their lives.They probably had black and white apartments on the rare occasions they were home.
The men in black teams tended to burn out faster than other agents.After a while, all the weird just got to them.
“They can’t have gone far,” John said.“Last time, didn’t they head for a diner?Check them out, see if you can spot them.”
“We think they changed their clothes.”This was from the second agent.
“How close were you following her?”John asked, leaning back to rub his face.Monochrome did not necessarily indicate the ability to be subtle.
“There are hardly any people here,” the first agent protested.
