by Gini Koch
“Ah, gotcha. Noninvolvement unless it’s vital to the overall long-term plan.” Patted them. “But sometimes you ignore the long-term plan, don’t you?”
The Poofs mewed and purred. They attached to us, like we attached to them, and therefore, as animals will, they protected those they loved.
“That pile of glittery things I saw in Algar’s personal water reclamation plant, those are the Z’porrah power cubes, aren’t they? And Algar lets you take them if you feel you need to, because you get to have free will, just like everyone else, right?”
Poof purrs confirmed that I was right on. Bruno clucked to show that he still felt I was the coolest, smartest chick on the planet.
Resisted the urge to agree with them, because I hadn’t really been sure until now. But now I was certain—Algar was trying to fix his big mistake. In a very long-term way, but if you’re immortal, what’s a few thousand years, let alone a few decades?
This explained why the Poofs had almost died out on Alpha Four—their real owner had left them. Algar really was a jerk, because it was clear the Poofs still loved him, even though he’d left them alone on Alpha Four for decades. Maybe he’d done it for one of his free will reasons, but it still sucked.
Harlie mewed at me.
“Huh? Yeah, I do think he’s kind of a jerk.”
Harlie mewed in a very serious fashion.
“Really? So when Jeff gave me the Unity Necklace it triggered more than just Alpha Four’s impressive light show? Interesting. And, well, I guess if you guys didn’t object to the plan I’m okay with it.”
The Poofs were okay with being left because they’d been waiting, and been content to wait, for the next part of the long-term plan to roll slowly into action. Stopped trying to figure out how immortal or close-to-it beings thought and just chose to focus on the good fact that the Poofs had attached to us, versus the bad guys. Which Algar had obviously intended.
They lived a long time; White and Alfred had confirmed that. For all I knew, Harlie and Tenley were the original Poofs Algar had brought with him to our universe. “Fuzzball’s dead, though.”
This earned a lot of Poofy growls, which, because the Poofs were small, were adorable instead of scary.
“Yeah, Kitty really hates the Z’porrah, too. They’re very sore losers. How did they make the Poof Traps?”
The Poofs mewed in distress. Interesting. They didn’t know. This wasn’t good, but there were a lot of weird things out there in this universe, including a lot of other universes, apparently, so I probably didn’t need to know how the Z’porrah had created their Poof Traps. I only needed to know how to protect the Poofs from and destroy them.
Because I wasn’t letting our enemies kill any more of my Poofs, Black Hole Universe animals or not. In my heart and my mind, they were my Poofs, all of them, even if they were attached to someone else. Maybe Algar felt the same way. Wasn’t sure I wanted to ask him, though, in case I didn’t like his answer.
Algar had said immortals could be destroyed. But I’d seen Fuzzball with Michael in my dream, and Michael had pretty much insinuated they were together in the afterlife, if that’s what it was.
Decided I needed to get off this train of thought and onto one that would help me more with the next phase of my short-term plan.
“So you don’t actually need or use this gate.”
Bruno cawed. The Poofs didn’t use it, but the Peregrines did. The Peregrines had hyperspeed and, per Bruno, they could use their beaks and claws to open doors. So they’d found the Cube Gate and the Poofs had shared how and why to use it, because after I’d told them all to work together they’d agreed this was the right thing to do.
Algar was absolutely stacking the deck in favor of how he wanted things to turn out. But he wasn’t doing too much, because as he’d told me, too much would turn on the Bat Signal and the other Black Hole People would know where he was. But if we all thought of the Poofs as pets, and they and the Peregrines didn’t do too much for us, then the signal wouldn’t go off and Algar’s plan remained on track.
Wanted to test out the Cube Gate a little more and ask a lot more questions of the Poofs, but I was interrupted by a knock at our front door.
Moved the animals off my lap and rolled off the bed. The four of us trotted out, me closing the isolation room, nursery, and bedroom doors firmly, just in case.
Opened the front door to see Gladys standing there. “Hi, you’re awake.”
“I am. May I come in?”
“Sure.” She entered and headed for our living room. I followed. Noted that the Poofs had disappeared and Bruno had either joined them or gone to stealth mode. “Um, don’t take this the wrong way, but are you the real Gladys or a new android version?”
She snorted. “I’m the real one. Trust me, all facilities, the Embassy in particular, are on continuous scans right now.” She heaved a sigh. “Look, I’m here because I think I figured out where my half brother’s hiding out.”
“That’s great. But why are you telling me this in private, instead of, you know, calling everyone in for the big briefing so we can plan the raid or takedown or whatever?”
Gladys sat down on the loveseat. “When your daughter was born, and Ronaldo had us under his mind control, you and Richard fought him, and you were losing. But Jeffrey arrived in time.”
“Yeah, Jeff really kicked Ronnie’s butt.” Got all misty thinking about it. Jeff had been in Major Protective Mode, which I always found incredibly sexy.
“Right. Jeffrey was about to kill Ronaldo—but he wanted Richard’s order to do so. Richard stepped down as Pontifex because he couldn’t bring himself to actually give the order to kill Ronaldo, and he also could no longer deal with the idea of turning the other cheek.”
“Right, I remember. Paul was able to give that order, because that’s kind of what the Pontifex needs to do, right? Be the better person?”
“That’s right. So, let me ask you a question. Do you, in your heart, believe that Paul would be able to give that same order now?”
Didn’t have to think too hard on this one. “I’d like to say yes. Because I think Paul is that good a person.”
“I do, too. But here’s my dilemma—I don’t want to discover he’s not. I don’t want our people to discover that our Pontifex is unable to do the right thing all the time. There’s no one else trained or even close to ready—Paul couldn’t step down to avoid the decision. And the decision, whether he makes the right one or the wrong one, would eat at him. For the rest of his life.”
“Okay, I see the problem. Why are you discussing it with me and only me?”
“Because, when it comes right down to it, you’re your mother’s daughter.”
Thought about this, about the specific event Gladys was talking about. Mom had point-blank asked me why Jeff didn’t just kill Ronaldo and be done with it. And, frankly, Mom had been right, because Ronaldo had escaped, and he’d helped bring an alien invasion down on Earth. He’d tried to destroy our world, my world. And he’d tried to steal my baby girl while doing so.
“Don’t tell me, let me guess. You want us to do a commando raid and finish the job Jeff started.”
Gladys smiled. “I’d prefer to think of it as a fun, girl’s bonding excursion.”
“Gladys, I believe this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
CHAPTER 65
“YOU WANT ANYONE besides the two of us?” I asked as I ensured I had everything I could possibly need in my purse, which included a variety of Poofs On Board. Harlie gave me a little purr. Great, the Poofs were all for the raid.
Squinted. Bruno was in stealth mode but I could just make him out next to my right foot. He looked up at me and winked. Excellent, Bruno was in as well.
“I’d love to grab your mother and Adriana. But your mother might need a warrant and you need Adriana for the funeral raid, so we can’t risk her getting hurt.”
“What about the princesses?”
“I prefer to fight with people for
whom battle isn’t the highest honor, just something that has to get done. They’re learning, but they’re too green to trust with this.”
“Works for me. So, where’s Ronaldo at?”
She sighed. “That’s the one problem. I saw where he was, but it was in a dream so it’s fragmented. However, I know you’ve found a way to leave and return without using the Embassy’s gate.”
“How?”
“Walter and William noted that you disappeared, reappeared, disappeared, and reappeared again. Because it was quick and they could determine that you were here, they decided it was equipment failure due to the hack. Of course, the Science Center advised me that you were there, and then not there, and then there again, and so on. So I assume you’ve found that hidden gate you’ve had everyone looking for for the past year and a half and were testing it out.”
“Wow. You’re good. Yeah, I have.” Gave it a shot. “I’ve also met—” Dang, couldn’t say the name. But I could try something else. “The A-C Elf.” Ha! Take that, Algar. Chose not to wonder whether he’d allowed me to say this or not.
Gladys seemed impressed. “Good for you. I was told by . . . someone in my dream . . . that this gate works differently from the others.”
“It does. I think it works based on thoughts. I’m pretty sure it’s a Z’porrah power cube.” So Algar had given Gladys the suggestion to come see me. It wasn’t a surprise that he visited her in her dreams, after all. Passive noninvolvement my ass.
Of course, there was always the chance that Gladys had been turned again and was working for the bad guys. Bruno nudged up against me, I looked down, and he turned visible, looked straight at Gladys, looked back at me, cooed, and went invisible again.
“What was that all about?” Gladys asked.
“You just got the Peregrine Stamp of Approval.”
“Good to know. Let’s get going before Jeffrey notices that you’re revved up and excited and comes to find out why.”
Headed us to the isolation room and crawled up onto the big bed.
“Seriously?” Gladys asked as she clambered up with me.
“Don’t complain to me, I think the Colemans are responsible for this location.”
“Figures.”
“Okay, hold my hand and think of the place where you saw Ronaldo. Then touch the square. Supposedly we can’t land in something solid or on top of someone or some such. I haven’t tested enough to know for sure.”
“You only live once, kiddo.”
“Kiddo? Really?”
She laughed. “It’s better than what I used to call you.” With that she took firm hold of my hand, and put her other onto the Cube Gate.
We were instantly in a dark room. Looked around. I didn’t see anyone. “Where are we?” I whispered.
“No idea,” she whispered back. “But this is what I saw in my dream, the dark room before the room where he is.”
There was some light near the floor, but father away. Light coming in from under a door. We crept toward it. Looked back and around. “I don’t see the return square.”
Gladys put her hand over my mouth and I shut up. Heard what she had—voices.
So, Ronaldo wasn’t alone. Well, there were two of us. The voices weren’t raised so it was hard to make them out. But I had a feeling there were more than two people in the next room. No worries, Gladys and I were both capable of kicking major butt.
We reached the door and listened harder. No keyhole and the door was shut, both of which were really inconsiderate of the cosmos.
My eyes were adjusting to the dark and I could make out some of the things around us. Most of said things were boxes. The room appeared to have no windows and just the one door we were standing by. Could make out a stamp on the side of a box on the floor that the light was hitting—GB: NAS.
Contemplated what these letters could stand for as the voices died down and Gladys slowly turned the door handle. Maybe whoever was in the room hadn’t noticed the handle turning. Or else they’d noticed, were really good, and were lying in wait for us. Gave it fifty-fifty odds either way.
Door opened a crack to discover that, for once, the odds were on our side. Well, sort of. The door didn’t open up to another room—it opened up to a hallway.
From what little we could see, it was a long hallway, with what looked like many doors, and a T-intersection at the far end from us.
As we looked, people came walking by, speaking to each other. These people were in Navy and Marine uniforms. They went past without looking at our door, which was a relief.
My brain decided to mention that it had a really good idea what NAS stood for—Naval Air Station. And that meant, by both process of elimination and the total way our luck worked, that GB most likely stood for Guantanamo Bay.
Nudged Gladys. “We’re in Guantanamo,” I whispered in her ear. “I don’t think that’s good.”
“If we’re here, it’s because my half brother is here.”
“Good point. Just saying, I think we could be really screwed if we’re caught.”
“Better caught by the Navy than caught by our enemies.”
Found the light switch, closed the door, and turned the light on. Sure enough, we were in a storage room that confirmed we were in Guantanamo—lots of boxes stacked all over the place, clipboards hanging on the walls near different stacks, a couple of plain tables holding stuff. Of course the sign that said “Supply Room #30, Naval Air Station: Guantanamo Bay” was also a clue.
There was an emergency exit map on one wall. Wished Chuckie was here—he’d have memorized it in two seconds. For me, it just looked like a lot of red lines on a rat maze. All I got was that we were “here” and our ability to get out “there” was going to be dependent upon making a lot of twists and turns. Awesome.
Gladys turned off the lights. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“I wanted to be sure we weren’t sitting on top of bombs or Ronaldo.” Felt around in my purse for my Glock, patted the Poofs, found the Glock, flipped off the safety, put it on top of the Poofs. Figured it wasn’t wise to have it in my hand, but I wanted it close by and ready.
She made a quiet sound of disgust and slowly opened the door another crack. We waited. Didn’t hear anyone. “Let’s go,” Gladys said as she grabbed a nearby clipboard and opened the door. “Walk with purpose, don’t look furtive, and if we run into anyone, let me do the talking.”
“Check. Will do my best not to blow our total lack of cover.”
We stepped out as Gladys shot me a look that said she was regretting who she’d chosen for this commando raid and shut the door behind us. We were at the end of this hallway right by steps that led up to another level. There weren’t any here going down, so either we were on the lowest level, or the down staircase was elsewhere.
Gladys headed for the other end of the hall. Decided not to ask why. When you have no freaking idea where to go, one way’s as good as another.
Every door in this hallway indicated it was storage, which seemed odd. Then again, I wasn’t clear on how the military stored things. Maybe they were really anal about not mixing up the paper products with the bullets. Gladys used hyperspeed and checked every door, though. “All clear, just supplies.”
Reached the T-intersection without running into anyone. “Which way now?” I asked softly.
“No idea.” She stared right and left. “I think . . . this all looks vaguely familiar, more to the right than to the left. So, we’ll try the right and if that leads nowhere, we’ll come back.”
“Why aren’t we using hyperspeed?”
“Why use up the energy for nothing when we might need it later?”
Refrained from mentioning that all the Field agents I’d ever worked with used up the energy in part to avoid surveillance cameras and in other part to hurry the hell up. “Okay. I guess.” I saw no cameras about, but I still had to figure that time was going to be of the essence.
Gladys sighed. “We’re apparently in Cuba. In case we literally have
to swim for U.S. soil, I’d rather have all my hyperspeed available, wouldn’t you?”
“Good point. Hate where your head’s at, but still, good point. We’re in a Naval base, though, so that means there should be a gate here somewhere.”
“Right, and if and when we find it, we can rejoice. We have little access to this facility—NASA Base is close enough and the American government likes to feel as if it’s got the upper hand in some areas. This is one of those areas. Now, can we go?”
“I’m not stopping us.” Looked around. Didn’t see the sparkling square. Figured that meant it was still in Supply Room #30. Hoped I’d remember how to get back there in case we didn’t find the gates on the base.
Which hopes were quickly dashed as we found the stairs going down. Naturally Gladys wanted to go lower—maybe it was some weird A-C thing, where they had burrowing creatures in their ancient DNA. But they sure had no issues being underground.
So down we went, into a much darker hallway system with a lot of twists and turns. I was officially lost within five minutes. However, I had a really good guess as to where we were heading, because we weren’t walking by storage rooms any more—we were walking by a lot of metal doors that had tiny windows with bars in them.
As we approached yet another intersection I was about to ask if Gladys had a clue as to where we were going when I heard voices.
We flattened against the near wall.
“Do you want out or not?” The voice was familiar—Ronaldo Al Dejahl was indeed in the house.
CHAPTER 66
CONTEMPLATED ASKING GLADYS if she’d seen that we’d be in the bowels of Guantanamo when we found Ronaldo but I knew she’d had no idea. Algar enjoyed his little jokes, after all. Prick.
“You’ve made me a murderer.” This voice I also recognized—it was Mahin.
“Things happen,” Ronaldo replied.
“You told me no one would get hurt, that we were just going to find and rescue the rest of our family. But I watched you murder one of those people.”