aHunter4Ever (5 page)

“We have come to see the man the Walters called a hero.”

“Partlan?” Agent Kelly frowned. “He’s my prisoner and visitors are
forbidden. How did you get past the guard outside?”

“No one there.” He sounded like a computer speaking.

“Who are you guys?” She tried to move toward them, but Partlan held her
arm.

“It is wrong that they are here.” Partlan tugged on her arm. “We need to
leave.”

Confusion twisted her thinking. First, Partlan tries to tell her he’s an
alien, and now these two weirdoes show up. She was the person in control here.
She lifted her chin and glared at the intruders. Large hypnotic eyes focused on
her. A wave of dizziness swept through her. She grasped the bedrail to keep
herself from falling.

“Do not look them in the eye,” Partlan commanded.

She shook her head and broke contact.

Nausea churned in her stomach.

“Do you know them?” Her voice was a low whisper.

“They are Albireons. They are not from this planet.”

She turned to face Partlan. “You can’t be serious. They look strange enough
to be aliens, but why would they come here?”

“I told you I was not safe on Earth.” Partlan pulled the IV from his arm.

“You must stay put.” The statement was in a monotone. “There are others
coming.”

“That is what I was afraid of.” Partlan pushed his covers off. “Where are
my clothes?”

It took Grace a second to realize that Partlan was out of bed. She went
to stop him, but he stepped past her and opened the small closet door beside
the bed. He found the jeans and black, military-style boots that he had been
wearing when he was brought into the hospital. He put the clothes on and then
rummaged for a shirt, but that had been cut off his body and thrown away. He
ripped the bottom of his hospital gown off and tucked it into his pants.

“We need to leave.”

One of the strangers reached a hand out for her. Partlan struck it away
and pushed her behind him. She found herself staring at his back. This was
crazy. She was the trained agent and she wasn’t going to allow anyone to take
Partlan. She still needed him to answer her questions.

“You cannot run.” The strange mechanical voice stated. “The others will
be here in short time.”

“We are leaving.”

Partlan picked one of the men up by the neck and shook him. His hat and
sunglasses fell off. They had no eyebrows or eyelashes.

The man had a slit for a mouth, and used makeup to create the illusion of
lips. When he spoke, his mouth didn’t move. She forced back her panic. There
was a logical explanation for who these guys were and it wasn’t that they were
from another planet. She stretched a hand out to stop Partlan, but he ignored
it. He threw the man to the ground and reach for his partner.

“Stop this.” Her words caught in her throat. That’s when she remembered
her gun. She reached under her jacket and pulled it out from her holster and
took off the safety. She held the gun close to her body and took a step back.

“Put him down.” She used her most authoritative tone.

Partlan let go.

The man dropped with a loud thud. She pointed her gun at the intruders on
the floor. “Now I want the two of you to back up against the far wall.”

One man reached an arm out at her. Her gun started to wobble in her hand.
She brought her other hand up to hold it tighter, but the pistol’s vibrations
were so strong that her teeth were rattling in her mouth. Partlan reached over
and clasped her hands together. The shaking movement settled down.

“Your powers are not enough.” Partlan’s voice was a hiss. “You should not
be on this planet.”

“We know what you are capable of, Hunter.” One of the men dressed in
black stood. “We have sent for reinforcements.”

Partlan took the gun from her and pushed it into his waistband. There was
a numbing tingle in her hands and she shook them in an effort to restore
sensation. It was as if there had been an invisible power source directed at
her gun. That was impossible. She was current on all the latest weapons and she
hadn’t read of any that could cause an object to shake.

Partlan reached for her arm. “We need to leave.”

Grace pulled away. “Let me call headquarters. I’ll have these men
arrested for interfering with a federal case.”

“You stay.” The intruders were both standing now.

“No.” Partlan pushed the bedside tray at the men. It crashed into them.
While they were trying to get out from under it, Partlan pulled her close and
ran out of the room. He grabbed a chair from the hallway and wedged it under
the door handle. One of the nurses yelled at him to stop, but they ran past her
before she could get reinforcements. There was a cleaning cart in the hallway
and Partlan grabbed a broom from it. Grace assumed that he was going to use it
as a weapon.

“What did they do with the guard?”

Partlan darted toward the stairs. He glanced up at the camera on the wall
and used the broom handle to angle it higher down the hall. Then, he pushed her
through the door to the emergency escape. They ran down the three flights of
stairs. At each level, he pushed the door open a few inches and used the broom
handle to reposition the camera.

Grace waited for him. It was crazy to be running, but without knowing
what had happened to her security officer, she didn’t want to take any chances.
They didn’t stop on the ground floor, but continued down to the basement level.
Before stepping through the door, he pushed the camera so that it was turned in
the opposite direction. They inched along the grey cement walls until they
reached a door marked mechanical room. Partlan tried the handle, but it was
locked.

He rested his head against the door. “Do you have any instruments to
unlock this?”

“I’m not breaking the law.” Grace crossed her arms over her chest.

Partlan’s breath was coming in gasps. “It is either us or them. If
Albireons can walk openly on this planet, then they already have control. We
need to get back to my unit. That is our only hope of safety.”

“Why are you so worried about those men? Between the two of us, we could
have wrestled them to the ground and handcuffed them.”

“You saw their powers.” Partlan turned away from the door and looked at
her. “They were able to force you to do what you did not desire.”

A shiver ran through Grace. She’d become dizzy when she’d looked at them,
but that could happen to anyone. The incident with the gun wasn’t as easily
explained. Her hand had shook uncontrollably. Then, there was their appearance.
They hadn’t looked like any human she’d ever seen before.

“What do you know about them?” She wasn’t ready to believe they were
aliens, but Partlan’s answers might give her a clue as to why they were chasing
them.

“I was taken prisoner by Albireons during the Kepler Insurrections.”
Partlan’s voice was barely a whisper. “I’ve been trained to withstand torture
and pain, but what they did was worse.”

“How can anything be worse?” Grace’s spoke in a hushed tone.

“They invade your mind and then they assault your body.” Partlan gazed
down at her. “There is no escaping their insidious tentacles of exploration.
That’s how they conquer. They understand how a race thinks and they replicate
their genome.”

“Are you suggesting this is why they are on Earth?”

“Probably.” Partlan’s voice held a faint tremor. “It is imperative that
we escape them. I cannot ensure your safety otherwise.”

“I can take care of myself.” Grace’s tone was hard-edged. “Whether I
believe what you say about those men or not, you’re my prisoner. I won’t let
them take you.”

She started rooting through her pockets. “Do you know how insane you
sound? You’re still recovering from major surgery. Running around is not doing
you any good. I’m FBI and perfectly capable of handling this situation.”

“You do not understand the menace of the Albireons. They are the locust
of the universe. They swarm and take over planets at will.”

Grace shook her head. “Does it look like someone has taken over this
planet?”

“They do not attack with weapons.”

Grace patted her hair and pulled out a couple of bobby pins. “So they
sneak up on us and steal our minds and bodies. That sounds like a movie I once
saw.”

Partlan took the pins and twisted them open before inserting them in the
lock. He worked the mechanism for a few seconds and turned the knob when a
faint click sounded. The door opened. He pushed her in and locked the door
behind them.

“There is no sneaking with them. They come bearing gifts and then attack
when least expected. By then, it is too late because they have already broken
through the planet’s defenses.”

“First the movies and now Greek mythology.” Grace straightened her
shoulders. “I need to contact my office. They’ll send somebody to help.”

Partlan stopped and looked at her for a few seconds before nodding. “I
will contact my unit. They have to be made aware. We need to continue moving.”

Grace pulled out her phone and dialed the office. It was only then that
she realized what Partlan had said. If he contacted his fellow mercenaries on
her cell phone, then she’d have a way to track them down.

“You can use my phone.”

Partlan took her arm and moved through the labyrinth of rusty equipment
and pipes. “I have already sent my message.”

She stopped moving, but Partlan urged her to continue walking.

How had he contacted them?

She started to ask when the line was picked up at the other end. It was
Bakker.

“This is Kelly. I’m at the hospital.” She struggled for breath as Partlan
kept her moving at a fast pace. “Two strange men showed up here and the guard I
had posted outside Partlan’s room is missing.”

Bakker cleared his throat. “There have been some developments with the
case. Apparently our friend’s arrest has caught the attention of an agency
that’s way above our pay grade.”

Partlan pulled her in close to him as they approached a junction in the
maze of hallways. Her heart stuttered to a stop and then started to pound at a
frantic rate. She looked up at him for a second and was lost in his dark eyes.
Her breath caught in her throat and she forced herself to look away. This man
was her responsibility. She would do her job and bring him to headquarters no
matter how he made her feel.

“Have our orders changed?”

“We’re supposed to hand him over.”

“We have jurisdiction.” Grace wanted to stamp her foot. “We captured
him.”

“I know.” Bakker lowered his voice. “I don’t trust these guys. They’re
probably monitoring your call right now. They’re very secretive. It wouldn’t
surprise me if they were Black Ops.”

“Are they still there?”

“They took off the minute your call came in.”

“They’re tracking me.” Grace almost threw the phone away, but then her
training kicked in. “I’ll give them something to find. I’m bringing the
prisoner in, but not to hand him over. There’s something strange going on here
and I mean to get to the bottom of it.”

“Good luck.”

Grace cut the call.

She glanced at the tunnels on either side of them. There was no end in
sight. Dirt and grime lined the dingy, concrete block walls and the smell of
oil and gasoline permeated every surface. They were on a small walkway that led
from the door to this junction, but there was no indication as to what
direction would be the quickest one to safety.

“How long do these pipes and tunnels go for?”

Partlan shrugged as he edged around the corner. “They will lead to the
outside eventually.”

“Can you get us out of the hospital?” Grace started to dial another
number on her phone.

Partlan took the right branch. “That was my plan.”

“I don’t know who you angered, but there is more than one agency looking
for you. They have a lock on my phone.” Grace waited until her call was
answered by a recording, then she tucked the phone up behind the brace of one
of the large pipes that led down the opposite tunnel.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m leaving them a trail to follow.” Grace brushed her hands on the back
of her pants.

“What happens when the call ends?”

“It won’t be answered.” Grace grinned. “I called the FBI information
number. It’s one of those automated answering lines. It will be at least an
hour before that call is disconnected or an operator answers.”

Partlan nodded. “We have no time to waste. The security cameras already
know we took the stairs. When they don’t find us coming out of the building,
they will know we detoured.”

“And the GPS in my cell will lead them here.”

There was the loud banging behind them. Someone was trying to get into
the mechanical room’s locked door. There was no time to waste. Grace ran beside
Partlan. The corridor they were in seemed to go on forever. All of her years of
running and physical training were no match against Partlan. The man was a
machine.

She sagged against a wall. “I need to take a breath.”

Partlan nodded. “I will see what is ahead. Stay here.”

“You’re not going to try and escape?”

“I give you my word, I will come back. I cannot leave you, especially in
a dangerous situation.”

Grace slid down the wall and sat with her knees against her chest. It
took several minutes before her breathing steadied and then she leaned her head
against the damp basement wall. It was insane to continue running, but she
wanted to take Partlan into headquarters herself. Those strange men back in his
room had scared her. She shuddered when she remembered the effect their eyes
had on her. There was no way she was going to hand Partlan over to them. It was
her responsibility to keep him safe and she intended to do her job.

She didn’t believe that they were aliens. She refused to give credence to
such a ludicrous story, but whatever agency they worked for, she didn’t trust
them. She stood and was about to head off in the direction that Partlan had
taken, when he returned.