Alone in the Crowd (The Chronicles of Anna Foster Book 3) (28 page)

“Drop it,” Anna ordered, her voice stern.

He smirked. “Maybe it is you who should drop it, Anna Foster.” He waved his pistol back and forth, showing her that his weapon pointed at her abdomen.

Curious to know more, Anna resisted the temptation to pull the trigger. “You seem to know about me, but I don’t know who you are. Who are you?”

“My name is not important…”

“Like Cheung’s? He didn’t care to introduce himself to me either before trying to make another hole in my head.”

The man nodded. “I see. And, did you talk to him the same way with a gun shoved into his face?” He locked eyes with her, his face expecting a response.

A few seconds passed. Anna felt the tension growing in the air between them. The nervous pangs in her stomach urged her to end the standoff and take the man down. Her unanswered questions kept her from following through. If this was the only other person in the colony trying to assassinate her, killing him would accomplish nothing more than adding another body for the military to investigate.

Anna’s trigger finger twitched. “I’m not dropping it.”

“Too bad the safety’s on.” His smirk demonstrated his bravado.

“I’m not falling for that.”

“That makes it much easier for me to kill you then.”

“Then, why haven’t you fired yet?”

His smirk melted away. “Maybe I’m waiting for a friend to show up.”

“You have someone helping you? Not likely. I know how NR Suppliers works.”

“Explain Cheung then.”

The demand caught Anna off-guard. She did not know why the company had sent two people after her. It did not make sense to her. Then, she saw past it, recognizing it as a way to focus her thoughts elsewhere and giving him the edge he needed to finish her off.

“Later. It all depends on whether you cooperate with me or not.”

The man laughed but never took his eyes off her. “Cooperate with you? You’re not in a position to demand anything, Ms. Foster.”

“Neither are you.” She stared unblinking at him, her lips pressed into a thin line.

“Then, it appears that we are at an impasse.”

“We’re going to have to resolve this soon. The military will be here any minute to search for clues about Cheung and his motives for trying to kill me.”

“So be it.”

Anna dodged to the side as he pulled the trigger. A sizable hole appeared in the closet door behind her. Bringing her pistol around, she attempted to aim at her target again. He batted her hand away with his free hand as she reflexively fired, her shot going astray into the wall above the dresser. Following through, he brought his weapon to bear toward her head. She slapped the gun away as she ducked, the deadly bolt of energy smashing into the wall next to the doorway.

Reversing her hand, she grabbed for his gun and charged, slamming her shoulder into his gut. They tumbled onto the bed, bouncing once on impact. Anna leaned up and attempted to direct her gun at him, but he slugged her across her jaw before she finished the move. As she recoiled from the attack, he broke his gun out of her relaxed grasp. She recovered quickly and shoved her hand at his arm again, pinning it down on the mattress. Her torso followed, slamming against his chest as he tried to sit up and knocking him back down on the bed.

“Get off me, you bitch!” He struggled to free his arm, but her grasp remained firm.

As he strained to adjust the aim on his weapon to point at her, Anna shifted her thumb, digging it into the flesh between his wrist and hand. He tightened his grip on his pistol but felt it weaken as her thumb pressed against his wrist muscles. He balled up his free hand into a fist and swung at her jaw again. She whipped her head back to avoid the incoming blow. His fist, not finding its mark, clipped her chin instead. Not enough to faze her, she swatted at his arm with her weapon, finding only air. He punched at her again, but she blocked it this time and shoved it to the mattress, following the move quickly by pinning it down with her leg.

As she sat up and applied more weight against his arm, Anna’s grip on his wrist weakened, and he ripped his hand out of her grasp. As he fumbled to aim the weapon at her from above his head, she fired her pistol at his. The shot pierced the metal casing and knocked the gun from his hand, sending it clattering across the floor. Her aim instantly dropped to his face.

“Don’t even think about it.” Anna ignored the warm, stinging pain in her jaw as she spoke. He lay still, his eyes fixed on the barrel of her gun centimeters from the tip of his nose. “Now, what is your name?”

The man scowled. “I’m not telling you shit.”

Pressing her weapon into his nose, she gave him a dark look. “I don’t think you’re in a position to make such comments.”

A scant second passed before Anna heard multiple voices nearby. She had to cut things short. She drew back and pistol whipped the man across his temple, knocking him unconscious. A rapid glance around the room confirmed she had no easy escape. But, she had an idea.

* * * * *

The front door opened seconds later, and two armed soldiers cautiously entered the room, sweeping the area with their rifles held ready. The squad leader who followed them a few moments later held his pistol in hand as his eyes scanned the room. He gave a quick nod after several seconds, prompting the soldiers to sweep the rest of the dwelling. One stopped at the kitchenette, one moved into the head, while the other scurried to the bedroom.

“Clear!”

“Clear!”

“Sergeant!”

The officer hurried through the house until he reached the bedroom doorway. The soldier gestured toward the comatose man lying on the bed and the data cube next to the blue spire on the dresser. Another nod from the officer, and the trooper palmed the cube and handed it to his superior.

As the sergeant accepted the item, a faint sound of metal clanging on metal reached their ears. He and his subordinate snapped their gazes toward the closet. Tiptoeing to the door, the officer signaled a slow count to three before opening the door. As the door slid aside, they trained their weapons on a metal plate. Its carpet covering was folded to the other side of the closet. Raising an eyebrow, the sergeant stooped down and examined the spot, noticing that the metal bolts that held the panel in place had been removed.

Stepping back, the sergeant signaled for the soldier to scan the closet and moved into the hallway, meeting with the other trooper under his command.

“Guard the front room until I give the all-clear.”

“Yes, sir!” The marine nodded and made a beeline to the front door.

The soldier checking the closet emerged through the doorway several seconds later. “Sergeant, the closet is clear.”

“Who’s the man in there?”

“Dexter Mason, sir.”

“Very good. Take Mr. Mason to the brig for questioning. I’m sure the colonel will want to see what’s on this data cube.” The sergeant lifted the storage device and inspected it for a few seconds before dropping it into his left-breast pocket and directing his squad back to base.

* * * * *

Ducking around a house a few lanes away, Anna planted her back against the wall and listened intently for footfalls, chatter, or anything that might indicate someone trailing her. After unbolting the floor panel and replacing it after squeezing through the opening, she had crawled under the house and escaped through a narrow gap in the faux foundation.

Thinking back on her situation, she realized that she could be in a lot of trouble for what she had just done. One of the last things she wanted to do was be considered a criminal in the colony’s eyes, and the fight inside Cheung’s house was the perfect way to do just that.

Hearing only the sound of the wind blowing between the buildings, Anna risked a look around the corner to confirm she was not being followed. Seeing nobody in sight, she ducked back with a sigh of relief. She diverted her thoughts to going to Jason’s house.

The confrontation Anna had with Catherine was raising some questions about what was happening between Jason and his girlfriend. Why did Catherine feel threatened by her? What was Jason saying or doing to make her think that way? She did recall him saying something a day or two ago about Catherine believing he was cheating on her. Was he doing something else in addition to what he claimed? If so, with whom?

As much as she wanted answers to these questions, they had to take a back seat to the attempt on her life. Stepping carefully to the nearest dirt road cutting a gentle curve through the colony, Anna checked both ways before emerging into the open and jogging back to the main hall.

A couple of minutes later, Anna reached the edge of the square and found the area still deserted, since most of the inhabitants were tending to their duties. Slowing to a casual pace, she breathed deeply and made her way to the front doors, intent on speaking with Danica about the incident if she did not know already.

“Ms. Foster?”

Stopping within arm’s reach of the door, Anna turned to find a soldier in uniform standing at the far corner of the building, an expectant look on his lean, clean-shaven face.

“The colonel would like to see you.”

A strong sense of dread formed a pit in her stomach. Why did he want to speak with her now? Did it have something to do with Cheung’s house? Did the investigating troopers find something to indicate she had been there? Her mind raced as she recalled the incident. She was certain she had not left anything behind, unless one of her tools had fallen out of her belt during the fight. She fought the temptation to check her tool belt to see if anything was missing and instead nodded slowly. “Okay, I’ll be right there.”

The soldier smiled and nodded sharply before disappearing around the corner.

Anna cursed under her breath before passing through the doors and secluding herself to take a quick inventory of her tools. Finding nothing missing, she contemplated the reason for his desire to see her. Maybe he had some additional questions for her relating to the sniper. That could be it! Perhaps she was getting worked up over nothing. Nevertheless, she still did not like spending any more time with him than was absolutely necessary and vowed to keep the meeting short.

Moments later, Anna knocked on the colonel’s door. She heard McClaskey’s voice through the door. “Come!”

Anna opened the door and stuck her head through with a curious expression on her face. “You wanted to see me?”

McClaskey reclined in his office chair with his feet propped on top of his desk and his hands weaved together behind his head. In one of the chairs on the other side of his desk sat Danica. Both of them stared at her with concerned looks, sending warning signals off inside Anna’s mind.

Entering and shutting the door behind her, Anna crossed the length of the room to stand behind the empty chair next to Danica. She placed her hands lightly on the back of the seat. “Is everything okay?”

The colonel gestured toward the chair. “Have a seat.”

Anna moved around it and sat down as if the cushion was filled with pins. Casting her gaze to her friend, she eyed Danica with a questioning stare. The brunette gave a subtle but reassuring smile.

“Foster,” the administrator stated as the military leader removed his feet from the desk and sat upright. “You say that these…extraterrestrials…are coming here in a few days. Right?”

“Yes. By my count, it should be in about three Earth days.”

McClaskey’s lips stretched thin. “I don’t buy it.”

Anna shook her head slightly before shifting her gaze to him. “What do you mean?”

“You’ve been trying to get rid of us ever since we arrived. This sounds to me like another of your half-baked schemes to try and scare us away.”

“I am not trying to scare you.”

“Then, why do you keep doing this? Why are…”

“Because, they have returned here in the past on a regular basis, and they will come back again. I don’t want to see anyone get hurt.”

“Like the soldiers that died in the pyramid?”

Anna paused for a split second. “Look, that wasn’t my fault. I had no idea the pyramid had those kinds of defenses.” She felt like she was being put on trial.

The colonel leaned forward in his chair, jabbing a finger at Anna. “I don’t take kindly to my men being put in danger unnecessarily, let alone…”

“Enough!” Danica interrupted, her stern voice filled the room. “I did not tear myself away from my duties to babysit the two of you having an argument over what has already been reported and filed away. Yes, it is tragic that those soldiers died. I wish they hadn’t. But, that is not why we are here right now.

“Anna.” Her voice had calmed significantly after a second’s pause. “Your warning has been duly noted. But, what the colonel is trying to say is that we need adequate proof of this threat before resources can be dedicated to mounting a sufficient defense. Since our supplies are limited at this stage, we cannot just divert all of our troops to ‘circle the wagons’, if you will, and be prepared to shoot at whatever comes flying at us. Can you present us with proof of their pending arrival?”

Pausing for a couple of seconds, Anna breathed deeply as she weighed Danica’s query. Although she was disappointed in the apparent lack of trust, she did understand her position.