Alien in the House

Chapter 25



I REALLY WANTED TO PANIC. However, that didn’t seem like a good plan. Besides, Raj beat me to the reaction punch.

“Ambassador, if I may, could we please search you?” Raj asked politely.

“Why?” Jeff looked freaked and sounded upset. Couldn’t blame him.

“I have a theory. It’s one I don’t want to forward until we’ve searched you, and then the rest of us, honestly, probably starting with Ambassador Katt-Martini’s purse.”

Figured out where Raj was going with this. And I never had a problem forwarding a theory. “You think someone slipped Jeff an electronic mickey?”

“A what?” Christopher asked.

“A who?” Jeff asked.

“Yes,” Raj replied with a smile.

“You actually know what that meant?” Jeff asked him.

Raj chuckled. “We’re much more media and pop culture focused at New Delhi Base.”

“Great,” Christopher grumbled. “Someone else to encourage more Kitty-isms.”

“Raj, this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Christopher, I’m ignoring you.”

“Our enemies have certainly used electronic bugging on us before,” White said possibly in an attempt to get us back on topic. “I’d say we all need to be searched.” He began patting himself down.

Raj and Christopher did the same, while Jeff and I did each other. It didn’t take long—I found a small disk in his outer suit pocket. Dumped my purse out—nothing I hadn’t put in it.

“Okay, let’s see what this thing I found on Jeff does when I smash it.”

“Wait!” Raj grabbed my hand. “If it’s what we think it is, it needs to be reverse engineered so we can determine how to guard against it.”

“Good point, and nice save.” Clearly Jeff wasn’t the only one upset and not necessarily thinking straight. I was normally smarter than this. Wondered if I’d missed some Electronic Brain Slower disk in my purse somehow. Decided I was still understandably upset over Reyes dying in front of me while I was holding his hand and cut myself a break.

Jeff stared at Raj for a long moment. “You’re hired. Full time. Have the Operations Team send the rest of your stuff, you’re staying with us.”

“Wow, this emotional blocker thing seems to do wonders for your ability to reason logically.”

“Hilarious. I’d like to know if whatever you’re holding is actually what’s blocking me, though.”

Christopher took the disk from my hand and disappeared.

“Still feel nothing,” Jeff said. He jerked. “Oh. No, everything’s back.” He blinked. “Hang on, I need to put my blocks back up, fast.”

My phone rang. Dug it out. “Jeff feeling things again?”

“Yes. You can come back now, Christopher.”

“Why don’t you come to me?”

“Why? And where are you?”

“Why? Because, unlike you, I don’t want to hang out with four other people in a bathroom any longer. For where, I went to the farthest point from Jeff I could get. I’m in the basement. And yes, I’m alone.”

“Gotcha. Are we sure it’s safe to have the walkway opened up for everyone?”

“I told Walter to put the shield up over the buildings. He said he’d done that as soon as all the guests were inside.”

“He’s so good.”

“Yes, but why are we still talking? Oh, wait, it’s you. You really like it in the bathroom, don’t you?”

“Blah, blah, blah. See you shortly.” Hung up and gave everyone a bright smile. “Christopher’s in the basement. He suggests we join him.”

“I’m fine with that,” Jeff said. “I’ll monitor myself to see when I stop feeling anything. But what about everyone upstairs?”

“Let’s get all my news dealt with first, okay? Because until we do, I don’t know what to do about anybody upstairs.”

Jeff nodded and took my hand. Raj opened the door for us, and we all hypersped out and down the walkway, which was indeed no longer blocked. Reached the basement quickly. Sadly, Christopher was indeed alone.

“I stopped feeling people the moment we got into the Embassy,” Jeff shared.

Christopher nodded. “I monitored your mind when I left. I needed to be a good hundred yards away before I could tell you started to pick up emotions again.”

“That’s a football field. It would have covered everyone at the party and part of the Embassy, too. So why didn’t you notice?”

Jeff shook his head. “I don’t know. I could pick up some emotions, but they were faint and none of them alerted me to anything going on. But I suppose because I could pick up some emotions, I wasn’t alerted to the fact I wasn’t getting any nearby.”

“So, you might have noticed, only you had your blocks up high.”

“Which anyone who knows Jeffrey would know he’d have to do at an event such as we had tonight.”

White had a point. “Which means whoever slipped this into your pocket was here tonight and knows us well.”

“No,” Raj said. “The person who planted this doesn’t have to know any of you well or even at all. He or she just had to plant a bug. Whoever created this is the person who knows you well enough to know how to block the most powerful empath we have.”

“My money’s on the Cabal of Evil doing the planting, it’s one of their go-to moves. Hell, could have been Eugene, if he was really taking orders from someone.”

“If he was,” White said slowly, “then that person could easily be in the Zoo right now.”

“You think they’re going to do a Jack Ruby on him?”

“What?” Jeff and Christopher asked in unison.

“Jack Ruby assassinated Lee Harvey Oswald before he could stand trial,” Raj replied without missing a beat. “Then Ruby was killed. It’s one of the reasons a conspiracy theory surrounds President Kennedy’s death.”

“Raj, did you also go to human schools?”

“No, we just really like the History Channel at New Delhi Base. Along with all the other channels. But I believe you’re correct to worry.”

“So, what do we do?” Christopher asked.

“We do what Kitty wanted, and think about what’s going on, determine what our options are, and plan accordingly.” Jeff was back to full on Commander Mode. Which was alright with me.

“The way I see it, we have the usual three different plans going on,” Christopher said. “Whatever’s going on with the assassins and why they’re really here, whatever Clarence—if it’s really him Kitty saw—is up to, and the murder tonight and whatever else might be going on around it.”

“Trust me, it was Clarence. I’m sure of it.” Well, I was pretty sure, and my hunches were usually right, so I was sticking with Clarence unfortunately being alive and well. “What about Colonel Hamlin’s warning, and Buchanan and whatever’s happened to them? And we also have this emotional inhibitor that someone planted on Jeff. Even if it’s related to Eugene’s insanity tonight, that indicates a much higher level of tech savvy than I know Eugene’s capable of. And that makes, what, five different plans?”

“I’m sure they’re connected in some way,” White said.

“Well, yeah, Richard, they usually are. But which is related to the other and in what way?”

“Does it matter?” Raj asked. “There are five of us, that means we can each explore one of the situations and see where it leads.”

“Not alone,” Jeff said firmly. “Whatever’s going on, it’s deadly. We just lost a friend less than two hours ago. I don’t want to lose anyone else.”

“We’ve already lost Buchanan and Hamlin,” I pointed out.

“We’ll find them,” Jeff said confidently.

“Potentially not without help.” I wasn’t being Polly Positive right now, but facts had to be faced.

“But we can’t trust anyone else, can we?” Christopher asked. “I mean, based on what Kitty was told. If it was true, that is.”

“Let’s assume it was,” White said mildly. “At least until events prove otherwise.”

“Richard, you sound really calm.”

“It’s part of my charm, but yes, I’m not as panicked as you sound, Missus Martini.”

“Do I sound freaked? I don’t feel freaked.”

“Yes, you do, baby,” Jeff said, as he pulled me to him and hugged me. “You’re handling it really well, but we just went through a hugely upsetting experience, and you had a busy day well before then. Your stress is off the charts—you’re the main reason I had to put my blocks back up. Though, no one else in the entire Embassy or Zoo is feeling a hundred percent normal.”

“You’re sure? About everyone else.” I knew he’d be sure about me. “I’m asking because if someone’s feeling triumphant or too relaxed, it could identify our Mister Big.”

Jeff and Christopher looked at each other. “I could kill two birds with one stone,” Christopher said.

“Take Uncle Richard with you,” Jeff said.

Christopher walked over to the cloaked switch that turned the basement into the Jolly Green Giant’s elevator. We started moving down.

“Is now really the time for Christopher and Richard to search the tunnel system?”

“We’re here and I can do it faster than anyone else,” Christopher snapped.

“That you can, son. But I can’t.”

“Good point,” Jeff said. “I can handle the faster speeds, but that defeats one of the purposes of Christopher going into the tunnels in the first place. And I have to insist that I don’t want any of us doing anything alone right now.”

Considered our options. They seemed slim. If I wanted to focus only on humans or A-Cs. But it was me, and I didn’t.