Alien Diplomacy (15 page)

Happily, I saw what looked like the bottom of a boat and kicked up toward it. I got around it and hit the surface just as I thought my lungs were going to explode. I looked around and realized what else I hadn’t been prepared for: the amount of water traffic. I might no longer be at risk of drowning or being shot, but I was at real risk of being run over by boats.

The limo’s swan dive hadn’t been missed, and there were more boats congregating and heading toward us. The water got choppier, I got colder, and I became more concerned that I wasn’t going to get out of this well.

I tried to remember what to do in cases like this. Not fall in was probably the first rule. Be wearing a life jacket was undoubtedly up there in the top three suggestions. Kick off your shoes was in there somewhere, but I didn’t want to lose my Converse if I didn’t have to, and they really didn’t seem to be weighing me down.

Save the others if you’re okay was definitely a rule. Asking myself why I was trying to save the men who’d tried to kill us multiple times over, I swam back toward where the limo had gone in.

I couldn’t see anyone, so I took a deep breath and ducked back under the water. I swam down, but it was hard to see. I flailed around and by sheer luck hit what felt like a fender. Dragged myself lower, flailed around again. This time I hit what felt like a human hand. I grabbed and tugged.

Whoever I had didn’t move. I tugged harder and felt the body move a bit. But I was almost out of air. I let go and kicked up to the surface. Took another huge breath and went back down.

I found the arm faster, but I wasn’t able to really move him. I was also getting colder and tired. I tugged one more time, feeling like my lungs were going to burst. Nothing. I let go, but I had no energy. I kicked up, but wasn’t getting any real action from my legs.

As I waited for my life to flash in front of me, I felt an arm go around my waist. Whoever had me was strong and fast, and we bolted to the surface, me gasping like a drowning fish.

“What are you doing?” Jeff asked as he held me up so I could get air without water splashing in my face. “And why are you doing it in the Potomac?”

“Trying to save the guys who tried to kill us. No, I don’t have a good answer for why, just think we need to. What are you doing here?”

“Trying to save you. Can you float?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay. Then stay here, on the surface.” Jeff dove down.

I waited, treading water and enjoying breathing, while more boats came closer. I counted in my head. He was down for a minute, and I was about to dive down again, cold and tired or not, when Jeff’s head surfaced. He had the gunman.

“Can you hold him, baby?”

“Yeah.” I grabbed the man in the hold lifeguards used, hopefully correctly, as Jeff dove down again.

The air around us started whipping, and I looked up. There was a big helicopter of some kind directly above us. I couldn’t tell if it was Coast Guard or Air Force, but its belly was opening up, and some guys in dive gear were lowering down on cables.

Jeff surfaced with the driver in tow. “I don’t know if they’re still alive,” he shouted to me. “I also don’t know if we should care. Or why we just risked our lives to save them.”

The guys on the cables jumped into the water. What looked like giant baskets were now lowering from the plane. The guys in wetsuits took the two unconscious men. “Be sure they’re restrained,” I shouted to one.

He nodded and gave me a thumbs up sign. He also winked. I looked closer. It was hard to be sure, but the eyes looked familiar. He and his partner hauled my guy into his basket and rose up with him. The same thing was happening with Jeff’s rescue.

Jeff swam over to me and put his arm around my waist. “This is going to be fun to explain.”

“How did you get here?”

I got the “duh” look. “Hyperspeed. You’ve heard of it.”

“I mean into the middle of the river.”

“I can swim almost as fast as I can run.”

“Wow. I didn’t know that. You’re just all around awesome, aren’t you?”

“I do what I can. Our lift’s here.”

Two more guys lowered down. They had harnesses attached to cables they hooked us into. Then we all rode up in the air. If I ignored the fact that I was freezing cold, had just swum in and swallowed some of the Potomac, and undoubtedly looked beyond awful, it was kind of cool.

We got inside, and the giant chopper closed its belly door. One of the guys in a wetsuit put a blanket around me and one around Jeff. “Thanks for the save.”

He pulled his face mask off. “The U.S. Navy lives to serve, Chiefs.”

“Jerry!” The rest of the gang pulled their headgear off to reveal the rest of my Top Gun pilots and Tim. “Wow, you guys moved fast.”

Tim shrugged. “We’re always prepared for it, and Andrews has this equipment ready to go.”

“How’d you get to Andrews so fast? Traffic’s been backed up for hours.”

I got a full complement of “duh” looks. “Gates,” Matt Hughes said. I realized he’d been the one who’d winked at me. “You know, that we have everywhere? Especially in bathrooms and military bases?” Alien technology was great for many things, including movement of goods and personnel. The gates looked like airport metal detectors to me, but they moved you hundreds or thousands of miles in seconds. Two years in, they still made me sick to my stomach, but they were effective.

“Oh. Right. Kind of distracted. It’s been a busy day. What’s the status on the two guys Jeff pulled out of the limo?”

“I think they’ll make it,” Chip Walker said. “This was fun, Kitty, but I don’t know how Imageering’s going to cover it all up.”

“We have agents at the scene,” Tim added. “But I’m not certain if they’ll be able to alter all the memories.”

Randy and Joe were busy doing CPR on the two gunmen. “One’s shot,” Randy shared.

“In the shoulder,” Joe added. “Kind of a weird angle.”

“His buddy shot him instead of me while we were fighting.”

“So we saved those murderers why?” Jeff asked me.

“They have information about who hired them to kill us.” I thought about it. “You know…one of them called me Miss Katt.”

“So?”

“So I haven’t been Miss Katt for a year. And he said I wasn’t the target, that he didn’t like killing pretty girls or babies, that I was merely in the way.”

“Again, so? I’m wondering why I didn’t let them drown. Almost as much as I’m wondering what part of ‘stay in the car with our baby’ didn’t register for you. And nearly as much as I’m wondering why you ran outside and then after those two.”

“I didn’t want them to get away or you to get hurt.” Why share that I’d overshot them unintentionally? Though I had a feeling Jeff knew.

Jeff shook his head. “Only my girl.”

“Where’s Jamie?”

“Back at the Embassy. The jocks and Pierre are apparently the only ones capable of following any kind of order.”

“Are they all okay?”

“Yes. Your newest pal’s there, too. Your mother and Reynolds are taking the others into custody, I assume.”

“You assume?”

“I had to leave. Something about saving my wife from drowning. I know, I don’t have my priorities in order.” Jeff’s sarcasm knob was right up at eleven again.

I leaned against him. “No argument about your priorities.” Blanket or no, my teeth were chattering.

“We need to get her back to the Embassy,” Jeff said to Tim as he picked me up and put me on his lap. “She was in the water a lot longer than I was.”

“It’s just a little hypothermia,” I shared in between my teeth clacking.

“It’s a lot of hypothermia, and if you weren’t enhanced you’d be close to death.”

“Superpowers rock.” My teeth chattered as an exclamation to each syllable. “And I’m sure the cold’ll pass.”

“And I’m sure I’m getting you into a bath,” Jeff replied. He tucked my blanket and his around me.

“Really?” Maybe this day wasn’t going to end up a total waste after all.

Jeff chuckled. “Nice to see your laser focus remains on the priorities.”

W
E ACTUALLY HAD A HELIPAD
on top of the Embassy, but in an effort to be sort of low key, we went to the Georgetown University Medical Center and landed there. Medical personnel arrived with gurneys.

As he was being strapped in, the guy who’d tried to shoot me grabbed my hand. “Why did you save us?”

“My husband saved you.”

“I heard. Because you told him to. Why?”

I shrugged. “No idea. Just didn’t seem right to let you drown.”

“I tried to kill you and your child. More than once.”

“Yeah, I know. I don’t have a good answer for you.”

He stared at me. “My name is Peter.” He pronounced it a little strangely, but I was too cold to care.

“Nice to meet you, I guess. I’d rather know who hired you than your name.”

Peter grabbed my hand. “I will tell you. Later.” He pressed something into my hand. I wasn’t so cold that I let on to anyone that he’d done this.

A large number of local law enforcement arrived, shocking me to my core. I hadn’t thought there were any cops within a hundred miles, and yet they showed up en masse for what was absolutely a photo op.

The two bad guys were put onto gurneys and hustled off, said law enforcement going with them before I could express my taxpayer’s rage about their failure to show up before everything was over.

I managed to get a surreptitious look at what was in my hand—
a memory card like the ones used in a cell phone or digital camera. It was in a plastic case, meaning it was hopefully not ruined by the wet, but I didn’t have a lot of hope that we’d get anything off of it.

Tim flashed the diplomatic immunity card before anyone could try to escort us anywhere. Jeff and I went into the hospital, then, with Tim and the flyboys creating some minor confusion, we hypersped out of there and back to the Embassy.

Our rooms were filled with people again or still, I wasn’t sure. “Out,” Jeff said. “Go to Christopher’s side or down to the conference room. We need to get warm and dry.”

Amy had Jamie, who appeared to be snoozing in her Snugli carrier. “She’s fine,” she said as I gave Jamie a closer look. “God, you look like a drowned cat.”

“Thanks, I feel like a salmon that got run over swimming upstream against a whole lot of grizzly bears.” I looked around. “Where’re Mom and Chuckie?”

“Doing something with the prisoners,” Christopher said. “Len and Kyle are getting settled in.”

“They’re going to live here?” Jeff didn’t sound happy about this.

Christopher nodded. “Yeah, Angela and Reynolds are both insisting on it. Under the circumstances, we’re getting more new residents, too.”

“Who?”

“Kevin and his family.”

“Awesome! Not that I mind at all, but why?”

“We need more security on staff than just our own people.” Christopher grimaced. “I can’t argue. These job changes haven’t gone smoothly at all.”

“I know, I’m a screw-up.” I was starting to shiver again. “But I’m also a freezing screw-up. Can we table this for later?”

“Yeah, because you’re not the only one having problems, Kitty.” Christopher sighed. “We all are. I don’t know who’s feeling more like a failure, you, Paul, James, or Serene, but I think I can speak for myself and Jeff in saying we’re in the running, too.”

“Fabulous. Order some uppers while we shower.”

Christopher hit me with Glare #5, Amy laughed, and they ushered any stragglers out.

As Jeff and I trotted into our bathroom, I put the memory card into my jewelry box. “New admirer?” Jeff asked, sarcasm knob only at around six.

“No. Peter slipped that to me. I want to examine it later, but I’m
hoping it’s helpful, as opposed to a tiny bomb that’s going to go off the moment we relax.”

The com activated. “Chiefs, Commander Reader is suggesting everyone regroup in the morning. Imageering is fully focused on fixing today’s incidents, and all available Field teams are needed elsewhere.”

Jeff and I looked at each other. “What’s going on?” I asked.

“We’re having clustered activity, Chief.”

“We haven’t had that since…” Jeff’s voice trailed off and his eyes narrowed. “Where is the action, Walter?”

“Paraguay. In the Chaco. Commanders Reader and Crawford are insisting that all Embassy personnel remain here, Chiefs.” Walter sounded as though he didn’t want to share this news. “Your father is secured, Co-Chief Martini,” he added, clearly hoping this news would mean we didn’t rage about being under Embassy Arrest.

I decided I was too cold and tired to fight. “Okay, good to know. I assume Mom and Chuckie are going to be all night with the creeps?”

“That appears to be their feeling, yes, Chief.”

“Fine, Walter. Thank you.”

“Signing off, then, Chiefs.”

Jeff shook his head. “I’d be upset about this, but under the circumstances, let’s just let James and Tim handle it.”

“Works for me. I swear. And I’m proud of you for not racing off to help.”

Jeff grunted as we started peeling our clothes off. I didn’t despair as I looked at my stained and soggy Aerosmith shirt and Converse—the Elves had salvaged clothes of mine in much worse states than these were.

The Embassy was really like living in the most luxurious penthouse you could imagine, to the third power. So the bathroom was extremely nice. The Elves handled all the cleaning, which was good, since my housekeeping skills remained cheerfully unimpressive.