When it stopped speaking, Zac poked his head out from under the pillow and comforter to listen. There was no glow from the slightly ajar door. No sound. Tina and the men had gone to bed.
He ducked under his shelter again and ordered the tracker to repeat the information, straining hard to decipher what came after Dramok.
He thought he heard kraz within the abrupt syllables. There had been a Dramok Ovkraz present during the emergency training simulation. Could that be who was in charge of searching the area where his house was? He listened again.
Yes. It definitely spoke the name Ovkraz.
“Save search.” When the tracker beeped its compliance, Zac told it to deactivate. It went dark, and he snuck to the closet, returning it to his jacket pocket. Then he got into bed.
He stared at the nightlight for a long while. His mind twisted and turned, even after sleep tugged him into worrisome dreams.
* * * *
Zac came down the hall in the morning tired and sullen, leaving Tina cooing and giggling with Callie as she readied the toddler for the day. Breakfast smelled good, but his stomach felt icky, as it usually did when he hadn’t slept well.
Yorso hailed him from the kitchen as he emerged from the hall. “Hey, Zac. How many sausages do you want with your pancakes?”
“Two.”
Tukui emerged from the master bedroom. He grinned at Zac, as if the afternoon before had made them the best of friends. “Want to go on a supply run with me after lunch? It’s within the secured zone, and that toy store is on the route.”
Tina came in with Callie on her hip. “Mr. Garcia said this after lunch would be perfect for painting your puppets. He has a schedule for each phase they need to complete, so Zac can rehearse his act before the talent show.”
Zac scowled. His head hurt from his disturbed sleep. He still felt scared after the last nightmare, in which Yorso had been trying to force him to drink poisoned water from the blast zone. “I want toys. Puppets can wait.”
“Mr. G is spending a lot of time to help you with those, big guy. You should respect him by working with him today.”
“No problem. I’ll delay the trip until tomorrow, if Zac is free then.” Tukui took a plate of pancakes and sausage from Yorso and set it in front of the boy.
“Perfect. I need Zac’s help with making and distributing notices about the talent show this morning anyhow.”
Being pushed around by the adults was a one-two punch. Zac was disappointed he wouldn’t get to go with Tukui. He was also angry that he’d rather hang out with a Kalquorian than make puppets with nice Mr. Garcia.
He jumped up from the table. “I want toys!”
“You’ll get them, because Tukui will take you tomorrow. Sit and eat, okay? We have to go soon.”
Tina always did what the Kalquorians wanted. She wouldn’t let Zac get toys, and she wouldn’t take him to his parents. Why did she have to like the aliens better than her own brother?
He wanted to cry, and that infuriated him. Instead, he ran to Tina, balled up his fist, and hit her on the arm. Callie, held by Tina, startled and began to cry. Zac ignored her.
“Toys now!”
He wasn’t sure what happened next. His surroundings whirled and blurred, then he was standing on the balcony outside. He turned, and Osopa, who’d not been in sight when he’d thrown the fit, closed the glass door between the balcony and the living room. The terrifying Nobek stood over him, staring.
Behind the glass, Tukui was keeping Tina from running out to join them, talking to her. Yorso was rushing from the kitchen, his expression alarmed.
Osopa stepped closer, blocking Zac’s view of the inside. Zac backed to the iron railing and looked at the apartment building’s grounds. He would have yelled for help, but there were only other Kalquorians roaming in sight. Zac cringed.
Osopa crouched. Even then, he was taller than Zac, a purple-eyed giant who could squash a human boy like a bug.
“Unacceptable.”
The single word was spoken quietly, not yelled. Yet Zac detected a hum underneath, similar to a live electrical wire. Zac had once seen such a wire that had been knocked down by a fallen tree. Daddy had explained how deadly live wires were, and to avoid them at all costs.
Osopa didn’t look angry. He didn’t look as if he felt anything. But that sense of a hum told Zac there was danger.
“We are men. Men never hit women in anger. Especially women holding children in their arms. No matter how disappointed you are about the situation, your behavior is an offense.”
Daddy had taught him not to hit girls either. It was wrong. Zac dropped his gaze from Osopa’s, the rising heat of shame making him angry and sick at once.
It’s not fair.
Osopa’s voice kept coming, kept hurting him despite how quiet it was. “You saw my men yesterday. How fierce and ready to battle they are. Not one of them would hit a female. Only weaklings do such things. Are you a weakling, Zac?”
Zac shook with humiliation and fury. He wished he was grown. He wished he could teach Osopa a lesson. He wished he could shut Osopa up.
But he was a little boy. He couldn’t make anybody do anything, including sending him home.
“My daddy’s going to come and get me. When he does, you’ll be sorry.” As he uttered the threat, Zac pictured his father. Daddy wasn’t as tall or as muscled as Osopa. He was kind of fat.
But he was the only protector Zac could imagine. Hot tears scalded the child’s cheeks as he stood up to the Kalquorian, his heart pounding as he waited to be destroyed. He repeated, “He’ll make you sorry.”
“Until he does, you’ll behave with decency towards your sisters. You won’t raise a hand to them again, or there’ll be consequences. Do you understand me?”
Osopa didn’t tell him what the consequences would be. Zac could imagine some pretty awful punishments, though.
He hated Kalquorians. He especially hated Osopa.
“Do you understand me, Zac? I’m waiting for your answer.”
Hating, hating, hating. But Zac was a weakling, so he had to do what the awful man told him to, at least for now.
“I understand.”
* * * *
Late in the afternoon, Tina entered the cafeteria to reclaim Zac from Mr. Garcia. Callie chattered on her hip, fresh and smiling after her nap in the crib that had been set up in Yorso’s office.
Tina was rejuvenated after her day off too. It was amazing what a little rest could do for a person’s outlook. The morning’s unpleasantness with Zac wasn’t the cataclysm it would have been a couple days before.
He’d been good as gold afterward, helping her post talent show flyers around the site. Zac had been even better when she’d dropped him off with the Garcias, excited to paint his Tyrannosaurus puppet.
“He’s feeling guilty over having enjoyed himself with his rivals yesterday,” had been Yorso’s opinion as they’d worked. “He looked as if he’d hadn’t gotten enough sleep either. Hey, I have the ingredients for that pizza he’s been begging for. That should put him in a good mood.”
Tina hoped her Imdiko was right, and that the coming evening would be nice for the family. Yesterday’s positive strides couldn’t have been an anomaly. It had to work out between Zac and her clan.