Page 24 of King from the Sky

“Maybe it is just too cold? It might need to be warmed up a bit first?” Alex wondered out loud. But then shook his head at the absurdity. “No, that isn’t right. The machine has that much power I don’t think something as silly as temperature can affect it.”

“I wouldn’t think so,” Emily offered her agreement.

“It is going to bother me until I figure it out,” Alex laughed.

“I know. But you just have to keep your head on straight until you do,” Emily said.

“I like to think I’m pretty level-headed about things,” Alex replied.

Emily smiled back at his confidence, but she had to agree that the man really was pretty level-headed about everything. She had yet to see him get truly flustered or upset. She had seen him angry a few times, but she imagined that was just so that he could fight better. Rage was often a more suitable emotion for fighting than calmness was. She understood that, but it was very strange the way that Alex was able to turn that rage completely off and just be himself instantly again afterwards. It was like he could will himself to feel whatever he wanted to whenever he wanted. That might have been the reason he was even keel all of the time; he was able to will it out of him at all times. Emily was not sure how healthy that sort of behavior was though and she wished he was a bit more honest with his feelings. In that way Alex was a very typical guy; he never talked about his emotions and pretended not to even have any, but in his case she was fairly certain now that he was able to just turn them off. She wanted to see how she could get him to stop doing that, but she imagined it might have been crucial to the mission.

She respected and admired it in a lot of ways. She had always felt like she showed too much emotion in the world sometimes and that was a vulnerability that people liked to exploit.

About ten miles outside of Moscow they saw the perfect opportunity to get rid of the car when they pulled into a diner by the side of the road. They got out of the SUV and Alex quickly found an older truck that was not locked. He hotwired it in less than a minute and within two minutes they were on their way down the road into town.

The city was beautiful at night. The way the lights shone brightly in the sky was epic in its majesty. Emily had always loved to see a city at night from a distance. To witness that spectacle from afar when you were getting steadily closer and closer to it was a magical feeling that felt like you were moving towards a sweet reward for your travels. It was like something you had been dreaming of for so long and finally it was in front of you and it was far more than what you expected. She felt like she was not finishing a journey, but starting a new one within the confines of that sweet city space.

Emily kept expecting to see the police or the mob right on their trail at every turn as they made their way through the busy streets of Moscow. For such an old city with such a long history it felt weird to see so much modernism everywhere. Like most Americans Emily kept imagining a place like Moscow to be very much behind the times, but she was pleasantly surprised to see it was like a lot of cities in America.

They eventually found their way to the hotel in the center of town. Surprisingly it was an upscale hotel, the likes she had never really stayed in before. She looked at Alex at first like he might be joking. How in the world were they going to keep a low profile in a place like this? For all she knew they were actually walking into a mob run hotel. The place appeared as if it might have a casino inside of it.

“What?” Alex asked as he watched Emily’s incredulous gaze.

“You are joking right? We can’t stay here; we will get made for sure.”

“You would think that, but it is actually going to be a great cover for us. Just let me do the talking and everything will be fine,” Alex said flashing that winning smile at her again.

“I definitely have a bad feeling about this place,” Emily said.

They went inside and checked in. Much to Emily’s surprise Alex began to speak perfect Russian as he conversed with the hotel desk clerk. She had no idea what he was saying or how he had picked up Russian in the few days they had spent there and it was almost impossible for her to keep a straight face and pretend to be Russian too. She did not say anything and luckily the desk clerk did not ask her anything at all. Emily just did her best to stand to the side and relax with a smile on her face.

When they got to their room Emily was shocked at how lavish it was. It was like stepping into the world of the super-rich and she expected to see the crew of MTV Cribs come rushing into the room at any minute. The bed was huge and covered with fancy gold colored blankets that were perfectly tucked in with hospital corners. The television was fifty inches wide and hung on the wall like a beautiful painting. The bathroom was huge with a beautiful walk in shower with heads at either side of the shower as well as a huge six person Jacuzzi in the corner of the bathroom.

“How the hell did we end up here?” Emily asked as she plopped down on the bed.

“Oh, I told you I have a few surprises up my sleeve,” Alex said as he joined her. He leaned in and kissed her gently as he wrapped his arm around her.

“I’ll say. But seriously, where did you get the money for this?”

“I overrode a bank’s computer,” Alex said.

“What?”

“Well, your computer system technology here is pretty basic compared to what we have on my planet. It was easy to set up an account and hijack the bank to pour money into my account.”

“What? You mean you are stealing?”

“No. The funds are hypothetical and don’t really exist until I tell the bank to generate them. And it is not a legit bank either; it is a bank that is run by the Russian mob who wants me dead.”

Emily shook her head and laughed as she lay down on the comfortable bed. The man was too much. He was the kind of guy that every mother warns their daughter about, but he really had a heart of gold at the end of the day. Emily did not feel the least bit bad about taking money from criminals who had already tried to kill her twice.

“So, I’m cold as can be,” Alex said. “My planet doesn’t have these extreme temperatures like you guys do here, so I’m not used to it at all. I hear that Jacuzzi calling my name if you want to join me.”

Within a minute Alex was standing there in front of her, bare assed naked and walking into the bathroom. Emily joined him three minutes later.

The tub was almost completely full as she climbed in, easing her body gently into the warm steamy water. The contrast of temperatures between the cold that she had felt before and the heat of the water was exhilarating. At first it was almost too much to take as her foot slowly moved into the water, but after her body began to acclimatize she allowed the rest of herself to dip into the water.

Once her body was submerged she was able to lean back and just relax. The heat invaded her pores warming her body up almost instantly. Her muscles began to loosen and she could almost sense the blood rushing to her skin and the glow that radiated off her body at that moment.