Alien in the House

Chapter 42



I’D BEEN TIRED and upset about Reader being upset with me. Right up until the moment when Vance pointed out that my husband, the newly presidentially and gubernatorially appointed representative from New Mexico, was, if his theory was correct, in the line of fire. Now I was wide-awake and could table Reader Issues for when Jeff was somewhere safe.

“Let’s get inside,” I said, tugging on Jeff’s arm.

“No one’s going to shoot at us, baby.”

“You mean right now. Someone was shooting just a couple hours ago.”

“Good point.” Jeff made the “after you” gesture and the women proved why they were smarter—Lorraine and Claudia led the way inside, with Amy right behind. The rest of us followed, with Reader making White, Jeff, and me go in before him, Jeremy, Len, or Kyle.

Once inside, I tried to split up, but Reader wasn’t having any of it. We marched as a group back through the Embassy, across the walkway, and into the Zoo. “I want to go to the bathroom.”

“No,” Reader said flatly. “You and Jeff get to hold it until we’re done.”

We took the stairs up, mostly because Reader seemed to feel we weren’t trustworthy in an elevator, and not for the fun reasons this time.

Exited to see absolutely no one. “Wow. Glad you rushed us back for this.”

Reader pulled out his phone. “Where is everyone? Really. Huh. Okay. Okay.” He eyed me and Jeff. “Fine. Yes, get down here.” He hung up. “Apparently the Romanian ambassadress felt that everyone was tired, herself especially, and insisted that everyone be escorted safely home, to reconvene another day.”

“I love Olga. I’m just saying.”

Raj joined us. “You should. She’s very perceptive.” He looked at my feet and smiled. “You look even more in the holiday spirit now.”

“Blah, blah, blah. Look, I’m with Olga. It’s late, we’re tired. I’d like to check on Malcolm, get something over to Serene with the highest priority, get the Hackers going on Vance’s intel, and go to bed.”

“Call the hackers,” Reader said. “They’re up.”

“I could go see them.”

“No. You can call them or they can wait for their information.”

Before I could argue more, Jeff spoke up. “Jeremy, why don’t you take their instructions to them?”

“Yes, sir.”

Vance cleared his throat. “Take me, too.”

Jeff nodded. “I agree.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because I want to make sure they’re looking at what I’ve looked at. And, as I told you before, Lydia’s not my type.”

“Dude. Her husband just murdered someone and was then murdered himself. You cannot think she’s going to fall into bed with Guy.”

“I don’t think, I know.” He held up his phone. “Just got the ‘come home now or don’t come home until tomorrow’ text.”

“It’s using all my self control to not make a comment on your lifestyle.”

“Yeah? Well, Guy and I don’t climb and jump around on the outside of tall buildings for fun, either, especially not in good clothes. Different strokes for different folks.”

Jeff nodded to Jeremy. “Take him with you, then make sure he has a secure room on the fourth floor here.”

“Yes, sir,” Jeremy said.

“He didn’t call you Chief,” I said quietly as Jeremy and Vance headed for the elevator. I was becoming hyper-aware of titles and their usage tonight.

“Because I’m not any more. There’s only one Chief here now, baby, and that’s you.”

“Huh.” Eyed Reader.

Who eyed me right back. “Don’t even try it. I still outrank you.”

“You don’t know me.”

Reader laughed. “The hell I don’t.” He looked at Jeff. “I know you, too. Why did you want to get Jeremy and Vance out of the room?”

“Because we need to tell you what we know, all that we know,” Jeff said. “And I don’t know the Barones well enough to know if we can trust them or not.” He held out the disc. “This is either going to be an emotional blocker or something that causes an emotional overlay. I think it’s an overlay, because when I was around the blocker, I couldn’t feel anyone, and I’m holding this and can still feel everyone in the room.”

“It’s also likely to explode,” I added. “Since the blocker exploded already. Hopefully it’ll only explode if someone tries to open it, which is what happened to the blocker. Oh, and this needs to get to Serene yesterday, under very reliable guard.”

Claudia and Lorraine looked at each other. “We’ll take it,” Lorraine said.

Claudia nodded. “If the boys are home, then we need to go back to the Science Center anyway.” They looked at Reader, who nodded.

“First, you need to know where Caroline and I got that,” Amy said. “Or rather, from whom. And that’s not going to take five minutes.”

“There’s more,” White said. “I believe James needs all the details.”

“I agree,” Jeff said firmly. “And since the likelihood is going to be that what you take to Serene explodes anyway the moment she tries to access it, I’d like the two of you to hear what we’ve got to say.”

The girls looked to Reader again, who nodded again.

“Nice to see that our various chains of command are all functioning at least semi-nicely. Can we sit? I may be in my Converse now, but my feet still hurt.”

Reader looked around, heaved a sigh, and shook his head. “Were you this much trouble when Jeff was the Head of Field?”

“More,” Jeff said with a grin. “Let’s go to the Embassy. We have a nice living room with lots of things to sit on over there.”