It’s probably bad news, but I can’t help but feel relieved. “There are no ships around?”
“There are.” Omni resolutely stabs his spoon into the ice cream. “Blockade is there. They should listen. Someone made sure they do not.”
I steal the bucket from him. “Someone? Are you telling me that Garresh has a way to block transmission from Earth?”
“No.” Glaring at me, Omni tries to take the ice cream back but I don’t let go. I need all the sugar I can get. “Not Garresh. Someone on the UGC ship. Garresh has an ally who helps ship fly the blockade.”
I groan. We really don’t have enough ice cream for this. “So, a dirty space cop, who regularly helps bad guys kidnap humans, made sure your warning got lost. We have no way to contact any good space cops, no way to find Garresh, and the Air Force isafter us.” Fuck, there’s not enough ice cream in the entire world. “What do we do?”
“First, we need to make sure Omni is safe,” Imani says. “If the Air Force or any other part of our government gets their hands on him, well…”
Omni makes another attempt at stealing the bucket from me, and this time, I let him. Facing getting locked up and experimented on must be terrifying.
Clearing her throat, Imani continues, “The problem is, they might already be watching this building. They didn’t bring you in directly, so that means they don’t know for sure you were the one who found Omni in the desert, or that someone even found something there. There must have been dozens of cars going through that part of the state during that time. They’re probably just throwing out bait to see what bites while watching the suspects in case someone does something weird.”
“Suspects? How am I a suspect?” I grumble.
“Infinity, you brought an alien from another planet to your damned apartment. Even I would agree that he should have been at least quarantined first. He could have brought some world-ending plague upon us.”
“I did not,” Omni protests.
“I know you didn’t, but you could have. Anyway, we need to get Omni out of here, somewhere remote where he won’t be easily found. I was thinking your parents’ cult,” Imani says with an apologetic smile.
“They’re not in a cult! They’re a New Age commune. They just sit in the middle of nowhere, waiting for a bunch of aliens to come and rescue them, while doing drugs and… Okay. They’re in a cult.” I sigh. “But yeah, they would probably worship Omni as some alien Jesus or something.”
Frowning, Omni shakes his head. “I am not important. We have to stop Garresh. Can we tell human military people about Garresh?”
“We can,” I agree, “and we absolutely will, but only once you’re safe. You’ve seen the movies, Omni. You know what humans do with captured aliens.”
He hesitates. “TV is not real,” he echoes the words I told him, what feels like ages ago.
“As a scientist,” Imani says, “I’d like to believe they would adhere to basic moral principles, but the U.S. government is known to be ruthless even to their own citizens. At the very least, they’d lock you up forever, and I don’t think they’d bother with asking for consent for whatever tests they’d want to run on you. We will talk to them once you’re in a safe location.”
Heavy weight settles in my stomach as the consequences of her words hit me. “But this plan means Omni will never be able to leave Earth.”
“He’ll be alive and safe with people who will take care of him. Maybe in time, we can figure something out, but it’s quite difficult with him being a fugitive from both human and space justice. An alien worshiping cult might just be the safest place for him.”
I know Imani is probably right, but I still don’t like it. Ultimately, the decision isn’t ours, though. “What do you think, Omni?”
Deep in thought, he shovels some ice cream into his mouth. “I am not important,” he replies eventually. “Humans are important. But I do not want someone experiment me. I can stay with Fin’s parents but you have to tell government to save humans.”
“It’s not just my parents there, you know? It’s not like… I don’t know, it’s not like I’m bringing my boyfriend to meet my parents. Not that I wouldn’t bring you to meet my parents if youwere my boyfriend, but you’re not. Are you? No, of course you’re not. We agreed to keep it casual. But if you don’t leave, I… No, this is nonsense. Why am I still talking?” With a pitying look, Imani pushes the ice cream my way. I reach for it with my mouth clamped shut so no more word vomit comes out, careful not to meet Omni’s eyes.
“The question is,” Imani says, mercifully ignoring my embarrassing speech, “how do we safely smuggle 6ft5 alien with massive wings out of the apartment without the military noticing us?”
I’m grateful for my foresight in telling Caleb to bring the costume. At least now I have something smart to say to prove I’m not a blathering idiot. “I have a plan for that. It might get Caleb and you arrested, though.”
Imani snorts. “You’re such a treasure of a friend, Infinity. What would we do without you? Alright. Bring it on.”
Chapter 22
Omni
“Youdon’tlookanythinglike me,” I say as I watch Caleb move around Fin’s apartment in his “angel” costume. Even though his fake wings are smaller than mine, the living room is positively cramped now. Fin and Imani are in the kitchen area, packing supplies and going over the plan again, while Caleb is preparing to be a decoy. They are all risking their lives to protect me and, while it’s an admirable effort that shows what amazing people they are, I hate it. I hate that untrained civilians are putting themselves in danger to protect me. I should be the oneprotecting them and I can’t even do that because I’m too stupid to explain to Imani exactly how to find Garresh’s ship.
We tried contacting the UGC several times because, at this point, a UGC prison colony does not sound like such a terrible option anymore compared to being experimented on by unscrupulous human scientists or spending the rest of my life in some weird cult, but we never received any response. I even used my former Voidstalker codes and special frequencies, which should have at least lured them to investigate, but still nothing. They’re out there, I’m sure of that, but they aren’t getting any of my messages. It’s not difficult to figure out why. Garresh’s contact is making sure no word about Eclipse Raider is getting out. They must be a high-ranking officer with both the power to erase communication logs and silence proximity alarms that should ring every time an unauthorized ship approaches Earth.
The UGC needs to know about this traitor and Garresh must be stopped, but what am I doing? Running and hiding like a useless coward while using Fin and her friend as bait. Their government might not execute them for harboring me and helping me escape, but there will be consequences for their freedom and careers.
