Crash Morph: Gate Shifter Book Two (7 page)

“I mean it exactly the way it sounds,” Nik said, taking a very cautious bite of an oversized apple fritter.
 

He winced a little as he chewed, mostly because of how sweet it was, I could feel.

I felt his reaction through the lock...and regardless of the content of what I felt, feeling him there so strongly sent a different kind of shivery feeling under my skin, one I felt a lot more in my lower belly than in my brain. Biting the inside of my cheek, I pushed the feeling out of my mind...as well as the way Nik filled out that black shirt that used to belong to Irene’s ex-boyfriend.

As I did, I looked back at Gantry.

Gantry was already watching me.

When I met his gaze, he raised a questioning eyebrow. That eyebrow still lifted, he glanced at Nik, as if trying to discern what just happened between us. A few seconds later, he looked back at me, his eyes holding a denser question.

I blushed.

I couldn’t stop the heat there, but I did look away. I didn’t really want to confirm from Gantry’s expression that he’d noticed that, too.

I knew he had, though.

Nik’s voice grew flat, “We need Razmun and the other morph to have a viable alternative.” Nik looked between Gantry and me, and from the look darting through his now-violet eyes, it occurred to me in a semi-irritated flash that Gantry wasn’t the only observant one watching me that morning. “...An alternative to their remaining here, I mean,” Nik added, still studying my face. “On Earth. Otherwise, Razmun will likely cause problems for your people.”

Gantry’s expression had gone unreadable again.

“And you don’t want to go with them?” Gantry said mildly, glancing quickly at me then back at Nik. “You’re sure about that?”

Nihkil looked at me for a long moment.
 

Then he turned back towards Gantry.
 

I noticed his irises had changed to a near black again.

“I am sure,” Nik said. “Do you have a problem with that?”

Gantry looked at me, too.

A few seconds later, he looked back at Nik and shrugged.

I noticed he didn’t answer him, not even indirectly.

“How do you plan to find them?” Gantry said instead. “They can look like anyone, right? Will you be able to ID them, even if they don’t look like how you know them?”

“No,” Nik said.

“Could they be animals?” Jake asked, from the other side.

As if thinking about his own words after he said them, Jake looked up at the trees, eyeing the birds warily, then a bulldog dragging its owner down the path on a leash not far from us.

“They will most likely be in human form,” Nihkil said, following Jake’s eyes to a cat in the window of a house across the street. He took a larger bite of the apple fritter. “...Providing we find them soon. It will take most of them time to learn the non-human forms here. They will likely remain with their base forms most of the time, so that they can establish those around a local alias of some kind.” At Gantry’s somewhat puzzled look, Nik added, unnecessarily, “...So they can blend in. Obtain food and housing. Learn about the culture here, etc.”

“No, no,” Gantry said. “I get that part. But won’t they know you’ll be looking for them? Why would they stay here?”

Nihkil looked at him, an equal amount of puzzlement on his own face.

Then his expression cleared.

“Razmun would stay here for several reasons,” Nik explained. “They would not risk travel before they have an opportunity to learn this world. They will spend time learning how to emulate what lives here, particularly the humans but also other common life forms. They will want enough familiarity to choose at least two base forms from among the indigenous species. They will want to know the basics of the language. They will want to know more about the political make-up of the human civilization and how the law enforcement and security systems function.” Shrugging, Nik took a bite of the apple fritter. “...I suspect Razmun would stay, anyway. He will not want me here, on this planet...outside of his control.”

Gantry raised an eyebrow, looking back at me.

“You sure about that? After you screwed him?” Gantry’s voice turned skeptical. “Why would he want to be anywhere near you, Nik? Or are you thinking he’d be after payback? Revenge,” Gantry added, to clarify.

Nihkil chewed the apple fritter, staring off into the trees.

Swallowing, he shrugged.

“He might stay near to kill me, or Dakota,” Nik conceded. “But there is no reason for him to leave. The only gate he knows is here.”

I cleared my throat, choosing to talk over the “kill Dakota” part of that speech.

I saw Gantry’s eyebrows go up when Nik said it, though.

“So what about that contract?” I said to Gantry. “Do you think it’s connected somehow? You can see why I thought it might be government...some kind of agency, right? I figured if they knew anything about the gates...or somehow got footage of the shape-shifting thing that day...or just found a few of the witnesses convincing enough to follow up...they might have created some kind of task force to come after us? Or handed it off to Homeland Security. Or the military...or the CIA...whatever...”

Realizing how watches-waaay-too-much-televison I probably sounded, given that Gantry was ex-special forces, I shrugged again, my fingers plucking at the grass.

“I just mean, what would they do, Gantry?” I said. “If the government got involved?”

Gantry’s eyes briefly blanked.

He watched my fingers pull at the grass.

“Honestly?” he said then. “I don’t know for sure. They’d probably spend a few weeks freaking out and having committee meetings and all that, trying to figure out how best to spin the story in case it got out, and whether they should go more strongly for capture or kill.”

Glancing at Nik, he added more somberly, “They’d definitely see them as dangerous. Truthfully? If they really, truly
believed
it, they probably would have picked you up already, Dakota. They’d definitely authorize the use of deadly force...likely from day one. But they’d also want any technology they could get their hands on...and bio-samples, at least a few live ones...so it would depend to some degree on how much they know about this gate thing. It would also depend on how long it takes someone in the Pentagon to get ambitious about weaponizing them. If that happened, they might even pull in independent contractors...”

Thinking about his own words, Gantry paled.

“Yeah, okay. You’re right. This might not be a coincidence,” he muttered.

Thinking again, he went on more slowly that time.

“...Depending on who they put in charge, they
might
put feelers out to general contractors, trying to scare up a few live ones that way, while they figured out how to handle the security threat from the military and H.S. side. So yeah, this
could
be them. Personally, I doubt it, though, even if they wanted to distance themselves from any direct involvement in the op. If that hit was government, and it had something to do with this whole...thing...”

Gantry gestured towards Nik’s body.

“...They would have picked you up already, Daks,” he said again, giving me a serious look. “Nik and Irene, too, and probably me, any of the cops who were there, the golfers...anyone you used to know, probably some of your clients and marks you burned. They would have grabbed anyone they could get their hands on who even
might
be connected, at least for an interview. Then they’d probably throw you and Nik here...and probably Irene for aiding and abetting...into some underground facility until they got some answers.”

No one said anything for a few beats more.

Then Gantry shrugged.

“So yeah,” he said. “I guess that’s the good news. Whatever stories are circulating, I doubt the Feds are directly involved, at least not yet...although I’m sure they will be, if your morph pals get out of control, or if someone gets a video of one of them changing...or the wrong person even
sees
what your pal, Nik here, just showed me in Irene’s kitchen...”
 

That last sounded like a warning not to do anything like
that
again.
 

I swallowed, giving Nik a slightly
I-told-you-so
look.

Through the lock, I felt a denser feeling of indifference.

Clearly, Nik didn’t agree with me.

I didn’t want to find out why––well, not here, in front of Gantry, Jake and Irene. I did want to know, but it would have to wait.

“...Which begs the additional question, of course,” Gantry added. “Who
did
put out that bounty for you, Dakota?”

When I glanced at Nik that time, his lips curled into a faint frown.
 

He didn’t look particularly upset at Gantry’s words. Rather, from the look on his face, that question had already occurred to him. He seemed more to be thinking.

A few seconds later, Nik turned towards Gantry.

“Dakota said you might be able to use me,” he said. “That you might have work?”

Gantry’s eyes bulged a little wider at that.
 

Then he glanced at me, letting out what sounded like an involuntary laugh. “She did, did she?”

“Yes,” Nik said, still not quite getting the sarcasm thing, or, knowing him, choosing to ignore it as irrelevant. “If you are going to take that contract, I thought I could do that,” he added. “Work with you.” Seeming to notice Gantry’s hesitation, Nik added, “...It would be to your advantage. I would be your employee. I would do as you say. I could perhaps learn the shape of one of them, once you have identified the source. I could infiltrate their team. Further, I would not require pay,” he added. “If you would teach me the work...and about the human authorities here, culture and local weaponry. I would feel adequately compensated by that. In the future, we might need to renegotiate.”

I glanced at Nik.

I knew him well enough to read between the lines there.

Anyway, for him, he’d practically been overt about his agenda that time.

Realizing I was probably frowning at him, without really meaning to be, I looked at Gantry next. It hit me again that the two of them were probably dangerous together.

Both were a little too good at reading faces.

And at getting what they wanted.

Either way, it occurred to me there was no way Gantry would go for that, given everything. Before I could get very far on that train of thought, though, Gantry surprised the hell out of me, nodding towards Nik.

“Yeah,” he said, his eyes measuring Nik’s openly, too. “Yeah, all right. That’s not a bad idea.” Pausing, he added in a sharper voice, “But no doing that...trick of yours...in front of my people. Not in front of anyone, in fact. In fact, ask me––and me, alone––before you even
think
about doing anything that might show you off as some kind of...you know...”
 

Gantry gestured vaguely towards Nik’s body.

“...Not from here person,” he ended lamely.

I glanced back at Nik, half-expecting him to balk at that, meaning, at having some
other
human telling him what he could or could not do with his lock. Especially now, since he didn’t have to listen to humans anymore, not even me, not unless he wanted to.
 

But Nik surprised me, too.

“Agreed,” he said. Hesitating, he held out a hand. “It is customary to touch hands on this, yes? To formalize that agreement?”

Gantry smiled, giving me a look I couldn’t quite interpret.

He took Nik’s hand good-naturedly enough. Shaking it, he nodded.

“That’s right,” he said. “But we’re going to have to brush up on your cultural skills, my alien friend, or people will figure out there’s something up with you after less than one conversation. Especially since you’ve got no accent to speak of. You sound just like Dakota here, which I suppose makes sense, under the circumstances.” Gantry squinted a bit at Nik’s face, as if trying to decide something else. “And you look kind of weird, Nik. No offense.”

I knew what Gantry meant, in relation to the last part.

I was about to tell him, too, when Irene beat me to it.