Jack And Anna - The Price of Fear (Epic Literary Universe Series)

Book summary

"Jack And Anna - The Price of Fear" follows newlyweds Anna Lenai and Jack Hunter as they attempt to adapt to life on Earth. Their challenge isn't just shapeshifting alien monsters, but also finding jobs in a tough economy while hiding their true identities. Anna seeks normalcy with new friends, but when a terrifying creature arrives through a wormhole, fear grips the city. Anna and Jack must navigate complex alliances among intelligence agencies and enigmatic Administrators, with the real danger lurking closer than they realize.

Excerpt from Jack And Anna - The Price of Fear (Epic Literary Universe Series)

Folding a purple shirt, Anna added it to a pile of several others that sat on the wooden shelf. She took a moment to inspect her work, noting that every garment was nice and square and neat.

Nodding once in satisfaction, she smiled and turned around. “Done!”

Chez Alice, a small women’s clothing store in the Rideau Centre, was filled with circular racks that held colourful dresses, skirts and tops. There wasn’t a whole lot of floorspace – you had to do some bobbing and weaving to get from one end of the store to the other – but she couldn’t say that the customers lacked choices.

Her boss stood behind the checkout counter.

A plump woman in her early thirties whose wardrobe consisted mostly of items found in the store, Camille always had a smile and a cheerful disposition. Well, almost always. She certainly liked Anna.

Ringlets of brown hair framed a round face with brown eyes that seemed to twinkle whenever she looked at you. Or maybe that was just a trick of the light. “Nice job, Anna,” Camille said. “I don’t know how I got along without you.”

Anna leaned against the shelf with her eyes downcast, chuckling as she nervously flicked a lock of hair off her cheek. “I’m just doing my best.”

Unlike Camille, she was quite short and rather petite. But they did share one thing in common: a notably round face. Anna’s bright red hair was tied back in a ponytail, with several loose locks falling just past her chin. Each of these contained two shin-ah beads inscribed with Leyrian characters expressing the virtues of courage and compassion. It was a popular style back on her world. It might stand out here on Earth, but she was only willing to go so far to protect her cover. Besides, her boss knew that she was Leyrian.

“I gotta admit,” Camille said. “I wasn’t expecting you to be so…diligent.”

Anna’s eyebrows went up. “So, you were expecting me to be lazy?”

The question put a wave of crimson in Camille’s cheeks. “No, it’s just…I mean…You never had a job before, right?”

Anna sauntered through the store with a friendly grin, deftly maneuvering around the racks. “I wouldn’t say that; I just never had a job that paid me money before.” Technically, that was a lie; Justice Keepers who lived on Earth were given a monthly stipend, but she was posing as a painter who had moved to this world after falling in love with one of the locals. “My aunt runs a small café back home, and I spent several summers working with her.”

“Well, that’s lovely!”

They were interrupted by the arrival of two young women – both high schoolers unless Anna missed her guess – who quickly started pawing through the clothes on a rack near the door. One of them kept yammering about some boy in her class while the other frowned as she inspected every garment.

“This one!” she said, pulling a blue dress off its hangar and draping it over her body as if to see how it looked. Her imperious stare zeroed-in on Anna with the efficiency of a guided missile. “Miss, do you have this in red?”

“I’ll have to check,” Anna said.

Turning on her heel, she hurried to the back of the store and ducked into the stockroom. Compared to the sales floor, this place looked downright shabby. A buzzing light in the ceiling flickered several times, and the scent of floor cleanser lingered in the air. The odds of finding what the girl was looking for were pretty slim. Only a few of the beat-up cardboard boxes contained merchandise, and most of that was out of season.

Dropping to one knee next to one of those mangled packages, Anna frowned as she lifted the lid. She found some shorts in there and some tank tops as well – none of which were likely to sell with Halloween just around the corner – but no dresses.

Anna wrinkled her nose and shook her head slowly. “Red dresses,” she muttered, getting back up on her feet. “Where might they have put the red dresses?”

She spotted another box on one of the metal shelves. That one looked like it just might be large enough. Grabbing a stepladder, she wheeled it over to the shelf and climbed up.

Lifting the box wasn’t a problem – not for someone with super strength – but when she finally got the damn thing open, she found nothing but hats inside. Well, it had been a long shot anyway. Camille could be downright fastidious when it came to getting merchandise out where the customers could see it. Generally speaking, if it wasn’t on the floor, then it wasn’t in the store.

Laughing softly, Anna shut her eyes and took a moment to contemplate the twist of fate that had brought her here. Six months ago, she was fighting aliens in huge, underground caverns, and now…Now, she was working at the mall. Not that she minded. Truth be told, she kind of liked it.

Stocking shelves and dealing with snippy teenagers might not be thrilling, but it gave her a chance to work on her acting skills. It was nice to have a job where the worst thing she had to worry about was sorting the latest shipment of tops by size and colour. Her real job provided more than enough action to keep her wits sharp.

A high-pitched trill from her watch made her flinch.

What was that Earth phrase that Jack often used in situations like this? Oh. Right. Speak of the devil.

The device on her wrist was a stripped-down version of a multi-tool. No holographic projector, no micro-fabrication unit. Just a simple, touchscreen interface that was good for making and receiving calls. She wore it because she wasn’t allowed to carry a phone on the sales floor.

Pressing her back against the wall, Anna lifted her forearm and pinched the watch between her thumb and forefinger. “What is it, Aamani?” she asked, speaking into the tiny microphone.

“Trouble. My agents think they’ve spotted an Overseer.”

“What?”

“That’s the third one we’ve found in Ottawa in as many weeks. We think they might be hunting you and Jack.”

Anna scrunched her eyes shut and banged the back of her head against the wall. “Good to see they’re still in full Ahab mode.” She and Jack had foiled several of the Overseers’ grand schemes over the years. It was safe to say there was no one else in the galaxy they despised more. “I don’t know how you expect me to get out of here without raising suspicions. I don’t get a break for another hour.”

“You’ll have to think of something.”

“Charming,” Anna growled, marching back to the door. She pushed it open just a crack. The two young women were still waiting on the sales floor, both looking rather impatient. “You know, maybe we need to have a talk about the utility of these cover jobs.”

“Not now, Anna. Just get over here. I’m texting you the location.”

Ending the call, she hurried out of the stockroom and strode across the store with a forced smile. “I’m sorry,” she said, approaching the two customers. “We don’t have that particular dress in red, but there are several others here–”

The girl rolled her eyes with an exasperated sigh. “Forget it,” she said, returning the blue one to its hanger. “I’m sure I can find it somewhere–” She cut off abruptly, tilting her head as she studied Anna. “You’re Leyrian.”

Anna blinked, startled by her unexpected knowledge. “That’s right.”

“Well, that explains it.”

“I’m sorry?”

The two girls giggled and put their heads together like they were sharing a secret, though neither one said much of anything. Turning their backs on her, they hurried away and joined the flow of people moving through the mall.

“Don’t mind them,” Camille said, checking something on her screen. “I told them we didn’t have what they were looking for.”

Spinning to face the other woman, Anna sucked in a deep breath and marched over to the checkout counter. “Camille, is there any chance I can take my break early? My husband left his meds in my purse and he needs me to-”

“No problem. It’s pretty dead around here anyway.”

“Thanks.”

Anna was out the door and bounding through the mall so fast she didn’t even hear Camille calling out to her. “Wait! You forgot your purse!”

***

After four hours on the job, Jack Hunter had run out of things to discuss with his supervisor. The two of them were stuck behind the counter at a cellphone kiosk, and they had quickly burned through every item on Jack’s list of safe topics. The weather, the Blue Jays, Mark’s planned vacation to the Caribbean: Each one was good for about two minutes of steady conversation. Five, if Jack really pushed his luck.

The influx of teenagers coming through the mall when school let out had provided a brief respite from the boredom – most kids loved gadgets, and phones were one of their favourites – but the flow of customers dwindled to a trickle when the dinner hour came and went. As closing-time approached, there was little to distract him from the disconcerting thoughts that flitted through his head.

Shopping malls could be downright creepy when business was slow. It was the silence, Jack realized. Places like this should be loud; they should be crowded. Thirty years ago, at the turn of the millennium, that would have certainly been the case. What else was there to do on a chilly Wednesday night in October? But times had changed.

Some people blamed the rise of online retailers. Others said it was the shrinking middle class. But one way or another, the Rideau Centre just wasn’t what it used to be.

As he looked out on the concourse with its white tiles and vaulted skylights, Jack couldn’t help but feel like he had somehow travelled back in time. Malls like this were a relic of a bygone era. His mother had told him once that when she was a girl, in the ‘90s, people used to come here just to hang out.

Not so, anymore.

He counted maybe twenty people moving through the long corridor that led to the food court. Most of them were alone, and those who had come with a friend weren’t saying much of anything. Get in, get your stuff and get out: As a teenager, he would have said that was how shopping was supposed to work. Now, he was starting to rethink that position. When you removed the socializing, the whole thing just seemed dystopian.

Many of the rental spaces that would have housed stores were closed and walled off behind metal gates. Small retail chains just couldn’t compete with the giant corporations these days. Apple and Sony and several others still had representation in the form of brick-and-mortar stores, but the little shops he remembered from his childhood? Most of them were gone.

As far as the big retailers were concerned, “get in, get your stuff and get out” was the recipe for a perfect customer. A quick exchange of cash with minimal human interaction. He was really starting to loathe this new job he had been forced to take.