"What?" James gasped at the unexpected answer to his unasked question.
"I am not going to let you hurt that human!" The girl continued to struggle.
Apparently Chal'ee wasn't after Mrs. Vanderfelt after all. She seemed to think that was James objective. With the shock of that realization he suddenly sat back and let go of her wrists.
Using the moment of advantage, the female operative slammed her forehead into his chin and sent him rolling off of her. Not losing a moment, she pounced on the nerdy little guy and forced her forearm across his throat.
"That little old lady is not part of our plan." She snarled as she applied pressure.
"I'm... I'm not..." James gasped as best he could.
"What where you going to do to her?" she leaned in to stare into his face.
"...Thought... you... were..."
"Thought I were what?" She released some of the pressure on his throat, but kept him securely pinned.
"Thought you were going to abduct her," James choked.
"Don't give me that. I'm not the one that led us here; I was following you."
"I stopped to draw you out," James coughed, "I could tell you were trailing me."
"And you just happened to stop at her house?" Chal'ee growled calmly, "I've been tracking a lot of unscheduled Regelian activity in this area and it all seems to come back to you. Now I follow you here stalking this house. I want to know what you're up to."
"I had to stop and get you out into the open. I needed to know what you were after." James spat.
"If anyone has an agenda here, it's obviously you. Why don't you tell me what you were really going to do to the old lady?"
"I was going to protect her from you!"
"I only stopped here because you stopped here!"
"Her name is Mrs. Vanderfelt and she's a friend of mine!" James said, "I stopped here because this is where I live. She keeps an eye on my ship for me."
"Your ship?" the female assailant gasped, "She knows about your ship?" She leaned back, still sitting on him, but releasing his throat.
"Yes," James pointed to the boat tied to the dock, "She's a 32' Chris Craft named 'Serenity'."
"That's your ship?"
"Yes, that's my ship."
"Don't you have a scout transport?" She finally climbed off of him.
"I'm trying not to be noticed." he rolled away, "A hovering silver saucer would be a lot harder to store in someone's back yard." Chal'ee looked at him with shocked confusion.
"And I suppose that's why we can't clearly track your movements?" she got up and walked over to the edge of the water to look at his boat, "It doesn't have a power plant that we can get a lock on."
"That's pretty much the entire idea behind going undercover. There shouldn't be any record of my activates; I didn't want to be found." James sat up and brushed the grass stains on his knees, "But I suppose now you're going to repair the gaps in those files, aren't you?"
"I don't know enough about you yet, I was following you with the hope that you'd lead me back to your ship," She turned to look at him over her shoulder, "Your space ship."
James got up and crossed to her. "My name's James."
"'James'?" She looked back at him skeptically,
YOU ARE READING
Nerd Knight Short Stories
Science FictionThey are here. They walk among us. They have been with us since the beginning of civilization. Most people don't notice. Most people just pass them by. But those that notice, those that look closely can see that they're just a little bit... gee...
