All Novel XO
50
He reached for another one but a woman’s hand was on it before him. He glanced to the side and saw a young woman dressed in white leggings, a white yoga top, and white hoodie. She had blonde hair, lots of it, and a pretty face and she was staring at him expectantly.
“Hi, do you work here?” he asked.
“You have no idea who I am do you?” the woman said. Her voice was a little gravelly/squeaky. Maybe she had a cold?
“Sorry no. I guess you aren’t one of the clerks then,” he said.
“Nope, not a clerk. I know who you are though,” she said with a smirk.
“Yeah, I’m trying not so successfully to go incognito.” He gestured towards his horns. “These things make that rather difficult. You’re here with the security guards? They’re yours?” He’d noted three other large men in suits while they talked.
“Yes,” she said with a challenging look.
“I don’t follow celebrity news, I don’t watch much Earth based TV, and I’ve been out of the loop for some time. So it’s no reflection on your popularity or success. Are you shopping for runners too?”
She finally gave in and nodded. “I try to get in a run as often as I can. I’m Meagan. Meagan Lane.” She smiled as she waited for a look of recognition to bloom on his face but he just smiled.
“Jack Danner.” He held out his hand and they shook. He looked around. “Is there a clerk in the shop? I’d really like to try these on,” he said holding up the highly engineered runners.
“Are they good?” she asked as she waved at the woman waiting by the cash desk.
“I’ll tell you when I’ve tried them on,” he replied with a grin.
The woman with the name tag saying Vicki rushed up to them and once she got a look at who was standing next to her favorite celebrity it looked like she was going to hyperventilate.
“Vicki? Take a nice slow breath. I’m just another dumb customer looking to try on a shoe. Do you have these in a size ten and a half?” he asked gently.
Vicki took a few deep breaths and did look better. She smiled weakly at him and took the shoe he was holding to go into the back room.
“How do you deal with this kind of reaction all the time?” Jack asked Meagan as he sat on a bench.
“What do you mean? I’ve seen you on TV dealing with it too! You were just being chased by one of those gossip show hosts.” Meagan smiled and sat next to him.
“That was shown on Earth?” She nodded. “That was just once. For the most part Altarians don’t behave like that. Most will just smile at you and let you go on your way.” Jack insisted.
“How do you know if you’re famous or not?” Meagan asked.
“Who wants to be famous?” Jack asked with a visible shudder. Meagan looked at him thoughtfully.
Vicki returned with a shoebox and helped Jack put the runners on. He bounced on his toes and jogged up and down the aisle a few times.
“Ooo, these are wonderful! How many more do you have in ten and a half?” he asked.
Vicki blinked. “Uh, I believe we have three more.”
“I’ll take all of them.” Jack replied. “Do you have a woman’s version of this model?”
Vicki nodded and went to the wall of women’s shoes and returned with it. It wasn’t as fancy looking as the others and Meagan raised her eyebrow skeptically at Jack.
“Try it on. What have you got to lose?” he suggested.
“A size six please.” Meagan said still looking at Jack who sat and put his new shoes back in their box. He laced up his old shoes.
“How’s your singing voice Jack?” Meagan asked suddenly.
“Terrible! Well, not bad in the shower but… no it’s bad there too,” he grinned.
“It would be a lot of fun getting you up on stage.” Meagan said contemplatively.
“Sorry, that’s not going to happen.” He pointed to his face. “Attention phobic.”
Gee approached them. “Jack, we should move on. There is a crowd forming outside in the hallway.” The Altarian turned to the woman. “Ms. Lane, it is an honor to meet you. My partner and I enjoy your music very much. I wish you a speedy recovery for your vocal cords.”
Meagan looked at Jack with a pleased smile as he gaped at his bodyguard.
Vicki returned with arms loaded with boxes. She looked at the Altarian and wobbled a little on her feet.
Jack caught her elbow and gently sat her on the bench. He carried the four pairs of shoes over to the cashier’s station and Vicki’s star struck coworker ran the transaction for him.
He carried his bags back over to where Meagan was tucking the size sixes into their box. Vicki was nowhere to be seen.
“OK, you were right. They were really good! I’m getting all the size sixes they have.” Meagan admitted.
“I have to go but it was really nice to meet you. I also hope your throat heals quickly.” Jack said.
“Hey, I feel weird asking this because I’m usually on the other end of the question but could I get a shot of us together?” the woman asked timidly.
“Sure.”
“Could you…” she pointed up at his hoodie.
Where they were standing was a little too exposed. “How about back by the cash desk. It’s not so visible.” he pointed out.
Vicki returned and they all walked over to the cashier station. With a final look around Jack pushed the hood back. Vicki and her coworker gasped. Meagan just looked up and froze.
“Oh god, they’re… real,” she mumbled.
“And very, very sharp so avoid the points,” he mentioned as the women automatically began reaching to touch them.Exclusive content © by Nô(v)el/Dr/ama.Org.
Three hands rubbed the surface of his horns until he began to feel a little weird about it and gently pulled back. Comms came out and everyone was taking pictures. Of Jack, of Meagan, of Jack and Meagan, of Vicki and Brenda with the celebs. Finally Gee returned to Jack’s side.
“We must leave NOW,” she said.
Jack caught the tension in his bodyguard’s voice so he tied his shopping bags together and turned to the clerks.
“Vicki, could I ask you to get all of these packages delivered to the Gate Terminal and shipped to me?” Jack asked and Gee handed her a card that would pay for the delivery.
The woman nodded with a huge smile. Jack nodded to the ladies and followed Gee to the front doors. There was a large crowd gathered there so they moved back into the store.
“Is there a back way out of this store?” Bal asked. Brenda led then to the back room and opened the door to the employee access way. With a final nod they headed down the hall at a brisk pace.
“Aren’t we moving away from the Gate Terminal?” Jack asked.
“We are going to have to go around. There were some people in the crowd who appeared to be soldiers. Not by their clothes but by how they moved and watched the store and the crowd,” Gee explained.
One of the other bodyguards returned from scouting ahead. “We cannot go further, the way ahead is blocked by some of those soldiers. We will have to cut through here.” She pushed through a side door followed by her partner. The hall beyond was dimly lit.
Jack stepped inside and looked back at Gee. “Where does this lead?”
Gee looked at her comm. “A casino. The Gemstone.”
Jack froze causing Bal and Gee to collide with his back.
A bolt of fear went through Jack. The Gemstone was Maury Levine’s casino. The man who chased Jack from Vegas before. His mind was saying it couldn’t be a coincidence that their only escape route went through this casino.
“We can’t be here. It’s a trap.” Jack spun and pushed Bal and Gee back into the hallway. There was a sudden blinding flash behind Jack. The two agents who’d entered the dark corridor slammed into the wall behind him, broken and bloody. Jack’s body had shielded Gee and Bal so they weren’t blinded and saw the commandos racing up the corridor from the side.
When the electroshock weapon’s darts struck his back Jack had no time to do anything before he was lit up. He fell to the floor, dropping on his face, the world spiraling into a dark pit.
Queen Elissa’s secretary Veena burst into her office with a frantic expression. Elissa already knew what the news was going to be.
“Jack’s been abducted!” the woman blurted.
Elissa called Hellna at the Altarian Security Ministry and was put right through. “What happened?”
Hellna’s voice was calm and collected as she gave her report.
“Two of our agents are dead. Gee and Bal are injured but managed to escape when they saw Jack being taken with non-lethal force. It was an abduction not an assassination. Gee and Bal enlisted the help of a personal security team from a nearby store to help extract them from the location so they could report.
“Jack is being tracked?”
“He had three separate active trackers on him and one sleeper. The active ones all went dead thirty minutes after the event.”
“Any identification on who it might have been?” Elissa said, calling upon her training to lock down her rising panic.
“Gee reported that Jack seemed to be aware of the trap before it was sprung. He recognized the name of the casino they were entering and pushed Gee and Bal back out into the service corridor. It was lucky for them that he did. They spotted the mercenaries attempting to flank them and were able to open fire first. Then Jack was shot with some form of stun weapon from inside the corridor and was rendered unconscious. When he hit the floor the mercenary’s from inside attacked in earnest and the two agents barely managed to escape. Both were shot. They’re coming through the gate now. I’m putting a call through to the Minister of Earth’s Security Council. Stay on the line so we can both address him.”