Alien in the House

Chapter 49



AS I’D SAID, we went to the infirmary first. Tito and Nurse Carter looked exhausted and worried.

“No change,” Tito shared morosely. “I wanted to move him to Dulce, but they said they don’t know what’s going on with him, either, and feel it’s safer if he’s not moved, just in case.”

“Is he in a coma?”

“No, his reactions aren’t coma-like. It’s more like he’s in the deepest sleep possible. But nothing we do rouses him. I’m not sure if I should have him under quarantine,” Tito said as he led us to where Buchanan was, for lack of a better word, sleeping.

The Embassy infirmary was nice. Not as complex as the hospital section of the Science Center, but impressive for an in-house medical facility. Under most circumstances, it was perfect for our needs, because under most circumstances, if we had a truly bad medical situation, we took the patient to Dulce. Sadly, the current circumstances were ensuring that our infirmary, like the rest of us, was falling a little short.

Buchanan was in a room that Tito could indeed quarantine if needed. It was modeled after many of the hospital rooms at the Science Center, in that it was like a fishbowl. Buchanan was a very big, unmoving fish.

I’d never seen him asleep; I’d only seen him in action. It was unsettling. I wanted to run in there and shake him, get him up, tell him what was going on, find out who’d hurt him. I also wanted to pull all the tubes and needles out of his body.

“Maybe you shouldn’t go in, baby,” Jeff said quietly.

“No. I know part of you is jealous of my relationship with Malcolm. But he’s saved my life, and Jamie’s life, more than once. I’m going in, regardless of whatever risk there is or isn’t. I don’t leave my friends like this without at least trying to help.”

“I’ll wait with Tito,” Jeff said. “And not because I’m jealous.”

“Liar.”

Jeff chuckled. “Okay, a little jealous. Your reactions are really strong.”

“Many times Malcolm reminds me of you. Right now, he reminds me of when you’re in isolation.”

“Ah.” Jeff hugged me gently.

“He can’t feel any of this right now, Kitty,” Tito said.

“And isolation saves lives, baby.”

“Right. That makes it less freaky and scary for me how?”

“Good point. Head in. I’ll let James know you’ll be a few minutes. And yes, feel free to draw the curtains if you want.”

Went in and did draw the curtains, mostly because I didn’t want to feel like I was being watched as opposed to my planning to ravage Buchanan while he was unconscious.

Buchanan was lying still on the bed. He looked peaceful, as if he was indeed merely having a very deep sleep. “Malcolm?” No response, and I hadn’t expected one. I took his hand in mine. “Malcolm, if you can hear me wherever you are, I’m going to find out what was done to you and fix it, I promise.”

Thought about the other times someone I cared about had been down. About when Reader had almost died. I’d had ACE to talk to then. Couldn’t bear to try to talk to him in my mind and not have him answer. Couldn’t bear to act like ACE wasn’t there, either.

“ACE, I know I can’t ask you to intervene. And I wouldn’t want you to take focus away from whatever’s going on with you. But if you have the ability, can you please watch over Malcolm? He hasn’t been in space, but he’s my friend and he’s saved my life, a lot. He’s kind of like you, ACE. He has his mysterious ways, and I don’t know where he goes or what he does when he’s not with me. But he’s always there when I need him, like you’ve always been. He’s not an astronaut, but he’s still an important penguin.”

There was no answer, but as I looked at Buchanan and thought about ACE, I remembered something important. Maybe I remembered it on my own, maybe ACE was around and strong enough to give me a little nudge.

“Thanks, ACE. Malcolm, I’ll be back, hopefully with the cure.” I squeezed his hand. “Don’t leave me yet, okay? I need to get the rest of the Justice League and the X-Men rolling on this.”

Trotted out of the room. “How’s Buchanan doing?” Jeff asked. “Is he awake?”

“No, why would you think that?”

“You’re excited and focused, versus worried and sad.”

“Well, yeah, but that’s because something dawned on me. Doctor Strange is probably on the astral plane and we need to bring him back.”

“That’s not exactly a help, Kitty,” Tito said.

“This will be. You need to contact Serene, and probably Jeff’s dad.”

“My dad? Why?”

“Because over the past couple of years, we’ve forgotten a few key things. Surcenthumain became the Superman drug. But it’s original purpose was to put human and A-C astronauts into a deep sleep so that they could travel to distant stars without dying and, I think, aging. That drug was created by Gaultier Enterprises.”

Had to say this, Tito and Jeff weren’t slow or stupid. Tito was on his phone calling Dulce, while Jeff called Alfred. Meanwhile, I sent Amy and Raj a text, telling them to focus their search on the space exploration section, or whatever it was, at Gaultier, particularly any offshoots of the Surcenthumain project.

We all finished about the same time. “Serene and Brian are on their way,” Tito said. “They just have to drop Patrick off with the other kids at the Pontifex’s Residence.”

“My dad’s coming, too. He’s going to swing by NASA Base and pick up some files first.”

“Be sure he’s under guard.”

Jeff nodded. “Already handled. I sent a text to James.”

“Great. Tito, Magdalena, right now we probably need to do whatever it is NASA would do for an astronaut in suspended animation.”

Nurse Carter was at one of the computers. “I have it here. We’re already doing much of it, but we can add certain fluids to the mix of what he’s getting. And if you’re wrong, they shouldn’t harm him.”

“Tito, while you’re at it, do we have the autopsy results back on Santiago yet?”

“It hasn’t happened yet. We left a team from Dulce at the hospital with his body and Melanie and Emily are going to be there when the autopsy is performed. I was going to go over today, too, and help, but I don’t want to leave my patient now. Why?”

“Have them run toxicology on what killed him. I know we all think it was arsenic, and I’m betting it was mostly arsenic. But I’d like to know if there was something more in that mix. Have them run it at the Science Center, because we need fast results. If we need to throw around our political weight to make that happen, feel free to share that, husband in the House or no, the American Centaurion Ambassador is ready to knock some heads.”

Medical assignments handed out, Jeff and I headed for our underground garage. He put his coat and hat on as we started downstairs. I laughed.

“What’s so funny?”

“I think it’s cute that you’re worried I might think Malcolm was better than you.”

“Who says I think that?”

I settled the fedora on his head just so. “Oh, nothing.” Leaned up and kissed him. “To quote today’s go-to music, I’m forever your girl.”

Jeff put his arm around me. “Good. And let’s have different go-to music, if that’s okay with you.”

“If you insist.”

“I do.”

“Boy bands or divas?”

“With that as my choice,” Jeff said as we reached the garage, “I pick Aerosmith.”

“I knew I married well.”