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Earlier, when we first arrived and their head of the household, Aunzika, escorted me to my room, he left me by myself. With everyone so busy getting ready for the birthday party downstairs, I figured I could use the commotion to slip into Kal’s study and pop the device in the computer.
I’d set a new record for completing a mission.
I crept down the hallways with the excuse I would use if someone ran into me cocked, ready, and fully loaded: “Sorry. I’m new here and this place is so big!”
If the castle had any logic to it—and as I was on an alien planet there was no guarantee of that—I felt the study would be on the first floor. It just felt right.
If I was wrong and the study was on any of the other multitudes of floors, I wouldn’t need the prepared excuse as I would be well and truly lost. They might need to send Sherpas to come rescue me.
Thankfully, I’d been right. His study was on the first floor, tucked away beside the kitchen and dining room.
I was about to enter when I heard a growl.
That damn Niik stood right there in the doorway! It stood facing me, half-growling, half wagging its tail. I wasn’t worried it would bite me. It didn’t have the appearance of a particularly vicious beast, but the noise concerned me. It could draw others to our location.
And that was exactly what had happened.
Kal appeared through the doorway and called Niik to heel. Suddenly, getting inside the office wouldn’t help me—not with Kal standing inside it. It needed to be thoroughly empty when I performed my Mission: Impossible routine.
And I needed to figure out a way to slip past Niik to plant the device in the computer and slip back out again.
I added a few sprays of perfume to my neck and across the front of my chest. I tugged the neckline of my dress over my shoulders so it showed off my bare collarbone.
The clutch purse not only completed the look but it gave my hands something to do when I became nervous, and being surrounded by a gang of oversized aliens was bound to make any girl feel uncomfortable.
“Well, my girl,” I said into the mirror. “This is it. Can you do it?” I wagged a warning finger. “You’d better.”
Buzz buzz. Buzz buzz.
“Gah!” I said, spinning on the spot so fast the clutch purse launched out of my hand and halfway across the room.
It didn’t sound like the Changeling’s chitter noise it made with its mandibles—I shuddered again—but it was close enough to give me pause for thought.
I surveyed the room and checked each of the corners. There was enough light in the room to dispel any shadowy recesses.
Another buzz and it brought my attention to the bed.
The communicator.
I gathered up the dress and struggled down to my knees. I get dolled up nice and then I had to get down on my knees like an old chambermaid…
C’est la vie.
I didn’t have the strength to lift the whole mattress but luckily my arms were bare. I reached under it until I found what I was looking for.
The communicator buzzed a third time as I grabbed it and yanked it out. I’d hidden it there in the first place so no one would find it. If it kept buzzing like this, the whole castle would hear it.
I’d received a message:
3 HOURS
That was all it said.
3 HOURS
Well, thanks a lot. That was really worth ruining my look.
But it wasn’t just a countdown update.
