Staring Danger In The Face
Chapter 36
XXXVI
Liz walked out of the portal, catching Michael… or Rath, as the case might be… by surprise.
"Wha! Liz? Geez! Don't you ever knock? I mean… God, Liz!"
Rath quickly turned around and zipped up his fly.
"This is the frikkin' men's room, Liz! You can't just pop in here!"
"Sorry," Liz said, turning red. "I didn't know… I just asked the portal to take me to you."
"Yeah well… it did. It could be worse, I guess. You need to be really specific with that sphere. I think it gets a kick out of embarrassing me."
"It just did what I told it to, Michael… I mean… well…"
"It could have deposited you outside the men's room door, Liz. It knows what it's doing."
"Don't be silly, Michael. It's just a dumb… machine… of a sophisticated sort."
"Not so dumb, Liz. Believe me. It wants us to believe that."
"You're getting paranoid, Michael."
"Well, for good reasons. Has it ever dumped you in the water?"
"No."
"Well, it has me."
"I think it might have done it to my counterpart… in the other timeline," Liz said, remembering something Max had told her.
"Oh… yeah, well. See? There you are!"
"You just have to be specific, Michael."
"Well, you are specifically in the men's room, Liz!"
Liz blushed again. Another restaurant patron walked in, took a quick look at Liz, and turned around and walked back out.
"Let's get out of here, Liz."
"Don't you have to finish… something… you know?"
"No! Out!"
Liz grinned and turned and walked out the door. Rath followed her out.
"You can go in," Rath said to the other patron, who was standing at the door dancing nervously. "My brother's a… kind of a drag queen. I'm getting him help."
The man nodded and hurried into the restroom.
After paying the bill, Rath left the restaurant and walked down the sidewalk toward the east side of town with Liz beside him.
"So did you find out anything new, Liz?"
Liz thought a moment and considered what she should tell him.
"It's coming along according to plan, Ra… Michael. But it's far from a done thing. And there is some kind of danger ahead for us."
"Danger? What kind of danger?"
"I don't know. No one did."
"Well, that's not much help. What am I supposed to do about it if I don't even know what it is?"
"I don't know, Michael. Just keep your eyes open, I guess."
Michael nodded. "Well, while you've been gone, I have made some progress."
"Oh?"
"Yeah."
"What? You going to tell me?"
"You know, we never had caught the ones who killed the sheriff."
"Yeah, I know."
"Well, we caught 'em?"
Liz stopped and looked at Rath. "You caught them? Who were they?"
"A shapeshifter and a couple of Antarian followers of Kivar's."
"What did you do with them?"
"Zwolinski's got them."
Liz stopped again and looked at Rath with disbelief.
"You turned them over to Zwolinski?"
"Well, not exactly. He was the reason we were able to track them down. Seems Zwolinski decided that helping some aliens in order to get the ones who killed his family was a reasonable trade-off."
"And you trust him?"
Rath shook his head. "Not on your life. But he seems to be on the level. He was responsible for finding out who did it and flushing them out. I've got to give it to him… the man is resourceful."
"Yeah, I know," Liz agreed. "And that scares me all the more."
"I'm keeping an eye on him, Liz… and watching my back."
"He hasn't tried to double-cross you… or kill you?"
"Nope. It's all been on the up and up. I was able to use my powers to help him bring the killers down, but the collar was pretty much all his. That's why he got the suspects."
"Suspects, Rath. That word implies uncertainty."
"No, they're the ones, Liz. They tried to kill us… and they confessed to killing Valenti."
"The way Zwolinski gets confessions?"
"No. They were proud of it. They admitted it. The shapeshifter was also involved in the killing of Zwolinski's family when he was little."
"Did he say why they did it?"
"No. Zwolinski's working on getting that information."
Liz shuddered involuntarily. "Well, I guess they deserve it… but I still don't know if I like it, Michael."
Liz continued to call Rath Michael, remembering that the Nogi-Ky'a had said that if Rath became aware of who he was and tried to push Michael's consciousness out, Michael could cease to exist.
"Zwolinski's actually a pretty nice guy, Liz… after you get to know him."
"That scares me even more, Michael!"
"Well, he understands that the shapeshifters and Kivar's followers aren't all of the Antarians. He just wants the ones responsible."
"I still don't trust him."
"That's what Topolsky said. You girls have to learn to let go of the past, Liz."
"I can let go… I just don't forget lessons learned."
"Forgiveness is a sign of intelligence, Liz."
"Well, scientifically, Michael, women use more of their brains than men do."
"They need the extra brain space to remember all the things we did years after we did them."
"I'm noting things to remember now, Michael."
"I'm shutting up."
"Good," Liz said, casting Rath a satisfied but menacing smile.
"What's Zwolinski going to do to the… suspects?"
"I don't know, Liz. I really don't care much. They killed Valenti and a whole family… and who knows who else. And they wanted to kill the royal family and create a dictatorship on Antar."
"Isn't that what a king is, Michael?"
"No! A king is… a king. A dictator is something else."
"Oh."
"What if Kivar called himself the king?"
"He can't be the king. He isn't descended from the line. And he's a dictator."
"Oh, yeah. I forgot."
Rath opened the door to Zwolinski's downtown office and motioned Liz in.
"I never thought I'd walk in here willingly, Michael."
"Is this Liz," Zwolinski asked, smiling. He rushed over and held out his hand to her. Liz pulled back involuntarily but then allowed him to take her hand.
"I understand if you don't trust me," Zwolinski said, "but hopefully, I can earn your trust. Michael and I have been working together, and the partnership has been very productive. I don't hold any grudges against other… non-humans, Liz. I just wanted to get the ones responsible for causing mayhem on our planet… the ones that killed my family… I've done that now."
Liz nodded. "Where are they?"
"At my lab… on the base. It's the only secure place where we could keep them away from civilians that they might hurt."
"Did you find out yet why they were interested in your family all those years ago?"
Zwolinski's smile disappeared momentarily but then returned. "No… not yet. But I'm working on it."
Liz winced. She had an idea what "working on it" meant to Zwolinski.
Rath patted Liz on the arm. "I just wanted to bring you here, Liz, so you could meet Zwolinski… and you know… see what we're doing."
Liz nodded but said nothing.
"We've got to go," Rath said to Zwolinski. "We've got other things to do."
"Well, keep in touch, Michael. We need to work more together."
"I'll keep it in mind," Rath said. He opened the door, and Liz walked out. Rath followed her. As they left, a humvee drove up, and a special ops agent got out and went into Zwolinski's office. Zwolinski hurried to get the agent a chair.
"Don't bother, Zwolinski. I don't have time. I just came to give you a message."
"The one I've been waiting for?"
The agent nodded.
Zwolinski smiled, and his eyes sparkled. "Where is it?"
The agent took a small vial out of his breast coat pocket and handed it to Zwolinski.
"Excellent! Excellent!" Zwolinski said, as he looked at the silvery, mercurious liquid with small, sparkling threads in it. "I've waited my whole life for this."
tbc