Alien Collective (46 page)

“I love it when a plan comes together.”

R
EADER AND TIM
headed with Gonzalez to his office. Chuckie and I joined Jeff and Christopher. “You guys okay?”

“Yeah.” Jeff sighed. “I want so much to believe that she’s trying to save the day and is actually acting as a double agent.”

“But she isn’t,” Christopher said sadly. “You can see it in her eyes.”

Chuckie shook his head. “I should have put more stringent bugs on her.”

“It wouldn’t have mattered,” Jeff said quietly. “But . . . I think you need to investigate the rest of my family. Just in case any of them have been turned, too.”

“I will. And . . . I’m sorry.”

Jeff shook his head. “Not your fault, Chuck. It has to be done, and I accept that. Now.”

We needed to get out of here, before everyone was completely depressed. “Let’s go home. We have a frightened reporter and the top computer hacker in the world to chat with.”

“Where did Buchanan and Siler go?” Christopher asked as we headed for the internal gates.

“You know, I have no idea.” Had no idea where the Dingo and Surly Vic had gone, either. Hoped Buchanan was okay—three assassins to one Buchanan could mean bad things.

Thought about it. The Dingo and Surly Vic could have stolen a vehicle and escaped. Same with Siler and Buchanan. But Siler was following Stephanie, I had to figure, meaning they were probably still here.

My “uncles” were likely willing to wait for me to get what I wanted from Chernobog and then either kill her or let me negotiate a mutually beneficial deal. White or Serene might know where they were, but it was going to be hard to ask them where someone else wasn’t going to see the answer in some way.

Siler and Buchanan could get home because Siler could calibrate a gate. For all I knew, Buchanan could, too. But the Dingo and Surly Vic couldn’t. And I didn’t want to strand them here if I could help it.

“You know, before we go, let me make a call.” All three men gave me suspicious looks, but no one argued. Stepped away and pulled out the burner phone. Dialed the last number that had called me. It rang but no one picked up. Tried the other number. Same thing. So much for that idea.

Didn’t want to send Buchanan a text in case he was in a situation where that would blow his cover. While I was contemplating my lack of options, the cosmos did me a solid and my phone played “Secret Agent Holiday” by Alien Fashion Show, which was my ringtone for Buchanan.

“Malcolm, where are you?”

“With some good friends of yours. They assume you’re dithering around at Home Base because you’re worried about how they’re going to get back to D.C. Figured they were right and that I should let you know that we’d all appreciate it if you’d all get back to the Embassy.”

“Wow. They’re good. And so are you. Are you okay? I mean really okay, not being held against your will by the top three assassins in the world?”

“Yes, I’m fine. As I mention frequently and you and the others like to ignore, I have a lot more in common with them than you realize.”

“No, actually, I realize it a lot. I just happen to appreciate the similarities. And the differences. Cameron Maurer is definitely an android. Gideon Cleary is an oily, evil man. Stephanie’s fully on the Dark Side and I think will very shortly be sleeping with Cleary. There’s a slim chance Maurer can overcome the android within and come to us for help.”

“There’s an even bigger chance that he’ll pretend to and self-destruct inside the Embassy when you’re all there.”

“No argument. Just wanted to catch you up on the excitement that is our lives. I’m sure your new friends caught you up on the happenings with Chernobog and Colonel Butler.”

“Yes.”

“Good. Chernobog’s in the Embassy now. Tell them she will make it worth all our whiles or I will bring her to the roof. They’ll know what that means.”

“Missus Chief, I know what that means, too, you know.”

“Good! Um, somewhere in all of this, I was warned by someone—and I swear to you that I can’t even remember who now—that the National Convention was going to be giving the term ‘chaotic goat rodeo’ a new meaning. Oh! And Colonel Hamlin is alive and well and requesting that we not try to protect him since we did such a bang-up job letting you get attacked and almost killed.”

Buchanan chuckled. “Good to know. And, we’ll be prepared for the convention, at least as much as we can be.”

“They’re after Jeff, much more than me.”

“Maybe so. But if they hurt you, they hurt him. Don’t forget that.”

“I won’t.”

“You could have fooled me with that distraction technique you used just now.”

“We thought we’d spotted you and Siler! So, um, why didn’t you do anything?”

“We were prepared to blow every single person around you, other than Reynolds, away. Fortunately, we didn’t have to assassinate the opposition candidates. That’s not really good for your husband’s campaign, by the way. Public opinion tends to flow toward the party whose nominated candidates are killed by agents working for the opposition.”

“Good point.”

“So glad you think so. Go home. Get what you can out of Chernobog. We have some things to clean up here, and then we’ll be back with you.”

“Did you find the cell that Stephanie was a part of?”

He was quiet for a few seconds. “Do you really want to know?”

Considered why he was asking. Considered what Siler and, more significantly, Buchanan were likely to do to a group of people they knew were actively out to get me and mine. Considered if I could sleep with the confirmation of what I suspected the answer would be. “No.”

“I knew you were smart.”

We hung up and I rejoined Jeff and the others. “They’re fine. Let’s go home.”

“Do we want to know?” Jeff asked.

“I guarantee we don’t,” Chuckie replied.

“What Chuckie said.”

Jeff calibrated a gate. “I know, I know,” he said to Christopher and Chuckie. “Don’t dawdle.”

“Hey, dawdling worked out this time,” I pointed out.

Christopher shook his head. “You two have been dawdling at the gate since the first day Kitty was with us. So don’t dawdle too long.” He stepped through.

Chuckie looked around. “I see nothing else untoward. I promise I’m not going to kill myself. And yes, I’ll talk to Richard when we have some breathing space. Oh, and humor us all and don’t take too long, in case something else bad wants to happen.” He stepped through.

“So, are we dawdling?” I asked as Jeff recalibrated.

“Nope.” He swung me up into his arms. “I want to get home where it’s a different brand of chaos. But it’s the brand I prefer.”

I’d have chimed in, but Jeff kissed me, and I focused on that instead of my witty reply, the gate transfer, or anything else. Like Buchanan said, I was smart.

A
FTER ONE OF THE BETTER
gate transfers of my life, we joined the meeting, and luncheon, in progress in the main Embassy dining room.

Most of the Embassy staff were here, though we were pointedly missing Serene, Gower, Abigail, Amy, Doreen, Irving, White, and Hacker International. Jennifer and Adriana were in here, as was Vance, though, so I figured those not here were assisting White in calming down the KGB War over at the Zoo. But also figured I should verify.

“Pierre, is everyone who isn’t here helping Richard?”

“Or doing their jobs, such as running or assisting with daycare and being adorable little ones, yes.” Took this to mean Dad and Lucinda were helping Denise with the kids, or as I was sure they thought of it, having a wonderful time. This meant the Embassy pets were with them as per Jamie’s daily demands.

Jenkins looked relieved to see us. “Thank you for believing me, Ambassador.”

“Not sure what you think I believe, because right now what I believe is that I’ll have a double helping of everything on the table.”

“I’ll get that for you, Kitty, darling,” Pierre said as he helped me to a seat next to Jenkins. “You and Jeff just get things handled.”

“Okay. So, Bruce, what’s got you so spooked?”

“Cameron Maurer. He’s not . . . normal anymore.”

“Ah, as to that . . .” Looked at Mrs. Maurer, who was on Jenkins’ other side, with Raj next to her. Raj patted her hand.

“It won’t . . . affect me,” she said. “I mean, I’ve already rum the gamut of emotions in this past day, and I’ve heard what Bruce had to say. What’s one more horrible thing?”

“Then, I can say without a doubt that your son is an android now. Has Jenkins here said anything different?” Probably asked that a little more snidely than I’d intended, but I was really focused on getting the food Pierre had placed in front of me into my mouth.

“No. Look, Ambassador, I know I came off badly before—”

“You came off as being in the employ of our enemies. We have a lot of enemies, so it was hard to accurately guess which set had hired you. But hired reputation hit man was definitely how you came across. It’s what, as far as I’m concerned, you probably still are. The timing of your call to me was incredibly suspect, and for all we know, you’re here to perpetrate some evil and are just a really good actor.”

“Ambassador, I can see why you’d think that. Though I believe I’ve given your staff plenty of proof of my intentions.”

“Which are?”

“I need protection and want to help you. And I want the Armstrong-Martini ticket to win.”

Stopped with a bite halfway into my mouth. “Seriously? That’s a hell of a party switch in the course of an hour or so.”

“Well, discovering that the vice presidential candidate you’re trying to support is actually some evil robot being controlled by the presidential candidate is more than unsettling. And I got a look at the bomb debrief information—you were telling the truth. And I was at the political protest yesterday, meaning I’d have been killed by the ricin gas, too. With friends like these, who needs enemies?”

“Who are your former friends, Bruce? We’d love some names.”

“Harvey Gutermuth is one.”

“Oh, the head of Club Fifty-One. Great company. Who are the others? Names, Bruce, I want names.”

“Well, what Harvey says, Farley Pecker supports. They’re the ones responsible for the ricin bombs. Club Fifty-One has the largest worldwide reach of all those who oppose the A-Cs being on Earth, and Pecker’s people make enthusiastic guerillas.”

“Church of Hate and Intolerance covered, check.”

“You’re certain Club Fifty-One set all the bombs?” Chuckie asked.

“Yes, but I’m sure they took direction from someone. Harvey likes to act like he’s in charge, and he does run the Club itself, but it’s clear that he has someone who tells him what to do and when.”

“Not a surprise.” It was certainly how Club 51 had worked in the past, so why change a successful setup? “However, I find it almost impossible to believe you’re taking all your cues from these combined groups of total wackos, Bruce.”

“Sorry, I thought it was obvious. The Cleary-Maurer campaign asked me to support their efforts. For my support, I got unlimited access to their campaign, exclusive interviews with the candidates, hot tips, and so forth. And the support of Gutermuth and Pecker, which isn’t an insubstantial thing, given their numbers.”

“Political insider trading. I can see why it was appealing. So, what changed you from the Side of the Sith to Return to the Jedi?”

“I was early to join the campaign on a tour of Area Fifty-One. It was supposed to be my first time using your gate technology, so I was rather excited. No one was in campaign headquarters, which was odd. I’m an investigative reporter, I investigated.” He looked chagrined. “Honestly, I was thinking that perhaps your people had done something to Gideon or . . . Cameron or one of their people.” He swallowed and looked ill.

“Go on,” Jeff said gently. He leaned next to me. “He’s telling the truth, so you may want to lighten up on him,” he whispered in my ear.

“Mmmm-hmmm.” Whenever Jeff did this, all I actually wanted to do was rub up against him. Controlled the impulse, though it took great effort. Score one for my massively impressive diplomatic skills.

“The door to a back room was slightly ajar. I heard voices, and my reporting instincts kicked in. So I snuck over and remained outside the room, but was in a position where I could see in. And . . . I saw Gideon and several women, one of whom was very young and also quite beautiful.”

“Stephanie,” Jeff said.

“I didn’t catch her name, any of their names. They were . . . working on Cameron. They had the back of his head opened like small double doors, his shirt was off and his chest was opened the same way. There were no organs I could see, just machinery. They were talking about calibrating his programming, saying that the doctor hadn’t done it quite right. Someone else joined them, a man, but I didn’t see him. However, whoever he was, Gideon and the women instantly acted like he was in charge.”

“Could have been the Mastermind,” Christopher said. “Would you recognize his voice?”

Jenkins shook his head. “It was too muffled. I could tell it was a man, and that’s all. If I’d been able to stay longer, I might have. I certainly wanted to see who this was. But someone else came in through the front door, and I realized I was going to be discovered. I had to pretend I was looking for everyone, so I called out. Gideon came to greet me, shutting the door behind him. I don’t know if I looked guilty, but I told him I’d just started to feel ill and feared food poisoning, and asked if I could beg off this visit.”

“What did he say? I mean, I know you didn’t go.”

“He expressed concern for my health, then Cameron came out of the same room. But he was acting strangely, so I think they just slammed his doors shut.”

“Probably,” Chuckie said. “By the time we see him again, though, they’ll have recalibrated him. Cleary was there when Kitty was trying to get through to Maurer. They won’t wait to get him locked down.”

“Then what?” Jeff asked Jenkins.

“Then I hightailed it out of there and called the Ambassador and came here. Where, honestly, I don’t want to leave.” He shot Mrs. Maurer a commiserating smile. “I’m very happy to follow Nancy’s lead and hide with the people who aren’t actually trying to put a robot into the White House.”

“Oh, I’m sure they’re trying to do worse than that. Who was it who came in after you, did you see him or her?”

Jenkins nodded. “Senator Zachary Kramer.”

“And yet Kramer didn’t make the trip to Home Base.” I exchanged a very meaningful look with Vance. “Thoughts?”

He grimaced. “Zachary and Marcia are fully against you, and have been for ages, I told you that before. He must be jockeying for some kind of position within Gideon’s cabinet.”

Had a very bad thought. “You know, Cameron Maurer is now a detriment, not an asset. They know we know he’s an android, and they know that we know how to destroy but also deal with androids.”

“Every android has a self-destruct mechanism,” Chuckie said. “And I’m sure they can be remotely destructed, too.”

“Does that mean we need to change Colonel Butler’s location?”

“Wish you’d mentioned that before we moved him into the Science Center,” Christopher snapped.

“It’ll be fine,” Jeff said, in a warning tone. Christopher rolled his eyes, but stopped snarking.

“Didn’t think of it at the time, sorry,” Chuckie replied. “I was too busy keeping him from blowing up at Home Base.”

Jenkins went pale. “He’s an android, too? My God, how many are there?”

“Do you read Mister Joel Oliver’s columns?”

Jenkins cast an ashamed look in Oliver’s direction. “Not as often as I should.”

“Damn straight, dude. You need to get caught up. But to be clear, unlike you, MJO here doesn’t actually write fiction. You can learn a lot from him, and you might want to.” Looked around the table. “I go back to my original concern—are we at risk of someone blowing Butler up before we can help him?”

“Probably.” Jeff sighed and pulled his phone out. “Hey James. Yeah, it’s been so long. Chuck just pointed out that Butler might have a destruct sequence that can be triggered automatically. Oh? Oh. Great. No need to take that tone. Yes, fine, I’ll relay that to the others. You’re really tense, I think you need a vacation.” He hung up.

“That sounded fun.”

“Yeah. James said to tell all of you that he’s already thought of that, and a fail-safe room has been constructed within one of the cells. They’re also close to having him completely offline, and are already checking for external triggering mechanisms. In other words, we need to stop trying to do Alpha Team’s jobs and do our own.”

“You’re right, he does sound tense. So, Bruce, we’re going to want to get a full debrief on everything you have regarding the opposition’s campaign to see where they’ve planned to perpetrate more evil, and we’ll need that pronto.”

“Already started, Ambassador,” Raj said. “Most of us have heard this story for the second time now.”

“Blah, blah, blah, but good job. Does anyone know why the President called Cleary and Maurer in for a private ‘not a request’ meeting?”

Jeff cleared his throat. “Ah, I do, baby. I called your mother and told her what was going on.”

“Okay. I’m now worried that they’re going to set Maurer off to explode while they’re with the President and Mom.”

“They won’t,” Jenkins said. “If they did that, the vice president would take over, and the party would run him for President and Armstrong for vice president. And that ticket would not lose.”

“Why isn’t the current VP running?” Despite living in D.C. and having a career where knowing all this stuff was considered vital, I just couldn’t bring myself to care most of the time.

“He’s spent eight years watching what the President’s gone through and decided that playing golf is a lot more rewarding,” Jenkins said.

Oliver nodded. “He’s older and just wants to retire. If he had to step in for the end of the term, however, he would be the good soldier and run for president to support the party and the country.”

“Well, that’s good, then, because that means Maurer won’t be killing my mother and the President, along with whoever else. But unless we can get him right after this meeting, he’s lost to us forever, I think. I’m sorry, Squeaky.”

Mrs. Maurer looked at me. “Can you help him, if we save him somehow? Or will he always be a robotic copy of my son?”

“We don’t know,” Chuckie said. “Butler’s the first android that could fight programming, and appears to have retained a sense of self as a human. We think it’s because he was turned unwillingly.”

“There is no way the man I raised would willingly become what he has. I know you’re all worried that I’m horrified by his being turning into this . . . thing, and I am. But this is honestly a better explanation than him just turning against everything his family has ever stood for on a whim. I’m asking, though, because I’m willing to try something, but there’s no point if there’s no hope.”

“There’s always hope. Always. It might be a tiny sliver of hope, but it’s always there. What’s your plan, Squeaky?”

She pulled her phone out of her purse and dialed. It took a few seconds, but clearly someone picked up. “Cameron? Yes, it’s me. No, I’m fine. It’s you, dear, who are not fine.” She sighed. Could hear someone talking and assumed Maurer was telling her whatever party line he’d been programmed with.

Looked at my hand. The numbers I’d written there were smudged. Pulled a pen out of my purse, got up, handed the pen to Chuckie, who was next to Jeff, and shoved my hand at him.

The benefits of knowing someone since ninth grade were without number. He got it without my saying anything and wrote the numbers down clearly. Trotted over to Mrs. Maurer. “Squeaky,” I said softly, “read these to him.”

“Cameron, dear, I’d like to share something with you.” She read the numbers slowly and carefully. “Cameron, did you hear me?” She repeated the numbers. “Dear, if you’re still in there, please come to the American Centaurion Embassy. We want to help you, dear. I miss my son and I want my son back.
My
son, not what they’ve turned you into. Yes.” She said the numbers one more time. “I hope to see you soon, Cameron dear.” Then she hung up.