The Alien Warrior King's Accountant - Loki Renard Page 0,39
wish. Never mind, thanks for the help.”
My boss is in collusion with a pretend doctor to get me to take some shit that he says will make me more sane. I don’t think that’s the case. I think he’s going to kill me. I think I know too much. Or maybe I’ve gone all paranoid and delusional.
No. I’m not the paranoid one. They are the paranoid one.
It makes sense now, why there are so few older accountants. He sends them into space and then offs them when they return, pocketing all that sweet, sweet alien money.
I have no proof of this besides the pill sitting on the formica between us, one rogue piece of evidence which freaks me out even as I find myself unable to look away.
“Let me take half,” Derrick says. “I can run some tests and see if I can work out what’s in it.”
“Okay. Check for poison.”
“You think someone’s trying to poison you? Are you okay, Tania? If you're in trouble, you can tell me.”
Suddenly, I find myself suspicious of him. I don't know why. Maybe his expression looks too earnest. Maybe he's somehow in on it all. Conspiracies surround me, hidden lies and unknown truths posing a threat to my very existence.
I have to try to keep it together. If I end up in some kind of facility for people who don't interact with reality well, then I won't be able to help myself. I have to stay sane. Even though I don't know what’s going on, I am going home with another piece of the puzzle, more clues for my blues.
At three in the morning, though what morning I cannot specify, my phone rings. I answer it, hoping that by some strange coincidence, it is Tyrant.
It is not Tyrant.
It is Derrick.
“Hi Tania.”
“Derrick, hi. How are you?”
“There’s cyanide in that pill, Tania. Not enough to kill you immediately, but enough to poison you. If you took those regularly, you’d be very ill within a couple of weeks, and likely dead within a month.”
“Whoa.”
“Yeah. Whoa. You should be careful. Someone’s out to get you.”
I hang up, in case someone is listening in on the call. I’m not paranoid. They’re actually trying to get me. Mr. Rogers is trying to kill me. He’s probably been working on it all along, ever since I got back.
I have to play along, and then I have to escape.
I could run away somewhere in the world, but who knows what alien technology Mr. Rogers has access to. He might be able to find me anywhere. In order to be truly safe, I have to get off the planet completely. I have to find an alien willing to swing by and pick me up.
I don’t know that Tyrant fits the bill, but I do know that he is the only alien I know. I saved him once. Now I need him to save me.
10 The Escape
“How are you feeling today?”
“So much better, thank you,” I smile at Mr. Rogers, who smiles back as if he has a clear conscience. What a monster. “The doctor was very helpful. And now, I have so much work to catch up on.”
I work all day, repressing the urge to go absolutely batshit on my boss. I bury myself in work, preparing accounts which matter to someone who doesn't know that there are aliens out there.
“Five o’clock!” Mr. Rogers announces. I am buried in paperwork when he enters my little office, so it’s not hard to make being busy believable.
“Wow, is it five o’clock already? I feel like I’m just getting started. The medication the doctor gave me has really given me a whole new lease on work. Mind if I stay an extra couple hours? I’m just so far behind on these accounts.”
“Alright, but don’t overdo it,” Mr. Rogers says with a wink which I used to find kind of charming, but now seems like the twitch of a psychotic murderer, because it is.
He has left me here many times before. There were some nights I used to work past midnight, so this isn’t out of character for me. The old me. The me he wasn’t trying to murder. Unlike the first day I tried to stay behind, he seems to have lost his fear of me trying to get into his office. Sucker.
“See you tomorrow, boss!” I manage what I consider to be a reasonably human smile, and I think I’ve managed it.
The second after the first hour of him being gone, I go and