Page 23 of The Alien Reindeer's Bounty
“I’m so sorry you made me do this,” Mads apologized, driving Jayson to his knees. The bully kneeled on the floor, twisting and whimpering but unable to break Mads’ grip. “I suggest you apologize.”
Jayson did not answer immediately, prompting Mads to tighten his grip. “All right! All right. Sorry.”
“There are so many reasons to be sorry,” Mads said. “Be specific.”
“Sorry for touching your ass!”
Odessa’s heart thumped, waiting for Mads’ response.
“And?”
“And being a douchecanoe. I’m sorry.”
Odessa turned her face slightly to hide her smile. No one said douchecanoe anymore. She could practically hear Ruby rolling her eyes if she ever heard Odessa using such language.
“Is that acceptable to you?” Mads asked the woman. She nodded. “Time to leave then.” Mads yanked the man to his feet and steered him toward the door.
“Hey! I didn’t get my coffee,” Jayson whined.
“Sorry, man. You know you’re not welcome here,” the barista said.
Mads ejected Jayson and the relaxed lunchtime atmosphere returned. She busied herself adding sugar and cream to her coffee.
He joined her at the counter. Without acknowledging her—not even a nod, rude—he added cream and sugar to his coffee. A lot of sugar.
Odessa wanted to make a smartass comment. She bit her tongue. She didn’t need to say anything. So, what if he did a good deed and taught Jayson a lesson? Did he want a gold star?
How much sugar did he plan to add to that poor cup of coffee?
“You want some coffee with that? I can get you a spoon to shovel in all that sugar.”
He huffed as if swallowing a laugh. Sunlight came through the plate glass windows and for a moment it seemed as if his brown eyes flashed a wintery blue. Had to be a trick of the light. Without saying a word, he scrawled a phone number on a napkin. With a challenge in his eye, he pushed it in her direction, then left.
Odessa balled up the napkin but hesitated with her hand over the trash. She shouldn’t call or even think about the possibility of calling.
Sheknewbetter.
“Do you know him?” The woman in yoga pants slid next to her at the counter. “What’s he like? What’s his name?” She gasped, spying the napkin. “Is that his number?”
Odessa shoved it in her coat pocket. “I thought I knew him. I don’t know anymore.”
Mads
With minor modifications,he linked his Reilen-issued comm unit to the Earth equivalent, a smartphone. Now he would receive Svallin’s incoming messages without a delay.
The advancement cellphones made in the last twelve years greatly impressed him. When he left Earth, his phone was adequate for voice function, text messages and capturing poor quality images. Now the device was a powerful computer he could hold in his hand.
When he accepted the bounty on Karl, Mads received a brief on Earth, filled with woefully outdated information. According to Reilen intelligence officers, Earth had not yet achieved rudimentary flight. Their primary source of power was burning fossils. Medical technology was crude. People died from infections at an alarming rate. Limbs were hacked off in a desperate attempt to save a life, to gruesome results.
The brief warned Mads of poor personal hygiene, inadequate public health measures, and repulsive living situations with insufficient sanitation. The cities were crowded and polluted. The rural areas were isolated and superstitious. Humans excelled at killing each other and had built elaborate weapons of war. They were violent and savage and prone to attack that which they did not understand.
Earth had been classified as highly dangerous and travel to the planet had been restricted to military and research personnel.
The brief deeply embarrassed Mads. The information may have been correct a century ago, but his people were too arrogant or too lazy to maintain it. They had written off Earth and humanity, and such an attitude reflected poorly on the reilendeer.
Earth was not the primitive place his people imagined, filled with crude technology and brutish humans. The local tech could not rival Reilen but humans had made stunning advancements in the last century.
He rebooted the phone and a message came through immediately. His chest swelled, hoping to find a text from Odessa or a missed call. At her request, he would respect her boundaries and not be a creepy stalker, despite that being exactly what he wanted to do. He would not seek her out but if they happened to be in the same location, as they were today, he would not ignore her.
