by Gini Koch
“Back to totally cryptic. Would another girl get what’s going on and I’m just dense, or is it that you’re not telling me anything that resembles a fact?”
He shrugged. “If I hadn’t been drugged and had my powers altered, you’d probably be telling me, so maybe that’s why it’s confusing.”
He was still tracing infinity on my stomach, and a stray bit of conversation I’d had with Reader months previously floated through my mind—something about me saying that Jeff would probably know I was pregnant before I would.
“Oh, uh, wow. When?” I wasn’t excited or upset, I was in shock.
“Sometime when we were in Vegas, but before our wedding night.”
“How do you know?”
“Since being drugged . . . I can sense the changes in your body. It’s a big change.”
I thought about it. We hadn’t made love between him giving up the Alpha Four throne and our wedding night. Which meant . . . “You knew when we were fighting the invasion?”
“Yeah. I wasn’t thrilled with how you got into the middle of the fight, I have to mention.”
My throat felt tight again. “Is that why you gave up the throne?”
He snorted. “I gave it up because I love you, and there is no way in the world I’m living anywhere without you. You being pregnant with my child was added incentive.” He kissed my forehead. “You know, I was sort of surprised you didn’t realize it when the late and unlamented Adolphus said you’d failed the tests.”
“I did fail.”
He snorted again. “Uh, how, exactly, do you think conquering all the warriors sent to destroy us would be failure? The tests were to prove ability to lead and rule. You passed those better than I did.”
“So what test did I fail?”
Jeff grinned at me. “Chastity.”
“Oh.” Duh.
“Believe me, I don’t object at all. I knew whose baby you were carrying, though Adolphus might not have.”
“I’m like a week and a half pregnant, does that count as carrying?”
“Does to me.”
“Is that why you were and have been carrying me everywhere?”
“I love carrying you, but yeah.”
“You’re so sneaky with the taking care of.”
“It’s a gift.” He kissed me, and we made love again. He was gentle and tender and loving. He murmured how he was going to take care of me and keep me safe against my skin, while I clung to him and let him carry me along to a mutual climax that was both soft and special, just for being when it was in our lives.
“You want to swim before dinner?” Jeff asked as he kissed my forehead.
“I’m still allowed to exercise?”
He laughed. “Yes. You already do all the good mommy-to-be things, other than your soda addiction, but we’ll work on that slowly.” I dreaded that but figured now wasn’t the time to whine about how I didn’t want to do without Coca-Cola products in my system.
“Okay, then, a swim sounds great.” He pulled his trunks on, helped me into my bikini, then slathered the sunscreen on me. “Guess I shouldn’t suggest racing you to the water this time.”
Jeff stood up and lifted me into his arms. I wrapped my legs around him just like always. “No. Like everything else for the rest of our lives, we go together.”
He kissed me, and I forgot about everything else . . . everything other than what we’d created together. We didn’t make it to the water. We had other things to do, and I loved every moment of them.
Nothing in my life ever goes according to plan but, as my husband says, things always work out perfectly in the end.
Coming in December 2011
The fourth novel in the Alien series
from Gini Koch
ALIEN PROLIFERATION
Read on for a sneak preview
JEFF GLARED AT CHUCKIE AS HE WALKED IN. “Why are you still here?”
“Because we have a problem,” Chuckie said. He wasn’t looking at Jeff, or me, and he was still pacing.
Jeff somehow reined in the jealousy all on his own. Either he wanted to impress me or Chuckie’s stress levels were particularly high. I figured on the latter. He shot a worried glance at Chuckie then looked at me. “With the C.I.A.?”
“In a way. More with what you were doing in Paris.”
Jeff nodded. “Whatever we were fighting, they weren’t superbeings.”
I felt all proud. “See, Chuckie? Someone other than us was monitoring the weird.”
Chuckie heaved a sigh. “And that makes it better how?”
“Pardon me, Mister Glass Half Empty.”
“It doesn’t,” Jeff agreed. “We have nothing left to study.”
“You weren’t able to contain them any other way?” Chuckie asked.
“No. We weren’t the ones who destroyed them.”
Chuckie spun so fast I was worried he’d fall over. “Explain that, please.”
Jeff sighed. “It looked like normal clustered activity, only there were no emotional warnings whatsoever. There were a dozen of them. We were barely able to contain them, but they destroyed no significant property and, as far as we can tell, no one was killed.”
“That’s not normal at all.” Every superbeing was a destruction machine and their overriding desire was to kill any humanity in their vicinity.
“Right, baby, it’s not. We herded them to the Seine—we were going to use self-contained nukes to destroy them. Right before I could give the order, they all blew up. At the same time.”
“I monitor for super-soldier projects all the time,” Chuckie said. “So does your mother. Nothing like this has come up on either of our radars.”
“If the lie is good enough, and the support is high enough…”
“Yeah, that’s what’s really worrying me.”
“How trustworthy are your superiors?”
He chuckled. “They’re top in the C.I.A. How trustworthy do you think that would make them?”
Jeff snorted. “Not at all.” Chuckie shrugged and managed a grin.
“I meant for you, for us, for the safety of the U.S. and the world. That kind of thing?”
“They seem reliable. Your mother doesn’t trust them overly much, but she trusts them more than some.” He looked thoughtful. “There was a shake-up right before I became head of the ET division.”
“Any of our four friends involved in that?”
He nodded. “Cooper and Cantu for certain. Cooper wasn’t promoted, Cantu was.” He shook his head. “I’ll need to discuss this with your mother.”
“She’s on alert, just waiting for the baby. You should be able to get a hold of her easily enough. But I’m kind of curious why and how the people we met with today, who shouldn’t have known anything about this, knew all about the attack, when none of us did.”
Jeff’s eyes narrowed. “Who shouldn’t have known?”
“A senator, a Pentagon liaison, the head of one of our terrorist units, and John Cooper,” Chuckie replied. “Cooper’s angling for my job.”
“He’s a prick,” I added. “Not that I liked any of them much.”
Chuckie nodded. “I’d really hoped to have both of you at this meeting, and White, too, if possible. I need these people read.”
“Sorry, busy trying to stop an international incident. Christopher’s still there—the imageering alterations necessary are unreal.”
“Why are you back already?” I asked. “Normally you’d be taking care of the cleanup portions.
Jeff shot me a “duh” look. “I knew who you were with.”
Chuckie rolled his eyes. “Just the two of us and four people we can’t trust at all.”
“Am I right that all four hate you and want Centaurion turned into the War Division?” It was such a safe bet—most people were intimidated by Chuckie’s brains, drive, and success and channeled that into hating on him. And there was a much longer list of those who wanted us to be the War Division than those who didn’t. Every day it seemed like the ones who didn’t got fewer and
fewer.
“In a nutshell.” Chuckie sounded like he always did when talking about people who didn’t like him—resigned. I knew there was hurt under there, too, but he hid it well.
Jeff looked like he was going to say something nasty to Chuckie, but I glared at him and he stopped himself. Possibly he’d picked up the hurt, too, but I wasn’t sure if he cared about it. “But are they in any position to be in on whatever the hell is going on?” he asked instead.
Chuckie nodded slowly. “It’s possible. I wouldn’t put anything past Cooper. He wants my job, and every job above mine, too. Cantu’s a slippery bastard. And Anderson’s your typical politician on the rise. Cartwright I’m not sure of, but she works closely with the three of them.”
There was a knock at the door and Wayne and William came in. “We have what you wanted, Mister Reynolds,” William said, handing him a file. Wayne handed one to Jeff.
“That was fast.”
The brothers grinned at me as Jeff and Chuckie both sighed at me and shook their heads. “Hyperspeed,” Wayne said.
“Oh.” Okay, had to give Jeff and Chuckie the “duh” on that one. I chalked it up to another Space Cadet moment and called the Poofs over to make myself feel better. I petted the cuteness bundles while Chuckie and Jeff both read through the files.
“Good work,” Chuckie said finally. “I wish I could get field reports from my operatives this well-detailed.”
Wayne and William looked pleased, but then they both looked at Jeff. He nodded. “Lots of good information here, thank you.” Both brothers visibly relaxed. “I appreciate the notes from the C.I.A. meeting, too.”
“We recorded it as well, Commander,” William said, “per Mister Reynolds’ request.”
Jeff raised his eyebrow at Chuckie. “You tape everyone?”
“Just everyone I don’t trust. I’d like a copy of the recording.” Jeff nodded and William pulled out his phone.
“Coming down to you now, sir,” he said, hanging up.
Chuckie heaved a sigh. “I don’t think we have enough to go on definitively yet, but I’ll work on it.”
“It’s the holidays. You’re allowed time off. The rest of your agency’s taking their two weeks, why not you?”
Chuckie shook his head. “You know the saying—evil never sleeps.”
“Yeah, too true.” I yawned. Wow. Nap time already. In addition to the other joys, I got tired out much more quickly these days.
Jeff opened his mouth but Chuckie beat him to it. “I’m going to get back to my office. I’ll be in touch on this, and I expect the same from you if you hit on anything. You get some rest, Kitty. Gentlemen, Martini,” he said with a nod. He whistled softly and Fluffy jumped up onto my shoulder, purred, rubbed, and then leaped onto Chuckie’s shoulder, did the purr and rub thing, then snuggled into his pocket. I managed to refrain from saying how adorable this was, but it took real effort.
Before Chuckie could leave, William’s phone rang. He put up his hand. “Yes, got it.” He hung up. “Commander Martini, we have an issue with the recorded copy Mister Reynolds requested.”
“And that is?” Jeff asked.
William looked grim. “All the recordings have been destroyed.”
That sat on the air for a moment. “How?” I asked finally.
He shook his head. “We don’t know. All recordings for the past week have been corrupted, the ones from today are completely gone.”
“Internal sabotage,” Chuckie said, and from his tone, he was certain. “Not good. Any clues as to who did it?”
“No, sir,” William said. “Commander White’s ordered a full investigation.”
“It’ll have to do.” Chuckie didn’t look happy, and I couldn’t blame him. I also couldn’t control another yawn. “I’ll add this to the pile of things we need to know about. Please guard those reports—you two are the only proof we have now that something was wrong with those superbeings.”
“Yes, sir,” Wayne said with a small smile. “We’ll guard them with our lives.”
Chuckie managed a short laugh. “Good job.”
Jeff seemed to be struggling with something. “I’ll walk you out,” he said finally. “You two, take down the equipment.”
They left while William and Wayne did as instructed. “You didn’t give me a file,” I mentioned.
Wayne laughed. “We’re already clear you wouldn’t read it.” He grinned and put a folder into my nightstand. “Here’s a copy for later, though. You know, when you get around to it. In about a year.”
“Wow, you are good. So, what’s the CliffsNotes version?”
They both looked at me blankly for a moment. A-Cs were capable of reading at hyperspeed, too, so why read an abbreviated version? William recovered first. “You want the highlights, Commander?”
“Please and thank you.”
“We think they’re genetically engineered,” Wayne said. “But there’s no human in there.”
“That we can tell,” William added. “Didn’t feel like there’s parasite in there, either.”
“That we can tell,” Wayne said. “They didn’t feel…right.”
“Robotic?”
“Could be,” Wayne allowed. “But if so, it’s a more natural robot.”
“Like an android?”
William shrugged. “Could be. We don’t really work with this side of things. Kill ‘em, get the folks to safety, that’s our normal assignment.”
“Why are you doing live at the exciting scene of my bedroom, then?”
They exchanged a quick glance. “Ah, special assignment,” William said.
That meant either they were being punished or they were hand-selected. “Assigned by whom?”
“Commander White,” William answered.
So, handpicked. Unless Christopher was really interested in seeing how my space cadet ways messed with their minds. I voted for the former. “Why you two?”
Wayne’s turn to shrug. “We’re really good. Commander White doesn’t trust the C.I.A. any more than any of the rest of us do.”
“So, what did he have you read on Chuckie?”
They both busied themselves with the screens. I doubted these two were going to fall into the “able to lie to us” category.
“Dudes, don’t make me pull rank. What were you monitoring Chuckie for?”
“Whatever he might be hiding,” Wayne said.
“Chuckie’s not hiding something from us.”
“Everybody’s hiding something, Commander,” Wayne said as Jeff came back in, accompanied by several other A-Cs who were clearly along to help with clearing out the video stuff. “Everybody. But not always for the same reasons.”
Gini Koch lives in the American Southwest, works her butt off (sadly, not literally) by day, and writes by night with the rest of the beautiful people. She lives with her husband and daughter, three dogs (aka The Canine Death Squad), and four cats (aka The Killer Kitties). When she’s not writing, Gini spends her time going to rock concerts with her daughter, teaching her pets to “bring it,” and driving her husband insane asking, “Have I told you about this story idea yet?” You can reach her via her website (www.ginikoch.com), email ([email protected]), Twitter (@GiniKoch), or Facebook (facebook.com/Gini.Koch).
DAW Books Presents GINI KOCH’s Alien Novels:
TOUCHED BY AN ALIEN
ALIEN TANGO
ALIEN IN THE FAMILY
ALIEN PROLIFERATION
(coming in December 2011)
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgements
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHA
PTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 39
CHAPTER 40
CHAPTER 41
CHAPTER 42
CHAPTER 43
CHAPTER 44
CHAPTER 45
CHAPTER 46
CHAPTER 47
CHAPTER 48
CHAPTER 49
CHAPTER 50
CHAPTER 51
CHAPTER 52
CHAPTER 53
CHAPTER 54
CHAPTER 55
CHAPTER 56
CHAPTER 57
CHAPTER 58
CHAPTER 59
CHAPTER 60
CHAPTER 61
CHAPTER 62
CHAPTER 63
CHAPTER 64
CHAPTER 65
CHAPTER 66
CHAPTER 67
CHAPTER 68
CHAPTER 69
CHAPTER 70
CHAPTER 71
CHAPTER 72
CHAPTER 73
CHAPTER 74
CHAPTER 75
Teaser chapter