Manipulate (Book 1, Alien Cadets)

Chapter 17

He waited until most of the students had finally trickled away. Only Oh Li, a Chinese boy, and a few of the girls were still there.

Downy went out the front door, and settled in about thirty yards away. He crouched behind some hydrangea bushes and waited for his victim.

Melanie pushed the front door open, walking into the dark night. She came down the sidewalk toward the dorm, and toward Downy.

Great, Melanie would be perfect. Not only did all the cadets dote on her, but General Gustav had formed some kind of disgusting affection for her as well. Gustav had been a fine general, a vicious warrior and effective leader, and even he had been infected by goodwill for the humans. Taking Melanie out would only be doing Gustav a favor. He’d leave Melanie’s body by the tower, probably, to link it with the graffiti he’d done. Then tomorrow, when he killed Sam, it would be clear that the crazy psycho had done them all.

Melanie hummed absently as she came towards him. Hurry up, Downy thought. He wanted to get her safely silenced before another cadet came down the path.  When she was only five yards away from his hiding place, she suddenly crouched down to tie a shoelace. Perfect. Her neck was exposed in easy jumping distance.

Downy tensed, and the cafeteria door opened again. High voices spilled out into the night, and Melanie turned her head to look, her dark hair swinging down over her shoulders. Her two friends were coming now. The moment was lost. Melanie waited for them to catch up and they all headed down the sidewalk together.

Downy hissed. Melanie would have been just right. Now he would have to settle for Oh Li. That would take a while. Oh Li had kitchen duty tonight. He didn’t have to wash everything, but he had to empty four trashcans, and take out the food remains. Then Oh Li would start the two dishwashers, turn off the lights, and lock up. Actually… Downy pictured the pristine kitchen, the knives and white counters. That would be a great place for killing.

Downy got out of his crouch and went around to the side door of the cafeteria. It was still unlocked, meaning Oh Li hadn’t taken the garbage to the dumpster yet.

Downy eased into the kitchen. It was empty. Oh Li would be emptying the trashcan in the lobby. Two magnetic strips above the counter held plenty of sharp knives. Almost too sharp. Downy hunted among the utensil drawers for a moment until he found what he wanted. A plain, serrated knife. A bread knife, possibly. He dithered for a moment over an apple corer or a cheese grater, but settled on the corer as the companion for his knife.

Downy was facing away from the door when Oh Li came through, a heavy black trash bag bouncing against his hip.

“Downy? What are you doing here?” Oh Li asked. He continued into the room, slinging the trash bag down by the back door. 

“You hungry?” he asked seeing the utensils in his hands.

The mess was quite as spectacular as Downy had hoped. The disgusting red blood of the humans did have one redeeming quality. It was so much thicker than Spo blood, and it spattered much more impressively. Spo seeped, humans sprayed. It didn’t last long, unfortunately. Downy couldn’t quite get the hang of how fragile humans were. He knew it philosophically, but not yet viscerally. He was getting there, however. Between Oh Li and Jia, he’d improved a lot. Paolo didn’t really count because Downy had only dosed his clothes with a toxic spore. Shooting into the crowd during the July 4th riot had been fun (particularly since he could make Sam feel so guilty about it), but again, not a personal learning experience. Downy’s teachers complained that he was arrogant and unteachable, but here he was, humbly learning from his mistakes.

Downy wiped some of the blood off his torso and used it to write a message on one of the relatively clean cabinet doors. He started with the yin yang again, a human symbol that amused him. They were such pseudo-intellectuals.