Manipulate (Book 1, Alien Cadets)

Chapter 15

Shara could barely breathe in Nat’s choke hold. She didn’t like Nat nearly as much as she liked Akemi. With Akemi, she’d felt a bond. Almost of sisterhood, though not quite. Akemi was stylish and creative. She was even kind, if Shara understood that word correctly. Akemi had kindly passed out when Shara handcuffed her in the spaceship. She certainly hadn’t locked her arm around Shara’s neck and tried to kill her. If that wasn’t rude, she didn’t know what was.

Nat didn’t stand a chance, though. Shara was completely at home in her human body now. While Nat stayed still for a moment, perhaps contemplating her incredible rudeness, Shara took the opportunity to twist to the side and slam Nat against the side of the spaceship.

Nat’s head thunked against the side of the ship, but her grip only tightened.

That had to hurt. Didn’t human skulls break easily? Or was that only the old, brittle ones?

 Nat took advantage of the ship’s concave surface, leaning back and pulling harder on her neck.

Shara’s feet started to leave the ground, and her vision narrowed. She brought up her heel and kicked Nat in the crotch. Nat grunted, but didn’t fall to the ground writhing the way she should have.

Oh stupid, Shara thought, that was for men.

Shara reached blindly for Nat’s face, scratching at her with her nails. She’d painted them baby blue only this morning. Ah, that had an affect. Nat twisted her head away from the nails, and loosened her hold on Shara.

That was all it took. Shara slammed her foot in the girl’s instep, jerked her own head free, and in one violent turn, grabbed Nat’s hair and slammed her head into the ship. It made a really satisfying thunk, much better than the first one.

Nat slumped to the ground, not unconscious, but seriously dazed. While Nat blinked uncertainly, Shara pushed her through the door of the capsule and into the seat. She handcuffed Nat to a ring on the wall and then turned on the controls. She’d already preprogrammed the capsule’s trajectory.

When Shara got out of the capsule, the door closed automatically. She hurried out of the bathroom and jogged toward the parking lot. When she was about fifty yards away, the bathroom exploded.

She turned to watch as the capsule shot towards the sky. It made about 2,000 meters before it inched to a stop. For a moment it hung in the dark sky, at the apex of its arc. Then the next level of propulsion kicked in and the capsule shot towards the edge of the atmosphere.

Shara felt a little bad for Akemi. The Rik doctors could have Nat with Shara’s blessing, but Akemi… Oh well. Shara wiped a tear from her cheek and sucked it off her finger. The human endocrine system really packed a whollop when she got it going. For the rest of the night, she’d go to a nearby bar and experiment with the affects of alcohol on her brain.

Downy dragged Jia away from the bathroom on the beach. He was still laughing at the idea of Nat breaking the Rik girl’s neck. Of course, if Nat actually overcame Shara, that would be a problem for him. Nat knew about him. He couldn’t let her get back to the school. And also, if the Rik didn’t get their human targets, Downy wouldn’t get his own reward. That stupid girl could mess it all up for him.

Downy sobered. He’d have to make sure Nat didn’t get away. In the meantime, Jia was a problem.

He headed down the beach, further away from the Pepperdine campus. Jia was silent, perhaps sensing that he was in a bad mood. Definitely he had to kill her. She couldn’t be allowed to get back to campus. Or to any of the Spo, now that she knew he’d betrayed them to the Rik.