“And when Luthor finally grants you your wish, you’ll join Mr. Ross as the guests of honor at a luncheon banquet for my clan.” Arley smiled and just for a moment, his Lorannic fangs showed. Despite my mounting fear, I found that interesting. Someone or something was controlling his cloaking field in real time, just like Sheldon did for us.

  “That doesn’t seem like the best way of getting Karen back,” I replied. “Hostage exchanges usually involve live hostages, if you get my drift.” I looked directly at Arley. “My understanding is that the Loranna stick to their deals.”

  “Mm, true. But alive and healthy aren’t the same thing. I wonder how many body parts you’d have to lose before your team wouldn’t want you. We could remove a limb or two without killing you, I imagine. For snacks.”

  Uh-oh. He had a point. While I was still searching for a response, Patrick said, “The same could be said about Karen, Arley.”

  Arley laughed. “Even if you humans had the stomach for that kind of thing, our medical tech can regenerate anything, as long as she’s still alive. I doubt you have access to the same level of care.”

  I kept my face still, and hoped Patrick had done the same. Arley had just unintentionally given us a big piece of information—he didn’t know about the Halo. He might in fact think the only Covenant tech we owned was a disruptor and a couple of belts.

  At that moment, Luthor’s phone beeped. He pulled it out and glanced at it, then turned to Arley. “The third brat is in custody. They’ll have her here in ten.”

  Nat. I felt my face go ashen as the implication sank in. Luthor noticed my expression and nodded. “Yeah, maybe we’ll work your girlfriend over a little in front of you. See if that helps jog your memory. Not that I care either way.”

  I opened my mouth to reply just as all the mercenaries began falling down, clockwise from Patrick’s side of the room. Luthor only had time to reach for his gun when he and Arley keeled over as well.

  Nat’s voice said, out of empty air, “Here I come, to save the dayyyyyyy.”

  A silence descended on the room as the last unconscious body stopped flopping. “Are there any others?” I asked, looking around.

  Sheldon replied, “I did an acoustical inventory. All are accounted for. However, Nat’s tactic of sweeping with the disruptor may result in some zaps being less than full strength. You should depart while the departing is optimal.”

  An excellent policy for any time, as far as I was concerned. Nat became visible, flipped open a folding knife, and quickly cut our zip-ties. We stood, ready to run. Then I turned and looked at Arley.

  “No,” Nat said. “Come on, you’ve got to be kidding. We don’t need another—”

  “Maybe we do. Sheldon, please start on a second detention berth, preferably right across from Karen. And close her door so she doesn’t know anything until we’re ready to tell her.”

  “It will take a while,” Sheldon replied. “You will have to re-stun your subject, and you should have some of those plastic restraints in reserve, just for safety.”

  “And guns,” Patrick said, gathering several of the weapons.

  “Do you even know how to use those?” Nat asked.

  “No friggin’ clue. But I’m a quick study.”

  “Patrick, give the guns to Nat. Help me with Arley.”

  It turned out we really had been in a warehouse, in the low-rent end of the industrial district. Because why not? I wondered if anyone had ever heard of playing against type.

  It took several minutes to get Arley outside and up the stairs into the awaiting Halo. He was surprisingly heavy, easily well over two-fifty, and consequently very hard to maneuver.

  During one of the drop-and-shuffle breaks, I said to Nat, “I thought they captured you. Luthor got a text to that effect.”

  “Text courtesy of Sheldon,” she replied with a wide smile. “After he scanned the phones of the two guys who came for me.”

  Patrick stopped massaging his forearms and frowned. “How did you manage to get their phones?”

  “I’d have been in trouble if they’d coordinated the grabs, but you guys gave us enough warning to set up a trap. Did you know that the cloaking fields can make an empty driver’s seat look not empty? While Tweedledee and Tweedledummy were trying to sneak up on the car and grab me, I came out from behind a bush and zapped them.”

  I snorted, then gestured to the body. Patrick groaned in reply and reached down to grab the legs.

  My back itched until the airlock was safely closed. It would only take one mercenary to wake up and come out shooting to ruin our day. But the operation was completed without incident and soon we were in the air. Patrick re-zapped Arley, then zip-tied him for good measure.

  He needn’t have bothered. Arley was just beginning to make snorting noises and twitch when we finally dumped him into his new prison cell and cut the straps.

  “Not a terrible idea, Jack.” Patrick gestured at Arley’s semiconscious form. “If we have both the leaders, I can see that putting a crimp in their operation. So how will we handle this?”

  Arley sat up with a groan. Another universal, I guess. He glared blearily at us from his bunk, not saying anything. He might have been looking a little green, which on an orange-skinned being should come out brown, if my old art teacher was to be believed.

  I waited a few more seconds, but I guess he was going to wait for us to make the first move. Well, fine then. “We should talk,” I said.

  “Why?”

  “Well, we have you in a cell, for starters.”

  “So?”

  I glanced at Patrick and Nat. Their perplexed expressions didn’t fill me with confidence. Apparently, Arley wasn’t as talkative as Karen.

  I tried to regroup. “Well, it does put a crimp in your plans for world domination.”

  He shrugged. “Not really. They can handle it without me.”

  “You mean without you and Karen. The two of you are the leaders and chief architects, aren’t you? How much redundancy can you build into an organization that’s built around a single small clan?”

  That got a reaction. Without any kind of warning or buildup, Arley launched himself at us, mouth agape and arms spread wide. I had time to note that he also had claws—retractable, apparently—before he slammed into the cell door.

  “Sheldon?” I subvocalized.

  “The door will hold against considerably more than Arley can bring to bear,” he replied. “I do know what I’m doing.”

  I gazed at Arley, trying to project relaxed and unafraid. “Y’know, your species has a definite anger-control issue.” Arley glared at me, as I continued, “Karen reacted much the same way, although she’s a lot more into threats. Something about not bothering to cook us first.”

  Now Arley did smile. “That sounds like Karen. She does like sushi.”

  “Ewww,” said Nat.

  He glanced at her, then back at me. “Okay, so what now? You seem to have the momentary advantage. What do you want? Money? A spot in the enclaves? We can do that, you know. We don’t—”

  “Go back on your agreements. I know. Karen tried that line.”

  “Uh-huh. You’re going to a lot of trouble to bring up Karen in the conversation. Almost like you want me to think you have her. Maybe not so much?”

  “Well, we didn’t eat her,” I replied. “But negotiations didn’t go well.”

  “So what do you want?”

  “For the Loranna to leave our planet.”

  Arley laughed. “That’s not going to happen. Even with both Karen and me gone. We’re fully committed to this, Jack. It’s Jack, right? You humans all look the same to me. We have no other option. We’ve put everything into this.”

  “Fully committed is right,” I said. “You even woke an A.I.” I watched him carefully for a reaction, and was rewarded with a very brief expression of surprise before his poker face settled back in.

  “Well, no, strictly speaking that wasn’t us. It came as part of the package.” Arley stopped. “I can’t decide how much you actually know and how much of this is fishing. I probably should just shut up, I think.”

  “Suit yourself,” I said. Then to Sheldon, “Close it.”

  Arley’s door rumbled shut, leaving the three of us standing in the corridor looking at each other.

  “Package?” Patrick said.

  “Like something you buy,” Nat said. “Like a franchise? Everything you need to set up a takeover operation?”

  “That would mean Earth isn’t the only victim of this,” I replied. “Jesus, how deep does this go?”

  Nat gestured to the door across from Arley. “Let’s find out. Sheldon, open Karen’s door.”

  I turned to face her stateroom as the door withdrew.

  Karen slouched on her bunk, apparently relaxed. “So what does a girl have to do to get lunch around here?”

  “Answer a quick question,” Nat replied. “How many clans have bought into this planetary takeover franchise?”

  “How the hell would I—?” Karen cut herself off. “I mean, what franchise?”

  Nat grinned. “Never mind. Got it.”

  Karen leaned forward. “You’d make a good lunch. Kind of scrawny, but we could get a good broth out of you, I think.” She paused. “We’ll win eventually, Natalie. You can’t keep dodging us. We have the infrastructure, we have the weapons. We have—”

  “A conscious A.I.,” Nat said, interrupting the monologue. “That’ll go over really well if the Covenant gets involved.”

  Karen glared. “A big if. We get you or the Covenant gets us. I like our odds better. We actually know you exist.”

  Nat took a step back, and I let my jaw drop. We hadn’t said anything to that effect, I was sure of it. Had Karen simply deduced it?

  “Well, some of you do,” Nat replied. She muttered an order to Sheldon, and the door across from Karen’s slid open. Arley and Karen just had time to stare at each other in surprise before Arley’s door rumbled closed.

  Karen recovered quickly, though. She smiled back, the smile still looking more like a hungry beast’s than anything. “It’s only beginning, sweetie. We’ll be going after your family next. Think you can stay free with a gun to your father’s head?”

  She was baiting us. It was obvious. I took a couple of steps toward her, without any clear plan.

  “Say this to her,” Sheldon said into my cling-on.

  He began to dictate, and I repeated his words out loud: “How many people in your clan, Karen? Twenty? Thirty? What’s the minimum number you could leave on your home planet to maintain a presence and keep from having everything stolen or squat-claimed? What are the chances that you’ve got everyone and everything you can spare invested in this operation? Whoever sold you the ACME World Domination Package would have priced it for all the market is worth, because that’s how Loranna work. I think you’re maxed out. And you’re using a conscious A.I., which is a mind-wipeable offense even if you didn’t create it yourself. You’ve got no fallback, no backup plan. This your only viable option, and you’re running at redline.”

  Karen’s expression changed to rage in an eyeblink. “Watch your mouth, food, or choking on your own gases will be a death you’ll pray for.”

  Sheldon resumed dictating, and I continued, “If you don’t pull this off, your best-case outcome is losing everything. All your assets, gone. Unable to make clan-fee. You’d have to go begging to other tribes to take you in, and you’ll be starting over as chattel slaves.” I smiled at her, hoping I was convincing. “That’s what we have in store for you.”

  Turned out I was very convincing. Karen launched into a high-volume tirade of what I had to assume were curses and threats. Interestingly, Loranna became purple in the face when enraged. I made a note to ask about that at some point.

  “Shall I translate?” Sheldon asked.

  “Naw. I get it. She’s not a fan.”

  We were sitting in the conference room again. Sheldon had put up a surveillance window showing Karen and Arley’s cells. At the moment, Karen was lying down, and Arley was holding his head, trying to keep it from toppling right off his neck. From the occasional groans, I surmised that waking up from a zap was like waking up with a hangover, only more so. He hadn’t seemed to be in any discomfort when we were talking to him though. That showed a considerable amount of discipline.

  “We can’t ignore Karen’s threat,” Nat said. “Our families are targets. I don’t see what we can do about that.”

  “But targets for what?” I asked. “Kidnapping? Assassination? They want something from us, so taking hostages seems a lot more likely. But even then, they have to be able to contact us to tell us what they want.”

  Patrick raised his head from his hand, where he’d been cradling it. “You mean we have to disappear.”

  “We kind of already have.” I looked down at my phone, where the fifth text from my father had just popped up. Patrick’s occasional jerk indicated he was probably getting something similar. We were now all several hours late for work, and people must be wondering where we were. Well, maybe not Nat. I imagined management at her job had already cut her final check and filled out her termination slip. Or whatever Loranna did.

  There would be a search. They would find Patrick’s abandoned vehicle, and they would find Nat’s abandoned vehicle. Hers was parked properly, though.

  I shrugged and continued. “And the Loranna or their hired goons will try to search our homes sooner or later. Maybe just surveillance or a B&E to start with. I doubt they’ll want to attract attention. We have to disappear, and we’re going to have to move the Halo. Sheldon, take us out of here. Random destination. We’ll figure out something later.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  “We can’t just abandon everyone!” Nat retorted angrily.

  “We aren’t,” I said. “This is just a retreat and regroup. We have to figure out what to do next.”

  Patrick muttered a curse. “I can’t believe it, but I’m actually regretting not handing this over to Phil or the government.”

  Nat nodded. “And this puts a time limit on our efforts. Another one, I mean.” She looked up at me, her expression worried. “Jack, we just keep getting deeper and deeper into this, and our options keep getting more and more narrow.”

  I put my hand on her back in a not-quite-brotherly semi-embrace. “Hey, Nat, I get it. But we can only do what we can do. And I may have some ideas on that front. But first, I think we need some sleep.”

  “And food,” Patrick added. “Do you guys realize we literally haven’t eaten since breakfast?” He looked up. “Sheldon, can you replicate food?”

  “Sorry, no. Star Trek replicators remain in the realm of science fiction, even for me. I can offer a refrigerator and a microwave, though.”

  “Why would you have a microwave?”

  “To heat food. Gen need to eat, too.”

  “Gen use microwaves?” Nat said.

  “And refrigerators. Yes. They picked these things up from observing Earth. Before that, they kept spare food in their armpits.”

  “Real—” Nat’s eyes narrowed. “You’re pulling my leg.”

  “Your perspicaciousness is truly an inspiration to sentient beings everywhere.”

  “Asshole.”

  “Still not installed. Sorry.”

  Nat made a low growling sound. “I don’t think the Covenant outlawed conscious A.I.s for ethical reasons. I think they just got tired of listening to them.”

  Sheldon withheld comment. But the mention of food had set my stomach to rumbling. “Well, we definitely need to do something. Sheldon, can you find a 7-Eleven at least twenty miles away, on a highway?”

  “I shall invoke the Google. One moment. Found one.”

  “What do you have in mind?” Nat asked me.

  “Food run, of course. We may have to use cash, though. They might have flagged our accounts by now.”

  “You could use Phil’s account,” Sheldon said. “It has a significant balance.”

  “How would I do that?” I asked.

  “I had access to Phil’s phone. Phil pays for things with his phone. Shall I draw you a picture, with little stick people and dialogue balloons?”

  Patrick laughed out loud. I sighed, looked at Nat, and shook my head. “Let’s see if we have enough cash first. If we have to use Phil’s account, we will, I guess. And it would help support the narrative that we’ve completely disappeared.”

  The view on the wall screen showed the 7-Eleven just off the highway near Akron. It was still early enough in the evening to be busy. Cars pulled in and out of the parking lot regularly—far too often to risk a drop-off from an invisible spaceship.

  “We can put down just up the road, on the shoulder,” I suggested. “Sheldon, can you suppress the lighting for the airlocks?”

  “Of course.”

  “Okay, that should be minimum risk, if we can find a darker area. We can walk in, buy some food, and walk out. We get back on board when it’s safe.” I looked around at the others. No one had any argument, probably motivated by the fact that no one had eaten in close to sixteen hours. For middle-class Americans used to three squares, it was akin to torture.

  “We should take zappers,” Nat said.

  “I don’t think it’ll be necessary,” I replied.

  “Any time you have a choice of taking a weapon or not taking a weapon, you always take a weapon,” Nat said. “Have you never watched TV?”

  Patrick and I replied with weak smiles, and Nat added, “Remember that Geico horror movie ad?”

  “Yeah,” Patrick said, “Let’s not be those kids.”

  Nat and I waited in the darkened vestibule. I had instructed Sheldon to watch for a good moment, with no nearby traffic, before lowering the stairway. Wasting no time, we rushed down the stairs.

  “We’re out,” I said, as soon as we were on solid ground. The stairway retracted, without the usual chirp-chirp and flashing lights.