Alien in the House

Chapter 32



HACKER INTERNATIONAL CONSISTED of the five best hackers worldwide. They all had other talents, too, and were pretty much Best in Show for anything scientific or similar they were interested in, including alien linguistics and reverse engineering.

Chuckie had found these guys and become friends with them when we were in high school, so I’d known them since then, too.

Stryker Dane, whose real name was Eddy Simms, was their sort of leader. He was kind of an underground celebrity and also ran a pretty popular website and an even more active blog. He was also a U.F.O. and extraterrestrial languages expert.

In addition to his other talents, Stryker wrote the Taken Away series, where he claimed to have been abducted by aliens and shared his exploits and experiences. His sales had skyrocketed since Operation Destruction.

For some this would mean they’d have bought a palatial estate, gotten a haircut, hired a personal trainer, visited Neiman Marcus, Macy’s, or Express and invested in a decent wardrobe, and given overall personal hygiene serious consideration.

Stryker being Stryker, the only change had meant he had an even bigger set of what he, and admittedly I, would call collectibles and everyone else would call really expensive dolls or sculptures of Darth Maul. Otherwise, he was still overweight, undergroomed, and dressed in khaki shorts, flip-flops, and a vintage Star Wars T-shirt.

Big George Lecroix was tall, skinny, and black, and he wasn’t an author, but otherwise, he was a whole lot like Stryker. He came from France and was Europe’s best hacker. He was also fluent in twenty languages.

Ravi Gaekwad, also known as Ravi the Geek, particularly when we were mad at him, was India’s best hacker, because the best only associated with each other in the world Hacker International lived in. In addition to having a normal-person build, Ravi was also into both the software and hardware sides of the house and was the best reverse engineer around, which had been amply proved during Operation Destruction.

Dr. Henry Wu was small, scrawny, and bald. He came from China, covered all the languages Big George didn’t, and was also a software expert, even better than Ravi, which was saying a lot. Needless to say, in order to be in the club, he was his country’s best hacker.

Last but in no way least was Yuri Stanislav. Yuri was blind and had earned the nickname of Omega Red, mostly because he was Russian and therefore the others didn’t feel he could be called Daredevil. Omega Red was killer with audio cryptology as well as hacking and other pursuits, which included working out, making him the rarity of the group in more ways than one.

They were all dressed like Stryker—shorts, flip-flops, and T-shirts—even though we were in the dead of winter. Hacker International preferred to stay indoors, and since they lived on this floor as well as worked on it, and had the Elves taking care of their every need, they hadn’t left the premises since pretty much they’d arrived. Hence why Jeff considered them squatters.

The other four were in Star Wars shirts, too. I’d made a half-joking comment that they clearly wore a specific science fiction shirt for each day of the week and, instead of proving me wrong and tossing on a polo shirt once in a while, they created a Shirt of the Day chart. Today was Star Wars. Tomorrow would be Star Trek. Had to hand it to them—they were organized and efficient within their ranks.

Of course, all the hackers had good money tucked away, some under their mattresses. Their skills were such that they were paid to do things, to stop doing things, and to stop other people from doing things. When we’d discovered them housed at Andrews Air Force Base they were working for the U.S. Government. Now they worked for American Centaurion.

Because Andrews had been attacked and their underground bunker had been destroyed, we’d moved Hacker International and their government equipment into the Embassy. Jeff had handled them being in our ballroom for exactly a week and a half and had then insisted they get moved. They had nowhere to go and were working on things we needed done, so Pierre had put them in the Zoo. It seemed to be working out.

Raj was already here, as was Camilla. She was busy having Stryker and Big George look something up. Big George was definitely turning on the charm for Camilla, at least as far as he was able to.

His French accent had helped Big George with the ladies in the past—insofar as any of Hacker International could be helped romantically—but Camilla seemed intent, not interested, and since A-Cs really had no issues with skin color at all, I knew it wasn’t because he was black. This was a first for any Dazzler next to someone as smart as Big George was. Maybe Camilla had grooming standards, which would explain her disinterest in the brain trust nearby.

Raj came over to me. “Camilla asked me to ensure that we have the entire Embassy scanned for bombs, bugs, and other hostiles. She said that’s what Mister Reynolds asked her to search for. She found nothing on the first or second floor, but she told me she’s uneasy and doesn’t believe our buildings are clean. While you were gone I did ask Mister Reynolds if he’d sent her over, and he confirmed it. He’s as uneasy about it as she is.”

“Did you ask for Dulce to scan?”

“Yes, I’ve already taken care of that, and advised Walter. No one’s found anything yet. It could be that Camilla and Mister Reynolds are both as jumpy as the rest of us right now, so are seeing things that aren’t there.”

“Or they could be listening to their guts that say we always have someone trying to bug us.” I dug the disc out of my purse. “You know, like now.”

Raj nodded. “Not saying they’re wrong. But your mother had everyone searched before they were allowed to leave, ostensibly for packets of arsenic, but we were looking for discs like that. None were found on anyone, and scans have shown nothing.”

I looked at the disc. “Maybe our scanners can’t pick up whatever these are. Did Gladys or Walter say they picked up anything in my purse?”

“No.” Raj sounded impressed. “And that hadn’t even occurred to me.” He pulled out his phone. “Hello, Gladys. Yes, once more, please. Just the room where I am. Yes, I’d like to hold.” He waited for a few moments. “Good, thank you.” Raj hung up. “You’re right, our equipment can’t find this. They show nothing at all here within the scans.”

“It so figures. Ravi, got a job for you.”

“Wow, Kitty, nice to see you to, how’ve you been?” Ravi, like everyone else in my circle apparently, had a sarcasm knob.

He also had Jennifer Barone. They’d met during Operation Destruction and had had a courtship almost as fast as mine and Jeff’s. Ravi was brilliant, and brilliant nerdy geeks didn’t delay when any woman showed clear romantic interest, let alone a Dazzler. And Jennifer, unlike Camilla, possessed the Dazzler weakness for brains and brainpower.

They’d been engaged for months. Jennifer had been ready to get married within a week of meeting Ravi but they were waiting because his parents would be scandalized if he married someone without a courtship and engagement of a decent length.

Apparently his parents weren’t clear on the fact that when your son, who’s never had a date in his life, scores an incredibly hot and brainy chick, the best thing to do is have them sprint down the aisle to wedded bliss.

“Oh, blah, blah, blah, Ravi.”

“She’s been through a horrible night,” Raj said, troubadour tones of compassionate outrage on full. “More than one person has been murdered in front of her. And we need your help, Ravi.”

“Oh, sure, Raj. Kitty, you know I’m just teasing. You okay?” Ravi liked Raj, in part because they were both from India, and in part because if a troubadour wanted you to like him, you liked him. And clearly Raj wanted the people in this room to like him.

“I do and I am. Besides, you’ll be apologizing in a second anyway.” I handed him the disc. “We found this on Jeff. It’s blocking his ability to feel people. Has a range of pretty much however far it is from here to the basement of the Embassy. And our incredibly complex scanners can’t pick it up.”

Ravi whistled. “That’s strong, and if our scanners can’t pick it up, cloaked impressively.” Chose not to comment on the “our”. As far as I was concerned, Hacker International were part of the “us” that made up American Centaurion now.

“Yeah. So call me exceedingly concerned.”

He examined the disc. “Doesn’t look like much. Small, so it’s using some kind of miniaturization along with or within its mechanization. Maybe nanotech.” He kept talking. My ears turned off.

Ravi’s mouth stopped moving. “Super duper. Can you reverse engineer it?”

“Am I breathing?” Ravi jumped out of his chair at his impressive computer setup and trotted over to the impressive laboratory portion of the computer lab.

Because he was dating Jennifer, Ravi had gotten the full tour of the Dulce Science Center, a fact Jeff still regretted. Because Ravi had come back and then taken the rest of the hackers over for a visit. They’d come back to D.C. with a slew of Dazzlers panting after them and even more equipment.

So while the Zoo’s computer lab wasn’t up to Dulce or NASA Base’s levels, it was the next best thing. It should have made me feel like I was back in the Science Center. But being in here just made me miss Dulce, the Lair, and what our lives had been like. So I didn’t visit here much unless I felt like having fun riling up Hacker International. Hey, I liked to keep in practice.

Ravi had the disk under a magnifying lamp while he fiddled. He was talking to someone over at Dulce while he was so fiddling. “Are you live with me and receiving all data?” Apparently the answer was yes. “Good. Do you have enough to analyze to be able to track? Huh. Okay. Well, we’ll just have to deal with it. Removing the outer shell now.”

Couldn’t say what made me do it. Jeff would call it feminine intuition; my mother would call it my gut. I called it being Megalomaniac Girl. Regardless of why, I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that something bad was going to happen the second Ravi removed the shell.

Which is why I tackled him to the ground as the disc exploded.