The Last Coffee Shop

Chapter 9: Bring Us the Disco King

Mads stayed back to close up while Luc and Krill went out to the Neptune Club again. She had just finished reconciling the daily sales when the door opened with a rough jangle from the bells. 

"Sorry, we're closed," said Mads without looking up. Hadn't she locked the door already? No matter. Mads looked up when the door didn't jangle with a hasty exit, and there were no sheepish apologies.

Not one, but three, strangers were standing in front of her door, on the wrong side of it. Two of them were aliens of unfamiliar descent, while one looked human. All three looked like trouble.

Mads watched them as they surveyed the darkened shop, their eyes narrowed as if they were searching for something. She reached a stealthy hand under the counter to the small military-issued stun gun strapped underneath the drawer. It was a precaution she'd never had to use. She slid the stun gun up her sleeve to conceal it before rounding the counter.

"Uhm, excuse me, we're closed. But we open at the seventh hour tomorrow, bright and early." Mads winced, as she sounded far too breathless and cheery. "I was just about to empty the coffee pots, would you like to take a hot cup to go?"

The tallest, a pale-skinned alien male, over two meters tall and bristling with small yellow spikes, stepped forward to meet Mads halfway.

"Hmm." He leered down at her. His eyes were lurid pink, like a neon sign. "What What?" His voice was thick and gravelly, and slurred like he'd been drinking.
Mads stood her ground, the stun gun cold against her wrist. "This is my shop. We're closed."

"Did hear?" the speaker hissed to his companions: a gold-eyed reptilian female and a short, bull-necked human with abstract green tattoos covering every inch of his pale skin.

Mads scowled, starting to feel more annoyed than alarmed. "We're not doing business tonight." She didn't want to be rude if they were just not used to the way things were done in Springs Village. "We're closed."

Apparently, it didn't matter. The reptilian one slipped around the speaker and went to the nearest table, her bare feet making sliding, shushing noises as she dragged them along the floor.

She sniffed the air with her flat, slit nostrils, her scaled face thrust forward. "Coffee . . . coffee everywhere." Her voice was a throaty hiss.

"Well," said the human, finally speaking. "Do either of you smell him?"

"Husshh," hissed the female. "I'm concsssentrating, meatbag."

The human tensed, his attention completely on the alien female, who was still scenting the room. "Don't call me that, you . . ."

"Shut up," barked the tall alien.

The female slither-stepped over to the wall where the pastries were displayed. "Hmmm, too much coffee to sssscent."

Mads took another step forward, close enough to touch the tall one. "Look, you want something, come back tomorrow. Otherwise, I'll call the Peace Keepers." Mads lowered the stun gun into her cupped fingers, instinctively settling into a fighting stance.

The three invaders ignored her, continuing to spread out in the store.

"Hey!" Mads made her voice as harsh and demanding as she could. "Get. Out. Of. My. Store."

The tall alien leaned down so his face was almost at her level, and Mads had to resist the urge to back away. The alien's breath was rank and hot on Mads' face as he spoke. "Little human. Stay aside and you are not hurt. We are property in search for." His threat was a little less imposing than it could have been, due to his misplacement of the words.