While John and Jim made new Ctarl-Ctarl friends, a bellhop was showing Janell to her room. Janell followed silently, she had much to reflect on. Over the last few days, she had begun working for a cyborg, returned to her home world and lost her daughter. Her insides twisted as she thought about her missing daughter. She hadn’t mentioned her disappearance to Jerome because honestly she felt that he would nether care nor do anything about it. The robotic man seemed to hold the same animosity towards Ctarl-Ctarls as they did to humans. He seemed to only tolerate their race because they were useful to his goals, whatever they might be. That was another thing that was bothering Janell, what did he want? Profits seemed like the obvious answer, but what could a cyborg do with money? No, he was up to something much more sinister, Janell could feel it in her bones.

He had shown immense power by taking down that traitor Ctarl-Ctarl back on his ship. With all that power, why did he need her and other Ctarl-Ctarls to do his dirty work? There were so many questions about Jerome that Janell had no idea about. But the more she thought about it, the more she was sure that her alliance to the metal being would cause nothing bit trouble.

“Ma’am, we’re here,” the bellhop told her. Pushing her doubts away, Janell nodded to the bellhop and entered her room. She needed to collect her thoughts. She slammed the door in the bellhops face, leaving him no tip for his service.

“What’s her problem,” the bellhop said, as he headed back to the front desk. Maybe the next quest would be less of a stone cold bitch.

“Where did I go wrong?” Janell bemoaned. Collapsing onto her bed, she curled up and thought how much better life was before she became an assassin. Life had been so simple back then, it had just been her and baby Connie. They lived a trouble-free life, but all that changed when she got greedy. Before she had Connie, she had been a top officer in the Ctarl-Ctarl military. She had a bright future ahead of herself, until a lower officer knocked her up. The military frowned upon sex between officers, believing that it complicated things on the battlefield. And just like that, Janell went from prominent officer, to unemployed single mother.

It was a few years after Connie’s birth, that she finally said enough was enough. She had been working fourteen-hour days as a waitress and had nothing to show for it but a sore butt from all the pinches she got on the job. Janell took Connie and fled her home in search of riches and power, which she found in the lucrative world of killing. With her advanced background in the military, Janell became one of the universes top assassins. What always kept her going was the thought of going back to her unprivileged life. She would die before she let that happen, but could she put her daughters life on the line as well.

“Why did you have to be so stupid, Connie?” Janell told herself, as she buried her face in her pillow. All she could do now was hope that her baby girl was all right and that she stay safe. For now, she’d follow Jerome and find out what he was planning. Then, when Connie was back in her arms, she’d ditch the psycho and get out of here before Jerome knew what was happening.

RING RING

Sighing, Janell picked up the phone and listened to her orders. This was going to be a long day.