Under His Influence

“John?”

“It’s worked,” he muttered.

“That’s…good?”

“I think…I think…no. The first one got through. Rixxar One is here. Somewher

e.”

Luana gave a high-pitched shriek of despair.

“Mother, Mother, he’s alone. It’s just him. The rest of them were shut out by the ozone layer. He can’t take us back.”

“But he can kill us!”

“He can’t kill us. He doesn’t have my matter transference device. He can only manifest here as…particles. He might be able to find us, but that’s all he can do.”

“And he can’t get away?” asked Mimi. “He is stuck here—as are you and your mother?”

“To all intents and purposes.” John turned away from the monitor at last and faced Mimi frankly. “But he might have honed his weapons since our escape. He may have arms at his disposal I have not yet experienced.”

“What can we do, Valent?” Luana was more haggard than ever.

“Wait.” He shrugged. “I don’t suppose it’ll be long before he tries to make contact. That pain in our heads… If he comes close enough, it will sharpen.”

Mimi fished into her handbag for paracetamol, but John shook his head.

“That won’t work. Do you feel it at all?”

“Slightly. A vague headache, that’s all.”

“Your link is weak. Anna will be feeling it. I hope she gets away.”

It was the first time Mimi had heard John express any kind of positive feeling for his wife; paradoxically, it made him more attractive to her.

“What will the Rixxar do?” she asked, reaching for John’s hand. He took hers and squeezed it absentmindedly, still focused on his monitor.

“He will try and find a way to get Mother and me back to our planet. Your fellow planetarians meanwhile will go to work on destroying my ozone patches. It will take a few years, but they’ll get there in the end. And then the Rixxar will return in full force.”

“Can’t you just repeat this process?”

“Yes. But that ore is expensive. And Rixxar One will do what he can to prevent us.”

“When will we hear from him?”

“I don’t know.” John raked his hands through his hair. “Perhaps never. All we can do is wait.”

“I can’t shift this headache.”

Anna leaned into Liam as they stood in the queue to check in their luggage—not that they had much. They had thrown a few essentials into one suitcase, reasoning that John’s credit card could pay for anything lacking once they made it onto antipodean soil.

“We’ll get some painkillers when we’re through security.”

“No. I don’t want to. I could harm the baby. Liam, I think this headache is something to do with the danger Mimi was talking about. I don’t think it’s a regular type of headache.”

Liam held her at arm’s length, frowning. “I don’t get you. What, like, someone’s tried to poison you or something?”

“No, not that. I don’t know. I can’t explain it. I feel like something very bad is very close, and getting closer.”