Meanwhile, on Earth, the school where Helen was studying made a one-week break for the restoration construction to be completed after the explosion. The investigations by the teams of the WAEP, the World Association of Earth Protection, a new body of globalized character that replaced the American team Alpha-Omega, were also proceeding. With the union of the organizations, information on incidents all over the world has been compiled with the aim of increasing the efficiency of the hunt for extraterrestrials. The main data on the episode of the school invasion in Los Angeles was provided by the agent Ann Soliver herself, who had direct contact with the alien target.

At home, Lorena was depressed by the delay in the news about her family. The disease was also advancing and it caused her unbearable pain, despite the strong medicines she took. Besides, she had the responsibility of looking after her daughter and her granddaughter.

As soon as classes began again, Helen felt unprotected. The absence of her parents weakened her emotionally. It was a lot to face her different situation, that of being an alien living among humans. Her grandfather and her parents promised to protect her and teach her how to handle everything, but she didn't even know where they were. How to live with that fear of doing something wrong, the truth always about to come out of her mouth? How she wanted to share that with someone before she could no longer breathe. But whom to trust?

The girl had a classmate named Henry, who sat next to her in the classroom. He was a good boy and always treated her with affection and delicacy. In the recess, they would always sit around talking in the schoolyard. They liked to work together on math homework, a subject in which both were good. One day, she let an eraser fall on the floor. She glanced at all sides and noticed that no one was observing her. Since she didn't want to get under the chair, Helen stared at the fallen object and it slowly returned to her hand, with the power of telekinesis. Suddenly, she was startled when she saw eyes staring in shock through the square-framed glasses. It was Henry.

To defend herself, Helen did the only thing she could. She entered the boy's mind and said:

"You can't say that to anyone. It's our secret, okay?"

"How are you speaking without moving your lips?"

"Pay attention to what I said. Please, don't tell anyone."

"Ok! It's our secret."

After that, Helen noticed that the boy watched her, not quite understanding what was happening. She had to give him some explanation, but which? She knew it had puzzled him.

The conversation happened a few days later, when they were sitting in the schoolyard.

"Helen, are your parents back from the trip?" He started.

"Not yet. I wish they were here..."

"My parents are always with me and when they travel, they take me along with them", Henry commented, proud. "I don't understand the reason why yours left you here."

"My parents are a little different, Henry. But I don't care, I know they'll come back."

"What do you mean, different?"

Helen hesitated for a moment, but her friend wouldn't let that opportunity pass.

"You can trust me! It has to do with what you did that day, doesn't it?"

She nodded before taking a deep breath. She had to talk before she changed her mind.

"I'm not like the other kids on this planet, Henry. I'm different and I need to hide from the evil humans who want to capture beings from other planets to study them and experiment on them."

"Seriously, Helen! What a fertile imagination you have." Henry laughed a little. "Are you reading a lot of science fiction books or watching alien series?"

"See, Henry?! I knew I couldn't trust you... I should have listened to my parents."

"Are they ETs too?"

"Only my mother and my grandfather are. My father's half-human, like me."

"So, you're not even a complete ET..." Henry couldn't contain his laughter. "And you spoke so seriously you seem to believe that for real." He smiled again.

She pressed her lips, thinking he was an idiot.

The other children looked at them, thinking Helen was telling joke. They began to pay attention, curious. The girl saw that Henry's laughter was catching the attention of the others and glared at him, furious. And to make matters worse, she read his thoughts and realized clearly that his friend thought she was joking. With an ice cream in his hand, he stared at her, laughing loudly.

To make him stop, when he went to lick the ice cream, she made him squeeze it in the middle of his forehead, soiling the boy's forehead with cream, the sweet liquid dripping down his surprised face.

"What happened?"

"This is for you to learn not to laugh at me."

"I can't believe you were the one who did this!"

Helen, already regretful, took the handkerchief in a pink handbag that she had on her shoulder and gave it to him to clean himself. But she felt that he hadn't yet had enough evidence. She waited for the students to stop staring at them and, finally, said:

"Do you see teacher Alfred's glasses? He's sitting on that bench, in the corner of the schoolyard, talking to teacher Kelly." The boy nodded. "Keep looking..."

Henry looked at the couple, curious. Suddenly, the glasses disappeared from the teacher's eyes and went to his head, in a matter of seconds. The teacher put his hands on his nose, for his eyes had suddenly blurred, but he couldn't find his glasses. He interrupted the conversation and began to search for them. While teacher Kelly stared at him in surprise, Helen lowered his glasses to the floor slowly, without damaging them.

"How strange! How did my glasses fall to the ground? I must have dropped them unintentionally."

"Don't even ask me..."

No one in the yard noticed the fact, except the two children.

"What a crazy thing, it seems supernatural. Was it really you who did that?"

"Of course, it was me, didn't you see? Didn't I ask you to look at the teachers at the right time? How would I know this would happen? You don't have to believe me if you don't want to."

"I'm sorry, Helen. It's not every day that a classmate tells you that she's an alien. But how can I help you?"

"I don't know, Henry... But just by listening to me, you've already helped me a lot..."

"Thanks for trusting me, Helen. I promise I'll keep your secret."

Dargan was at the hotel, resting a little on the couch after a busy day, lost in thought. He remembered what happened some time ago, when he returned to the place where he had left the German engineer, before taking his identity. He pondered what he was going to do to save him, since he had left him in the dark with all the American police and the aliens hunters. After defrosting him, he teleported him to the bedroom. There, he warmed his body with an object he took out of a bag and checked the German's vital signs, to see if he was all right. But something went wrong in the process, for he was dead.

"How could the man have lost his life?"

The spy scanned him and his alien holographic diagnostic app verified that he had an aneurysm in his brain that probably ruptured during the fight between them there at the Cosmology Institute.

Sooner or later, death would come to fetch this man. He then returned to the hotel in Santa Monica, from where he would plan the next steps. He picked up his computer and accessed the bank via the internet, transferring Hans's money to another account, with a new identity he created for himself.

It was time to choose a new person to transform into and, thus, approach Sophia and Helen.

"But what could be my new disguise? Maybe I should go back to the college, like a teacher, this way I can get close to Sophia again. It was through her that I was more likely to get information."

To solve this, Dargan materialized in the college, at the time of the ending of the classes. He stopped in front of the environmental engineering classrooms and watched, through the crack of the door, one of the educators putting his things away. He didn't remember seeing him before. He must be new there. The spy was disguised with the look of the first human he had used as soon as he arrived on Earth. He waited quietly for the man to enter the bathroom, and when they were alone, he invaded the stall, squeezing his neck, preventing him from shouting, until he fainted.

Dargan, then, pulled a hair string from the assistant with an instrument he kept in his bag, and transferred his genetic information to himself. In a few moments, he became the perfect replica of the professor.

He admired himself in the mirror for a few seconds, saw if everything was in place, and left as if nothing had happened:

"Perfect! This time, I won't kill the man. I'll take him to the hotel and keep him alive until I fulfill my mission. But before, I need to get some information about him. I'll copy his memory and his personality traits."

The spy held the hand of the assistant professor and pressed his bracelet. In a few moments, the two arrived in the hotel room. While the assistant was fainted, the spy picked a control collar and placed it on the neck of the man he had cloned.

He also put force cuffs on his wrists and waited for the right moment to activate the control collar. Before, he needed to take some knowledge from the memory of the assistant professor Anthony Fletcher.

First, he called the lobby and asked that no one disturbed him in the next few days, not even the cleaning lady, because he would be doing a very important job. Then, he picked up a communication device and activated it to try to contact his friends. It had been weeks since anyone on planet Life had spoken to him and he was beginning to worry.

Dargan began scanning the teacher's mind with a memory device, capable of transferring the information to his own mind. This way, he would know how to act in the presence of known people, or in the classroom.

Early the next day, he injected a sleeping pill into the man's bloodstream, so that he would sleep until evening, when he returned. He would activate the control device on his neck when he came back. He chose a dark brown blazer and a white shirt. He wore black pants that he kept in his closet and, at last, he looked in the mirror to see if he looked like a academic professor. Approving the look, he soon set off for university.

***

Anthony Fletcher entered the classroom to give his Integral Calculus class. He began to talk about its importance to Engineering and Physics. Sophia was one of the students, and she was looking at him mindfully, paying attention to the subject she was so fond of.

After the end signal ringed, Sophia approached him to ask some questions about the subject taught. She was very interested and always wanted to learn more. After finishing answering all the doubts, he asked her:

"I had never noticed your presence here in this class. What's your name?"

"I'm Sophia, from Environmental Engineering."

"It's a pleasure! I really enjoyed meeting a young woman who cares about the environment. I hope you can help improve the sustainability of this planet, because everything is about to change soon."

"What do you mean by that, sir?"

"No "sir" with me. Please, call me Anthony. What's happening is that the destruction of the forests and increased consumption are causing a change in the Earth's atmosphere. In a few years, the climate will change a lot and there'll be shortages of food and water, necessary for the survival of a population with an exponential increase that rises every day."

"Besides giving Calculus lessons, are you also a Bible prophet, professor?"

"It's not a matter of prophecy. I often look at the world with the vision of mathematics. If things get out of control, the sum and product are always big."

"Maybe you're right. However, that's what I'm studying Environmental Engineering for... To change the result of this equation."

"We could go out a little at night to talk more about this subject. What do you think?" Anthony asked in a timely manner.

Sophia's eyes widened and she felt his interest in her. Anthony, who had just arrived there, was very nice... But did it compensate getting involved with someone from college, after such a love disappointment? She was afraid to hurt herself, but she also wanted to give fate a chance... The date might even be pleasant.

She looked at his fingers, and saw that he wasn't wearing a wedding ring.

"Well, it's just a walk..."

"So?" He asked again.

"Okay. We meet at the Hill's Coffee Bar, at 21:00."

"Agreed. I'll be waiting for you."

Sophia arrived home happy. Seeing her in that state, Lorena asked:

"What happened, daughter? You have a different smile on your face."

"An assistant professor asked me out tonight."

"That's good, you really have to go out. But do you know him well?"

"He's from university, mom. Don't worry."

"I don't know. These days things are very dangerous. Be very careful, my daughter. Do you remember what happened at Helen's school?" How could she forget? "I'll go there tomorrow, by the way. I want to see for myself how things are going at my granddaughter's school. I fear that the absence of her parents may affect her in some way. She doesn't tell me anything."

"Leave it to me, I'll be careful, mother. Relax about Helen. You know that children adapt to these changes better than we do. What about you, mom?" She sat down on the couch beside Lorena. "How are you after the chemotherapy sessions? I've been with you at all of them, but here we barely talk about the disease."

"There are two more sessions scheduled for next week. I have no sicknesses or adverse reactions. Just the weakness, but I hope it will soon pass."

"I'm going to go with you next week. Let me know the details. If Zara were here, she could look at the exams and help you..."

"If they were here, many things would be different."

"Calm down, mom. I feel that soon they'll be back."

Despite everything, Sophia was optimistic. She thought her mother would be cured if she did the treatment correctly. So, she wanted to accompany Lorena whenever she needed to do the exams.

But it was time to focus on the date. She wore jeans pants, a black boot, and a light beige sweater. She didn't forget to put on her red lipstick.

On time, Nicholas' sister was in the agreed place. Anthony was already waiting for her, with a flower bouquet in his hands, which he offered to her as soon as he saw her. They went to the table and he pulled her chair like a perfect gentleman.

They talked about various subjects and didn't even realize the hours were passing. In the middle of the conversation, she asked, curious:

"Why did you ask me out? I don't think it was just to talk about the environment..."

"I must confess that I was enchanted by your beauty and curiosity. And, mainly, by your intelligence, which makes the equation even more interesting."

Sophia was embarrassed, but flattered at the same time. She wasn't used to that kind of treatment. She smiled, thanking him.

"Why are you laughing?" He asked, curious.

"I found it funny that you used the word "equation" even to give a compliment."

"So, I'll say it in a better way. You multiply my good mood. I'm sorry..." He got red at the same time. "That wasn't good... I'm not good with words, but with numbers."

She laughed again and he did too. Anthony touched her hand and they both stared at each other for a few seconds. As if taking advantage of the moment, he touched her chin and brought her toward him. Sophia surrendered to the kiss.

"I had never dated a teacher before."

"And I... I have never dated a student. But for me it seems like a true balanced equation."

"You're talking about Math again."

"I promise I'll stop this..."

They both smiled, and Dargan was so happy to be with her that he forgot to ask about Merko or anything else. He also stopped thinking about Rachel, the only other woman who had shaken him. Sophia was the sole owner of his interest.

After talking a lot and having fun, he took her to her home. They kissed once more inside the car he had rented and said goodbye, promising to repeat those pleasant moments.

He felt good meeting such a beautiful and intelligent young woman and Sophia decided to open her heart once again, because if she didn't try, she would never discover a new love.

He arrived at the hotel and saw that the true assistant professor was starting to wake up. He took the gag from the man's mouth and allowed him to speak.

"Don't yell if you want to get out of here alive." He was already threatening him.

"Who are you?" How could the other have a face exactly like his?

"I'm a spy from another planet. I need your help for some time. In fact, your appearance, as you can see. Cooperate with me and I'll let you live."

The man looked at his clone, scared. That conversation about another planet made him confused. The other just nodded. There was too much information for him to absorb.

"Eat and drink something", he said, offering him a tray of things he bought. Dargan thought that everything would be solved in a simple way, until the professor freaked out and started yelling for help.

"Please, somebody help me! Get me out of here! There's a madman making me a prisoner."

"Shut up!"

"Help!"

The spy tapped the collar's control mechanism on the professor's neck and the teacher stopped talking. He injected a substance into the prisoner's vein, which made him sleep profoundly. For now, he would have peace.

Suddenly, the communication light began to blink.

"I don't believe. After weeks, someone's getting in touch", he thought cheerfully as he looked at the device.

On the other side, someone said in a low voice:

"Sergeant Dargan?"

"No, sir, I'm just a soldier", the other explained.

"There's where you're wrong. You've just been promoted. An award for being fulfilling your mission well. All the computers on Planet Life already have this information about their promotion."

"Who speaks to me?"

A holography appeared with the image of his contact. It was a human he had never seen before.

"I'm Agent X. I took the form of a man here on Earth to merge with them. I need you on a mission our leader has assigned. Can I count on you?"

"Of course, you can. That's why I'm here."

The image that emerged was of Agent Collin Netil, whom Dargan didn't know yet. He possessed the extraterrestrial communication equipment and had already received some data from the spy's secret information that was stored on his computer.

"I've already accessed the information from your report stored on our network and we know everything about Helen. She's Merko's granddaughter, according to the data. We want you to do an investigation and find out the best time for us to get her."

"Agent X, is that how I should call you?" The person in the hologram nodded. "How did you get this information? I was investigating Merko and everything about him is stored in my processor."

"Our computers are interconnected in a special network. At this moment, we're connected to our satellite robot and we share the reports."

"Do you really think it's necessary to take a child from Earth? We can reach Merko directly and imprison him. I see no reason to take the little one."

"Sergeant Dargan, is you heart softening? Orders are orders... And they exist to be fulfilled. Our leader expects us to accomplish the mission. Do you confirm the information about her that we have on our network?"

"Yes. She studies at a school here in Los Angeles. Are you nearing here?"

"We can arrive in a few minutes... Program the contact coordinates and resend the message as soon as everything's ready to imprison the girl. Is this school the same one where the explosion days ago was reported?"

"Yes! The same one."

"Be careful with the girl, she's dangerous and has powers she doesn't even know about. I'll command the operations and want to be informed of any news. Captain Merko's returning to Earth and must be defeated. We need to act fast and the girl will be our trump card. We'll get her early tomorrow, in the first classes."

"Understood. Over and out."

The spy was worried. Now that he was enjoying going out with Sophia, everything would turn upside down again. She would never forgive him if she knew he was involved in a plan to imprison her niece. He could even hide the fact that he was an ET, disguising himself for all his life; but, even being a soldier, he didn't feel in the right to use a child to defeat the captain.

He preferred to fight with him or use a military strategy, since no one was invincible. Merko himself always taught his soldiers that all enemies have a weakness.

Dargan was also wary with the arrival of the so-called Agent X. If he knew that Merko was coming back and the name of his granddaughter, he probably knew everything about Nicholas' family. That means there were other aliens, other than him, on planet Earth.

"Why do they need me, then? I thought I would make a report to prepare a plan in order to capture Merko. But it seems to me that they already have the strategy ready. What will be my role in this game?" 

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