Damage Control - ARC Read Online Free

novel she'd been reading
before she'd gone out for the mail.
    He put his front-piece back on, picked up the
soup pot by its bail handle and took her arm again. She closed the
stove-drafts, and he pulled her out of the house.
    "What is that thing for?" she asked as they
walked north into the forest. She pointed to the stiff thing he
wore on the front of his body.
    "It is armor. It was originally for battle,
but since its protection is useful for many activities, we wear
them most of the day."
    "And the design on the front? The gold
circles?"
    "They indicate my rank and command: zeed,
Alien Command."
    A brilliant red maple that still had most of
its leaves caught Jade’s eye. She let her head turn to enjoy the
view. He had her firmly by the arm, so she didn’t really need to
look where she was going. She didn’t know whether he would let her
fall if she tripped, but it didn’t matter. What mattered was that
she was being dragged into the forest by some weirdo. For all she
knew, he could be a serial killer on the run. She was glad her
daughter was in school. What she needed to do was find a way to
convince her captor to go back, at least as far as the house, and
hopefully as far as the road. At least there someone might see
them. “Do you know what’s wrong with your vehicle?” she asked
him.
    “Yes,” he said, and nothing more. He let go
of her arm.
    “Would you mind telling me?” she prodded.
    “No,” he said. Still nothing more.
    “So, um…are you going to tell me?” she asked,
after a pause.
    “If you want me to tell you, then I
will.”
    Jade rolled her eyes. “Please tell me what’s
wrong with your vehicle,” she recited.
    “The primary seal of the cooling fluid
container for the second combustion chamber contained cellulose and
fructose.”
    Jade suppressed a laugh. Spaceship parts made
of cellulose and fructose, what a fantasy! “Is it supposed to?” she
asked.
    “I do not understand,” her abductor replied,
serious as ever. He walked very close to her: even if he was one of
those guys whose size made them slow runners, he could still grab
her if she tried to make a run for it. She kept up her pace.
    “Is—that thing—supposed to be made of
cellulose and fructose?” she asked, managing somehow to keep a
straight face.
    He shook his head. “Cellulose and fructose
are combustible,” he explained patiently. “They burned and the seal
changed shape and caused a leak. The factory workers failed to
install the secondary seal.”
    Jade didn’t pay a lot of attention to the
explanation. “Don’t you need to bring some tools?” she asked. “We
have lots of tools at my house. I keep a basic set in my car, and
then there are more in the shed. Shouldn’t we grab some?”
    “Yes,” he replied, but he didn’t sound very
interested.
    It had worked. Jade stopped and began to turn
back. “What tools do you need, exactly?” she asked, trying to sound
casual.
    He grabbed her arm and forced her forward,
back in the direction they had been going—northeast, uphill, away
from the road. Her only hope of getting help out there would be if
they happened to meet a hunter.
    “But you said you need to get tools from my
place,” she objected, looking up at him. She opened her eyes as
wide as she could. Maybe he’d feel sorry for her, and
reconsider.
    “No,” he replied. “I said yes, I do not need
tools from your house. I need a tachzute combiner, and there is one
in my vehicle.”
    A new thought suddenly occurred to Jade: if
'Zuke' was delusional—really believed his own story—then would he
become violent when he discovered there was no spaceship? She
walked for a minute, thinking, silent except for the rustling sound
her feet made in the leaves. Then she said, "Does your vehicle have
a self-destruct function?"
    "I will not answer."
    "Okay, that's fair. But if it does—and it's
in need of repair—then the self-destruct could theoretically go off
accidentally, right?"
    "I don't know."
    "And if