Due to the limitations of this world’s internet, and needing to hack into several systems, the device took half a day to analyze the path the cat traveled and splice together a video. As he was scrubbing through the timeline, Hana stopped by while carrying a glass of water.

He turned to watch her, leaning back in his chair. And he looked forward to the day he could spend every free hour with her.

She wore jeans that hung loosely on her waist and a green t-shirt that hugged her curves and had “Oppai” written on the front.

“Hi! How’s it going?” Then she took a sip just before she looked at his screen. She did something the people on this planet called a ‘spit take.’ All. Over. His. Face.

“Hanna!”

“Oh my god! I’m sorry Kyle!” She set her water down, grabbed a nearby towel and started wiping water.

He would have to wash his face soon. He sighed. “What happened?”

“Oh!” She put her hands on her hips and pointed to the computer. “Did you see this?”

Her manicured finger hovered above the rightmost corner of the screen. He actually hadn’t noticed this until she pointed it out! But it was so obvious.... It was an image of a man with his pants around his ankles behind a woman who clutched at the wall. While they couldn’t see the woman’s face, they could see that the man was their neighbor from across the street... And that wasn’t his wife.

“...”

“...”

“I’m going to go wash my face, then we can talk about where the cat traveled that night.”

She nodded.

A short time later, face clean, he returned to find Hanna scrolling through the timeline. Her face looked like the dictionary definition of fascinated horror.

“What exactly did you discover?”

“There... Oh my god, Kyle, there are so many people in this neighborhood who are cheating or cuckolding. Many with their own step.... You know what. I’m not going to say anything. It’s better if you stay oblivious.”

He paused, not sure how to take this. “Sure. Did you see anything else?”

She frowned and bit her lip cutely. “I think I did.” She set the timer somewhere and stood up from my seat, while gesturing for me to take her place.

When I sat down, I pressed play.

The cat ran down the street, then turned a corner. The camera switched. It then climbed a wall like some kind of kitty parkour master. It jumped into an open window. That seemed to be something it did regularly. He could see the shadows coming from the window change and the cat ran several blocks away. Then it made its way over to Hana’s window.

Kyle frowned. “Do you know who lives in that house?”

She shook her head. “I don’t usually travel that way when I go for a jog.”

“Then we’ll just have to see for ourselves.”

***

Hanna had Kyle grab their mom’s car and drive them several blocks away to a quaint-looking McMansion, someone with no artistic talent had painted a horrible brownish-pink.

“So, do we just... go up there and ask who lives here?” Hana asked.

He shook his head. “According to my device’s findings, a Mr. Herbert Fluxx lives there with his new wife and a son from a previous marriage. His father is often away from the house because he runs a successful grocery business.”

Oh no! She had a horrible feeling she knew who the damn Lusindai was. And considering how many people in this neighborhood were fucking their step- Brother/Sister/Mother/Father, she did not put it past her buddy Brandon from getting into a relationship with his own stepmother. That was one type of relationship she would have a hard time cockblocking.

No, there was another option. The Lusundai could be the father, or maybe even the stepmother. There was no reason to skip right over to him.

“We’re going to need to get more information about who was over at this house yesterday.”

“Or,” Kyle said as he unbuckled his seat belt and let it slide back into position, “We could go in and ask who was scratched by your cat the other night.”

“That... is a reasonable idea.”

Kyle grabbed his backpack, likely to use it to scan whoever showed up. She followed him then, when they reached the front door she rang the bell. Through the entire house an annoying chime played. Then they waited patiently.

A few minutes later, a tall blond woman who seemed familiar to Hanna opened the front door.

She smiled awkwardly at the woman. “Hi! I live nearby.”

“We’re not buying any.” The lady was about to close the door when Hanna threw her foot out. The door slammed into her shoe.

“Ow! You didn’t even hear me out!”

The lady appeared startled. Obviously, she hadn’t thought anyone would be dumb enough to do that. And she admitted to herself that she assumed she was smarter than that too.

“Look! I take care of a cat sometimes. Recently he’s been sick so we’ve been trying to keep in doors but he escaped the other night. We discovered that he had blood on his nails when he came back. I’ve been going to each house to try and figure out who he scratched because they might get sick and I wanted to warn them. Also, I’ll pay for any doctor’s visits.”

He eyes grew wide. “I think... Maybe my stepson, Brandon, was scratched by a cat a couple of days ago.” She pressed her hand to her chest. “Is this serious?”

“It shouldn’t be, but he should go see a doctor soon. Just in case he was infected.”

She nodded. “Thank you for letting me know. Now, I’m sorry, but I’m very busy.”

Then she once again slammed the door in their faces.

They slinked off to the car, where Kyle rummaged around in his backpack. A glow appeared on his face from the screen lighting up. “This Brandon is our Lusundai,” Kyle said.

“We still need you to double check using your device. And maybe we can talk to him... Unless he’s fucking his stepmom.”

Kyle grimaced. “Considering that she was the one we saw being screwed by our neighbor? Probably not.”

“Oh! I thought she looked familiar!”

“Hanna. I know you don’t want to talk about this, but you need to know, that if Brandon is the Lusundai, I’m going to have to kill him.”

No, she didn’t want to hear that. “Then what happens to the real Brandon once the Lusundai is dead? Where is he?”

“It’s possible that he’s in stasis on the Lusundai ship. It’s also possible that the Prince killed him. We’ll have to figure that out.”

She shook her head. “I don’t think Brandon has fucked anyone yet. While I haven’t been paying that much attention to him, he was originally a man who avoided all forms of intimacy. He didn’t have a girlfriend or a boyfriend. He could be like you, and have the same instincts as the original.”

“Lusundai work differently, Hanna. You can’t judge them based on my race, and me. Frankly, I received way more information from Kyle than I was supposed to. But I’m new to this. This is the first time I’ve had to take on the appearance of another species.”

She frowned. “I just don’t want you to need to kill another sentient being.”

He grimaced. “Well, It’s too late for that.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’re at war with the Lusundai, Hanna. I’ve already killed several of them, and been part of a battle where our ship destroyed their mothership.”

“Seriously?”

He nodded. “That battle caused me to crashland here, actually.”

She bit her lip. “But killing someone in a war and killing someone in cold blood are two different things.”

“In war, you follow orders. Technically, by doing this, I’m still following the last orders of my ship’s commander, before he died.”

“If he’s dead, then who will know?”

“The ship’s logs. And if I don’t follow through, then when my rescue comes to pick me up in a few decades, I’ll be court marshalled. Possibly even executed as a traitor.” He grimaced. “And the worst part is, the last order I received was from someone who had just disobeyed orders.”

“Hold on. Tell me what happened.”