Alien in the House

Chapter 65



THE OTHERS HEADED DOWNSTAIRS. I left the briefcase from Reader with Amy and the hackers, but told them not to go through it until I was back. For whatever reason, I wanted to be there when we went through everything. It was a gut thing, so I didn’t argue with myself.

Headed to our rooms to grab Jeff’s new trench and fedora and my coat. Took a moment while I gathered these to relax and try to center myself. This wasn’t one of my go-to skills. When it came to focusing on the Inner Me, I was best with doing so in order to rev up to kick butt.

Opened my purse to make sure my Glock and a few clips were in it and saw the stuffed eagle from Reyes’ office. Decided it had seen enough action and put it with the briefcase. As I did I noted that it was a stuffed hand puppet. “I’m going to keep this, if it’s okay with you, Santiago,” I said softly. “I can play with it with Jamie and that way we have something of you with us always.”

Eagle out, extra clips in, no Poofs at all. “Poofies? Any Poofies?” Nary a mew or a whiff of a bundle of cuteness. Hoped this wasn’t indicating bad news. “Peregrines able to report, please assemble.”

Harold appeared. And only Harold.

“Bruno’s not back?”

Got some cawing, ground scratching, and head shaking. Bruno was still on the case, being supported by a lot of Poofs. The rest of the Poofs, along with all the female Peregrines, were guarding Jamie and the kids. The male Peregrines were stationed strategically throughout the complex. Harold, however, was going to come along and fill in for Bruno, in case someone again tried to kill Jeff or me.

“You’ll be in stealth mode?” I asked as I gave him a nice scritchy-scratch between his wings.

Affirmative. Harold disappeared from view. I only knew he was there because I was touching him.

“Super. Going to do my best to forget you’re there. I’m getting the impression that’s how all of you prefer it.”

Harold squawked his approval about me being totally on board with Peregrine Thought Patterns. Thusly armed and accompanied, I headed downstairs. Time was of the essence, so I used hyperspeed.

Checked the first floor, but found no one, which wasn’t too surprising. Was all kinds of proud of how well I was doing with the control, as I headed down to the basement.

Fortunately Jeff was waiting at the bottom of the stairs and he caught and stopped me from barreling right through him and into everyone else and the wall. Clearly I’d self-congratulated a little prematurely.

Jeff chuckled. “I’m not wearing the hat and coat right now, we’re going via gate.”

“I still want them along.”

“Whatever makes you happy, baby.”

Everyone leaving the Embassy was going via the gate, so pretty much everyone in the Embassy was down here. “Doreen and Irving are meeting you there,” Christopher said. “She just called me. Naomi and Abigail are staying with the kids at the Pontifex’s Residence.” He grimaced. “Naomi’s using the time to figure out which kids will be doing what at her wedding.”

“Good use of time. I guess. Is Kevin still there, too?”

He nodded. “And Michael’s there now, also. Caroline’s feeling better and she had to work. Gladys is there, too, as is your father.”

“Works for me.”

White was manning the gate controls, while Gower explained how gate transferences worked in layman’s terms and how they should be considered highly classified information in strictest terms. Vance was vibrating with excitement, Nathalie and Brewer looked concerned but game to try, and Rahmi and Rhee seemed relieved to see me. Pulled them aside.

“Okay, girls, you two are visiting dignitaries. You can identify as princesses, but that’s it. No sharing what planet you’re from, who your mother is, and so on. You are coming along to be seen but not heard.” They both nodded. “Good. You’re also coming along to put that force field of yours around Jeff. Someone’s already tried to kill my husband today and I don’t want anyone else to try or, worse, succeed.”

Rahmi nodded. “Our mother said you protected the men. We will follow your lead.”

“But where is the Great Tito?” Rhee asked without any form of guile, as Reader took the lead and stepped through the gate.

“Excuse me?”

“We expected that the Great Tito would be going to protect you and your . . . husband,” Rahmi said, trying out the word as if she’d never heard it before. Maybe she hadn’t.

“Was the Great Tito killed in battle?” Rhee asked politely, radiating sympathy.

“Ah, no. The Great Tito is a doctor. Our doctor. On staff. He still kicks butt when needed, though.” The princesses looked shocked and sort of horrified. “He’s a great doctor.”

“I’m sure he is.” Rahmi looked incredibly disappointed. Rhee looked as if she might burst into tears. Clearly meeting Tito had been top of their list of Awesome Things To Do On Earth.

“He’s, ah, guarding one of our warriors who was felled in battle. You two can meet him later, when we’re back. Would you, ah, like that?”

Both princesses brightened up immeasurably. “Oh, yes, please!” Rhee said. Rahmi nudged her, no doubt due to her excessive enthusiasm.

“If it would please the Great Tito to meet us,” Rahmi said, “we would be incredibly honored.”

“I’m sure it’ll make his day.” Tito would probably prefer that someone get him enough information to be able to cure Buchanan, but that didn’t seem diplomatic to share right now.

Vance and the Brewers were through. We sent Rahmi, then Gower, then Rhee, so the princesses could flank him, so to speak, with stern admonitions from me that Gower was also to be protected. Chuckie was next, then Len. Jeff and I were next, with Kyle bringing up the rear.

“Uncle Richard, alter for two, please,” Jeff said as he swung me up into his arms.

“It’s not exactly a professional look,” Christopher shared.

“Don’t care. I don’t want this job, my wife had to watch me be gunned down in the street in front of her, and we’re going through like this or we’re not going.”

“What Jeff said. Double. Good luck to everyone else and please be careful. Christopher, your dad’s a better agent than you are, which is not actually an insult, so I’d listen to him while your team’s out on Assassin Patrol. Mister White, call if you need me.”

With that I buried my face in Jeff’s neck and prepared to get sick to my stomach.