Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 75457 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75457 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
“Have I asked to take full moons off and then give vivid descriptions of inappropriate things when I got back to work?”
No. Because I wasn’t an asshole who kept describing my neighbors’ body parts in settings where it was not in any way relevant.
“But are you human? I can’t tell.” My boss glanced down at something on his desk before focusing back on me. “They’ve accepted the sheriff like he’s a local, and from what I understand, he just curses at them right and left. I think sending humans might be safe now.”
For fuck’s sake.
The goddamned dragons.
Why couldn’t the fucking Bigfoot population have had a problem? They were always polite and well-fucking-mannered even if they showed up naked in weird places.
“How many times has HR told you to stop asking questions like that?” At least a dozen because nearly everyone in the office had gone and complained at least once.
The general consensus was that Mark came off speciesist every time he asked anything remotely like it, but I didn’t agree. I just thought he was a moron who could never get to the point in the right way and his rambling mess always sounded rude or insane.
“Fine.” His sigh said he still didn’t get why he kept getting in trouble…and under other circumstances I’d have agreed with him. People complained about ridiculous shit but he was ridiculous. “We’ve been asked to help them…with a situation.”
Had they kidnapped someone again?
Stolen another armored car?
Fucked with the weather instead of the flowers?
“They…” Wiggling in his seat like a toddler that needed to pee, Mark let out a deep breath. “They’re going to another planet.”
For fuck’s sake.
“Another planet?” He gave out tidbits of information in an insanely frustrating way, but he’d been doing it since I joined the unit six months ago, so I knew I had to wait him out.
“Yeah.” Wiggle. Sigh. Frown. “That portal thing is evidently active.”
Yeah, not a surprise…at least not to me.
I’d told him someone needed to check on that damned thing as soon as intel explained how long it’d been since anyone had gone up there to check on it. On the ground information was spotty at best but satellites didn’t lie and the locals hadn’t figured out a way to fuck with them yet.
“Active, huh?”
Waiting.
Waiting.
Waiting.
“Yeah.” More frowns and wiggles followed before he sat still and got to the point. “We’ve been told they’re going to head through it.”
Of course they were.
And we probably only knew about it because someone had been posting online again.
But we hadn’t gotten to the good part yet, so I was quiet and just waited.
Mark never started at a useful or logical point in any story.
“It’s short notice, but it seems like they finally realized that if aliens are involved, they should probably tell someone in the government.”
Wait.
Aliens?
Had they actually called the government to tattle on themselves this time?
Had we finally classified them as aliens?
Who was he calling aliens?
Who was they?
“What do you think?”
That I hadn’t been given nearly enough information.
Screaming wouldn’t help.
Screaming wouldn’t help.
Screaming wouldn’t help.
“Mark?” I waited until I was fairly certain his thoughts were focused on me and not anything else random or confusing. “I need you to think about the details that you’ve just shared.”
“Hmm?” Looking around, he started shifting through papers. “You usually have a point when you ask that question.”
God.
“Do you have on your suppressive device?”
I was not going to ask the fucking clairvoyant witch if he had on his amulet.
“I don’t…” Looking down at himself, he pulled his shirt away from his chest. “No.”
Well, that explained some of his distractibility.
Not all of it because he could pull this routine even when his mind was focused on the here and now, and not the when or where. But if I wasn’t going to let him ask me what species I was then I couldn’t ask him if he had ADHD.
“Are you allowed to ask that?” When he aimed his frown in my direction, I knew I wasn’t getting answers anytime soon. “If I can’t ask if you’re a human, why can you ask me about my assistive device?”
Because it was like talking to a high squirrel when he didn’t have it on.
“I have HR on speed dial.” And they were tired of hearing from me, but I wasn’t going to point that out. “We need to have a clear discussion about how we’re going to adjust monitoring on the dragons and the portal.”
And then we were going to have another discussion about when I could ask to be sent back to my old job because being voluntold for this one was going to give me a fucking stroke.
“That might be a good idea.” His foggy brain focused on his desk again, and I really hoped someone had given him clear instructions about what was going on. “If you’re going to another planet we need well-laid-out plans.”