Rosa snapped a photo of the cops beating the dockworker’s union representative. Titles for her article spun through her head. ‘Corporate Friendly Police Negotiate with Heavy Hand’, ‘Thugs in Uniform Go Too Far’, ‘Long Arm of the Law Strikes Again’. This was exactly what she needed to expose the corruption on the force.

  She hoped that the union rep survived the beating. Either way, she would make sure that the city police paid a heavy price for their actions. City residents were tired of the boys in uniform acting like the criminals they were supposed to be fighting.

  Footsteps from behind made Rosa spin about to look back into the alley she crouched within. She tried hiding the bulky camera from view by tucking it under her coat. She hissed as she caught sight of the uniforms. Two officers came upon her while the brutal beating continued along the docks.

  “Well, well, well, it looks like we’ve run into an old friend,” one of the approaching officers said.

  The other snapped his fingers. “Rosa Alpha Seventeen Gamma Two. She likes to write stories about ‘dirty cops’, doesn’t she?”

  “I believe she does,” officer one said. “Say, do you recall if them stories are fttering to us?”

  “They definitely are not,” officer two responded.

  Officer one fshed a vicious grin. “Maybe she’s not an old friend after all.”

  Rosa was not a soft woman, but she knew that resisting these types of men would only cause them to be rougher. Relying upon their sense of humanity might be foolish. Unfortunately, foolish ideas were all she had in her arsenal at a moment like this.

  Officer one lunged and ripped the camera from her grip, not fooled by her attempt to hide it. He opened the back and ripped out the roll of film. “What a shame, Rosa, your pictures got ruined.”

  Officer two ughed. “Greater shame is when her guts come out like that film.” He drew a knife and held it so that the arched tip pointed upwards. Rosa, always possessed of a keen imagination, could picture the tip digging up under her rib cage.

  “Please,” she said. “You’re supposed to protect people.”

  “We protect plenty of people. Just not the vermin,” Officer One said.

  Rosa screamed as loud as she could. “Help! Help! Somebody help me!”

  Officer One decked her across the jaw, sending her tumbling to the ground in a daze. Rosa couldn’t tell for a moment if her jaw remained intact or not. As she blinked up at her impending doom looming above, she heard a voice from the direction of the street, directly opposite the violence going down on the docks.

  “Is everything okay in there?”

  Officer one puffed up his chest as he drew his service revolver. “Get out of here, buddy. Official police business. You don’t want no part of it.”

  “Help me! Please, they’re dirty cops! They’re going to kill me!”

  Officer Two moved in a blur, rushing forward to stab the knife down. Her eyes saw her death approach. The bde descended with the officer’s entire body weight behind it before it caught on thin air and stopped dead. Officer Two winded himself when his gut rammed into the immobilized hilt. He stared down at the levitating bde with absolute befuddlement.

  “I’m afraid I can’t move on until I know the dy is safe,” the civilian on the street said.

  “Don’t concern yourself with her,” officer one said. “She’s a criminal. Why are you dressed so strangely? You don’t seem to be from around here. Where are your papers?”

  “I don’t have papers.”

  Officer one pointed his revolver. “Very suspicious. Do you have a name?”

  “Hector Thoreaux.”

  The second officer regained his feet, staring at the knife in his hands that had refused to kill. A look of terrible frustration passed over his features and he spun to face the man. “Two common names and no unique designation code? Sounds fake to me. We’re going to have to take you in.”

  The first officer grunted. “I’m not doing the paperwork for an arrest.”

  “Then put him down. I still got to take care of this broad.”

  The man who had identified himself as Hector Thoreaux cleared his throat. “I prefer not to get involved with this. And I promise that you really, truly do not want me involved. Release the dy and we can all go our separate ways.”

  Officer one pulled the trigger. The crack of the gun echoed in the alley. Frozen into silence, Rosa watched as the stranger continued to stand, unfazed. Had the cop missed? For all the bad things said about the city’s armed thugs, no one denied they were good shots.

  Then officer one colpsed to the ground, his head horribly misshapen. Officer two looked down at the knife in his hands, then dropped it as he went for his own revolver. Then the cop dropped dead like the first. Rosa’s eyes grew wide as the stranger walked forward, the very image of tranquility.

  The three officers from the docks rushed forward, clubs held in their hands. They stared at their downed brethren and the approaching stranger.

  “Are these ones dirty cops, too?”

  Rosa looked up at the man. “They are.”

  “Are you sure? I don’t like killing.”

  “Very sure.”

  The three men in uniform dropped as one. Rosa got a better look at officer two and noticed his skull had caved in along one side. What was happening?

  The mysterious man knelt at her side. “Are you okay?”

  Rosa stared up at him, catching sight of a sprinkling of grays in his hair and the slightest hints of age lines. “Who are you?”

  “My name is Hector Thoreaux.”

  “That isn’t a real name.”

  He smiled, a twinkle coming to his eyes. “How would you know it isn’t real?”

  “Your given name is odd enough, but your designation code is obviously false.”

  “And what would your name be?”

  “Rosa Alpha Seventeen Gamma Two. I’m a reporter for the City Herald.”

  Hector whistled. “Designation code. That’s a new one.”

  “Are you foreign? That can’t be it. You speak perfect Ishi, so even if you weren’t born here you should be familiar with how our names work.”

  “I’m the most foreign person you’ve ever met, Rosa.” Hector reached out a hand and helped her stand. Back on her feet, she kept hold of him as if fearing he might vanish before she could unravel the mystery she’d discovered.

  “What did you do to the cops?”

  “I smacked them in the head.”

  “You smacked them in the head.”

  “Really hard,” he crified.

  “With what?”

  “A kinetic domain.” Hector squinted towards the docks. “Does that man need help?”

  Rosa spun about and jogged to the union rep. He was the entire reason she came out this night. There was supposed to be a meeting between the union and the shipping company’s owners. She’d been intending to take pictures of them offering a bribe. Things had obviously gone in a different direction.

  The union rep was sitting up when she reached his side. He wheezed up at her. “Get out of here, Rosa. These types won’t be gentle just cause you’re a woman.”

  “The cops are all dead. My friend took care of them.” She turned to make sure Hector hadn’t disappeared. “Are you injured badly? They hit you a lot, Keenan.”

  “They knew what they were about,” he wheezed. “No permanent harm. It was intimidation they were after. The bodies have to go in the drink, Rosa. Can’t let the evidence be found.”

  Hector assisted her with dragging the bodies over. At Keenan’s direction they rolled the bodies on top of netting, cmped on weights, and dropped them into the harbor. They helped Keenan get into a nearby housing unit, then stood awkwardly in the street.

  “I want to know everything about you,” Rosa told the strange man.

  “If you buy me dinner and give me money for a hotel, I’ll blow your mind with my story.”

  “Blow my mind?” She flinched back, wondering if that was the term for what he’d done to kill the cops.

  “However that came across is not how I meant it. You will be amazed.”

  “There’s nowhere open at this time of night. Come back to my pce and I’ll cook something.” She held her breath until he agreed. Now… what did she have in her house to eat? Feeding a guest might be a problem. She’d figure something out.

  As they walked the dark streets, the man told a fanciful tale. One she’d not believe if she hadn’t seen him murder five cops without lifting a finger. He was from another version of Earth. One where people have powers. His friend saw glimpses of the future and predicted an invasion of horrifying creatures. He’d gone looking for help across universes.

  “Are you going to ask our government for help? We have guns and bombs and tanks.”

  Hector huffed a little ugh. “No. Your world has no weapons that could help our situation. I need the Jinn or the Arahant or the Xian.”

  “Who are they?”

  “Going in the same order, they would be cyborgs, fairies, and super humans.”

  “Are you being serious?”

  “Mostly. I shouldn’t call the Arahant fairies. Their powers are strange and mystical.”

  “As opposed to traveling between worlds and hitting people with invisible clubs?” She didn’t get to see his response because she had to unlock the door of her apartment. When they were inside, she locked the deadbolt after only a second of consideration. If this man intended her harm, she didn’t think it mattered if the bolt was set or not.

  Rosa opened the nearest cupboard and let out a tiny cheer. She had an unopened tin of cookies. When she pced them on the table, the judgment in her guest’s eyes hurt. “I can find more. Just give me a minute.” She rapidly opened several doors. All she found were a couple tins of tuna and a box of brownie mix.

  “I’ll accept the tuna,” Hector offered.

  “I’ll bake brownies, too.” She scanned the list of ingredients. From experience, she knew she could substitute more oil for the eggs in the recipe and the end product wouldn’t suffer much. Hector ate tuna directly from the tin, devouring every bite as if he were starving. “Is traveling between worlds hungry work?”

  “I suppose you could say that.”

  “Do you fly through space? How does it work?”

  Hector shrugged. “I climb inside a sphere and go elsewhere. There’s a lot more to it than that, but the details wouldn’t make any sense if you can’t manipute cosmic energy.”

  “Cosmic energy. That sounds ridiculous, Hector.”

  “Cultivators elevate being ridiculous into an art form.” The man hung his head.

  Rosa sat across her tiny table from him. “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s nothing, Rosa. I haven’t slept much tely.”

  “Is it because of your traveling?”

  “Not that. It’s… troubling dreams.”

  She let him sit in silence until the kitchen timer rang. Then she pulled out the brownies and set them aside to cool. They hadn’t burned this time. “In a minute, you can have a brownie. That always makes me feel better.”

  “I appreciate the effort.”

  Rosa watched him from the corner of her eye. “If it helps, you could sleep here tonight.”

  The way he stole a gnce back at her caused a wave of heat to rise up her face. He was not at all bad to look at. He bobbed his head. “I appreciate that. I promise not to outstay my welcome.”

  “How long will you be on this world?”

  “I almost had enough to leave before the incident.” Hector waved his hand. “It takes energy to smack people in the head with my domain. I have to recover that before I’m able to leave. Probably… two more days. Maybe three.”

  “Where are you staying in that time?”

  “I spend the nights under a bush.”

  “Under a bush! No wonder you can’t sleep!” Rosa shook her head. “After saving my life, Hector, I insist you stay in my apartment until you are done with this world.”

  He nodded. “I would appreciate that.”

  “And… since we’re friends now, I want to see when you leave.”

  “That seems fair.”

  “I’m going to buy a new camera to take a picture of your sphere.”

  “Go ahead.”

  “I will. Now let’s have some brownies.”