Page 40 of Artificial Moon

The captain spins suddenly. He’s a burly man with sun-leathered skin, and stares at me with wide, terrified eyes. He reaches for something—a gun, maybe—but I’m faster. I grab him by the collar, effortlessly lifting him off his feet, and toss him backward onto the table.

“Where’s Norm?” I growl.

He sputters, but he’s not brave enough to lie. “You mean that weird little fellow? Never quite got his name. He and his goons boarded my ship and took it over. Made me haul ass out of there as fast as she could go.”

“Anyone hurt?”

“Nope, but my ass is feeling bruised. Can I stand?”

“Sure, and sorry about that. Looked like you were going for a gun.”

“Someone strange breaks into my cabin, you’re damn right I’m going for my gun—especially with all these bruisers onboard. My nerves are shot. This cabin’s the only place I can catch my breath. Are you here to help me?”

“Yes, I think so. There’s only one of me and a lot of them.”

“They disabled the VHF radio. I can’t call the Coast Guard or anyone else. They also took my phone—and the phones from everyone on board.”

I nod. “I’ll go get help.”

“Go get help? How? You didn’t come in a helicopter, did you? I didn’t hear one. Then again, I’ve been holed up in here all evening—ever since they hijacked my yacht.”

I suggest to him that I arrived in a helicopter, and that I’m a James Bond-type of super-agent and can take care of myself.

He nods. “Boy, before careful. There are a lot of guys out there with guns. Oh, and that little asshole took our only speedboat back to shore an hour ago.”

I curse under my breath. “And what’s all this?” I gesture to the trap outside.

“A setup, I assume,” he admits, his face pale. “He said he knew a woman would show up, and they had to be ready for her.”

I’m about to command the captain to head back to shore when it occurs to me the goons outside with their guns could still be trouble for him—or for anyone boarding the ship. The goons may not want to go to shore, where they would likely be arrested. A silver bullet could kill a human, too.

I ask the captain if there are any other innocents on board, and he says yes. They’re locked up in one of the bathrooms, but safe enough, as far as he knows.

Good enough. With that, I command him to close his eyes. When he does, I take his hand and teleport him back to the marina where the yacht had been docked in the security footage. Once done, I decided to wipe the captain’s memory of me completely. He’s going to have to explain how he got to shore without the ship. Lucky for him, his testimony is probably going to fall on the sympathetic ear of federal—and immortal—Agent Lindsey Aeon. Oh, I just got that. ‘Aeon’ means forever. Cute.

Tammy, still the size of a kumquat, peeks out from my pocket. “Is it safe, Ma?”

“Sure is, hon.”

She appears suddenly next to me, regular-sized. The captain’s eyes are just about to bug out of his face. So, I wipe the memory of her, as well.

“Time to go,” I say.

I command the captain to turn around again, summon the single flame, focus on Andrew’s condo again, and teleport our butts off the dock, leaving the confused captain behind.

Chapter Twenty-one

Back at Andrew’s condo, it occurs to me that someone on the yacht must know where Norm went.

Thinking back to the row of gun-toting thugs, I settle on the guy at the far end. I focus on the small space directly behind him—and make the leap.

A heartbeat later, I’m standing in the darkest shadows of the deck, right behind him. Before he even knows what hit him, I grab his shoulders and teleport us both over to the nearby shore.

On an empty beach, he starts screaming. Loudly.

I command him to shut up and drop his gun.

He obeys, dropping the weapon with a clunk, and I shove him forward. He stumbles and face-plants in the sand. I pick up the weapon and hurl it as far into the ocean as I can.

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