Alien Collective

by Gini Koch

  This speculation was getting me nowhere. Gave up and went back to the relevant conundrum. “Did you know Butler was an android?”

  “No. Absolutely not. I would never have stayed. Honestly, I thought he was a nice man. Good to work for, always polite, never demanded more from anyone than he demanded from himself.”

  “So, you liked him?” Jeff asked.

  “Yes, I did.”

  “Did he change how he behaved at all in the time you were working for him?” Chuckie asked.

  “No. He was always the same. I assume this means he was always an android, as long as I knew him?”

  “Probably.” My turn to ask a question. “Did he have a meeting with the Cleary-Maurer ticket on his calendar for today? And don’t say you don’t know or don’t remember. You were working as his secretary, and you were actually doing the job.”

  “It was interesting and put me where I wanted to be. But you’re right, I have his schedule memorized. And no, there was no meeting with anyone on today’s books, because he was supposed to be at Luke Air Force Base still. He came back because I sent him a text, telling him I felt I was in danger.”

  “So, why were Cleary and Maurer there, then, let alone Stephanie?” Jeff asked. “They had to have come for a reason.”

  Had to give it to stress, things were falling into place in my mind. “Cleary’s an Apprentice. Or maybe an Apprentice to an Apprentice. Just because he was respectful toward someone else doesn’t mean he doesn’t think he’s the Mastermind’s right hand man. And even if he’s Apprentice the Lower, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to get rid of his competition.”

  “Makes sense,” Chuckie said. “But why visit Home Base for no reason?”

  “They had a reason, it’s just not the one we’d originally thought. They weren’t there to kill Butler, they were there to get rid of a loose end. And Stephanie was there to make sure it happened.”

  Chernobog stared at me. “You think they came to kill me?”

  “Abso-damn-lutely. They rolled really well with the punches, but they wouldn’t have known we were there. Because we evacuated the building, no one knew what had happened to you or Butler, and I guarantee only a handful of people knew we’d come over at all. But Butler wasn’t where Cleary and his team thought he’d be, which was in another state, and he was only at Home Base because Team Oliver was following you and you caught on.”

  “And you’re a huge loose end,” Chuckie said. “Especially because we have the one thing you care about under custody they can’t affect.”

  “Not without giving themselves away, at any rate,” Jeff added.

  “How would they have done that?” Chernobog asked. “There would have been witnesses.”

  “Cameron the Android would have held you and one of them would have injected you with the heart attack poison or whatever. Then they’re there to be all upset over your death. You’re an old lady, who would question it, especially because a presidential candidate was a witness. Done, confirmed, and moving on up in the ranks.”

  Jeff nodded. “I can see it. Kill her, we never get our data back, we can’t offer to release Kozlow as incentive, it’s all just gone.”

  “And you can’t tell us they’re in the government. Which is more of a confirmation, but still, it’s a confirmation we didn’t have until three minutes ago and would never have if you were dead.”

  “But they hired the Dingo to kill me.”

  “They did that in part to get him the hell out of D.C. for a while and possibly as cover for Cleary and his team if your death looked suspicious to someone. And if Cleary, Maurer, and Stephanie failed, well, there’s a better team coming along in the next day or so. But the Dingo would have had to take a flight to get to you and Cleary used a gate.” Or the Z’porrah cube, but I managed not to share that with the best hacker in the world.

  She gave me another long look. “So, the rumors about you are indeed true.”

  “And they are?”

  “That you’re the Dingo’s quite beloved niece. ‘Maybe I’m Russian back there somewhere’ my ass. That’s why you feel you can stop him from killing me, if I do what you want. Because you’ll ask him for that favor.”

  Quite beloved? Wow. I was really and truly moving up in the world of Assassins International. Felt all flattered. At least someone cared. Oh, sure, they were cold-blooded hired killers, but not when it came to me, apparently. Put this one in the win column. It would undoubtedly come back to bite me in the butt, but I could enjoy it for right now.

  “Essentially, yeah. It’ll have to be worth his while, in a big way, but I’m pretty damn sure that the world’s best hacker, by far and bar none, can probably make a big way happen without too much trouble.”

  “So the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” There was a lot of that line going around this Operation. And for once it was working in our favor. Another one for the win column. Truly a red-letter hour, as long as Maurer didn’t explode. Chernobog looked around the computer lab. “This is not such a bad place to spend time.”

  Jeff groaned. “I knew it. You’re planning to move in and stay, aren’t you?”

  “What, you’d leave an old woman on the streets? I thought you were a nice boy.”

  Couldn’t help it, I laughed. “I hate to admit this, but I like her, I really do.”

  CHAPTER 83

  CHERNOBOG SMILED AT ME, and it looked genuine. “I may like you, too. You’re all far too trusting for your own good, however.”

  Tensed for an attack. There was none. She rolled her eyes at me. “I don’t do physical violence. As has been pointed out, I’m an old woman, and, unlike Olga, that was never my strong suit. I meant you’re too trusting with me and with everything, in general. Trusting people are much easier to fool.”

  Jeff shrugged. “We just like to believe the best about people. It’s a failing, I know, but it’s one I’m glad we have.”

  She stared at him. “You mean that.”

  “I do. I’d rather trust that most people will do the right thing, and the brave thing, most of the time, than to think that everyone’s an evil, cowardly creep just waiting to stick it to me and mine.”

  “I cover that side,” Chuckie said.

  She chuckled. “Well, it’s good that one of you does.” She looked up at Jeff. “But it’s no wonder the opposition doesn’t want you on the ticket. You’re an impressive man, and that’s a rare thing these days.”

  “I think you’re impressive, too,” I said to Chuckie.

  Jeff sighed. “Always there’s someone impressing my wife more than me.”

  Chernobog snorted. “I doubt it.”

  “I have another question. Why do you think what’s going on now is going on?”

  She blinked. “Excuse me? English isn’t my first language, though it’s rarely an issue. However, I have no idea what you mean.”

  “So few ever do, Boggy, so few ever do.”

  “Boggy? What?”

  “It’s a nickname.”

  “My God. Please, call me Bogdana.”

  “Um, you realize that I’m still going to get Boggy from that, right?”

  “You could just give us your real name,” Jeff suggested.

  Chuckie looked at her closely. “She did. That is your real name, isn’t it?”

  “No. But I’m willing to use that name.”

  Chuckie laughed quietly. “You’re lying. Why toss out a name that sounds so close to your pseudonym, especially after Kitty gave you a nickname you don’t like? That’s actually your real name.”

  “Yeah, it is.” Jeff nodded to me. Good, he’d read her emotions. Always nice to have that working for us.

  “Go me and my awesome interrogation skills. But back to what I was asking Bogdana, sometimes known as Boggy, here. We’ve had a variety of attacks over the past twenty-four to forty-eight hours.” Gave her a high-level recap. “So, I’m asking if you have insights or thoughts about why our enemies rolled all that they’ve been rolling yesterday and today, versus,
say, last week or next month?”

  “The election? It seems obvious.”

  “Yeah, and I can buy the stuff with Bruce Jenkins in regard to that. But not a bunch of bombs, that bizarre quicksand attack, the attempted assassinations of Vander, Serene, yourself, and so on. Just wondering if you might see something, some pattern, that we’re missing because we’re too close to it.”

  “Or, short of us dying or my stepping down as a candidate, what you think we might be able to do to stop it,” Jeff added.

  Chernobog seemed to be giving this some thought, but we were all distracted by the containment room door slamming shut.

  Once I landed from my jump for the ceiling, turned around to see Serene, Henry, and Ravi all outside and hopefully out of harm’s way.

  “Okay,” Serene said. “I reactivated him. He’ll be online momentarily.” She reached out and took Mrs. Maurer’s hand. “I hope I did it all right.”

  Mrs. Maurer nodded. “You did your best, dear. That’s all I can hope for.” She looked over at Chernobog. “What do you hope for? If they could do this to my son, they can do it to yours, too.”

  Chernobog gave her a long look. “I would like your son returned to you as I would like mine returned to me.”

  “But even if this works,” Mrs. Maurer’s voice trembled but she held it together, “I’ll only get a part of my son back. He’ll never be all him again.”

  “No, he won’t be.” Chernobog cocked her head. “Why are you asking me these questions?”

  “Because I don’t trust you,” Mrs. Maurer snapped. “And these are decent people trying to do good, and they’re also trying to trust you. If you love your son, truly love him as I love mine, then you’ll help them, and not betray them.”

  “I—”

  Mrs. Maurer sniffed and interrupted Chernobog. “You can say anything you want. It’s your actions that will matter. Prove that you’re worth what they’ll do to protect and help you. Prove that your son deserves a full, normal life, instead of being turned into a robotic version of himself.”

  With that she turned away and stared through the window at the robot with her son’s skin and brain.

  “Are we sure those windows are safe?” I asked Jeff, somewhat to change the subject and somewhat because I was still kind of freaked out.

  “Yes, Mrs. Martini,” White answered for him. “They are. Remember, we’re good with fail-safes.”

  True enough. White, Chuckie, and I had experienced a major one at the end of Operation Confusion. “Great. Just want to be sure and all that.”

  We all clustered around the containment room. Really questioned our wisdom, but decided hyperspeed would just save the day as it tended to.

  Maurer was lying there, looking like a dead person or a robot whose plug had been pulled; I couldn’t decide which. But all of a sudden his eyes blinked slowly, once. Then rapidly, several times. Color came back into his cheeks and his chest rose and fell. He sat up and looked around, and once again he looked just like a real man.

  “God, Antony Marling did good work. I mean, it’s horrible work, but the man really was an artist. What a damned pity he was totally evil and completely batshit crazy.”

  Maurer got off the table and came to the window where his mother and Serene were, which was where Jeff, Chuckie, White, and I were, too. He banged on the glass. “Mother, what’s going on? Why am I in here? Where are we?” He sounded far away, like he was in a giant fishbowl, which he kind of was. But still, he was in a containment room. Was shocked we could hear him at all.

  “We can hear because it’s set up for that,” Jeff said quietly to me. “And yes, I read you, and yes, even though we can hear him, we won’t be hurt if he explodes.”

  “Don’t let him out,” Chernobog said. “Trust me, he’s not safe yet.”

  “As in not safe because he’s going to explode, or not safe because we don’t know what program he’s currently running?”

  “Both.”

  Serene nodded. “We need to wait until Ravi hears from the Science Center. We need to know if what I removed explodes or not.”

  “What do we know if it does or doesn’t?”

  “I think it’s still active, so if it explodes, it means we got everything and the destruct sequence was triggered by someone. If it doesn’t explode, it may mean nothing or it may mean that I didn’t get everything.”

  “What about his self-destruct things? You got all of those.”

  “Again, we’ll know soon.”

  “Just wait, Cameron, dear,” Mrs. Maurer said. “This is for your own protection.”

  So we all waited, and while we did, I thought again. I was getting better at thinking to myself, versus aloud, but there was still nothing better for my mental processes than running my yap.

  Gave up the silent treatment. “So, who set the bombs in the Israeli and Bahraini embassies? Not the ones Nightcrawler set, but the ones that were set to go off sooner.”

  “Stephanie,” Christopher said. “She has hyperspeed, and she was in D.C. working for Vander. Take your coffee break, plant bombs to kill your family, grab a Starbucks on the way back as cover.”

  “Makes sense. We figure Ronnie’s Kids helped Club Fifty-One and the Church of Hate and Intolerance set the ricin bombs, right?”

  “Yes,” Serene replied. “Per everything we’ve learned.”

  “Boggy, can we fix what was done to the imageers?”

  “I hate that nickname. And I don’t know. I don’t know where the toxin is or what it is, specifically. But that’s what it is, I believe—a toxin that affects whatever part of the brains that control the talent. But it’s definitely in your main research facility, the one I accessed to take your data.”

  “Nicknames are given out of love, babe.”

  “So you claim. Even nicknames someone hates?”

  “Yes. It’ll grow on you.”

  “What do you call Olga?”

  “The Oracle. Or Olga. Or She Who Knows All.”

  “And I get Boggy. I see who you like better.”

  “She’s never worked against us. So, we need to have a more thorough search of the Science Center done pronto.”

  “Just sent James a text,” Jeff said. “Walter apparently gave him the heads up and he’s started literally an inch-by-inch search. He said to tell you that, yes, they’re starting in the air vents and circulation system.”

  “Wow, he definitely needs a vacation. And good initiative Walter.”

  “Thanks, Chief,” Walter said. Didn’t shock me—I’d told him to keep the com open.

  “Walter, did we miss anything that you and the rest of Team Oliver might have heard, seen, or experienced that’s key?”

  “No, Chief, I don’t think so. But, ah, would you like my opinion?”

  “I’d love it, Walt. What do you have for me?”

  “I think we need to consider why Colonel Hamlin thinks he’s safer if he doesn’t let us protect him than if he does.”

  There were a lot of comments I could give to this. Buchanan had been attacked right after dropping Hamlin off somewhere. We were really public figures now. We were public figures constantly under attack. And more. But I chose to, instead, ask a question. “Walt, why do you think he feels that way?”

  “I think he’s figured out who the Mastermind is—and it’s someone very close to us. So close we won’t believe it without solid proof, which I don’t think he has yet.”

  CHAPTER 84

  BEFORE ANYONE COULD COMMENT, or I could share my musings on this from a little earlier, Serene’s phone rang. “Yes? Yes? Great! No, good job. Yes, good work. Thank you.” She hung up.

  “What happened?” Jeff asked.

  “The remote destruct just went off. It was in a contained room, no one was injured. Huge blast radius, though. If it had gone off here it would have leveled the Embassy. Same with Colonel Butler’s destruct. But,” she said quickly as all our mouths opened, “they were able to deactivate his bombs, too. Dulce has been online with us and
doing the same procedure we have. Both were a success.”

  “Walter, I want a portable OVS given to every Field agent, and I want a set for the Embassy, the Pontifex’s Residence, my parents, Kitty’s parents, the Israeli and Bahraini embassies, and all bases worldwide. If James has a problem with this, tell him it’s a congressional decree.”

  “Yes, sir, Congressman Martini.”

  “And tell him Imageering agrees with the congressman,” Serene added.

  “Yes ma’am, Commander.”

  “I also want Field teams assigned to the Armstrongs and the McMillans, and if we already have teams on them, add on more personnel. That goes for every non-Centaurion location getting an OVS as well, and yes that includes Kitty’s parents, regardless of what Angela may want to say about it.”

  “Got it, and have relayed. Commander Reader agrees and has also assigned three teams to protect Lieutenant Colonel Gonzalez. He’s been verified as ninety-five percent organic, by the way. Commander Reader said you’d want to know.”

  “We did, thank you. Move Caroline into the Embassy, please,” I added. “She may protest, but she’s been an attack point before.” Unless she was the Mastermind. Heck we totally trusted her. But if she hated Chuckie, I’d never seen any indication of such. And we knew the Mastermind was a man. So, great, unless Caroline was doing Mastermind work in drag, she was out as a suspect.

  “Yes, Chief. Do you want family and friends brought into lockdown?”

  “No, not yet,” Jeff said.

  Had a thought and made a call. “You’re still alive, kitten?”

  “Yeah, for now. Mom, I think you need to increase security on Russell Kozlow.” Chernobog’s head swiveled toward me.

  “Why so?”

  Brought her up to speed on the android and android destruct situation. “We need to create metal detectors that somehow include OVS detection in them.” And why this hadn’t occurred to me or anyone else before now was beyond me.