Manipulate (Book 1, Alien Cadets)

Chapter 13

Claudia woke when her cell phone buzzed under the pillow. She was stretched out on her friend’s couch and it took her a second to find the phone under the tangled sheet of her pallet.

“You should turn on the news,” Chris said, right away.

Claudia felt around for the remote. She flicked on the TV, and changed it to 4.2.  Grainy footage of a burning stage covered the screen, carousel lights flickering in the background. The voice over said, “ – the riot, which some have alleged to be premeditated, erupted at 9:00p.m. last evening. The Spo fired on the crowd causing four fatalities and eight injuries. Others were burned and trampled, the total number of injuries is not known.

“This man, Robert Gravies, was there.” The screen flicked to a balding, white guy.

“Uh. Yeah, the cadets all crowded around the spooks. Looked like they were protecting them. Then one of ‘em said, ‘Fire!’ and suddenly there were bullets flying – ”

Claudia muted the TV. “Was he hurt?” she said. “Do you know what happened?”

“Sam wasn’t hurt, but several of his friends were. I’m betting he could use a visit from his sister.  Are you ready to go to Malibu?” Chris asked.

“Will they let you leave the hospital already?”

“’Course they will,” Chris said. “If you pick up my car from my apartment, you can come get me.”

Claudia drove Chris westward on Highway 10. His arm was in a tight sling against his chest, the wrist in a temporary cast.

“I appreciate this,” Claudia said. “I know the Spo don’t want cadet families showing up yet.”

“Well, not to blow my own horn,” Chris said, “but I have a certain amount of influence with the Spo, or at least with all their security, which comes to the same thing. They’ll let us in.”

“Thanks for using your influence then,” Claudia said.

“It’s not a bad job.”

“You want to work for them?” Claudia asked. She couldn’t help it. Didn’t he care who he worked for?

“The Spo aren’t that bad. I know you probably hate them for taking your brother. But honestly, they’re not going away. It makes more sense to work with them than not,” he said.

“Like hell.”

“Maybe we should talk about this later.”

“I’m fine.” Claudia stopped at the light on the 10 on-ramp. It turned green and she surged forward, nearly hitting the minivan in the HOV lane. She tapped the break and got in behind the minivan, but that only made her more angry.

“You were attacked. You almost lost your hand to a spook pet. What’s the matter with you?”

“That’s a fair point. Working security for the aliens is the toughest, strangest job ever. I expect to get hurt. Not their fault.”

“What are those animals for anyway?”

“The trouncers? They use them in their spaceships. The Spo have some kind of advanced biocomputer technology; they use trouncer brain tissue in their jump drives. A friend of mine is a programmer and he says it’s incredible. I’ve heard they’re going to start breeding them here. They’re also looking into using dolphin and gorilla brain tissue.”

“So now they’ll start killing the animals too? Great.” Like many animal doctors, Claudia couldn’t stand animal testing. She should have guessed the Spo would start experimenting on animals, too.