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“Good?”
“It is sweet,” he says. “But it is liquid.”
I guess it was juice after all.
“It looks like they are amassing weaponry,” he observes, squinting over my head.
“Probably,” I acknowledge. There’s not exactly any point in lying about it. He’s an advanced alien from a distant planet who just flew across vast swaths of space to end up destroying an icon. He might not know what a ferris wheel looks like, but he seems to know what tanks look like.
“Idiots,” I whisper under my breath. Talk about unnecessary escalation of force. King Brawn is not dangerous to any of us. If he wanted to hurt anybody, he would have hurt me. And he’s shown absolutely no sign of wanting to do that.
I respect the military. A lot of the men and women I work with are ex-military. But being a cop is like being at the bottom of a food chain of authority. You have the military, supposed to be separate, but they get deployed when necessary. Then you have all the secret agencies, then the not-so-secret agencies which claim to be secret anyway, and then there’s us. Cops.
I don’t usually complain. Southern California cops are some of the best paid in the country, and the living expenses aren’t too bad if you live in the valley. But still. Times like these, ours are the toes that get stepped on and maybe worse.
Jerry’s driving back toward us, waving me down.
“Let me see what he has to say.”
King Brawn waves the sippy cup, dismissing me.
I notice that Jerry parks a good way back from us. He doesn’t want to get too close to the alien, I guess. Makes sense, really. I probably shouldn’t be this close to the alien either.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah. They. Uh. They want us to clear out so they can take a shot at the thing. They’re going to put him down.”
“They’re going to kill him.”
“Sounds like. Or maybe sedate. With a .50 cal.”
I sigh inwardly. I specialized in negotiation because I wanted to avoid situations like this. Deescalation is my speciality. I don’t think I’m going to be able to put it into effect, though. I should go and talk to the military, but I have the feeling if I do, they’ll grab me.
“Take the cruiser and get out of here, Jerry. I’m staying with Brawn.”
“That’s his name?”
“Yeah.”
“How does he speak English?”
“I don't know, Jerry. Does it matter?”
“I mean, kinda?” He shrugs. “Don't like the idea of leaving you here. They’re getting antsy on the triggers over there.”
Typical.
“I’d come back with you, but this guy is here by accident. He doesn’t want, or deserve to die.”
“They were pretty clear, Ariel. They want you behind the perimeter for debriefing.”
“You think they’ll listen to me if I talk to them?”
Jerry laughs. I laugh. Nobody over there is going to give two shits about what I say. I’m nobody. Less than nobody. Odds are they’re going to disappear me. They’ll say I died in whatever conflagration is about to happen, and I’ll never see the light of day again. More paranoid thoughts. I’m given to them from time to time.
It’s a bit fucked up that I trust my own species less than I trust a massive, wounded alien, but the massive, wounded alien hasn’t ever hurt me, and isn’t showing any immediate signs of doing so.
Jerry wants to stay, but I know he can’t. He’s not like me. He has a wife and he has babies and his first loyalty has to be to them. They might not disappear him. They might let him go. He’s got that kind of personality. Malleable. Willing. Unthreatening to authority.
“Be careful, Jerry.”
“You too,” he says. “You want me to tell them something, just in case they listen?”
“Yeah. Tell them to take it easy.”
Jerry’s face crumples a little. “I’ll tell them to be careful. The chief has to be in contact with them by now. Maybe if you come back, you can talk to him.”
“He’ll just tell me to retreat too. I’m not interested.”
Jerry salutes me with the last bit of donut and puts the car into reverse again. I watch him leave, before turning to go back to King Brawn.
I’m not sure why I’m not leaving. Maybe it's because no matter how terrifying this beast of an alien king is, he’s one creature, and he’s wounded, and he’s facing the cruelty and fear of my species all welling on the boundaries of the perimeter. They're not going to let him live. They’re going to do what men always do. They’re going to take him apart to see how he works. And I don’t intend to let that happen. At least, not easily.
“Wait!”
I call after Jerry, and he stops the car. I run to it, and get in. “I’m going to get out a ways from the barricades,” I tell him. “Don't take me through them.”
