by Gini Koch
Wouldn’t know it from Earth Poofs, though. We had and continued to have a Poof population explosion. Poofs bonded to whoever named them, and they weren’t totally discerning about what name they decided was “theirs,” meaning we had a lot of people who had their own Poof these days. Most of those weren’t here, but some had dropped by to say “Welcome Home.” All the unattached Poofs lived in the Embassy, because I said so, meaning there were a lot of Poofs in the room. Decided there was only one good way to deal with greeting them all.
Fell back onto Jamie’s bed. “Poofies, come to Kitty!”
I was immediately enveloped by a blanket of fluffy adorableness. That was me, always taking one for the team.
While the Poofs and I had a massive Group Snugglefest, I checked out Jamie’s room. Looked a lot like her old room, which had been the nursery attached to the master bedroom, but there were some differences. However, none of those differences were anything to worry about from a parental standpoint.
“I think your room is great, Jamie-Kat.”
She beamed and joined me and the Poofs on the bed. “I’m so glad you like it, Mommy!” She picked something up and showed it to me—a stuffed, pink, striped cat that said “Paris, je t’aime” in a little heart on its chest. “And look! You and Daddy brought this home to me from Paris! I named him Stripes!”
My throat got tight, for a couple of reasons. The first being the realization that we almost never thought to bring Jamie back anything from anywhere we went while on missions, meaning Other Me was still winning the Good Mother Competition she and I weren’t really having with each other. I hadn’t realized Jamie wanted a new room, hadn’t thought to bring her a present, and pretty much was going to see her for five minutes here then send her to daycare. Well, not today. She was involved in what had happened—probably more than anyone other than me truly realized—and she was going to be with us today, briefing or no briefing. Presuming Jeff didn’t freak out about it.
The second realization, however, was that I’d never see Stripes, the awesome, kick-butt cat I’d rescued and made part of the family in the other universe, or anyone else from said other universe ever again.
Felt tears coming and blinked as rapidly as possible to keep them in my eyes and not let Jamie think I was unhappy to be home or with anything she’d done.
Jeff, of course, picked up what was going on immediately. He gently moved the Poofs off of me and picked me up. “It’s okay, baby,” he said quietly. “It’s normal to feel like this.”
“But I’m so glad to be home.”
“I know. But they were all yours in that other world, too. Your Cosmic Alternate got attached to us, and while I know she’s overjoyed to be home, I’m sure she’s missing us a little bit, too. It’s normal, and it doesn’t mean you love any of us less. You attach to people quickly, and they do so with you just as fast. It’s a loss, and you’re allowed to grieve.”
Buried my face in Jeff’s chest for a minute and let his heartbeats soothe me like they always did. Finally felt back in some kind of control. “We don’t have time for me to miss them right now. Their major problem is handled. Ours is still out there.”
He kissed the top of my head. “That’s my girl.” Jeff sighed. “I know you . . . don’t want to send Jamie to Daycare. I’m not so sure that’s a good idea.”
“Maybe not. But she’s more aware of what happened than I think you realize.”
“No, we realize. It’s just . . .”
“It’s okay, Daddy,” Jamie said, as she came to us. Jeff picked her up so we could do a family hug. “It won’t scare me.”
“I’m sure it won’t, Jamie-Kat,” Jeff lied, as poorly as ever. “But we’re going to be discussing grownup things that little girls shouldn’t have to worry about.”
“You mean like how Mommy was gone and is back?”
I made the coughing sound. “I think, as I said, she’s more aware of what went on than you are, Jeff.”
He looked worried. “But she’s just a little girl.” He sounded even more worried. “She shouldn’t have these worries shoved onto her.”
I leaned up and kissed his cheek. “And you and Christopher shouldn’t have had to become men at age ten, either. Sometimes, we can’t stop those things, we can only do what we can to protect those who are being forced to grow up too fast.”
“I’m taking Stripes with me,” Jamie announced. “He’s the cat for the job.”
This earned her some extremely hurt looks from all the animals, cats especially. “It’s okay,” I told them. “None of you were with me in the other universe. I found a cool cat, named Stripes, to help cover the kick-butt animal side of things. She saw him, I’m sure. Loving a stuffed animal in no way lessens the love for the real animals. I promise.”
Once again, the animals seemed somewhat appeased. Took a good look at them. “Did we lose a Poof somehow?” Had no idea why I thought we were down by one Poof—frankly, we had so many that we could have been down by a hundred Poofs and I shouldn’t have been able to tell. But I was sure we were missing one.
Harlie and Poofikins mewled and jumped up and down.
“Oh. Really? Well, that’s great then. And kind of awesome, too.”
“What’s great?” Jeff asked, in the tone of a man who’s long since stopped asking himself how his life got this crazy, but still wonders anyway.
“Other Me named and bonded with a Poof, and it went with her into the other universe. Which is great, because now Harlie won’t be alone there.”
“What? Excuse me?” Jeff was speaking for himself and Harlie both.
Heaved another sigh. “Onward to the briefing. Everyone. Animals, too, I guess.”
CHAPTER 7
THE EMBASSY’S CONFERENCE room was a relatively recent addition, created because Pierre—our Concierge Majordomo and the most competent man on the planet—had gotten really tired of us having all of our meetings in the ballroom.
However, since we were doing an all-hands meeting, the ballroom was once again called into service. Nostalgia was good sometimes, right?
By the time we got there the ballroom was packed with people. Thankfully, there was food and drink in evidence, probably because Pierre was clear on how I rolled. Alpha Team, Airborne, all Embassy staff, and my parents were here, along with a few others who were closely attached to Centaurion Division in some way. Hacker International, including the Queen of All Hackers, Chernobog, had even broken down and left their happy home in the Zoo and joined us in person, instead of video conferencing. And, completing our Team Ensemble, Olga and Adriana from the Romanian Embassy and Mr. Joel Oliver were in attendance. Pretty much everyone looked tired and stressed.
Jamie squirmed out of Jeff’s arms and ran to Mom and Dad, who were next to Reader and Gower, meaning Jamie was going to bask in the glow of four of her favorite people in the world. Couldn’t complain about her choice.
“Where’s Bruce Jenkins?” I asked as I completed my headcount and Rajnish Singh, our Embassy Public Relations Minister, handed me a briefing sheet and an envelope.
“We’re waiting to brief him,” Raj said. “Please read what I just gave you. I know you never like to read briefing materials, but this time, it’ll help.”
“Read the letter, too,” Buchanan said. “As for Jenkins, Mister Joel Oliver’s been proven far longer. Anyone not here isn’t here for a reason.”
“Um, Christopher and Amy aren’t here. And neither is Kevin. Are they not here for a reason?” What had gone on in the time I was away? Kevin Lewis was our Defense Attaché and my mother’s right-hand man in the Presidential Terrorism Control Unit. It had been unsurprising to find out that Other Me hadn’t known Mom was in covert and clandestine ops. I hadn’t known until I’d met the Gang from A-C, after all.
Frankly, I wanted to hug Mom for a long time. And then do the same with half the room, starting with Kevin and his wife, Denis
e, who was in here. Realized all the Embassy Daycare kids were in here, too, with their parents. Interesting. Buchanan must have come to the same conclusion I had—the kids were targets, involved, more in the know than the adults realized, and needed to be aware of what was coming. This probably put me and Buchanan both on the list of Worst Adults to Care for Children Ever, but we were at war, even if it was a very sneaky, small, focused war.
“They’re securing a prisoner,” Evalyne, the head of my personal Secret Service detail, shared. “One of our team was determined to be—” She looked at Chuckie and stopped herself. “Anti-alien.”
“Malcolm, can I speak safely and freely?”
“Go ahead, Missus Chief.”
“Okay. Hey gang, it’s great to see you all again.” The room quieted. Go me. “For those who might not know, I spent the last couple of weeks in Bizarro World and so did the person who you thought was me. She was me, in that sense, but me from another universe. We’re both home in our proper universes now, go team. Anyone who didn’t know this, raise your hands.”
A lot more hands went up than I’d been prepared for, including all of the Secret Service. “Ah. Okay. Those waving your hands in the air like you just don’t care, turn to whoever is next to you with no hands up and have them explain what I’m talking about. We’ll wait. Oh, and while we wait, Chuckie already knows the Horrible Truth, so no euphemisms or talking around the issue needed.”
“What horrible truth?” Doreen Coleman-Weisman asked. Her hand was up, and she didn’t look happy about it. Couldn’t blame her. Doreen’s parents had been the former heads of the Diplomatic Corps. They were traitors, and had been eaten by our core set of Poofs during Operation Confusion. Doreen wasn’t a traitor, however, and she was also the only truly trained diplomat on staff. And yet the rest of the A-Cs, Doreen included, still insisted I remain the Chief of Mission here. Aliens were both weird and sometimes very unaware of the best choices for certain jobs.
“We now know, without a doubt, who the Mastermind is. Oh, and I know other things pretty much no one else does, because other universe and all that. But I’d really like to tell the story of My Amazing Journey once to the team, so I’m waiting for Christopher, Amy, and Kevin. Unless they aren’t able to leave our resident bad guy alone.”
The Peregrines flapped their wings at me, and then all the males other than Bruno disappeared.
“We’re here,” Christopher said a few seconds later, as our three missing people zipped into the room. Hyperspeed was the best—and Amy and Kevin, despite being humans, weren’t barfing thanks to the Hyperspeed Dramamine that our Embassy doctor, Tito Hernandez, had created. “The Peregrines are handling prisoner guard duty.”
“Which prisoner?”
“Sam Travis. He was part of your Secret Service detail, remember?”
“Ah . . .” I’d paid a lot more attention to the gals on my detail than the guys. Go me for not paying attention to things that mattered. Again.
Christopher cocked his head at me. “Oh. Welcome home.”
Amy looked at me closely and heaved a sigh. “Really glad you’re here.”
Looked up at Jeff. “Really? You didn’t let them know I was back?”
He rolled his eyes. “Pardon me for being so caught up and relieved that the love of my life was returned to me that I selfishly kept the news to myself for all of twelve hours.”
“Well, when you put it like that, all is forgiven.”
“I’m so relieved.” Jeff’s sarcasm knob was heading for eleven on the one-to-ten scale. Chose to not try to up the sarcasm ante, mostly because we really had a lot of briefing to do.
We sat and I threw Raj a bone and read his briefing sheet while others explained the cosmic shift that had taken place.
Along with the usual blah, blah, blah that exemplified why I never read the briefing papers, apparently Other Me had been busy in my absence. We were now besties with the Australian Prime Minister and his wife, Jamie had a dress from them that was a family heirloom of sorts, and Other Me and Jeff had hit Paris to find presents and also apparently discover a new recording artist. I wasn’t overly surprised that said artist turned out to be Amadhia—Other Me had owned far too many of that gal’s T-shirts for me to believe she wouldn’t want to find said recording artist in this world. I mean, if there had been no Aerosmith in her universe I’d have done my best to find them and insist they make up for lost time. And it had apparently worked out, since she, like me, had been at an Amadhia concert when the switch back to our own worlds had happened.
Despite Buchanan’s insistence, the letter I chose to save for later. The handwriting was my own, and it was addressed to My Cosmic Alternate. I was pretty sure who’d written it. I’d written a letter to Other Me, too. Nice to know we’d both gone out of our way for each other. But then again, we were us, so that was to be expected.
Chose to get back to the briefing before my mind exploded from the contemplation of alternate universes. Also, everyone else was done sharing the wonder that had been the last couple of weeks and they were all looking at me.
“Ah, okay, everyone ready for what went on where I was?”
“Only if it’s relevant to the current situation, girlfriend,” Reader said, shooting me his cover boy grin. “With Chuck in the know and handling things, we need to formulate plans to take down the Mastermind sooner as opposed to later.”
“Most of it’s relevant.” I’d tell the flyboys later that they were dead in that other world but that their buddy, William Cox, was alive and on the side of right. Same with telling Tim Crawford, who’d replaced me as Head of Airborne, that instead of kicking butt daily he was a top teacher of little kids in Los Angeles. And, frankly, most of those who were dead in that other world probably didn’t need to know about it, and those living other, more sedate lives didn’t need to know about those, either.
“I know I’m dead in that world, kitten,” Mom said, right on cue. “And we’re clear that many who are evil in this world are good in that one, and vice versa.”
“We also know there are no aliens there,” Jeff said.
Wondered how to say this, but it was actually relevant to the issues at hand. “Ah. As to that, Jeff, you’re not quite accurate.”
CHAPTER 8
ALWAYS NICE TO GET the full room’s attention. “Mind sharing what you mean?” Christopher asked, clearly speaking for everyone.
“Yes. Things on Alpha Four are very different in that universe. Ronald Yates never went to the bad. However, Adolphus’ first assassination attempt against him was successful.” Decided it would be easiest to keep eye contact with Mom for this next part. “The attack was on a high holy day for the Exonerates. Richard and Lucinda died in that attack, and Terry felt it all and died in Alfred’s arms. Therefore, Yates never remarried, so Gladys Gower never existed.”
“How do you know that?” Jeff asked quietly.
“I’m impressed she knows the name of our religion,” Christopher muttered.
I chose to ignore Christopher, in part because I’d literally learned said name when I was in the other universe and didn’t feel he needed that information. “I found the person Adolphus exiled to Earth. After Kitler had had Stanley Gower assassinated for treason, that is.”
Cleared my throat and kept looking at my mother, in part because I could feel every A-C in the room tense up. “Alfred is alive and now much more well than he was. He was hiding in the underground tunnel system, but now he’s living with Other Me and her family. He’s the brains behind literally every advancement for the betterment of mankind that that world, and this one, has had. And that means, Mom, that we need to get the entire Martini clan under lock and key. Because the Mastermind will want what’s in Alfred’s brain, and I’m pretty sure he’s aware that Alfred is the driving force behind most if not all A-C scientific advancements.”
Mom nodded and looked to Kevin, who got up and ste
pped just outside of the room. He was on his phone before he reached the doorway.
“You can look at us,” Jeff said quietly again. “Yes, everyone’s upset, but that’s another world from this one, baby.”
“A world our people don’t exist in,” Christopher added. He sounded both angry and sad. Couldn’t blame him.
“True enough. And you’re not the only ones who aren’t there anymore.”
“Yeah. Share that later, baby.” Was pretty sure that Jeff had read my mind and emotions and knew who else wasn’t alive in Other Me’s world.
“On the plus side, Harlie was with Alfred when I found him and, based on the news that a Poof went with Other Me back into her universe, I think they’re set up pretty well. Oh, and they’re set up because we took out the Mastermind there, also known as Cliff Goodman, as well as his Queen Accomplice, LaRue Pick A Last Name.”
“The . . . other you said she’d never heard of LaRue,” Amy said carefully.
“She hadn’t. Over there, we figured that because Yates hadn’t hit Earth there wasn’t any other alien for her to hook up with and formulate evil plans alongside.”
Noted everyone in the room running my last sentence back in their minds. “You mind explaining that?” Chuckie asked, presumably because he’d run the words back the fastest.
“Not at all. LaRue isn’t a human. She’s an Ancient who is also a Z’porrah spy.” Mouths opened. I put my hand up. “I spoke with her. In person and, for the circumstances, at length. Believe me when I tell you that there’s at least one Ancient, or Ancient Clone, now left on Earth. And LaRue was the real brains behind what the Mastermind in that world was doing, and that means the likelihood is high that she’s also behind most everything that’s gone on here.”
“That makes sense,” Lorraine said. She was still blonde and buxom, sitting next to her human husband, Joe Billings, with their hybrid son Ross on her lap. “She’s got the scientific knowhow to have helped the Masterminds and their various associates move forward much more quickly than they could have alone.”