Close Obsession (15 page)

After the waterfalls, they walked over to another, larger river – an estuary draining into the ocean. According to Korum, it was an excellent place to view the local wildlife, including various species of birds and howler monkeys. “That sounds fun,” Mia told him, and he promised to take her on a boat tour one of these mornings.

Following the estuary west, they finally arrived at the beach. As Korum had warned her, the surf was quite healthy, with reasonably sized breakers pounding against the shore. In the distance, Mia could see some people – likely Krinar – enjoying the ocean as well, but the area around them was completely deserted.

“We only have about thirty minutes at this point,” Korum told her. “After that, I have to get to the trial.”

“Of course,” Mia said, grinning. “How about a quick swim then?” And without waiting for his response, she pulled off her boots, wriggled out of her sheath, and ran toward the ocean.

He caught up with her immediately, swinging her up into his arms before she could get so much as a toe into the water. “Gotcha,” he said, his eyes filled with warm amusement.

Mia laughed, the feeling in her chest lighter than anything she’d experienced in recent weeks. Looping her arms around his neck, she told him, “Okay, but now you have to go in with me. And if the water is too cold for you, I don’t want to hear any complaints.”

“Oh, a challenge?” he said, raising one eyebrow at her. “We’ll see who complains first . . .” And holding her in his arms, he strode decisively into the waves.

Shrieking with laughter at the sudden immersion into cool water, Mia held her breath as a big wave covered their heads. She could feel the strong pull of the current and realized that Korum was likely right about the potential dangers of swimming by herself. With him, however, she felt completely safe; he could obviously resist the drag of the water with ease, his Krinar strength more than a match for the surf.

The wave receded, and Mia rubbed her eyes with one hand, trying to get the salt water out. When she finally opened them, Korum was looking down at her with a strange smile.

“What?” she asked, feeling a bit self-conscious.

“Nothing,” he murmured, still smiling. “You just look very cute like this, with your eyelashes and hair all wet. Reminds me of that day when you were caught in the rain.”

“You mean the second time I saw you, when I sneezed all over you?” Mia asked wryly, still somewhat embarrassed at the memory.

He nodded. “You were the cutest thing I’d seen in a long time, all dripping curls and big blue eyes . . . and I could barely stop myself from kissing you right then and there.”

Mia gave him a disbelieving look. “Really? I thought I looked terrible, like a drowned rat.”

He laughed. “More like a drowned kitten, if you want to use animal analogies. Or a wet fregu – that’s a cute, fluffy mammal we have on Krina.”

“Do you have any of them here?” Mia asked, suddenly excited at the prospect of seeing some alien fauna. “In Lenkarda, I mean –”

Korum shook his head. “No, the fregu are not domesticated in any way, and we don’t take wild animals out of their habitats. We don’t domesticate animals in general.”

“So no pets of any kind?” Mia asked, surprised.

Another wave approached at that moment, and Korum lifted her higher, enabling her to keep her head above water this time. “No pets,” he confirmed once the wave passed. “That’s a uniquely human institution.”

“Really? I would’ve never thought that. My parents have a dog,” Mia confided. “A little Chihuahua. She’s very cute.”

“I know,” Korum said. “I’ve seen recordings.”

Somehow Mia wasn’t shocked. “Of course you have,” she said, sighing. She knew she should be upset at this invasion of her family’s privacy, but she felt oddly resigned instead. Her lover clearly had no sense of proper boundaries, and Mia was too content right now to spoil it with another argument. Still, she couldn’t resist asking, “Is there anything you don’t know about me or my family?”

“Probably not much at this point,” he admitted casually. “Your family is fascinating to me.”

Her family? “Why?” Mia asked, puzzled. “We’re just a regular American family –”

“Because
you
are fascinating to me,” Korum said, looking at her with an inscrutable amber gaze. “And I want to better understand who you are and where you’re coming from.”

Mia stared at him. “I see,” she murmured, but she didn’t see, not really. Why someone like him – a brilliant K with such a high standing in their society – would be interested in a regular human girl was beyond her comprehension.

Suddenly, he grinned at her, and the strange tension dissolved. “So how about you show me just how good of a swimmer you are?” he suggested playfully, letting go of her.

Mia grinned back, feeling almost unbearably happy. “Watch and learn,” she told him cockily, and headed for the ocean depths with a strong, even stroke, secure in the knowledge that she was far safer with Korum in deep water than she would be in a kiddie pool with a lifeguard.

* * *

The Krinar watched his enemy frolicking in the water with his charl.

Initially, he hadn’t really understood the girl’s appeal; she’d seemed like a typical human to him. A pretty little human, but nothing truly special. However, as he kept observing her, he’d slowly begun to notice the fine delicacy of her facial features, the creaminess of her pale skin. Her body was small and fragile, but it was perfectly curved in just the right places, and there was an innocent sensuality in the way she moved, in the angle at which she held her head when she spoke.

To his shock, the K realized that he wanted to bury his fingers in her thick, curly hair and inhale her scent, to lick her neck and feel the warm rush of blood in her veins through that soft skin. That was the best part about sex with human women – the knowledge that just a tiny bite away, paradise awaited.

The craving caught him by surprise. It wasn’t part of his plan. He’d thought himself above such nonsense, such primitive urges. He rarely indulged these days; he couldn’t afford the distraction. There was too much at stake to throw everything away for the sake of fleeting physical pleasure.

With a heroic effort, he pushed away the fantasy and focused on the task at hand.

Chapter 10

After their swim, Korum brought her back home, jumped into the shower, and left within two minutes, moving like a whirlwind. Bemused, Mia could only watch as he paused to brush a quick kiss on her forehead and then practically flew out the door.

Following his departure, Mia also took a shower and fortified herself with a snack of mango and walnuts, preparing for another potentially lengthy presentation. Then, putting on the bracelet Korum had given her yesterday, she settled comfortably on the couch and immersed herself in the show.

The second day of the trial started with the now-familiar chime.

As before, Mia found her way through the crowd toward Korum’s podium and perched on top of it. This time, she refused to touch his virtual self in any way, her cheeks heating up at the memory of what he’d done to her last night as a result of her actions yesterday.

Today there were fewer greetings and preliminaries. After the accused and the Protector appeared in the arena, the audience went completely silent, watching with tremendous interest as the proceedings unfolded.

Like the last time, Loris was dressed in all black. The expression on his face was pinched and strained, and the look he threw in Korum’s direction was filled with so much rage and bitterness that Mia involuntarily shivered. After a few seconds, he seemed to get himself under control, and his features smoothed out, his face becoming expressionless.

Stepping forward, he addressed the spectators in a loud, ringing voice. “Dear Earth inhabitants and fellow citizens of Krina! You have been shown evidence of a terrible crime – a crime so horrifying that it is almost beyond belief. And if you were to believe the recordings shown to you yesterday, you would obviously judge these people – and my son among them – to be guilty.

“But you have to ask yourself, is this plausible? How can seven young people with no history of social deviancy all of a sudden conspire to forcibly deport fifty thousand Krinar from Earth, endangering all of our lives in the process? Endangering
my
life in the process? How can they hatch this elaborate plot, arming humans with Krinar weapons and technology? And for what? A chance to help the humans? Does that make sense to any of you?”

The crowd was deathly silent. Mia held her breath, unable to tear her eyes away from the black-clad figure standing so imposingly in the arena.

“Well, it didn’t make sense to me. I know my son, and he has his faults – but would-be mass murderer is not among them. And that’s why I had to step forward and take on the role of the Protector – because this trial is a farce. It’s a very real attack on these young people, and I have no choice but to defend them –”

Turning around for a quick second, Mia peeked at Korum, trying to see his reaction to all of this. There was a look of calm amusement on his face, and he seemed to be watching the proceedings with polite attentiveness.

“I have spoken with Rafor and each of his friends extensively, and none of their stories match,” Loris continued. “In fact, they are downright confused. So confused that they don’t recall doing anything along the lines of what they have been accused of – so confused that they can barely remember many of the key events of the past year . . .

“Now I know what many of you are thinking. Obviously, if they were guilty, pretending not to remember would be a good way to stall the proceedings, to cast some doubt on the validity of these accusations. And that was my initial thought as well . . . which is why I commissioned a memory scan to be done by the leading mind experts based here on Earth. Four different mind laboratories have performed their examinations – laboratories based in Arizona, Thailand, Fiji, and Hawaii – and the results are indisputable.

“All seven of the accused have had their memories tampered with.”

A shocked murmur ran through the crowd, and Mia could see the surprised looks on the Councilors’ faces. Sneaking another look behind her, she could see that there was now a very slight, almost imperceptible frown on Korum’s face. He seemed puzzled.

“Now many of you know that there aren’t many people capable of doing something like that. In fact, I believe that there are fewer than thirty individuals on this planet who have anything to do with mind manipulation. However, one esteemed member of the Council does comes to mind –”

Another murmur ran through the crowd at the last sentence, and Saret slowly rose from behind the podium. “Are you accusing
me
of something?” he asked in a tone of utter disbelief.

“Yes, Saret,” Loris said, and Mia could hear the barely suppressed rage in his voice again. “I am accusing you and your friend Korum of tampering with the memories of my son and the others. I am accusing you of violating their minds with the goal of advancing your own political agenda. I am accusing Korum of staging the whole sequence of events, right down to the attack on the colonies, with the sole purpose of destroying me and upsetting the balance of power on this Council to satisfy his own insatiable ambition. And I am accusing you of helping him cover his tracks by mind-raping my son and the other young people standing in front of you here today!”

The crowd broke out into a cacophony of arguments and shocked exclamations, and Mia turned around again to look at Korum. She had no idea how to react to Loris’s words. Could there be any truth to them?

Korum was sitting there outwardly calm, his expression completely unreadable. Only the faint yellow striations around his pupils gave away any hint of the emotion inside. Getting up slowly, he approached the center of the arena where the Protector was standing.

“Very nicely done, Loris,” Korum said, his tone light and mocking. “That was quite creative. I have to say, I wouldn’t have expected you to go in this direction at all – though I can see why you would. Kill two birds with one stone and all that . . . Of course, there are still all the recordings, not to mention all the witnesses, that clearly show your son and his cohorts acting quite rationally, with no trace of mental confusion whatsoever –”

“Those recordings are worthless,” interrupted Loris, his face taut with barely controlled anger. “As we all know, someone of your technological prowess can fake anything along those lines –”

“I will gladly submit the recordings for examination by the experts,” Korum said, shrugging nonchalantly. “You can even choose some of these experts – as long as they stake their reputation on the veracity of the results. And of course, other Councilors have already interrogated the witnesses. Councilors, was there anything in anyone’s story to contradict the recordings?”

Arus rose in response. Swallowing nervously, Mia watched as yet another one of Korum’s opponents walked toward the center of the arena. What if he sided with Loris? Would Korum be in trouble then? She couldn’t bear the thought of anything happening to him as a result of these accusations.

“I will speak on behalf of the Council,” Arus said in a deep, calm voice. Once again, there was something about the open, straightforward look on his face that made Mia want to trust him, to like him. A very useful trait for a politician to have, she realized – especially for an ambassador.