Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

ELLIS COLE

M y first introduction to Commander Seiwa Heremod was sitting across from him during a meeting inside FBI headquarters in downtown Cleveland. I wasn't actually at the table with him because support staff like me were sitting along the wall in case someone needed something, but I could see him just fine. Since he was a large, white rabbit he was hard to miss.

He'd come in wearing a brown cloth bag cross-wise over his purple tunic and his furry white fingers kept going into that bag and coming out with all kinds of little parts. Metal cogs, screws, tiny bars, some wheels, and even several different wires were on the table in front of him. And he was barely glancing at them as he fitted them together and listened to the people talking around the room. I could tell he was listening because his tall pink and white ears swiveled to point at whoever was speaking.

I was barely listening to anyone because I couldn't stop staring at the little robot taking shape on the table. My grandmother had liked to knit while she watched TV or attended church services, and what the commander was doing reminded me of that. He was literally keeping himself busy by constructing a robot out of the random parts he kept digging out of that bag.

The robot had four wheels, a little chassis, a round head, and a pair of arms with pinchers. The commander molded something like black putty onto the pinchers that made them look padded. He connected all the wires to the only plastic-looking piece that might've been a computer chip motherboard thingy. When he finally looked it over, I could see he was inspecting it and tweaking it. Eventually, he pushed a button that made its eyes light up with a gentle golden glow, and then he picked up his tablet and sat back in his chair.

All the Norlons had tablets that were synced up with their own network. I knew about the network only because the folks in IT were completely stumped about how to hack into it. One of them had suggested the program was sentient because it kept thwarting them like it was learning. Though the others had laughed, I'd seen them walk away considering it, too. I liked the idea that the Norlon A.I. might be smarter than ours. Watching the commander tap away at his tablet now, I had to wonder if he was writing the code to make the robot work.

Suddenly, the little robot twitched and rolled itself over to the pitcher of water in the center of the table. That got everyone's attention real fast, and we all watched as the robot picked up the pitcher and aimed it over a glass. Water flowed, the glass filled, and the robot set the pitcher back down. Then it picked up the glass and rolled over to set it down in front of its creator.

"Commander Heremod," Director Stubbins barked, "what is the meaning of this?"

The commander blinked his dark pink eyes at the directors, looking a little bored in my opinion and not at all like he gave a damn about the Director of the FBI calling him out. Gesturing toward the water pitcher with a lazy wave, the commander said, "You've placed the water in the center of a ten-foot-wide table. I may resemble Earth's rabbits, but I will not be jumping onto the table to get a drink. Would anyone else like some?"

At the end of the table where all the NASA engineers were sitting, every hand went up. And damned if the little robot didn't get back to work filling more glasses and delivering one to each person. I sincerely wanted to raise my hand just to see how it would get a glass over to me.

I was also incredibly impressed by the fact that Commander Heremod had constructed a robot to get him some water so that he didn't have to stretch across the table to get it himself. Like what a brilliantly lazy fucker. It was all made even better because he was the sole reason we were assembled here for this meeting.

Honestly, the director could be a little more polite given that he was a member of the half of the room trying to get the commander to give up every bit of Norlon technology that he knew. Literally every bit. They wanted the communications stuff, space travel tech, probably the network security whatsit, and everything else they could convince him to hand over. So far, to me, it had sounded like a lot of "you will provide" and not much "please."

Figured, really. Management was trying to lead. If the engineers had their way, they'd have probably given Commander Heremod the entire island of Manhattan by now. A couple of them were creaming themselves over the grippy stuff on the robot's pinchers! Okay, maybe management was needed to keep the country from going bankrupt trying to afford all the bribes necessary to get the info out of the commander, but literally none of them had just asked him.

Blustering a bit, the director resumed his monologue on… Was he talking about cooperation between peoples? That had to be code for something. I hadn't been in a lot of these meetings—my entire assignment was to observe the commander, so if he wasn't there, neither was I—but the ones I'd attended seemed to be aimed at getting something for nothing. And while the Norlons had proven that they would give us awesome stuff for free, we weren't talking about medical advancements anymore. These meetings were about things that, frankly, could be weaponized. I had a feeling the Norlons were going to say no a lot because parents didn't hand children loaded guns.

I ignored the director and went back to watching Commander Heremod. He was getting twitchy. Gramma had done that, too, when her hands weren't busy. I wondered if the commander had ever tried knitting. I knew how to do a scarf, but it wouldn't be that straight. Gramma used to say I was wound too tight, but I thought I was pretty chill in comparison to her. I could, after all, sit still. I realized I was waiting for the commander to start taking new things out of his bag to assemble something else, when he suddenly stood up.

"Commander Heremod," the director said like he was speaking to an unruly child.

The commander simply strode toward the door and threw over his shoulder, "It's noon. You said we would break for lunch at noon. I'll return in an hour."

While the director and a few of his cronies spluttered, Heremod walked right out the door. Since it was my job to observe him, I got up and followed. Part of me wanted to remain in the conference room and watch the show as everyone pouted and complained, but I had a job to do. Why? Security. Wherever the commander went while he was on Earth, I was supposed to be right there with him.

Though I'd asked how I would know if a genius engineer was going against security protocols and what I was supposed to do if I did manage to recognize a breach, my supervisor had waved me away and said he was sure I'd know it when I saw it. The only thing that had happened today was the fact that I'd gained a new nickname.

"Hey, Alice," Tom Decker, another research analyst like myself, said as he grinned. "Still following the white rabbit?"

"Come on, Tom, don't you call me that, too."

He fell into step beside me, and I bumped him into the wall.

"Okay, okay," he chuckled, pushing me away. "You've got to admit that it's appropriate, though."

He gestured ahead of us where the commander walked down the hallway toward the front of the building. He literally had people dodging out of his way or plastering themselves against the walls as he passed. His pace never changed and he didn't glance at anyone. Commander Heremod was one aloof dude.

"I get the joke," I said to Tom, "but I don't have to like it." With a name like Ellis and being gay, it wasn't the first time someone had called me Alice, but it still stung.

Hands raised, Tom said, "Fair enough."

We paused at the end of the hall to wait while Heremod got into an elevator, and then we took the stairs down. I had to wonder where the commander was going for lunch. Like did he even know the area well enough to have a lunch spot in mind? Maybe his tablet could recommend a place.

"Hey," Tom said as we exited the stairwell into the lobby, "are you going to Bruce's bachelor party?"

I gave him some side-eye as the elevator arrived and the commander marched through the lobby for the front doors. Standing guard down on the sidewalk were five giant lizards that the director refused to allow into the building since they were security. I was pretty sure he was prejudiced because plenty of people had come into the building with their own security personnel, but we couldn't take weapons from people who were the weapons. Heremod met up with his guard and kept right on walking down Lakeside Avenue.

"Oh, come on," Tom said as he kept pace with me. "You can still drink with us. You don't have to look at the strippers." He snorted a laugh. "Though I'm guessing they'll pay more attention to you than the rest of us, just like women always do."

"Can't really blame them for being attracted to the only man who's well-groomed and gets his suits properly fitted." I eyed Tom up and down. "Did you get yours at Goodwill? You're not even trying."

"Dude, I got the sticky stuff for my hair like you said." He pointed at his tousled brown waves like I couldn't tell that he'd used too much pomade this morning.

"Good boy. You can be taught." But there was still so much to do.

We turned the corner onto East 17th, and I thought maybe we were heading to Danny's Deli. It was a favorite of mine for when I wanted something good and filling but didn't have a lot of time. It was directly ahead of us on the corner of St. Clair.

"I do feel sorry for the straight girls," Tom said. "I'm shit at this stuff. And then there's you."

That was one of the reasons I liked Tom—he wasn't afraid of his own masculinity. He would ask me about grooming tips, compliment how I looked, and not give a damn if anyone questioned his sexuality. He was really straight, though. It was possible Tom would know all the strippers at Bruce's party by name because he'd hooked up with each of them at least once in the past month.

"Well, shit," I said when one of Commander Heremod's guards went right into Danny's Deli there on the corner, leaving everyone else to wait on the sidewalk.

"What's wrong?" Tom asked, scanning the area.

I gestured toward the end of the block. "Apparently, the commander is also a fan of my favorite deli."

Tom looked over and cocked his head. "Is it bad that I feel like I'm hallucinating when I see them getting lunch like any other person in the city? Like the fact that they're five lizards and a bunny getting a hoagie is just so surreal."

"I mean, they have salads and stuff, too."

"Dude…"

I chuckled at him. "No, I know. Maybe it would help if we really made an effort to call them Ceros and a Pip?" I had a terrible habit of using Earth animal names instead of their real ones. And now that I thought about it, calling them those names felt really wrong. "Yeah, we need to do better."

"Yeah, okay. Hey, uh, is he looking at us?"

He was. Commander Heremod was definitely looking back at us from the top of the deli's steps. I'd never been told to keep my distance or make sure he didn't know I was there—I'd only done that out of politeness since I knew he hadn't been given a choice. I wasn't exactly trying to blend, but when he stared right at me, I froze. I was aware of Tom suddenly pretending to look for a signal on his phone, but I just hung there, caught in Heremod's gaze until he disappeared inside the building.

I exhaled hard, having not realized I'd been holding my breath. What was that about? I wasn't supposed to be hiding from the commander, so why had I reacted like I'd been caught? And wow, what a shit reaction! I hadn't tried to do a single thing to minimize notice at all. I'd only stood there like a starstruck dumbass.

"Aren't you supposed to be covert?" Tom stopped messing with his phone—honestly, him trying to find a signal in the middle of a major city was laughable—and came back over to me.

"No. No one said I had to be." I shrugged. "I was trying not to crowd him."

"Okay, because he sure as hell knows you're there, and I think he likes it."

"Likes it?" I gave Tom my full attention because what?

"Did you miss the smirk? The wink?"

"Wink?" Commander Heremod had winked at me?

Tom held onto my shoulders and said very seriously, "If I can see it, you know it's real."

"What is?"

"Alice, your giant white rabbit is flirting with you."