“I feel fine, honestly. And no, I’m not lying. I don’t need it at all.” He shrugged at the hairy eyeball look I knew I was giving him. “Honestly, baby, the barrage of emotions is just sort of . . . there. I can feel it, I can access it, but they aren’t hurting me.”
“I’ll take it.” Perhaps the Powers That Be were doing Jeff a solid for once. Chose not to worry, question, or complain.
He looked around. “Kozlow’s gone.”
“We’ll catch him.”
“Let’s hope, or else your mother’s going to really give it to us.”
“Cliff felt that his last doomsday plan was going to roll no matter what,” Chuckie said worriedly as Jeff reached out and pulled him in for a group hug. “We need to figure out what that was and neutralize it.”
“Maybe he meant the Aicirtap,” Jeff suggested.
Thought about it as my music changed to “Same Shit, Different Drink” by Lit. “No, I don’t think so. I mean, with a name like Close Encounter it clearly deals with alien arrivals. But he said that he could have saved everyone, and I think he meant the Aicirtap when he said that. But this was a separate thing.”
Reader joined us as we stopped hugging. “What the hell is that lizard thing?”
“No clue, but Mossy might know. Not sure why he and Siler aren’t down here.”
“Oh, we’re here now,” Siler said, sounding a little tense. Turned to see him and Mossy walking with their hands up. A lot of G-Company thugs with guns were with them. So was Kozlow, and he was with the man Wruck had imitated—Gadhavi was in the house.
“Let me handle this, and I mean it, stay out of it,” I said to the men with me. Pulled off Siler’s shirt on the way over to them and handed it to him. “Thanks for letting me borrow that. Mister Ali Baba Gadhavi, formerly of India, now of Bahrain, head of G-Company, I presume?”
He nodded to me. “I understand that you have caused some . . . issues within my organization this past day. I don’t appreciate that.”
“Yeah? Here’s what you might want to think about. Cliff Goodman, he who is dead on the floor over there next to an alien life-form none of us recognize, had plans, big plans. Many of which centered around taking over your entire operation. The way I see it, we just did you a huge favor.”
“These are just words from a lying woman’s mouth.”
“Uh huh. Francine or Adriana, whichever one of you other lying women has the proof, trot it over here.”
Francine joined us and pulled a thick ledger out of her purse. “You’ll be particularly interested in what’s on pages fifty-seven through seventy-two. There’s more, but that will give you the gist.”
Gadhavi flipped to the pages mentioned. He read a bit, flipped some more, read some more, and so on. His countenance got darker and darker. He slammed the ledger shut and looked up. “I apologize for my earlier words. You are indeed a woman of truth. I appreciate your removing this viper from my nest.”
“Great. So, you can keep that, a little present from us.” Had to figure that Adriana had sent this over to the hackers to be copied and if not, oh well. Trades were made when one was working at this level of diplomacy. “In return, we’d appreciate it if you’d choose to not be upset about our clearing out all of the remaining Al Dejahl strongholds, as well as removing all of Cliff’s dangerous biochemical weapons and neutralizing most of his doomsday plans.”
“Most?” Ah, so he was also an attentive bear. Hard to call him a teddy bear in person. Grizzly might have been more accurate.
“Yes, there’s one we were just trying to decipher when your august presence arrived.”
“Was that sarcasm?”
“No, not really. I enjoy sarcasm as much as the next girl, but in this case, meeting the head of G-Company is kind of a thrill.”
He studied me. “You do not plan to try to arrest me?”
Snorted. “Hardly. We’re not here on that kind of business. Frankly, with the way things are going, I’m betting that most of the underworld is going to have to actually step up and get involved in more than sex, drugs, extortion, gambling, and the rest of your pursuits. The world is changing, and you’re going to have to adapt or die. People like you, who run huge, successful organizations, have a lot to offer.”
He stared at me. “You mean that. I must mention that no one with you seems to be in agreement.”
“Oh, I’m sure they’re not. I’m just willing to see things differently, call me an out of the box thinker. However, the killing and drugs and the sex trafficking and the hurting and all that jazz would have to go. I’m just saying that we’re all humanity, all Earthlings together, as we meet the rest of our vast galaxy. From here on in, this is going to be one world that’s a nation of aliens. Adapt or die. I’m voting for adaptation, and, based on what little I know of you, I’m betting that you’re going to go for adaptation, too.”
“I have people quite dear to me whom the aliens saved this past evening. And I agree that the world is about to change.” He nodded to me. “I will mull over what you have said. Use all the power here that you might need, and then please destroy this area as you see fit. We part as friends and, should we meet again, I hope that it will be as friends again.” He looked at his troops. “Come. We have business to conduct.” They nodded to him, took their guns off of all of us, and headed upstairs.
Gadhavi turned and started for the stairs. Kozlow stayed where he was. Gadhavi turned back. “Why are you not coming, Russell?” So, Kozlow had moved up to first name status. “When you came to tell me what was happening here I told you that, were your words true, I would ensure that you never had to enter the United States again, and that I will protect you from any who sought to imprison you.”
“I know.” Kozlow looked at me then back to Gadhavi. “But I gave her my word.”
Gadhavi cocked his head. “Interesting. You will go back with her, to a lifetime of incarceration, simply because you gave her your word?”
“Yes. Because I gave it to her, Mister Gadhavi.”
Gadhavi didn’t look convinced. Couldn’t blame him.
“Someone very important to him lives with me. Trust me, if that wasn’t the case, he’d be leaping at your extremely generous and kind offer. And I mean that. Many men in your position enjoy killing the messengers.”
“Mohammed was a messenger. And, perhaps, as you so eloquently said earlier, the only thing that matters is that we go forward together, regardless of which messenger we have listened to for all of our lives.” He bowed to me. “Until we meet again.” Then he turned and headed up the stairs, the rest of his troops following him.
CHAPTER 91
“WELL, THAT WAS FUN,” Jeff said as “It’s Not Over” by Daughtry came on my airwaves. “You get to explain what just went on to your mother.”
“No problem. Well, in the grand scheme of things, not compared to figuring out what the Close Encounter Doomsday Plan actually is.”
Looked around the lab. There had to be something, something here, that would be the trigger, or Cliff wouldn’t have thought this plan would still activate.