Jeff nodded. “But I want Irving and Ezra with the others.”
“Gladly,” Irving said. He was a total science nerd who’d scored a devoted Dazzler as his wife, and while he was a great guy and he answered the call when needed, Irving totally preferred hearing about the action as opposed to experiencing it. Had to figure this trip was falling into his Worst Nightmare category.
“Can I stay?” Lizzie, who was holding Charlie, asked me.
“Nope. What Chuckie said applies to you, too.” Hugged Jamie and put her down. “You go with Lizzie and behave.”
“I will, Mommy.”
Lizzie heaved a dramatic sigh. “I can help, but why listen to me? Oh, it’s because I’m ‘young,’ and supposedly have no experience. Always the way.” Then she took Jamie’s hand and flounced off with the others. Resisted the urge to make a comment about teenaged girls and their drama, but it took effort.
“Boy, have you rubbed off on her, Kitty,” Vance said. Chuckie and Reader both snickered, which allowed half of the others to snicker along, too.
“I’m ignoring all of you.”
“I’ll also be with them,” Naveed said, as Wasim trotted after Lizzie. “I’ll do my best to keep the teenagers in check. Keep us informed, please.”
“We will,” Jeff assured. He looked at the press corps, who all looked back with expressions that said they weren’t going anywhere. “Fine, fine, all of you can stay.”
“Why remove the others?” the Kristie-Bot asked.
“Mostly to not be interrupted every other sentence,” Jeff said meaningfully. “While all the adults and, frankly, all the kids, too, are willing and able to add in, we won’t be able to make any plans if the entire crew is in here.”
“We are an entire crew, aren’t we?” Tim asked thoughtfully. “I mean, we look like all we’re missing are Starfleet uniforms in order to be doing a live-action Star Trek reenactment or something. And, other than Christopher’s kids, all the kids are old enough to participate.”
“We have at least ninety people on board,” I added. Everyone looked at me. Shrugged. “I counted. I can do that, you know.” Of course, my original count of a hundred had included Team Tough Guys in it, but I was smart enough not to round up, lest someone else count heads and question how I’d gotten the higher number, Chuckie in particular. “So, yeah, we’re all ready for our mission, Commander Crawford.”
“Everyone can stop glaring at me,” Tim said. “Mother gave me that commission, I didn’t give it go myself.”
“Tim, what’s your point?” Reader asked slowly.
Tim looked at me. “My point, or rather, my question, is this—who made the decision to bring the people onto the ship who weren’t on it already when Mother began takeoff?”
CHAPTER 20
DIDN’T HAVE TO THINK too hard about this. “I think it was Jamie who made the choices, honestly.”
“I’m sure she called them all here, and possibly brought them all here,” Tim said. “But who told her who to pick?”
“Why would anyone have told her to pick anybody?” Jeff asked.
“Because the choices were selective,” I said as Tim nodded. “My parents and yours aren’t here. Three of your sisters and their families aren’t here. If Jamie could move the kids to her as if she was using an invisible gate, why not bring Marcia over from the White House to be with her children, too? Why is your Cabinet here at all? Sure, Jamie knows them, but it’s not like she hangs out with them. And where’re Nadine and Colette?”
“I assumed they got off the ship in time,” Raj said.
“Without the kids? I find it hard to believe that Nadine would do that, and Colette wouldn’t leave without me.” Looked around. “For that matter, where’s my A-C security team?”
“Same thing,” Raj said. “I think they got off in time.”
“Without taking civilians with them? Pull the other one, it has bells on. And Christopher, the fastest man alive, couldn’t find almost anyone to remove, and yet we have a tonnage of people on board.”
“What are you getting at, Kitty?” Christopher asked. “I took who I could.”
“No. I think you took who you were allowed to take.”
“What do you mean?” Chuckie asked.
“Look, we’ve been too busy to think about this, but now’s the time. Note that the majority of our trained security personnel aren’t here.” Looked at Len and Kyle, who were standing with the press corps. “In fact, I’m going to bet that Len and Kyle are only here because whoever told Jamie who to pick thought they were press, not security.”
“Naveed is security,” Chuckie pointed out. “And he’s here.”
“He’s in the role of parent or older, protective relative. So is Mister Gadhavi.”
Our resident grizzly bear nodded his head. “Mister Reynolds, I believe that your nickname should be put to use at this time. I feel that Commander Crawford and Queen Katherine’s point is the key one.”
“Caretaker begs the question of why Marcia wasn’t brought over,” Chuckie said, though I could now see the Conspiracy Wheels turning.
“Denise covers caretaker, for all the kids,” Claudia said. “But Kevin is security and he’s here.”
“He’s here in the role of parent, though,” Chuckie said. “But the Cabinet makes no sense, if you’re thinking that someone got all of the trained security personnel off the ship prior to takeoff.”
“All the trained security personnel that were identified as security,” Tim said. “I think that’s the key point. I mean, the Vice President and the Secretary of Defense are both well-trained military men.”
Fritz Hochberg, said VP, nodded. “But we weren’t here in those capacities.”
“Hammy? Your thoughts?” This was directed by me to Brigadier General Marvin Hamlin, who was easily Chuckie’s equal in terms of identifying real conspiracies and no one’s equal when it came to hiding from the Forces of Evil. Hamlin had managed to hide from the Mastermind for years before we’d been able to bring Cliff down and let Hamlin back out into the light.
Hamlin grimaced. “I don’t feel that we have all the intel that we need, but it surely seems that the selection of who is and isn’t on board is far from random.”
“My issue is that with all of us here,” Horn indicated himself and the rest of the Cabinet members, “America’s sitting with only the Secretary of Education at the helm.”
“I’m sure Marcia will handle things appropriately, Vander,” Jeff said. “And Angela’s there, as are all the Joint Chiefs.”
Horn shrugged. “That’s not my point, Jeff. Marcia’s a good lady, but she’s going to be under tremendous pressure, and while the others are all more than seasoned, still we have all of us on a spaceship going toward an unknown destination, which leaves the country and the solar system at risk. If the Mastermind were still alive, I’d say that he’d planned this.”
“He’s not and there’s no way he could have thought and planned this far ahead. But we have the Tinkerer and the Shadow around, so it could have been one of them. But I don’t think we have enough to go on yet.”