Alien in the House

Chapter 30



AS BLOOD SPLATTERED, Prince slammed into me and George the Peregrine. I went down, to be quickly covered by Hughes throwing himself on me and, by association, the animals.

Men were shouting, and I heard more shots being fired along with the van doors being slammed shut, even though the shots didn’t appear to be coming toward the van. Anymore.

“You okay, Kitty?” Hughes asked.

“Yeah. Can we get up yet?”

“No,” Walker replied. “You stay down. Matt, stay on top of her.” He sounded tense. Couldn’t blame him.

“That bullet was meant for me, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Walker said. “I think it was. Good thing the Peregrine showed up when it did.”

Gave George a nice scritchy-scratch between his wings and petted Prince while we all lay on the floor of the van. A lot of things were running through my mind, not the least of which being that I had a really good guess as to who’d just shot Eugene: Raul the Assassin with a Grudge.

This line of reasoning raised many more questions than it answered, of course. Like where were the Dingo and Surly Vic, what was really going on, and what was the rest of the sentence Eugene was going to speak? I was most interested in the last one, since it was the only way to find whatever he’d been sent.

The shooting stopped. Someone banged on the van three times. Hughes got off me. “The shooter might have been aiming for both of you,” he said as he helped me up.

“Yeah.” Walker was examining the part of the van behind what was left of Eugene’s head. I pointedly looked at the big hole in the metal, versus the big hole in Eugene. Realized that I’d sort of asked for Eugene to be executed in the public square and this had been pretty close to matching my request. “I think it was an armor-piercing bullet, meaning it would have gone through Kitty and into Montgomery here, too.”

“Intentional double-duty or just didn’t care about who else got killed?”

“Depends on who hired him,” Hughes said. “I mean, we all agree this was the work of a professional, right?”

“Seems like it to me.” Hoped this was noncommittal enough that neither one would ask the obvious question.

“Which assassin that’s tried to kill you before do you think did this, Kitty?” Walker asked.

So much for noncommittal. “Tell you guys later when we do the team debrief I just know we’re going to have.” Looked down at my dress. Sure enough, there was blood and dirt all over it. “My dress is ruined.”

That said, I burst into tears.

The van doors opened and someone had their arms around me in record time. “I’ll take it from here,” Jeff said as he picked me up. “One of you take the dog and get him inside the Embassy safely. The bird can take care of itself I’m sure.”

I buried my face in Jeff’s neck as he zipped us out of the van and into the Embassy. At least I assumed that’s what he was doing. I was too busy crying like a baby. Though Jamie rarely cried like this, truth be told.

Heard a door close and lock. Jeff sat down with me in his lap. “We’re back in the bathroom, baby.” He cleared his throat. “And the bird’s still with us.”

“Good.” Maybe I could wash my face and attempt to not look like a bright red Christmas ornament. “George is just making sure we’re really okay. How’d you know to come get me?”

“One of the other Peregrines showed up and started pecking at me while a couple Poofs did their jump up and down and mew in an authoritative manner thing.”

“You can understand them now?”

“No. I just figure that when the animals are acting up like that, it has something to do with you being in trouble. So far, the theory’s never been wrong.” He hugged me. “Thank God you’re okay.”

“I don’t know why I’m crying.”

“I do. It’s been a hell of a day. Who was the killer aiming for, you or Eugene?”

“Matt, Chip, and I think it was me or both of us, based on the bullet being used. I think the shooter was Raul, by the way.”

“Makes sense. Nice to see your supposed ‘uncle’ was on the job.” Jeff’s sarcasm knob was definitely turned to eleven.

“Who knows what’s really going on? Not me.” Pulled my face out of his neck and pulled myself together as much as I could as I sat up. Harlie and Poofikins appeared in my lap and started purring. Having the Poofs there helped a lot. Having Jeff hugging me helped more. “I’m a mess, aren’t I?”

“You’re always the most beautiful girl in the galaxy to me, baby.” Then Jeff kissed me deeply. His kiss always drove everything else from my mind, and I enjoyed it for the kiss itself and the momentary removal of worry about anything else other than getting naked as fast as possible.

Jeff ended our kiss slowly. “We still have lots to do tonight, baby. With this attack, Richard’s worried even more about our people at the hospital, and I am, too.”

“You two need to get over there. I got some information from Eugene, but he was killed before he could give me all of it.”

“Nice to see our luck remains consistent.” Jeff hugged me again. “I don’t want to leave you alone here.”

Shook my head. “I’m inside the Embassy now. No sniper’s going to shoot in here, and I’ll stay away from windows.” Put the Poofs gently onto the couch, gave George another scritchy-scratch, got up, and washed my face with cold water. It helped a little. Focused on the nice fluffy towels we had as I used one to dry my face. We really didn’t have time for me to go Basket Case on everyone.

Took a deep breath, let it out slowly. Felt a little more in control, but I still looked like I’d been crying. Fine. I’d looked worse.

There was a knock on the bathroom door. Jeff looked at me, I nodded, and he opened the door. White came in. “I approve of this as our new office. That way, no one can claim needing to use the facilities to get out of a boring briefing session.”

I burst into laughter. “Thanks, Richard. What’s up, you heading over to the hospital?”

“Yes, because there’s now another body going over. The SWAT team has declared the area devoid of snipers, so I’m going over with Airborne and the entire K-9 division, which should provide me with more than enough protection. Jeffrey, you need to stay with my partner and take care of her until I’m back.”

Jeff grinned. “Yes, sir, Uncle Richard.”

White came over and hugged me. “Anything I should know before we go? Other than the fact that, apparently, Raul is a sneakier person than the Dingo expects.”

“Or he has help the Dingo doesn’t.” Heaved a sigh. “Eugene got orders telling him Brewer was a robot. Robot, not android, by the way. If we can find those papers, then we can maybe figure out who put Eugene into La Femme Nikita Mode. He said they weren’t at his home to protect Lydia. I asked about other places. He said he kept them at work, but not his real office. He was mid-word when he was . . .”

“Regardless of what he thought he was doing, he murdered someone, and tried to murder someone else, without doing due diligence,” White said gently. “That he’s dead instead of you is a blessing. What word was he saying?”

“He said he was free and then bam, George knocked me back and Eugene was dead.”

“Was he working for free?” Jeff asked. “As in, volunteering somewhere?”

“No, he didn’t make it sound like that. We’ll figure it out, I’m sure. I’m still shaken up, so my Megalomaniac Girl skills aren’t kicking in.”

“I’m happier than I can say that your Doctor Doolittle skills were in top form,” Jeff said, as he gave George a pat.

“Well, as you said, we’ll figure it out,” White said with calm confidence. He hugged me again. “I’m going to ensure that all our personnel are brought safely home, and as soon as possible. I believe we want everyone safely tucked away.”

“Speaking of which, where’s Christopher, does anyone know?”

White and Jeff both shook their heads. “I haven’t picked him up at all,” Jeff said. “So I think he’s still in the tunnels. I sent him the news that Buchanan appeared to have made the decision to go underground, but I haven’t heard back, so I don’t know if he got it or not.”

“If he’s not back by the time I return from the hospital, we’ll worry,” White said. “Otherwise, he’s a big boy and, frankly, quite competent enough to dispatch anyone or anything he might need to.”

“He likes getting to cut loose,” Jeff added. “We get to do it so infrequently now.”

Chose not to voice any worries. Because I could tell both men were saying these things so they could hide the fact that they were worried. “You’re right. Christopher will be fine.” Chose also to not mention that the last time someone had disappeared, Jeff and Chuckie were gone for far too long a time.

White kissed my cheek, gave Jeff a hug, and zipped off.

“Ready to leave the bathroom, baby?”

“In a second. George, Harlie, can you two please ensure we have at least a couple Peregrines and some Poofs going with Richard in Stealth Mode?”

Harlie mewed and George squawked and did the head bob thing.

“Oh, good initiative!”

Jeff sighed. “Translation?”

“Samson, who is Richard’s Peregrine, is with him, as are his Poof and several others. Poofs are already at the hospital because they’re with their people, so we’re good. Everyone’s on high alert, so to speak.”

“Good.” Harlie and George both turned and looked at Jeff. “Err, good jobs, everyone.” Harlie purred, George squawked in a friendly manner. “You’re, ah, welcome.”

“See? You can get what they mean. So, let’s head upstairs and see what Hacker International thinks of the bug in my purse.”