Alien in Chief (7 page)

CHAPTER 11

W
E GOT HOME
without incident and immediately went to medical. The Secret Service harangued me the entire way, until Buchanan told them to shut it up and take the whining elsewhere. Literally.

Nurse Magdalena Carter—who we'd met during Operation Assassination and who had not only become our Embassy nurse but also Richard White's girlfriend and therefore potentially Christopher's stepmother one day—greeted us as if she'd been expecting us. No surprise, really.

“Doctor Hernandez is waiting for you,” she said as she hugged Christopher tightly. He hugged her back, showing impressive personal growth in the acceptance that his father had found love again over twenty years after his mother's death. Amy had helped a lot with that.

“Nice to see you guys are up on current events.”

“Jeff is, too, and he's on his way here,” Nurse Carter said. She let go of Christopher and gave me a gentle hug. “Glad you're all okay.”

“Us too.”

Culver went into the examination room first. I waited another second and Jeff arrived. He didn't say anything, just picked me up and hugged me, gently, like Nurse Carter had.

“I'm okay. I'm not hurt. What little banging up I got has already gone away.”

Jeff grunted, then pulled Christopher in. Group hugging was an A-C thing, but I didn't mind it. Even when Jeff then pulled Len and Kyle in, too.

“We're all okay,” Len managed to get out. “Really, we were lucky.”

“No,” Jeff said as he let go. “You're a great driver, Christopher reached all of you in time, and Kitty chased off the lunatic and didn't crash that Harley.”

“We made the news?”

“In this town, someone's always watching,” Buchanan said.

“Too true.” We brought Jeff, and Nurse Carter since she was right there, up on current events. “So, you think the Mastermind hired the Huntress, or are you on the side of it being this Gustav Drax?”

“No bet. But we sent teams over to check on Don. He's alright and already out of Walter Reed and back home. We have teams assigned to him. We also put them onto Lillian's husband.”

“Good. So, I think Huntress is missing on purpose.”

Buchanan, who'd been texting this entire time, nodded. “It seems likely. Our sources don't know of her. She seems remarkably new and unknown for someone with this high of a skill level.”

“You're sure she's not an A-C or android?” Christopher asked. “And before you point out the fact that she was riding a motorcycle, for all we know a hybrid could do it.”

“Paul can't,” Jeff said. “Neither can Abigail. Chuck tested them years ago. They have the same issues full-blooded A-Cs have with human machinery.”

“Did he test Serene?”

Everyone looked at me. “I don't know,” Jeff said slowly. “I sort of assumed he did.”

“You know how they teach you to spell assume, Jeff. I think we need to know.”

Christopher nodded and started texting. Hyperspeed
being what it was on both sides of this conversation, he had an answer fast. “No, Serene hasn't been tested. It's not for a lack of Chuck asking, either, or her being unwilling. Brian objected.”

“Why?” Brian Dwyer had been my boyfriend in high school, but, after the events of Operation Drug Addict, had seen the light and fallen in love with Serene. They were both a tad obsessive when it came to relationships, though.

“As far as I can tell and Serene knows, it's because he didn't trust that she wouldn't get hurt.” Christopher shrugged. “It wasn't a vital thing before, so Chuck stopped pushing, since he'd tested Naomi and Michael, too. None of the Gowers have the ability to handle human machinery.”

“But none of them are a direct Ronald Yates/Mephistopheles progeny, either. I think we need to test Serene, pronto.”

Christopher nodded. “She agrees. She's going to do it in a controlled environment, without telling Brian. She wants to know if we want Chuck there.”

“We do,” Jeff said. “Stay here and make sure Tito checks every one of you, and that includes you, Christopher.” With that, he zipped off, presumably to wake Chuckie up and share what had transpired while he'd been sleeping.

Culver came out and gave us a weak smile. “Doctor Hernandez recommends rest and some food.”

“Once I get checked we'll get you something here.”

She shook her head. “I feel fine, I've told you what I wanted you to know, and the need for secrecy is clearly gone. If it's alright with you, I'd really like to go home.”

“We'll get your protection unit to take you back,” Buchanan said. “I'll escort her to them,” he said to me.

I nodded and they left. Sent Len then Kyle in to Tito before me. They didn't have faster regeneration. Both boys were declared the same as Culver—a little banged up, but otherwise okay.

My turn with Tito. He shook his head at me. “We can't leave you alone for a minute, can we?”

“This wasn't my fault.”

He grinned. “It never is, Kitty, when you think about it.” He did a fast check. “You seem fine. Any pain anywhere? Be truthful.”

Did a body check. “No, honestly, I feel fine. Still a little pissed, but nothing hurts.”

“Let me know immediately if that changes. And next time you go out, maybe you should have Rahmi and Rhee with you.” They were sisters and princesses from Beta Twelve who'd come for Jamie's first birthday party and stayed. Beta Twelve had the best warriors in the entire Alpha Centauri system, and Tito, who'd been a UFC cage fighter in his spare time when we'd met, had been training them and Abigail on fighting techniques for several years now, so this suggestion was a good one.

“I'll keep it in mind.”

He grinned again. “You know they won't cramp your style.”

“Oh, true enough. But the question right now is going to be if Jeff will let me leave the building at all or not.”

“My money's on not. But when you disobey him, like you always do, take one of the other gals with you. Abigail and Mahin are trained, too. And all the women fight nastier than all the men, other than Christopher.”

“True dat. But what I think you're telling me is that all the girls are bored.”

Tito laughed. “But you didn't hear it straight out from me.”

Headed out of medical and went downstairs to Jeff's office. He was there with Chuckie, and they were both watching something on a video screen. Serene handling a car in the middle of Groom Lake, to be exact.

“Hey,” Chuckie said, looking and sounding normal. “We're on a feed with Serene.”

“Hey, Kitty,” she said through gritted teeth. “This is hard but not impossible.”

“Then you can stop now.”

“No, I really think I need to learn how to drive.”

“No you don't,” Jeff and Chuckie said in unison. Decided not to worry about the unison thing—great minds were just thinking alike was all.

“As long as it's safe and you don't overdo it, Serene, go for it.”

“Thanks! Jeff, Charles, I'm going to disconnect from you, then. I'm still on with Dulce and Area Fifty-One.”

“Fine,” Chuckie said with a sigh. “Please make sure I get a copy of all the results and transcript.”

“I will do. Head of Imageering out.” Our screen went blank.

“I love how she reminded us of her rank right before hanging up on us,” Jeff said.

“I love more that she can do it. So, this means that the likelihood is that a Yates offspring with enough Yates in there can probably handle human machinery, doesn't it?”

“One test subject isn't enough to be anything close to conclusive,” Chuckie said. “But I'm willing to hypothesize that the answer is yes.”

“I thought Buchanan and the assassins got rid of all the Yates progeny out there,” Jeff said.

“They got rid of all the Americans they could find and Nightcrawler knew about. But there could easily be Ronnie's Kids that they missed or that are in other parts of the world. Ronaldo Al Dejahl Prime was raised in Europe, remember, and so was Nightcrawler.”

“We have the results from the Field teams' investigation,” Chuckie said. “They indicate that no one jumped off of anything on the Beltway, other than Lillian Culver's car.”

“Meaning Huntress has some kind of skills. I'm going to work under the assumption she's one of Ronnie's Kids until proven otherwise.”

“What that means is that she's not Stephanie,” Jeff said, sounding relieved.

Chuckie shook his head. “Actually, if one A-C can learn, even if that A-C is a hybrid child of the most powerful A-C we know of, that means a regular A-C can learn. Would it take a lot of time and training? Yes. Is it a doable thing? Absolutely yes.”

Hugged Jeff's shoulders, which I could do since he was sitting down. “I know you'd like to believe Stephanie isn't involved. But I think we have to accept that even if we do everything we can, and even if TCC does everything he can, she may still not ever come back to our side of things. Or even Cleary's side of things.”

Jeff heaved a sigh. “I know. I just want to believe that she will until I have proof positive that she's not redeemable.”

“The truth is out there, Jeff. And I'm sure we'll find it.”

CHAPTER 12

T
HE REST OF THE
week was fairly uneventful, other than Tito calling it right and Jeff not allowing me to go anywhere, and the raging arguments for who was going with us down to Florida.

Fewer people were staying to keep things running than were coming along. Of course, other than Doreen and Irving Coleman-Weisman and their son, Ezra, pretty much the entire staff and extended friends and family who lived with us wanted to take the train. Possibly because I'd raved about it a little too much. My bad.

Doreen didn't want to go because her parents had been in the Diplomatic Corps all her life—well, before the Poofs ate them. But we were all okay with that, Doreen included, because Robert and Barbara Coleman had been traitors of the highest order and also not the most loving and supportive parents someone could want, especially when their only daughter had wanted to marry a human.

Doreen was our only truly trained diplomat on staff and also the only one who took the job seriously. Why she wasn't our ambassador I didn't know, but every time I mentioned this, Doreen was the loudest voice shooting down the option.

I'd bowed out of most of the passionate arguments for who should be allowed to cause us to have to add ten more
cars to the train. But we were a day away from leaving and we weren't finalized in any way.

Finished my breakfast meeting with Embassy staff, which consisted of almost all of them sharing why they needed to go to Florida, then decided to head upstairs to see what the daycare set was going to demand, in part because Amy was up there again and in other part because I wanted to see what Denise thought about her and her kids coming along, too.

What Denise thought, it turned out, was that I was an idiot. Not only did she not want to go, she also specifically didn't want some others to go, and had apparently been waiting for the last minute to share this with me. Probably so I'd have to give in.

“Kitty, I think it's a terrible idea for you to take Jamie and Charlie on this trip,” she said for, by my count, the fifteenth time, while Ben Kweller sang “Family Tree” as backup.

“Vince wants us to do a family dog and pony show.”

“I don't care what the President wants. The last time you all went somewhere on a mission, you were dragged into another solar system. And considering what happened to Charles, and what almost happened to Jamie, there is no good reason to put not one but both of your children into similar danger.”

“I don't think the Planetary Council is dropping by to try to kidnap my kids.”

“Prove it.” Denise rarely looked as stern as she did right now.

“Ah . . . can't.”

“Exactly.”

“They can steal the kids from here, you know. They stole us all that way for Operation Civil War.”

“I realize that. However, Walter, William, and I have been working on the problem since all of you were taken.” Walter Ward was the Head of Embassy Security and his
older brother, William, was the Head of Security Worldwide, based out of the main A-C facility, the Dulce Science Center. That they were working on this issue wasn't a surprise. “In fact, we've been working with the Security heads at all the Bases worldwide. I think Missy from Australia has the best fix.”

“Missy?” This was a new one.

“Melissa Gunnels. She handles Sydney Base. I know you met her when you were there.”

Oh, right. I had at least interacted with Melissa during Operation Bizarro World. She hadn't liked me enough to share her nickname with me. Oh well, I'd have to find the will to go on somehow. “What's she come up with?”

“A new way to lock our bases back down, so that no one can get in or get our people out unless we want them to.”

In the olden days of just a couple years ago, this had been a given. All the Bases and external A-C housing had shields that prevented us from being blown up or from enemies entering once said shields were activated. Events had shown that our enemies, and our friends as well, had found ways around these safeguards.

Not that we all hadn't been concerned about beefing up security, but after a few months of relative calm that issue had moved to the back burner for most of us. Jeff and I had been getting ready for Charlie's arrival, we were busy with our day-to-day jobs, everyone else had lives they were enjoying, and all that jazz. But it was nice to know that some of our folks hadn't given up the good fight, so to speak.

“Does it work?” I had to ask. A plan and an actionable plan were two different things.

“So far, yes.” Denise heaved a sigh. “And even if it didn't, you should not be bringing the children into what could be a coup, an attack, or worse.”

As the music changed to Sugar Ray's “Fly,” a car flew up in the air, swooped around Denise's head, and landed on
my shoulder. Was pretty sure that Charlie was exercising his sense of humor.

She and I looked at each other. “And . . . there's also . . . that.” I removed the car and looked around. Charlie was sitting on Amy's lap, grinning at me.

“We've managed to keep Charlie's talents hidden, but if you bring him along on this trip, I can only foresee a lot of negative press.” Denise took the car from me, turned, and handed it back to Ezra. “Charlie, that will be enough of that. Stop showing off for your mother—she's very impressed by you already.”

Charlie gurgled at her, but nothing else floated or flew.

“I'm looking forward to the trip,” Amy said.

“No, you're not,” Denise countered. “You shouldn't be going any more than the children.” Amy opened her mouth to protest and Denise put her hand up. “You're eight months pregnant. That means that the baby can show up any time. And it is insane to head into what could be an action situation in your condition. I'll have Doctor Hernandez lock you down on bedrest if you try to go. And, trust me, he'll do it.”

Amy closed her mouth and grimaced. “I hate it when someone makes a logical point that goes completely against what I want to do.” She heaved a sigh. “But you're right. I don't want to do anything that puts . . . Becky at risk. I'll stay home, Denise. I promise.”

Denise shot me a look that literally dared me to keep on arguing. However, I knew when I was beaten. I was rarely beaten, but in this case, I was ready to wave the white flag, preferably without Charlie's assistance.

“You win. I'll talk to Jeff about it. Ames, I'll wager that Christopher will be relieved that you're staying home.”

“I think he will be, yeah.”

“I've already explained to Kevin that the children will not be going,” Denise added. “And neither will he.”

“Wow, I get Amy and the kids being grounded, but why Kevin?”

“Because he's the Defense Attaché of this Embassy and in everyone else's absence we need the protection.”

“Cannot argue with that logic. Mostly because I figure you'll just keep on giving me the Mother Superior look you've clearly been practicing and I'll lose.”

Denise grinned. Like her husband and children, she had great teeth and a killer smile. “Just need to make sure you see reason.”

“Fine, fine, you win.” Realistically, Denise was right. Besides, with the kids safely at home, Jeff and I might be able to fit in some sexy times on the train. So a win-win all the way around.

Before I could say anything else, like ask her who else she wanted to stay at home, my phone beeped and I pulled it out of my back pocket. I had a text from an unknown number.

Meet me on the Embassy roof right now. Come alone.