The Emissary: A First Contact Novel by Michael J Edwards

Author:Michael J Edwards [Edwards, Michael J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9798985387902
Publisher: Ellida Publishing
Published: 2021-12-28T06:00:00+00:00

23

Anna accompanied the Emissary upstairs to her room. Robert followed them into the room, but Anna gave him a meaningful look.

"Let me know if you need anything," he said as he retreated back into the hall. The Emissary waved her hand in his direction without looking and sat on the edge of the bed. She began unbuttoning her blouse, looked down at her shoes, and then up at Anna.

"Can you help me with my shoes?"

Anna tugged her shoes and stockings off and helped her out of her blouse and skirt. She crawled under the covers and a few minutes later her breathing became slow and regular.

Anna sat on a padded chair near the French doors. The Emissary was a cypher. According to the dossier Tomás had given her, she was a strong, confident, self-sufficient woman who rarely needed help from anyone and did not readily ask for help when she did; a classic over-achiever, successful in everything she attempted, chosen to be one of the Jupiter Six, recruited by an alien being to be his representative on Earth, tasked with convincing the world to abandon what it had been doing for the last ten thousand years and start doing something else. Yet she needed her PPI's help to get undressed.

Not that she held that against her. This was probably the first time in her life she had experienced anything like what happened today. All things considered, she had acquitted herself well. Now that the threat was over, she had crashed, physically and emotionally. An adrenaline overload could do that to you if you didn't know how to handle it. It was no surprise she was sound asleep now. Her body knew what she needed.

This was not Anna's first assignment. The job sometimes required her to be more than a bodyguard. In many ways, it was an intimate job, if only because of her constant proximity to her principal. A PPI saw every side of the principal, the good and the bad alike. That made for a difficult balancing act: how to be there for the principal while still maintaining the professional distance needed to do your job well.

Social media was awash with rumors and conspiracy theories about the Emissary. In the absence of facts, people made stuff up. One particularly persistent rumor claimed she was not human at all; that she was some kind of android impersonating the real Holly Burton; that the real Holly Burton had died with the rest of the Jupiter Six at Ganymede.

Anna was a skeptical person by nature and generally dismissed conspiracy theories out of hand for the simple reason that they were almost always wrong. She also considered herself a good judge of people and was pretty sure the Emissary was the real deal. The woman put on a good face in front of others, but behind the persona she was as vulnerable and flawed as anyone; maybe more so than most. Things had gotten a little wild today, and she’d had a few bumpy moments, but she had held it together.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.