Manipulate (Book 1, Alien Cadets)

Chapter 15

The question was, how best to use her murder? Downy’s tower art with the sheep had set the stage for a killing. He’d planned to put the next body by the tower, establishing the existence of an obsessed, Spo hating killer. Nat had figured out that Downy did the hate message, but he was willing to bet she was the only one. Everybody else thought it was some crazed human who hated the Spo and the cadets.

Downy planned to use the same imaginary psycho for future murders, but he hadn’t been planning to use it for Jia. She was an adequate cadet, but no more. He would’ve let her live. He wanted to save the psycho killer for Armen or maybe Melanie. She was such a pet of theirs.

On the other hand, the stage was set and he did need to get rid of Jia.

So, should he kill her here or there? Downy was still thinking when Jia broke away from him and sprinted down the beach. He must have loosened his grip while pondering his options. She veered right toward the wet sand. It was more compact and she could run faster there. Not that that would help her.

The Spo skeletal structure was more akin to that of a star fish than any other earth creature, but when they needed to move: they moved. Downy squatted low and jumped. A real jump, despite the soft sand. His body flew through the air. One more jump and he landed on Jia. Her body collapsed into the sand under his weight; he thought he heard a bone snap. Her breath was knocked out, and she gasped, silent.

“You won’t even melt,” Downy said.

He used the long claw on his fourth finger to slice the jugular vein in her neck from her chin to her collar bone. A few moments and it was over. Downy was annoyed he didn’t have anything to capture her blood in. That might have been useful for his next project.

Instead, he hoisted her body up and tossed it over his shoulder. Better that she should disappear. If both she and Nat were gone – Oh, Nat.

Downy turned around just in time to see and hear the bathroom explode as the Rik capsule sailed into the sky. He thought he spotted a dark figure moving away from the burning building, toward the parking lot. So the Rik did her job.

The bathroom burned fluorescent in the dark night, the orange and green flames lighting up the beach. That gave Downy an idea.

He carried Jia’s body back to the bathroom. Shara was long gone. A quick toss put Jia’s body on the hottest part of the fire. She’d be burned up there, beyond easy recognition.

After a quick dip in the ocean to wash the blood off, Downy put his clothes back on and returned to school. Not even one a.m. yet. He could still watch a movie before going to bed.

***

Sam was driven to LAX, and escorted to the Spo administrative shuttle. Greg stayed with him, but two other Spo were in charge of detaining him. General Gustav joined them just before the shuttle took off. He and Greg were in close conversation as the shuttle broke atmosphere. In half an hour, they docked with the main Spo starship orbiting Earth.

Sam was taken to the communications room, where Greg told him his trial would be held immediately.  A huge screen covered one wall. The walls were pale yellow, a color the Spo found soothing. Sam was mostly beyond soothing. His hands were cuffed behind his back. He didn’t regret his decision yet, but he was surprised at the direction this was going. Sam had assumed the repercussions of his little talk would be immediate and personal. Instead, he was getting something a lot bigger and more formal.

Gustav and Greg stood on either side of Sam, the guards stood unobtrusively in the corners. The screen flared up. It was divided into two sections, both images were high resolution, but stretched. The Spo visual technology represented things on a spherical plane, flattened like a map of the globe. Or like the Mercator projection of Earth that hung in most elementary schools. The Spo eyestalks gave them a different perspective than inset orbs, or human eyes.