Chronicle - Mel and Chris Ch. 05

And now? And now she was with her companions who were for all intents and purposes double agents on a hillside covered with new spring growth waiting for an alien spy to arrive. They'd been asked, but not truly interrogated, on the source of the technology they'd posted but Shaw's impression from the description she'd received of the meeting was the agents, or the powers behind them, were familiar with at least some of it. The judgement of those masters, Shaw guessed various three-letter agencies were key, but probably large corporate interests as well, had all seemed to decide having these two jokers on the 'inside' but not on tight leashes was the best approach. It was a technique not unknown to her police force and if done well it allowed tracking and control. As to the first Shaw was familiar with tails and surveillance and had detected none since her return so it made sense the leashes were long, but for the latter she pitied anyone who actually believed these two could be controlled. Chris had phoned Shaw while she and the others were still in Vegas so they'd been warned, but she'd actually been impressed. The house had obviously been tossed but the FBI had indeed been 'gentle.' Most of her department's crews would've left the place in shambles. Of course, she could find no indication the City's police force had even been informed.

Mel suddenly looked up and to her left, past and above Chris.

"Got ya," she shouted and pointed, Chris slapped the face of the little computer against his body. Shaw followed Mel's direction, saw nothing at first. Then, a blur.

One of those invisible spy balls. How the hell did she DO that? The aliens, well, they obviously did what they did. Chris stepped to the chest-high brush that ringed the clearing. Oh well. No surveillance by human agents.

"White van," he said, "why not the Mustang? If it's her. Couldn't be sure."

"The Mustang's memorable," Shaw said, "a white van? Boring. Millions of those. A witness might not be like you, Chris, and know the engine, year and everything else, but most people know a Mustang and with those stripes... We'd have her. Not to mention it makes a noise that forces you to look at it."

They moved to stand together with the demon in the center even with the driver's side rear tire of Chris's car. Shaw had recommended he pull forward into the space as reassurance to Anna when she arrived. The detective hadn't spoken to or met her since the night of Chris's birthday party in the basement storeroom when she'd almost shot the girl, no, the alien, but Mel had said she'd insisted the detective be at the meeting. She'd also wanted it on a weekday afternoon somewhere way off any beaten tracks. Thus, this overlook. That Anna had somehow arranged for her, Terry, Teresa and Sam to spend the week at the very nice and brand new Arista in Vegas was something she'd tried to dig into. Not that she'd objected, it'd been a fun week, more time spent on day trips to Death Valley, Lake Mead, the Valley of Fire, Pahrump and a couple of other spots than in Sin City itself. But she'd found nothing of use.

And Terry had more than resurrected a sex drive she'd almost written off for good and she forced her face to downshift its sudden broad smile to a more neutral gaze. But Mel's quick exhaled laugh seemed to indicate the demon had noticed.

The white van screeched to a stop as it rolled not quite two lengths past the entrance to the obscured parking spot. Had she missed it, hopefully Mel had advised her that the pavement ended a quarter mile past the spot. After a moment the van reversed quickly and rotated slickly into the opening to stop with its nose perpendicular to the road and just even with the edge of the pavement. The row of side windows behind the passenger's door were tinted so darkly to be opaque.

"Who's that in the passenger seat?" Mel's question.

"Oh, hell...," Shaw started as the door opened and a broadly-built man swung himself out of the passenger seat, "that's one of the guards."

"You said they'd make Bobby look slender," Chris said, "that's an understatement. But them and the FBI must buy their clothes from the same tailor."

The man was an inch or two past six feet, but his shoulders and chest rivaled any body-builder's, even covered in a black suit jacket with a white shirt under it. His skinny black tie and black pants didn't hide his bulk. His black fedora sat on what looked like a crew cut and his heavy black sunglasses didn't reveal much beyond pale and cleanly-shaven cheeks and chin. He stepped sideways and pushed the door gently closed. His gaze swept past them, took in the car and the surroundings as he maintained a glum expression.

They heard a car door close, presumably the driver's side, before Anna walked quickly past the front of the van and wiggled between the guard and a bush. He stepped to stand at the front of the van where he had a view along the road in both directions.

"Anna," Mel said, "you didn't say you'd bring friends?"

"Detective Shaw pulled a gun on me," the tall spy said with a shrug, "roundabout is fair play. But not my idea really. Just call him Hardy. Just you three?"

"Your spyball was here a moment ago," Chris said, "guessing you've seen."

She smiled and nodded. Shaw noticed the impressive cleavage shown by the skin tight sky blue sweater with three-quarter sleeves and whatever special bra she'd chosen. Her jeans were likewise figure hugging. Her skin was quite pale but few onlookers would care with that view on offer. Her dark hair was loose. She had some sort of black watch on her left wrist, but Shaw couldn't see a face on it. A vague memory gnawed at her.

But she shrugged and glanced sideways, Mel was as usual braless and as she'd been at their first meeting her tight blouse was again transparent, albeit blue this time, and she had no jacket given the warm spring weather. At least it was halfway buttoned up. Shaw felt downright overdressed next to her in her plain-clothes standard opaque white blouse under her dark blue blazer and matching slacks. Even Chris was in a button-down shirt, both his and Mel's jeans tight enough to show taut bodies. Anna's eyes rested on Mel's chest for a moment and a fleeting smile crossed her face.

"She has a set on her," Shaw said softly to Mel who snorted back and stood straight but with a lanky looseness. Anna stepped back to the van and rapped on the door with her knuckles.

"Let's do this," she said, apparently meant for the passengers as the van door slid quickly backwards.

A female twin to the male guard squatted in the doorway before she stepped to the ground. The short and tight ponytail below the back of her fedora and the mounds under her jacket mere hints at her gender given her broad build, but her face had a softer aspect to it than the male of the pair.

That was all that was soft about her. She stood and glared at the trio.

Suddenly an explosive stream of strange speech erupted behind the female guard, Anna's mouth opened in a shocked 'O.' Shaw had never heard anything like it, vaguely East Asian, but no, not that. It seemed a female timbre but beyond that, no idea. She glanced, Mel and Chris both had expressions that settled into ghostly smiles after a moment. The female guard sidled to her right.

A woman jumped out of the van. No. Not a woman.

"I am not a delicate flower that needss to be wrapped in ssilk," the newcomer looked quickly at Anna and scolded her, "we have business to disscuss. Wasting time."

Her English was good, although her accent made clear it wasn't her native language.

But she wasn't a woman.

Shaw blinked. What the hell. She was a woman.

She was about five-five or six, slender, her legs in jeans that went inside high-heeled over the calf boots. Her hips weren't overly broad but nicely balanced her figure.

She nodded at the taller Anna and they walked toward the waiting trio. Her stride was more rolling than most humans would have. Her arms seemed longer than a similar sized human's and Shaw guessed she had one of these 'padlets' in her left hand. Her left wrist sported a black band similar to what the taller woman wore.

It seemed she was a 'woman' because like Mel her long-sleeve deep purple blouse was transparent. Which left an impressive set of bra less breasts visible that were very human but for areolas more oval than round. Shaw glanced sideways, saw Mel's smile. The alien was shorter than both the detective and the demon, but her chest was about the same size as the hellspawn's.

Without the port wine stain, the slight 'paisley' pattern in the skin of her chest above the pair of unbuttoned blouse buttons, her neck and her face, was more prominent, like the two aliens in the photo that had triggered Joyce's deeper involvement even if this alien's skin was slightly less pale. Her eyes were a solid light brown with no whites and larger than a human's but with pupils that seemed more slits than circles. Her medium brown hair fell loosely behind pointed ears.

And this alien and Anna, no, Shaw reminded herself, the two aliens stopped about four feet away. How? The alien was human-like, two legs, two arms, breasts that would be welcome in every men's magazine on Earth. And Anna. Those magazines would throw money at her for a fully nude spread. How were they related?

"Detective," Anna pointed at the policewoman, "Detective Joyce Shaw wanted to shoot me."

The alien let out a cough-like sound that seemed to carry amusement more than distress.

"No doubt jusstified, good to meet you, Detective Shaw," the alien offered her right hand and Shaw took an extra instant before she responded. The fingers were longer than she'd expect and the skin had an odd feel to it. They released hands.

"And this is Mel Caldicott, representative from the deepest pits of Hell," the alien let out another cough as she and Mel shook hands and Mel joined her with a laugh.

"Actually North Dakota," Mel said, "but if you ask Chris he'll tell you Hell is a few steps more pleasant."

They released hands and Mel let out a combination cough and growl that caused Shaw to stare at her. What was that?

The alien's eyes widened for an instant and then Shaw swore that lipless mouth smiled broadly to show human-like teeth but a deep red square-tipped tongue for a moment before she returned the sound. No, it wasn't lipless but their color blended with her face.

"You have made good usse of that toy you have," the alien pointed at the padlet in Chris's left hand.

"We've tried, but Chris isn't very good," Mel said.

"Of coursse not, that greeting only femaless use," Mel beamed in response.

"I'm Chris Bajevic," he put his right hand out and the alien took it but then she pulled it to her face and inhaled deeply with her eyes closed. Shaw and Mel glanced at each other then looked at Anna. The tall spy's mouth had fallen open and she stared at the shorter alien. Then they watched the alien's mouth open and her tongue touched Chris's hand. A moment later she opened her eyes and slowly released his hand.

"You are the drudge," the alien said, Chris chuckled.

"That's me."

The alien looked at Anna. "This one iss a very proper male," before she added a very soft sort of growl that caused Anna's mouth to move before she stopped and blinked and took a deep breath. Then the alien tilted her head slightly before she turned to look again at the trio. Anna took a slow breath before she spoke.

"I'd like to introduce Vikrangia Skyburster, Council President of the Second Sylvan Expedition," Anna said, "and my mother. Please call her Vicki. That's Laurel back there by the van."

The alien, Vicki, smiled. Shaw quickly wrenched her gaping jaw back into place. THIS was the mother Anna mentioned? Anna seemed to be about the same age as what she posed as, a first year grad student, early twenties. That would make this Vicki what, forty? Fifty? If anything, Shaw's impression was she was a similar age but not older than the first Anna, Queen Anna, the woman she now knew had been an alien that she'd seen that ill-fated Halloween night five years ago but she'd be hard put to explain that belief. Unless these aliens aged far differently than humans. But the resemblance was so... eerie. Beyond eerie.

But all that aside, Shaw tried to keep her breathing slow and steady, both Annas were taller and broader than this Vicki. Her grip had been firm but while just above average height for human women, she was on the slender side with her figure that was attractive even for human eyes. But the bigger question was how did this 'mother' have this 'daughter?'

"Yess, she iss my little girl," Vicki said before she quickly pulled up her padlet and tapped it and she showed the trio a picture. It was Vicki, younger, her hair longer, sitting in a chair with a towel over her shoulder. She had a broad smile.

With a smiling human baby in a diaper on her lap.

Shaw, Mel and Chris leaned in, then looked up at Anna. The tall woman's expression was a query.

"Oh my god," Mel's chirp was back, "Anna, you were sooo cute!"

"What!?!"

Vicki turned and showed her the screen quickly. Anna's mouth dropped open. Anna twisted back and swiped the screen and held it up again to get some giggles. This time the tall, younger alien stepped forward and grabbed her mother's arm to see the picture. It included a gangly girl six or seven with bright green eyes and long dark hair next to two shorter seemingly related girls whose dark hair and green eyes matched Anna's. Shaw's expression gained the slightest question at those two other girls. There was something...

"Mom...," she said sharply as Vicki did that cough sound again.

"Is it not every mother's highest duty to embarrass her daughter when she meets her friends?"

"Oh hell yes," Mel said between laughs, "that is what they do!"

The third picture was different. Shaw's breath caught after a hard inhale.

"That's Peter," Shaw said slowly, then she bent her head forward to look more closely, his hair was shorter than he'd worn it in high school or their one night together on that fateful Halloween, "are you wearing togas?"

"What!?!" Anna growled when Vicki twisted to show it to her quickly then rotated back. Anna half turned and kicked the damp dirt.

"It was Anna'ss farewell party before she came down to Earth for her mission," Vicki said, "she inshisted on a toga party."

That got a round of laughter as Anna growled and shifted her feet again.

"Is that Queen Anna with you two and Peter?" Chris asked, "The port wine stain? And your satellites have artificial gravity, I take it?"

"Yess," said Vicki, "to all."

Shaw squinted, she'd swear Vicki's expression as she looked at Chris was pure lust. But. She was a freaking alien! Did... did it even transfer? But. Peter. In this picture...

"It looks like Peter was quite excited to be there," Mel said as she ripped Shaw out of her reverie. The detective blinked once then her cheeks reddened quickly as she registered Peter's hidden but obvious erection barely covered by the short toga. All three females also had very short togas and each had their right breasts bared with the togas slipped down to cover only their left sides. Each toga was the regulation white but with a different very bright coloured design around the edges.

"You are his polissewoman, right?" Vicki looked at Shaw, who took a moment before she looked away from the screen and at those alien eyes. Kind eyes now, Shaw thought, but was that accurate?

"Yes, that's me."

"You were very important to him," Vicki's voice wasn't as light as it had been, "he said you were why he wasn't his brother."

"Uh...," Shaw stammered, finally just nodded.

"My daughter says we have limited time," Vicki did a shiver that Shaw took as a shrug, "I will arrange to send more pictures of her as a baby. And of Paetor. Now."

She swiped at the screen and showed it mainly to Shaw.

"Do you know this woman?"

Shaw looked at it and started to shake her head but stopped.

"Wait... That's... Sheryl. Yeah, Sheryl Grace. I only ever met her once, back right after Peter disappeared. But she didn't..."

Shaw stopped speaking and her mouth dropped open when Vicki swiped again.

"Oh, fuck," she said, "that's Patrick, Irish dude. But I don't know his last..."

"Collinss," Vicki said, "we think. Maybe. Terrorisht."

Ice ran through Shaw's veins. That fit. She'd poked around what the department had but it'd been little about any possible foreign criminals in the area. She'd not been able to reach out to the FBI or others without opening herself to broad questions. But with his connection to Sheryl she'd concluded he was more on the sex side. She felt both Mel and Chris staring at her as her breathing sped up and her fists clenched.

"And thiss one?" Vicki swiped again.

"Not that one, no memory," Shaw said.

"German woman, we think. Brigid or Constance or something. Baader-Meinhof gang."

"Shit," Shaw said, noted Vicki didn't respond to the profanity.

"And this last one," Vicki swiped across the screen.

"You are truly fucking killing me. That's Cherry Powell, although that white is about the only color I've never seen her hair as," Shaw didn't turn and no longer cared what anyone thought about language not befitting a one-time English teacher, but pointed backwards with her left arm out over the valley, "born, grew up out there. Like Chris here. And like Peter."

"Paetor did not know her. Sheryl iss the one who recruited Carole to be our succubush and this one ass well," Vicki said, "but Paetor did not know either of them."

Vicki twisted to allow Chris a direct look. He shook his head.

"Chris, you never hang out with Council of The Dozen families?" Shaw offered a grim laugh that Chris returned, Mel and the aliens looked at each in turn.

"They're weirdos in this state," Mel said to Vicki and she offered a light cough and Anna nodded with a bit of force.

"Cherry and Sheryl were different social circles from Chris and definitely from Peter," Shaw went silent and inhaled deeply and held it for a moment, "but why are you showing us these?"

"The paeple, OUR paeple, who attacked Queen Anna and Paetor and caussed Highrider to crash. They sent nanomachiness to these humanss."

Shaw had a confused look as she turned to the younger pair.

"Vicki," the alien looked at Chris and her face seemed to soften, "you really mean nano sized? Really, not even specks of dust?"

She smiled slightly before she looked directly at Mel.

"He iss like Paetor, very, very shmart. Iss he a good fuck like Paetor was?"

Both Shaw and Anna exhaled hard and the tall alien huffed a second time as she stood beside her mother, Chris let out a quick laugh. But Mel beamed before she stepped closer and put her hands on Vicki's shoulders. Shaw saw the female guard, Laurel, who still stood by the van stiffen but Vicki made a soft sound and the broad female went back to her parade rest stance. The demon bent slightly and put her mouth near a pointed ear but her voice wasn't quite a whisper.

"Best on the planet, want to try him out?" Mel stood straight with the tip of her tongue between her lips and she and Vicki locked eyes.

Vicki's response was another sort-of growl out of her throat, deep and slow. Anna offered a sharp "WHAT?!?" Shaw looked at the tall girl, whose face showed shock. Chris just shrugged. The alien's leader reached up and put her right fingers just under Mel's chin and coaxed her face down again until she was close.

Vicki kissed her. Anna huffed hard as the two women's mouths opened slightly and Mel's body shivered quickly. Vicki slowly closed her mouth and they separated, Mel's lips worked slightly and she licked them for a moment with a broad smile and eyes that hid a secret.

"How do you know I will not shteal him from you, like I sstole Paetor from my loving daughter?"