“Her contract is paid, and she has agreed to be my guide. Some idiot on that side has been screwing up orders. Countless telephone calls have failed to get the problem sorted out, so I have no other option than to go there myself.” Kane sighed deeply. “Believe me, it’s the last thing I want to do. But you know what these creatures are like.” He inclined his head towards Amara, hoping she would forgive him for the way he spoke about her.
“Bloody bunch of animals. That’s what they are, how can you expect them to behave intelligently when they have small brains?” the guard said.
Kane clenched his fist and then relaxed. So this was what it was like to be one of them, a shifter, disliked by the pure humans. But he forced himself to relax. He had to get through the gate and across into Shifters Prime.
“Right. We just need to take this one’s blood so we can cross-match it with the contract. Don’t want to let the wrong one go free.” The guard moved over to Amara. “Sleeve.”
Amara placed one of the suitcases down on the ground and rolled her sleeve up. The guard took a thing that looked like a gun and placed it against her skin. She flinched as it made a popping sound, but the guard took no notice or offered no apology for the pain. He simply looked at the small gun and then, when it beeped, cross-checked it with the contract.
“OK. You are clear to go. The DNA matches.” He stood back and they walked forward, Amara struggling with the cases, but Kane didn’t stop and offer to help. He simply looked in front, as if he had done this a thousand times and he didn’t have a voice in his head telling him to turn around and run as fast as he could in the opposite direction.
The huge gate opened and they went through. Into an empty courtyard.
“What’s this? There’s nothing here,” he said.
“This is no man’s land. Don’t turn around, but there are two big guns trained on us; it’s to stop anyone from the other side making a run for it. What they don’t know is that no one in their right mind would choose to come through these gates. There are other ways those in the Prime can come and go unseen.”
The gates shut behind them, a hiss as they were sealed, shutting off his old life, while in front of them, a small door stood ajar. He stopped, waiting for someone to come through and check their papers, but no one came.
“Just go through,” Amara said.
He ducked under the doorway and entered a small compound.
“OK, stop there,” a voice said, and a man appeared, a gun hitched over his shoulder.
“I am Kane Reinier, I have been sent…”
“I know who you are. And I still need to see your papers.” The guard, if that’s what he was, because he wasn’t wearing a uniform—unless jeans and a black T-shirt were it—took his papers.
“I think everything is in order. My uncle said there would be someone here to help us,” Kane said.
“There certainly is. But first I have to test your DNA. I want to be sure you are one of us.”
“I thought you were told not to,” Kane said, getting increasingly worried.
“Don’t worry, this is an informal check. I know what’s at stake, but I also know how many times they have tried to infiltrate us,” the guard said.
“Infiltrate you?” Kane asked.
“Yep. You know, this whole border thing works both ways. We don’t want them walking all over our land and spying on us, just as much as they don’t want us. So we check.” He pressed the gun against Kane’s neck.
“Ouch,” Kane said. It was as if he had been stung by the mother of all mosquitoes.
“Well, I don’t have anything to match it to, but you are one of us.” The guard put the gun back in a side holster. “I am pleased to welcome you to Shifters Prime.”
“Can we move away from the gates?” Amara asked nervously. “I keep thinking they will pull me back.”
“Not without trespassing on Shifters Prime soil. And anyway, they are too frightened of us.” He took the suitcases from Amara. “I am Frasier, and my job is to take you somewhere safe. So let’s go.”
Still dazed at being on the wrong side of the border, Kane followed Frasier. His new life was here now, but he wasn’t sure he wouldn’t prefer to run back and tell them he had made a mistake. Yet the scent of Amara, and the look of happiness on her face at being in her homeland, was enough to keep him here.
12
Frasier ushered them into a beaten-up old truck. “Sorry it isn’t anything better, but humans do like to keep us in the dark ages. The only vehicles over here are those that were left behind when the border went up. We’ve started to manufacture our own, but no new vehicles have made it this far south yet,” he told them.
“Really? You mean no vehicles at all come through to Shifters Prime?” Kane asked.
“No, big deliveries are done by freight train. There are stations along the border where goods are dealt with. It’s not so bad; you have to remember, for traveling, we can all shift into our animal and move that way. Unless you’re a mouse of course, then it gets mighty tiresome. Little guys hitchhiking, you should see them,” Frasier said.
“He’s joking,” Amara said, watching the expression on Kane’s face. “He’s a bear, bears have this weird sense of humour.”