Alien Tango

as long as no part of my body was in Alliflash’s jaws. On the other hand, I wasn’t a tall girl, so if I jumped too soon, I’d land somewhere on the ’gator’s body, and I knew instinctively this would not be good.
    Got to where I could see its beady eyes, and then I sailed over the scariest hurdle of my life.
    Landed on the end of its tail and managed to keep going without falling or twisting an ankle. Sadly, this meant that Alliflash was aware of where I was, but at least I wasn’t cornered any more.
    I tried to head back the way I’d come, but I hadn’t been paying a lot of attention to landmarks. I risked a look behind me—damn thing was still right there, relentlessly coming after me and simultaneously going for the land speed record.
    Rounded more corners that I hoped looked familiar. Found myself wondering how badly it hurt to be eaten alive by an alligator. Decided it had to be pretty bad and found the will to keep on running at top speed.
    I thought I was close to Mission Control but, shockingly, discovered another dead end. This one had three doors. All locked, but no one behind them, or if there were people locked inside, they were shy. These doors had the long bar handles and they were set up in a “U” shape. I didn’t have a lot of options.
    If necessity is the mother of invention, then terror is the father of ability. Additionally, five months of wild sex with Martini had toned a lot of my muscles. I put my back to one of the corners, put my hands on the unmoving sides of the door handles next to me, and pushed up and jumped at the same time. It took three attempts, but I managed to get my feet onto the metal.
    This was great in that I wasn’t on the floor. However, Alliflash didn’t have too far to go to be able to grab me. I needed a weapon. Of course, I’d had one, but it had been taken away to keep me safe. I’d ponder the irony later, if I got a later. Then again, even if I’d still had my Glock, not only were the alligators officially protected, they were ACE protected, too. I didn’t figure I’d have had a chance of hurting it with a bullet anyway, and having my hands free was probably in my best interests.
    As Alliflash again started coming toward me in a slow and menacing way, I rummaged in my purse—carefully. My balance was precarious at best, and I had a feeling I wasn’t going to be able to jump it again. My legs were shaking, and I was sprinted out.
    Things I’d used in the past as weapons of sorts came into my hand. But I couldn’t fathom how music would calm this particular savage beast, no pen in the world was going to penetrate that hide and I had no prayer of hitting an eye, and I just couldn’t see hairspray, not even Ever-Hold, managing to do anything other than piss Alliflash off even more.
    My hand hit some papers and I pulled them out. I didn’t remember carrying any papers with me. Took a fast gander—briefing stuff. Okay, Reader must have slipped this in my purse when I wasn’t looking in the hopes I’d read it myself. I had nothing else worth trying.
    I balled a piece of paper up and threw it over Alliflash’s head. It snapped at it, then turned back to me. Fine. If it was willing to play, I was willing to keep it distracted. Balled up another piece and tossed again. It snapped again. Cool, it liked to play fetch, or in this case, snap.
    This was great in that Alliflash wasn’t trying to eat me. Yet. But I was going to run out of briefing papers soon. Within a couple of minutes, I was down to the last piece of paper. I looked at it. It had two pictures on it. Two men, one big and older, who looked mildly familiar. The other well coiffed and reasonably attractive, but with a lean, mean look to him. I checked the names—the first was Howard Taft, the second Leventhal Reid. I realized Taft’s son resembled him, which was why he’d looked familiar. I stared at their images for a few long moments. Then I balled my last page up and tossed it.
    It didn’t go far and landed on Alliflash’s back. It snapped at it, turning around to try to catch the paper. Good, anything to focus its attention on something other than me.
    The paper rolled off, and the alligator stomped on it. That was going to be me in just a few seconds. For sure, since Alliflash turned back to me now, jaws open, beady eyes twinkling as it contemplated its dinner of Kitty on the Hoof.
    I decided I’d tried everything else. I screamed.

CHAPTER 45
    ALLIFLASH WAS RIGHT UNDER ME . We