“Help yourself. Forget taking off his shirt. I’m too worn out.” Amanda lay back on the carpet. “I’ll just die here for a while.”

Lauren walked to the bar that separated the kitchen from the living room and sat down on the barstool. She reached for Amanda’s phone and dialed information. She groaned when the automated voice answered.

“Damn automation,” she muttered. She gave them the city she thought was right and the state. “NSO,” she said clearly. She repeated it. She was put on hold for a person.

Lauren asked for the number of the NSO. They didn’t have a listing. She asked for the number by their full name. “It’s the New Species Organization.” They found the number and she wrote it down and dialed.

A man answered. “NSO Homeland. How may I direct your call?”

Lauren took a deep breath. “Hello. My name is Lauren Henderson. I didn’t know who else to call but I have a New Species man in my friend’s living room about ten feet from where I’m sitting. He’s been shot with some kind of dart and he’s out cold. I need you to send help for him.”

There was silence on the other end of the line for a few seconds. “It’s against the law to make crank calls to us, female.”

“This isn’t a crank call. His name is Wrath and he’s living at headquarters. That’s all they referred to it as. I was taken by him yesterday because he said I was working with someone who used to be an employee for Mercile Industries. We went into my office today to try to find the person he’s hunting but it turned out that almost everyone in the office seemed to work for Mercile. They shot him with some kind of drugged dart. I got him out of there but I—”

The man cut her off. “You said his name is Wrath?”

“Yes.”

The man growled. “I have a list of all New Species right in front of me. There is no one named Wrath. Female, if you ever call here again I will send the police to your home. We have your address right here. Any incoming calls are immediately traced.” He recited Amanda’s address. “Never call here again.” He hung up.

Lauren clenched her teeth. She turned her head to stare at Wrath. He was definitely New Species. She dialed again and the same man answered.

“Listen to me, whoever you are. I’m looking at him. He’s right here in the living room. Please send someone to arrest me because when they get here they are going to take one look at him and know I’m not lying. He’s been shot with a dart and he’s unconscious. He needs help, I’m worried about him, and have no idea what was in that dart. I was told not to dial 9-1-1 so I haven’t. They took two more of your people, are holding two women hostage and hurt a man named Brian. He was bleeding in an alley.”

“Who did this to the male and those others you mentioned?” He sounded bored.

“My boss and some of my coworkers. They took two of your people at gunpoint and were going to put them in the courtesy van my company owns. They—”

“Don’t call here again, damn it. Call a head shrink.” The man hung up.

“Fuck!” Lauren hit the top of the bar.

“He didn’t believe you?” Amanda lifted her head.

Lauren was pissed. “No. He hung up on me again. I wish I knew where headquarters was but I wasn’t paying much attention when we left there.”

“Well, all you can do is hope that whatever they shot him with wears off soon and then he can tell us what to do.”

Lauren pushed off the barstool and walked toward him. She sank down on her knees and put her hand on his chest while she studied his face. She removed the glasses with gentle fingers, stroked his cheek and hoped that he’d wake soon.

“I hope it was just a sedative. What if it wasn’t?”

“We’ll watch him and if he stops breathing or something, we’ll call for an ambulance.”

Lauren nodded. She shifted her body, getting comfortable, to stay by Wrath’s side. She wasn’t about to let anything happen to him.

* * * * *

Saturn shook his head, trying to shake off his anger. Didn’t humans have anything better to do than screw with him? He got a bunch of crazy calls every day. An hour before a female had called to see if she could hire a Species to be present at her child’s birthday party as if one of them would visit just to entertain children. The call before that was from a man saying he wanted to marry a Species female. Now a female was calling to tell him someone in a courtesy van was kidnapping his people and she had one of them in her living room. He snorted.

“Bad day?” Tiger, his supervisor, smiled.

“I hate phone duty,” Saturn admitted. “Humans are crazy.”

Tiger nodded. “I know. I can never decide if the ones who call to tell me to die are worse than the ones who call and ask me if they can get a ride back with us to our home planet.”

“Direct line, Tiger,” a female Species called out. “It’s Tim Oberto and there’s a problem.”

Tiger cursed. Four—no, three—of his Species males were working with Tim’s task force. He prayed there wasn’t another issue. One of the males had already turned out to be unstable and unfit for duty. He hoped another one of them hadn’t cracked under the pressure. He walked to the phone and lifted it to his ear.

“What is wrong?”

“We have a big f**king problem. One of my men and all three of yours have been taken. We’re tracking two of your men and our man at this moment. They had their uniforms on and they are tagged. We’re in pursuit and we should have them at any time unless they are stripped of their clothes. Unfortunately one of your men wasn’t wearing his uniform and didn’t take a tracker. We have no idea where he is, Tiger. He’s off radar unless he’s with the others.”