Page 52 of Badass Alien Boss

“Not yet—wait for it.” She’d already reviewed the hologram, and her nerves jittered with anticipation.

Walking, walking. One block. Two blocks. Nothing useful yet.

“It’s coming…”

A bright purple-plumaged bird swooped out of nowhere and landed on the man’s head. He swatted until it flew away squawking. After adjusting his ski-mask cap, he ducked his head again and continued down the street until he entered a building. The hologram ended.

“I’m going to rewind to just after the bird and freeze the action.” She keyed in the precise second needed to show the man, his face upturned, hat askew, looking directly into the street cam. “And, magnify…” She enlarged the image 50 percent.

Five bumpy nodules outlined his hairline.

Ruyn sucked in a breath. “He’s Prellim.”

“It can’t be a coincidence both of us were attacked by Prellims.”

* * * *

Michaela hadn’t been nervous, at first, convinced the allergic reaction had been a one-off, well, two-off, on an alien planet. But after relating what had happened to the doctor, transmitting Adanna’s report, getting blood drawn, and being scanned and probed by a med-bot, what-ifs resurfaced.What if there’s something seriously wrong with me?

She clung to Ruyn’s hand as they waited for the doctor to come deliver the verdict. Since they were dealing with life-threatening anaphylactic shock, the doc had put a rush on the test results.

“It’s going to be okay,” Ruyn said. “I can feel it.”

“Probably.” She tried to stay positive.

“I’m sure of it.”

The door opened, and Dr. Prymr entered. “Sorry for the wait, I had to check on a few things.”

“Is it good news or bad?”For god’s sake, tell me!

“It’s a puzzle. Nothing you ate on Elyxis 4 should have caused you to go into anaphylactic shock.”

“Then what did?”

He spread his hands. “I can only guess—possibly pollens. The planet has been so heavily terraformed, there’s no telling what’s been planted over there or where it came from. You did say you went to a botanical garden. You could have had a reaction to pollens or an insect bite. Whatever it was, it’s not showing up anymore.”

“I guess that’s good.”

“What is good is that nothing on this planet should cause you a problem.”

“I’m not staying on Luturna for much longer,” she said. “We have a trip planned.”

“When? Where to?” Dr. Prymr asked.

“We haven’t decided yet,” Ruyn answered.

“You might hold off for a day or two. I’m sending your blood sample to a lab at Luturna Medical Center, which has a more advanced analyzer than we do. Our analyzer detected a minute quantity of an unknown trace element in your blood.

“The Luturna Med is a testing hospital allied with Atmos Sphere, an Oberian product development company specializing in medical equipment. Before Atmos Sphere releases a new medical device in the marketplace, Luturna tests it in the field, so to speak. So, they like unusual cases. They’ll be thrilled to get your sample.”

I’m an unusual case?That didn’t reassure her.

“What do youthinkit is?” Ruyn asked.

“I don’t know. You are human,” he said to Michaela. “The trace element could be perfectly normal to your species, or itcould be a foreign body you acquired on Elyxis 4. It is not something originating from this planet.”

“A foreign body!”