AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And you’d think they would’ve given her a heads up about T’Antor’s first name. And maybe about the fact that he was new to the country, because he spoke English with an accent she couldn’t place. And that he appeared to be albino. Ron and Daisy could’ve remarked on any of this, as a topic of interesting conversation at the very least.Hey, we’ve been hanging out with a new friend lately, he’s really cool, he’s from…But nothing? Not one mention beforehand? That was weird.
“So, you’re Ron’s friend…?” she asked, fishing for more information.
“Yes,” he agreed. “Ron’s friend.”
Hmm…
She looked down at her cell, wanting to secretly text Ron for confirmation. Wanting to check and see if they’d sent her any more texts. But of course she had no reception out here. The moment she’d stepped into the lobby her phone had literally switched tono service. Grr. She’d been meaning to change carriers because of this random dead zone crap since she’d moved to the central coast and hadn’t yet. Dammit.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “How do you know Ron?” she asked.
“We were friends in college,” T’Antor answered, a little too quickly. “And we met again, both working at Tobin James.”
Tobin James? Hannah crooked an eyebrow, impressed. The Tobin James winery was notorious for paying their employees well and only hiring the best and the brightest. She gave him a closer examination, noting he was zipped up in a navy-blue windbreaker and he wore what looked like expensive designer jeans and bright Nike shoes. He was slightly taller than her, thin and studious-looking. He looked ready for the changeable weather in the coastal micro climates, like someone who’d preplanned and was serious about taking a tour of Hearst Castle.
She pursed her lips. She wasn’t getting serial killer vibes from this guy, but she could tell already that conversation wasn’t going to flow easily between them. Trying to chat with him today would be torture.
She wanted out of this situation, but, oh hell, she was stuck, wasn’t she? They already had tickets, which had been purchased online days before. And she didn’t have a compelling reason to cancel on this guy and leave him high and dry besides, “Hey, I don’t want to go on this tour because hanging out with you for the next two hours sounds like the lowest level of hell,” which was mean. Not nice at all. And she didn’tnotwant to go enough to tell him that painful truth.
And she really did want to visit Hearst Castle…
She bit the inside of her mouth and glanced longingly at the restaurants lining the lobby and the row of epic gift shops she wouldn’t be wandering through. And the IMAX theater for the documentary on the designing and building of Hearst Castle she’d have to skip.
But hey, that could be saved for next time. Because no way would she be lingering and strolling around with this guy.
Well, at least they’d be in a group tour, and directly afterwards she could make up some reason to leave right away. Because this wasn’t some kind of romantic blind date.
All the nopes.
She glanced again at T’Antor. He was shifting on his feet, his brow furrowed, waiting for her response.
Oh hell…
They’d only be two people thrown together by chance, going on the same tour at the same time. She could handle a tour of Hearst Castle alongside this guy, within a group of fifty other people. Maybe they could chat about the local wine industry and this trip could be pulled from the fire.
“Sure,” she exhaled. “It’s nice to meet you, T’Antor. Let’s do this. It looks like we’re on this trip together.”
2
Heriot took a deep breath, filling his lungs with Earth’s musty breeze—the mixture of gases and water vapor that was arranged exclusively for atmospheric conditions on this specific planet.
And he coughed, spitting up grit that floated in the tainted air. Grimacing at the bits of mica still stuck in his teeth. God-stars, he hated this backwater planet. How could they stand this much carbon dioxide in their air? His personal mouth ventilator was in his pocket, but he couldn’t pull it out and put it to good use because the humans would know immediately that it wasn’t Earth tech. He’d stand out amongst them like aKindraglowing in the night. And being noticed was the last thing he wanted.
Earth was dirty and primitive, wallowing in its own filth. Humans polluted their air, water and soil with contaminants they hadn’t yet learned to eliminate from their environment. It was the last place he’d choose to visit. Just standing in their open spaces made him want to run back and use the cleansing unit on his ship.
And, he glanced around the lobby, the sight of this many unmated males and females choosing to freely commingle was just…weird. He hadn’t allowed himself to be this close to so many unmated females… not since he’d passed through the change into full grown status. Every time he left R’Etor and traveled to other planets, space stations, or ships of other species and saw this type of commingling, it set him on edge. But the difference was that, on other planets, with other species, he wasn’t compatible for mating with their females.
He clenched his jaw, annoyed with this entire mission. He’d planned on stalking his target at night and taking him out with a precise long-distance shot, or at the very least with a single slice of his blade while the target slept. But he’d wasted an entire diurnal rotation monitoring Fucyu from a distance. His target masked his bio-signal while cutting through a massive human metropolis. And now T’Antor was on the move to another high-profile human location, making Heriot’s job ten thousand times harder. Making the amount of time he’d have to spend on this planet that much longer.
He had the computer do a multi-level scan of the location T’Antor was progressing to… and suddenly Heriot’s assignment had upgraded from assassin to R’Etor Military, because he was about to stop his target from acquiring Illibrium. Illibrium—the most expensive, rare, and illegal power source on R’Etor. It was used solely to craft ELW (extinction-level weaponry). Heriot was going to make sure his target was eliminated, per his contract, but also, he’d destroy the Illibrium, which would wreck the chain of cataclysmic events Fucyu and his brother A’Dor had planned. The R’Entor Military could thank him later.
For some unknown reason an Illibrium crystal appeared to be on planet Earth, on the grounds of this place named Hearst Castle. Heriot had no idea how an Illibrium crystal had managed to make it to Earth, but he was certain of one thing—his target was never getting his hands on it. Heriot would destroy the crystal before that happened.
He walked across the visitor center, the clothing he’d stolen earlier as disguise obscuring as much of his skin as possible. He strode faster through the crowd of humans, dodging other males, unmated females who made him feel on edge, and small human younglings. He didn’t want to linger on Earth any longer than necessary. Earth was a primitive backwater no one in his species had the inclination to ever visit. But his target was here. Therefore, Heriot was here.
His brother, Jadzion, was also on Earth, stalking their secondary target in another location in North America called New Mexico. He’d contacted him, checking in prior to their needed blackout. They’d separated to make quick work of their prey. In and out and return home to R’Etor. This mission would be quick. It had to be.
Jadzion loved this kind of shit, staying planetside and navigating local customs to acquire a target was his kind of fun, but Heriot hated it.
