Chapter 28: CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

Daniel de Montelier was checking his notes in Arak’s office in the old man’s home. He had buried himself behind a lot of paper work at the back of the room, trying to find out who might have killed Arak. He looked nothing at all like a man who worked for the RCMP. His red uniform and hat had been shed for more conventional clothing. His hair, usually combed, was in disarray, as if he had just crawled out of bed.

“Monsieur de Montelier,” someone beside him said.

“Oui?” He looked up. The script supervisor from the film was standing there, hands folded in front.

“I’m Giselle Lambert,” she said. “There’s a problem at the diner.”

“Oh. What kind of problem?”

“Colonel Westwood has been killed.”

“Thank you, Miss Lambert,” he said.

She didn't move. What was she expecting, some kind of payment for giving him that information?

“Thank you,” he said again. “I’ll take care of it.”

She left rather reluctantly. He pushed back his chair, stood up. What was he supposed to do? If he couldn’t find out who killed Arak, would he have the same trouble with Westwood’s killer?

The director of the film, Harold Creighton, ran up to him the moment he walked out of the diner. “You’ll have to arrest that alien,” he said, trying to catch his breath. “She killed Colonel Westwood.”

“Which alien?”

“The one that’s sticking her nose in everyone’s business.”

“Chandrha?”

“That’s the one.”

“I can’t do that.”

Creighton’s mouth hung open for a moment. “What? What are you talking about? That female... Chandrha. She killed him.”

“What do you expect me to do?”

“Arrest her.”

“I can’t.”

“Damn it, Montelier, you’re the law around here, aren’t you? A crime has been committed, so you have to charge...”

“The Canadian government has reached an agreement with the aliens. If people are stupid enough to tangle with aliens with poison in their claws, they have only themselves to blame. This country knows about the poison, the U.S. knows about the poison, the world knows about the poison. Unless Colonel Westwood just crawled out of the jungle, he knew about it too.”

“I don’t believe this.” Creighton raised his arms, let them fall to his side. “You mean she’s going to get away with murder?”

“Yes. I don’t agree with it myself, but what’s on my mind doesn’t matter, does it? I have to follow the law.”

Fenwick joined them, kept silent.

“I’ve got a film to shoot,” Creighton said. “I’m not sure I want to go through with this. Who’s going to be the next one to die? We’ll have to watch those aliens closely now.”

“Knock it off, Creighton,” Montelier said. “Chandrha, or any other alien, isn’t going to go around killing people indiscriminately. You Americans don’t know anything about them, do you?”

“I guess not,” Creighton said. “I can tell you this much, though: If the ship had landed on our soil, you and me wouldn’t even know about them.”

“I know. They’d be taken to a secret facility, and any trace of their spacecraft would have been removed. And if anyone had seen anything they’d be sworn to silence under the threat of national security. I know all about it.”

“That makes sense, doesn’t it? We have to be careful, you know.”

“Because you’re paranoid.”

“I think I’m ready for the next scene,” Fenwick said.

“You think? You think? Are you, or aren’t you?” Creighton turned his back to Montelier. “Let’s go.”

Harrison joined them a moment later. “Do I have to say that word?”

“What word?”

“You know the one.”

Creighton waved a hand in front of his face. “You smoking something, Harrison? You know there’s no smoking in the village.”

“No.”

“I think you’re lying. We could ask the aliens. Better not let me catch you.”

You are reading story Act Naturally at novel35.com

Montelier walked to Arak’s home to take a look at Westwood’s body. Since the Colonel was full of poison the aliens would have to handle it. Such a deadly poison, such an instant death. He shuddered as he thought about it.

Chandrha was still there, but she didn’t acknowledge his presence.

“What happened?” he asked.

“He grabbed my daughter, wanted to take her outside to force us to come with him.” Her mouth was open, and he could see the sharp canines that indicated meat was her main, no, her only diet. “You know we will defend our cubs until they have the poison in their claws.”

“I know, Chandrha.”

“I’ve never killed a human being.”

“I told him not to try and take you away from the village,” he said. “I warned him.”

“He wasn’t going to listen to you, was he?”

“No.”

“I’ll...” She hesitated, her eyes on the body again, muttered something about three days, at least, before the poison becomes ineffective. “We’ll have to keep the body away from everyone. If anyone touches it, and has a sore...”

“They could die.”

“They will die, Sen Montelier.”

He muttered something about an antidote. An impossibility.

“What’s going to happen now?”

“Nothing at this end,” he said. “As for the United States Air Force, I can’t say. I don’t know what Colonel Westwood’s itinerary was, but I’m sure he was scheduled to return to the U.S. at some time.”

“The Americans won’t like this,” she said, her voice full of dejection. He didn’t know what made him care for an alien he had no use for, a species he didn’t particularly like, but this female standing in front of him had her life changed in an instant, the instant it took her to extend her claws and bury them in a human attempting to kidnap her daughter.

“We’ll have to inform the Air Force,” he said.

“Why?”

“Everyone here knows about it. We can’t keep it a secret.”

She lowered her head, fiddled with fur on her chest. “I guess there’s no other choice.”

“I’m not a lawyer, Chandrha, but in legal terms, I guess you could call if defending your cub.” He shook his head. “Somehow, it doesn’t sound right the way I’m putting it.”

“They’ll want to come after me,” she said. “They’ll come here, and they’ll find me guilty without hearing all the facts just because I’m from another world. Our minds don’t work the same as yours, Sen Montelier. Someone attacks us, we defend ourselves, and that means our claws. Someone takes our cubs, hurts our cubs, we defend them, with our claws.”

“Let me tell you something, Chandrha: When I came here, I didn’t like you aliens, but now that I’ve been here a while, I’ve come to know you better. I’ve read about you, and I know what you’re like. The media, a lot of humans, still have reptilians on their minds. The media is sensationalist; they report what people want to hear. The more sensational, the better. If... when Americans find out what happened here, they’ll be all over this village like a frame around a painting. They’ll take you and make an example of you, tell the world you’re a killer, and if you can kill a human, why not the others?”

“But you said we have to inform the Air Force.”

“We do, but we have to do it the right way.”

“What if they ask me questions?”

“They won’t,” he said. “I’ll do all the talking.”

“Who are you going to call then?”

“I don’t know. I might have to go through Westwood’s personal effects. Maybe there’s a phone number of an email address where I can reach someone.”

“Sen Montelier?”

“Yes?”

“I’m scared.”

“It was Colonel Westwood’s fault. He shouldn’t have done what he did.”

“Thank you.”

“You know what? I don’t know why I’m doing this. I could get into a lot of trouble.”

“I was going to ask questions, but I haven’t got around to that yet.”

“Ask,” he said. “I want to find out who killed him as much as you do.”

“After I find a place to put the body,” she said.

You can find story with these keywords: Act Naturally, Read Act Naturally, Act Naturally novel, Act Naturally book, Act Naturally story, Act Naturally full, Act Naturally Latest Chapter