Dana

"So you're still telling me there is nothing between you and that girl?" Jackson seemed miffed as he stood by the window when she came back. "I saw you two kissing."

Dana's sixth sense kicked in with the speed of light. She could not say what it was. Maybe the sense of foreboding from earlier. Maybe because somehow she knew these things. She grabbed Jackson and threw him on the floor, landing on top of him. He was about to open his mouth and protest when the window blew up in smithereens.

He was white as paper when the ruckus died off. She forced him to his feet and pushed him inside the bathroom. Quickly, she opened her jacket and the first thing she did was to throw two nets, one for the entrance door and one for the window closest to them. She had no idea which way they could be coming.

"What on Earth was that?" Jackson asked from behind her.

"Duck and stay there," she said thinly. "And flash news, Jackson, you're not on Earth anymore."

To her relief, he chose to remain silent and stay there. With sure gestures, she put together her twin pistols.

"What do I do?" Jackson whispered. "You have like those big-ass weapons and I have nothing," he added.

"How about you stay there quietly, and let me do my job? You don't know one thing about weapons, anyway."

But she had to give him something to do. The wait was making her nervous enough, without him fretting behind her like that.

"You, change your clothes," she pushed the bundle left on the floor towards him.

She heard rustling of clothes as he was following her hushed order.

The door opened like it was pushed out of its hinges by a powerful wind and a tube grenade ricocheted against the net. Good call, Dana, she congratulated herself, smirking as she heard the screams of pain in the hallway.

"Serves you right, suckers," she said under her breath.

"Goodness gracious, what are those screams?" Jackson whispered from behind her.

"Are you dressed up yet? And that's the sound of your enemies dying. Rejoice," she added quickly.

She pointed her pistols slowly towards the door. Now she was going to see how stupid or clever they were. As a black shape flew through the unprotected window, Dana could tell they were at least average in terms of intellectual capacity. They took the gamble on her having only two shielding nets. She smirked as she quickly changed the direction of her guns and released one full charge of bullets into the intruder.

Her smile died when the intruder got to his feet and came straight at her. She threw the pistols and grabbed her mini-shotgun to fire one blast straight into his chest. The stranger fell to the floor, but there was no flaming gape in the middle of his chest, as she expected. He moved again, although more slowly.

When the black shape grabbed her by the neck and slammed her onto the wall, she swore she saw green stars. The grip around her throat was closing in fast. Just when the world was turning black and red in front of her eyes, she felt air entering her lungs and she was dropped to the floor.

She heard a swish like sound and fell to the ground. Groaning, she tried to get to her feet. Her vision was slowly coming back to her and what she saw made her think, for a moment, that she was hallucinating because of the lack of oxygen to her brain.

The intruder was on the floor, and one of his arms was twisted in what looked like death like grip. And the person holding his arm like that was no one other but Jackson Marmy, her Earthian charge, seemingly gone berserk, as he kicked the stranger on the floor in the legs and in the ribs with his boots.

Of course, she thought as she tried to regain her breath. The intruder's suit was made to repel bullets, but it was not foolproof against the use of physical force. Those who were trying to kill Jackson Marmy knew his bodyguard was a girl, and they knew they didn't have to worry too much about engaging in hand to hand combat. Apparently, they had ignored the wild factor, and that was that Jackson Marmy was not as soft as they thought.

"Break his fucking arm," she yelled at Jackson.

The Earthian stopped and looked at her.

She pushed herself to her feet, despite the burning sensation in her lungs. She kicked the enemy’s stretched arm held by Jackson hard, satisfied with hearing the bone cracking and with the inhuman yell that followed.

"Are there any others?" she yelled at the form on the ground, and continued to kick him.

"No, no, please!" the intruder said through loud sobs.

She kicked him again.

"Think again!"

Jackson placed an arm on her shoulder.

"He's saying the truth," he spoke in a shaken voice.

"We cannot know," she said, and kicked the intruder again.

"We can," Jackson said, this time firmly, and she stopped, hearing the commandeering tone of his voice.

There was something akin to steel in his beautiful blue eyes that was telling her he knew what he was talking about. She stopped.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"We need to extract information now," she said, feeling a bit embarrassed now. “Before others come.”

Jackson took a look at the maimed shaped of a human on the floor. Dana watched him. Did Earthians have some specialized means to extract information? Well, Jackson looked like an airhead most of the time, but apparently he had some kind of training, so probably he had other aces up his sleeve.

She looked at the enemy crumpled on the floor and she felt her blood run stale. Pushing Jackson through the bathroom door, she managed to throw both of them to the floor and activate the shield just in time. The breath of explosion blew over them like a ghastly wind.

The poor fellow in the other room didn’t even have time to scream. Well, maybe he deserved it. But the truth was he had been betrayed by whoever had sent him. Or maybe he had known all along. The thought was giving her the chills. Who could be so desperate to kill Jackson Marmy that was sending people on suicide missions after him?

Her father had never downplayed the importance of this mission when he had told her she was going to be in charge of protection for some sort of a negotiator sent to Murario from Earth. But it was obvious he had no idea how serious the situation was. She needed to get in touch with him and as soon as possible. No matter how much of a badass bodyguard she liked to think she was, this was more than she could handle.

“Hey, you’re crushing me,” Jackson’s strained voice startled her.

“Hey, I’m not that heavy,” she tried to blanket the anxiety in her voice with a joke.

“You might not be, but the ton of weaponry you have on you is.”

It was easy to forget he was from another place. Not that he didn’t look every bit like he didn’t belong there, but because she felt quite comfortable around him. Yes, people on Earth probably didn’t carry tons of weapons around. So, they were not accustomed to the extra weight.

She moved away and helped Jackson to his feet.

“Are you okay?” he asked her, grabbing her shoulders.

All right, maybe she was not okay, but that was not something he needed to know. Her dad had left Jackson in her care. She was not going to break like one of the teary heroines, clutching at their handkerchiefs in those old Earthian books.

“I’m fine, stop being such a mother hen,” she shrugged his touch, although she loved how warm his hands felt there. “And I should be asking you the same question.”

“Well, what was that?” he evaded the question.

Funny. Like he was trying to be brave for her or something. He was obviously scared out of his wits, his eyes darting toward the bathroom door, like he knew somehow the horror scene on the other side, was waiting for them, the unwilling witnesses.

“That was the perp being blown to high heavens,” she put on her brave face, too.

“Oh,” he said.

Jackson was white as a paper. Dana could bet he hadn’t seen too many blown up people on Earth. Unlike her. The mines often claimed lives and she had seen plenty of death, just like anyone else. Clementium didn’t truly deserve its name; there was no clemency in how it took lives. Some deposits were encased in small pouches of gas, and less seasoned miners sometimes made the mistake of using improper equipment or were too impatient in their tries to get it out. By all means, Dana had seen plenty of that. But Jackson hadn’t.

“Hey,” she touched his arm gently.

He blinked as he looked at her.

“It won’t be a pretty sight when we’ll get out of here. Just try not to look ... anywhere,” she said with a sigh.

“Roger that,” he said firmly. “But please tell me you are okay.”

Of course, she was in charge of his protection, so he needed to assess the situation. It was normal, really.

“Yeah, I am. And ... thanks for before. You saved my ass,” she admitted.

A sigh of relief was the only reply. What was that about? Had he really been worried about her? Nah, that couldn’t be.

“You know, maybe I should put some cover over your eyes or something,” she offered.

“I am not that squeamish,” he said through his teeth.

“Suit yourself, then,” Dana shrugged.

***

Jackson

Yes, he was THAT squeamish. But he didn’t want to lose face in front of the other guy. Dana had behaved like a true bodyguard. Except that Dana could not help being short and inferior in strength to that particular assailant, Jackson thought, as he walked through the room, trying hard to ignore the carnage painting every wall.

It was like the assassins knew what to expect. A shorty in charge of protecting an Earth emissary. That was definitely fishy. Don’t think of that word, he chided himself, feeling bile rising in his throat. He could well ignore looking around, but pretending he could not smell anything either was close to impossible.

He took one big gulp of air once they were out of the building, leaving those ghastly images behind them.

“Hey,” his bodyguard punched him in the shoulder playfully. “You know how to fight, eh?”

“You’re not bad yourself,” he said back, enjoying, for a second, how Dana pouted. “But how did you know? That he was going to explode?” he quickly asked.

“There was a certain smell coming off that guy. Typically, no one should be able to sense it. But I can. People say that I have a gift. You won’t catch me dead in some gas chamber ready to blow. Get it?” Dana kicked him in the ribs now, like he was telling some cool joke, and Jackson had to laugh.

It was like the guy was trying to cheer him up, although he had a lousy sense of humor. Jackson squared his shoulders. He had no intention to look weaker than he already was.

“So, where to now? It’s clear that we cannot go back to our place,” he pointed over his shoulder at the building. At their floor, grey mist was still pouring through the window. “Hey, how come there’s no one else?”

“That? The building is mostly unoccupied. We generally move as we discover new sources of clementium. And people are leaving this place to move, too. Dad thought you would be better somewhere away from crowded areas.”

“Not like that seemed such a good idea, in retrospect,” he noticed, his voice as dry as paper.

“No need to rub it in,” Dana pursed his lips, and Jackson looked at the guy again, feeling like he should not have stared, but couldn’t help it. “Wait, you don’t think he has anything to do with this, do you?” the bodyguard grabbed his arm and forced Jackson to look down at him.

He was annoyed that he could not clearly make the guy’s eye color through the tinted glass.

“I don’t know what to think at this point,” he shrugged the other off. “For all I know, you can be one of them.”

Dana took a step back like he had just been slapped.

“Really? After I almost sacrificed myself to save your ass?”

“Technically, that’s your job,” Jackson said and tried to straighten up his jacket that obviously had belonged to a larger fellow.

“Yeah, technically,” Dana mumbled and turned on his heels.

Jackson hurried after him. He caught Dana’s arm and forced him to turn to face him again.

“Look, I’m sorry. I’m not used to being the target for assassins on suicide missions. The first time in my life when that happens,” he said a little too brightly.

“Oh,” Dana said. “Okay, I forgive you. This time. And my dad is not a traitor.”

Jackson could feel the gears in his head starting to turn. That happened to him sometime. He heard one word and the next thing, something was happening, and a trail of thought was born out of nowhere.

“Traitor?” he mumbled.

“Such a good thing you’re pretty,” Dana joked. “You’re definitely slow.”

He was nothing but slow at this point. He stood there, frozen, as his mind did that trick thing.

“Dana, what’s the usual, let’s say, attitude towards Earthians around here?” he asked promptly.

His bodyguard shrugged as they started moving again.

“Your planet is far away. What can I say? You guys have the stupidest shows on broadcast. You have it easy. We have it hard. It’s not like we love you too much, I guess.”

“So, your dad doesn’t have any loyalties towards me or anyone from Earth?”

Dana slowed down.

“What are you trying to say?” the bodyguard frowned again.

“I’m not saying your father is a traitor. I’m just saying that he could not be that.”

“Really, man. Have you been home schooled or something? Your logic is messed up.”

“Home schooled?” Jackson shook his head. “Whatever. I have no idea from where you came up with that. But hear me out. Your dad is the head of the miners, right? So he’s loyal towards them.”

“Correct,” Dana shrugged.

“So what would he care about me, an Earthian?”

“Because you were placed in his care, duh,” Dana replied, as if Jackson was soft in the head.

“Who placed me in his care?”

“Your people. I don’t know names. I tend to doze off when people are droning about stupid useless things around me.”

Dana was still a little pissed, it seemed.

“If I was betrayed by someone, that someone wasn’t your father,” Jackson continued his argument.

“So that leaves …” Dana mumbled.

“Yes. Who else knew I was here?” Jackson said simply.

“Damn. You can’t be serious.”

“My people or your people. It’s simple, really.”

“So how come you don’t suspect us more?” Dana questioned.

“I somehow doubt your father would have put your life in danger,” Jackson replied.

***

Dana

Wow, that was something meant to leave her with one big open mouth, wondering how she could not figure it out. On Murario, only her dad and she knew about Jackson being there. But, on the other side, the Earthian side, there must have been quite a crowd seeing Jackson out. And yes, the annoying handsome Earthian was right. Her dad would never put her in harm’s way.

“Then shit just got real,” she mumbled to herself.

“You can say that again,” Jackson said with a sigh. “I knew something was wrong when I left. They tell me I must be put to the test. Yeah, what a nice test they got ready for me.”

“There’s just one thing,” Dana spoke again. “That guy, the one who blew all over the place, he wasn’t Earthian.”

“How can you tell? He seemed pretty much like you and me. Although we never saw his face.”

Dana tapped against her nose.

“He didn’t smell Earthian to me.”

“You and your hunting dog instincts,” Jackson rolled his eyes.

“Hey, are you calling me a dog?” she protested.

“Don’t worry. I won’t say you’re a cute dog. You’re one big, badass, guard dog or something,” Jackson said with a small smile.

“So I’m not cute?” she frowned.

He put up his palms in surrender.

“Look, I was wrong to tease you. You’re obviously an excellent bodyguard. You just saved me from an assassination attempt. So I take back all the teasing, okay? You’re not cute, and you do look your age. Plus, you’re a badass. That I didn’t lie about. Okay?”

“Okay,” she sighed.

So she was not cute after all. Damn you, Jackson Marmy!

“Plus, at this moment, you’re my one and only friend. I’m counting on you, buddy,” he patted her on the shoulder.

Great. Now she was friendzoned, too.

TBC