Planet Heist (The Dunham Archives Book 1) (11 page)

“Saizian.” I shrugged – it’s obvious.

“Sazian? But you look completely human,” His eyebrows furrowed in thought.

I couldn’t help but giggle.

“No I don’t,” I smiled, having a hard time controlling my laughter, “Do I look like any human you’ve ever met?”

“Well, no, I suppose not. But, you could pass for human. So, you look…Saizian?”

“Obviously. If I’m half human and half Saizian, and I don’t look human…then what else could I look like? My high cheekbones, full lips, and big eyes are all Saizian. Even my insides are Saizian; I don’t have half of the organs you do, and at the same time I have so many more,” I shrugged it off.

“Organs? Like what?” He asked.

“For example, I have two hearts. That’s why I can lose so much blood and live, how I can be shot through the chest and stay alive for hours. Don’t tell anyone that, though. If my enemies knew, they could kill me in a moment. But, despite my…alien-ness, I still feel more human than you’ll ever know.” I told him quietly.

He gawked at me, somehow surprised by my confession, “How do you feel more human?”

“I’ve still got human…emotions and two human hearts, and those are the only things that really classify you as human in the first place.”

“Human emotions? What’s the different between human and Saizian emotions?” He was oblivious to the power of his own feelings.

“Human emotions are much more…intense. And I’ve got the Dunham trait of having an overly functional Deep Limbic System.” I replied shakily, referring to the part of the brain that controls emotional memories. I was suddenly over- whelmed by my heart beating. My eyesight was acute as my natural sense for danger came on.

“Salah,” I whispered, “stay calm, but don’t move an inch.” I said, springing up.

“What’s going on Kairee?” He asked nervously.

“My mother’s coming.” I said tersely.

He laughed, “So? She can’t be that bad…can she?”

“She’s bad. Problem is-”

“Hello, Kairee.” My mother’s brusque voice came from behind m, cutting me off.

I saw Rowan out of the corner of my eye, looking at Salah with a glare.

“Hello, mother.” I said, playing along. A plan was already forming in my brain.

“Who’s y-your friend?” She asked with a stutter, glancing at Salah. I saw a blue glint in her black eyes, and took immediate action.

I lunged at my mother, taking her by surprise. Rowan’s face was suddenly contorted with indecision. He had no clue what was going on in the split second that I was attacking the woman that was supposedly my mother, but he knew to trust my judgment.

I took the woman in a headlock, her neck in the deathly grip of my arm.

“Rowan!” I snapped.

“What?” He asked, still looking baffled.

“You’ve lost your touch. This isn't our mother,” I said, pushing my new hostage down on the ground.

“What?! How can you tell?!”

“You really want to know? Her roots are showing, she’s wearing contacts, she’s two inches shorter than me, she stuttered, and she’s slouching. Our mother doesn’t dye her hair, her eyes are actually black, we’re the same height, and she has immaculate speech and perfect posture. Those are just five of the obvious signs giving this fraud away.” I tell him quickly, my voice laden with malice.

Rowan swore under his breath, and Salah’s eyes opened so wide they could’ve popped out of his head.

“Alright. I’m going to take her inside, and then find our mother.” I said with a glare at Rowan for his ignorance, “Why don’t you boys get to know each other a bit better?”

Rowan nodded angrily and curtly in my direction, aware that if he didn’t agree, I’d take matters into my own hands – even on my own brother, I would do anything I had to in order to keep stability.

I sent a malevolent glower in the direction of the boys, my mood taking a nose dive in the negative direction, and sauntered away in the direction of my house.

June 17
th
10:31 am

The Wythe Mansion, Unami, Planet Saize

The morning on Saize is glorious, making me realize how much I had truly missed my home planet in the days I had left it. Earth holds hardly anything that could even be compared to the abounding beauty of Saize. I took in the bright, pure white sun that allowed light to filter down through the clear sky to the vibrant land below. Next to this, earth is such a dull place to be. This planet is truly my home, and it could never be replaced.

“This place is…gigantic,” Salah gaped when he reached our mansion. I had already brought my fair-haired prisoner to the…dungeon? I don’t know if that’s the right word or not – the room is simply a dark, dank basement that I hastily put a few pairs of shackles in a few months ago when I started taking prisoners.

The mansion is front of us was on a vast, two-thousand acre plot of land. Even with all the land, the mansion heavily over-shadowed any of the beautiful, natural features on Saize. This more traditional mansion was the dream I had stuck in my brain when I was a child, and when I was twelve, I set out to build it. The mansion itself is made of a rare, white stone laced with crushed blue sapphires, giving the effect I had dreamed of when I was little – the whole house seemed to sparkle wherever the sun hit it, at any time of day. The gems in the structure of the house glistened most brightly at sunset. Blue and white were my theme for the outside of the house – from the white birch trees around the doorway to the blue siding around the windows and front door. Light gray stone paths led to the glass door, lined with bright blue flowers and white fencing.

But the noise was what really reminded me of home. The force field around the entire property buzzed, a low hum that let me know that it was working correctly.

In the late morning light, I could see the slate cliffs behind the house, the very bit of nature that had inspired the estate. The bright gray stone of the cliffs with the pristine, rippling white waterfall had been a source of constant creative inspiration over the years. Thirty or so waterfalls cascaded down into the white rainforest, and then splashing back up so high you began to believe they would touch the sun.

I forgot about Rowan, about Salah, about everything that was daunting over me as I took in what I longed for. Simply being in front of this dream of mine was enough to lighten my mood and put a broad grin across my face.

“Kairee?” Salah asked, snapping me out of my reverie.

“What?” I replied dreamily, glancing at him. Somehow, in the light of my home sun, Salah’s face looked angelic and inviting.

Or maybe I was just a bit delirious.

“Are you alright? Never mind…are you going to teach me how to fight or what?”

I regained my composure, “I’ll try to teach you, but at this point, I’m not sure you can learn.” I told him with a glint of suspicion in my eye.

He couldn’t think up a snappy comeback fast enough before I was walking into my home next to my brother.

“Listen, now that we’re back on Saize-”

“And thank god for that,” Rowan cut me off, “and I know what you’re going to say. And of course, you’re right. We’ll have to pay a visit to the Prime Minister soon. I think we should do it tomorrow, as she’ll be at the local convention center, in the capital. Although, we’ll need some extreme disguises to even get in there, considering we’re even more wanted than we were a week ago, if that’s possible.” He said with a smirk in my direction.

“You’re right, as usual, and reading my mind. The question is: how will we disguise ourselves, three of the most wanted criminals in the galaxy, on such short notice?” I toyed with many possibilities in my head as Rowan thought on it. Wigs and sunglasses are out of the question – much too obvious, plus eye scans and DNA tests are required to even enter a building when the Prime Minister is in it.

I sucked in a breath when I first stepped into the mansion. The first room visible to the door was one of three living rooms I had put in. This one, compared to the rest, was much less high-tech. It was more of a place to relax. There was a large water features at the center of the back wall that cascaded down in to a hot tub. The room was steamy and added the certain sultry feel I was looking for with this room. There were large white, soft leather couches around a blue tinted glass coffee table. There was light teak wood and white carpet, the colors in the room accented by the pristine white floor and dazzling water features.

“Salah,” I said, turning to him, “we’re going to visit the Prime Minister tomorrow. You can see who runs my planet, and we have to get her signature on a ‘permission slip’ of sorts. We need her signature to let us in to the Institute.”

He looked momentarily confused, “You have a system of government?”

“Of course!” I laughed, “Did you think we were just a bunch of barbaric people running around a hardly habited or something?”

“Or something,” He smiled.

“Anyways, going to see the Prime Minister has a tendency to mean that we’ll be performing a phenomenal and risky escape, as I like to go big and freak the public out, so you’ll need to do some training with me, learn how to do things the way we do – the dangerous way.” I smirked, looking forward to destroying him again.

“Alright,” He said, his eyes smoldering with something I couldn’t exactly put my mind on, “When and where?”

“Ten minutes, outside. I’ll meet you out there soon,” I replied, calculating how big the chance was that I would win.

I went to the closest elevator – through the kitchen, down a hall, and through a room full of traps. The golden elevator was huge, much larger on the inside than it appeared on the outside.

Rowan and Salah were bickering in the front room.

I decided quickly that I had enough, but not enough to take violent means.

“Salah!” I yelled, “Come down here! I’ve got to show you your rooms!”

I heard his most likely designer boots clicking down on the wood floor while he walked towards me. Rowan’s own, almost silent footsteps found my ears as he walked towards the steps. Rowan, for some reason, always took stairs when there was a perfectly good elevator near us. Whatever.

“So,” Salah began as the elevator opened, “What’s the Prime Minister’s name?”

“Areesta Nayathi,” I replied, “She’s amazing, really. If she was ruthless, she would make quite the ally.”

“Your government leader is a woman?” He seemed surprised.

“Yes. I simply can’t believe that in way more than forty presidents, Earth’s wealthiest and strongest country has never had a female leader.”

“Is that surprising to you? They’ve had one female president over there, but she was assassinated in months. Plus, I’ve always been under the impression that men are more qualified to lead in government.” He replied, lighting a fire in me.

“Oh?” I replied, my eyes narrowing, “As a very,
very
powerful female in this universe, one that you, a man, are currently serving under, I find that statement more than a little offensive. So offensive, in fact, that I may just have to pummel you into a pulp in ten minutes.”

“I apologize then, if you beat me.” He smirked, and the elevator opened.

“Okay. Come with me.” We were on the fifth floor, where the various bedrooms are.

“Kairee?” I heard my mother’s voice from down the hall.

I let out a sigh of relief, and then sucked in a breath of fear – both at the thought of my mother.

“Follow me.” I whispered to Salah. I started clicking off down the hall, in the direction of my mother. When we reached her door, I opened it and checked the room for any problems.

Then, I saw her.

My mother’s face had several cuts across her cheeks, a bruise over her left eye. For some odd reason, her natural ability to heal had not some into affect.

“Oh my god.” I said, and then with malice, “Who did this to you?”

“It was Dmitri Ivanov.” She replied shakily.

I clenched my fist, my nails digging into my flesh.

“I’m going to kill him!” I shouted, raging.

“Kairee, calm down. It could’ve been worse. And I trust that you’ll take care of him for me. I simply couldn’t fight him off, that’s all. I’m getting too old for this criminal life.” She sighed.

“Mom, don’t say that. I’ll take care of Dmitri the way I take care of everyone who bothers me, but before I do, I have someone for you to meet. This,” I said, gesturing for Salah to come over, “is Salah.”

I could only pray that Dmitri would be at the Prime Minister’s meeting tomorrow, where I could kill him in the public eye.

“Dear god,” She said, looking him over, “You look just like your father. It makes me want to brutally destroy you.” She said, not a drip of humor in her voice.

“I’ve got it covered, mother.” I smiled, inwardly seething, “I’ll be showing Salah to his rooms, and then we’ll be…training him.” I replied with another glower at Salah.

“Alright. Don’t go easy on him, dear.”

“Never.”

We left the room and I walked directly down the other hallway, toward my rooms, Rowan’s, and the spare rooms, where Salah would be staying.