Alien Proliferation

by Gini Koch

  White squeezed my hand. “Not without a plan. He’ll kill her or escape with her.”

  I nodded. “Okay. I’m open to ideas.”

  White was quiet for a few moments, while Al Dejahl spent some time discussing how badly demolished Alpha and Airborne teams were. “Are you able to go so fast that you can run on the ceiling?”

  I thought about it. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure.” Pulled out my iPod, tuned it, set for repeat. “Under the circumstances, anyway.”

  White took a look. “Elton John, ‘The Bitch is Back.’ I was expecting Aerosmith.”

  “I like to mess it up, keep the bad guys guessing.” I looked at him. “Ready, partner?”

  “Lead on, Missus Martini. Remember to tell me what size catsuit you wear.”

  CHAPTER 63

  TOOK A DEEP BREATH and let the music play. Didn’t take long to rev me, I was already running on waves of fury.

  Turned us and ran, fast. Hit the wall and went up it. Kept moving as we hit the ceiling and perspective turned. It was a little like when I’d fought Uma in the bubble created by ACE and the other PPB entity, Lilith. Didn’t matter, wasn’t going to be up here long.

  The library was huge, and Al Dejahl was at the far end. He wasn’t using a microphone to project his voice—more proof he was a troubadour. More reasons for the people in here to not believe him. But then again, they were all quiet, all acting too sheeplike. My family, in particular, were acting far too docile.

  Reached the target and dropped. We spun in the air and landed right behind him. I grabbed his arms. “Get away from my baby, you bastard.”

  “Gladys!” Al Dejahl shouted. “Need Security!”

  “Gladys, belay that! He’s an imposter . . . and your half brother.”

  “Richard is my half brother.” Gladys sounded angry, but also confused.

  “Yeah, Richard is. The guy with me, not the guy holding my baby.” Al Dejahl was fighting me and he was really strong. The people in the library weren’t moving. “Gladys, why are they all acting like sheep? Why are you? Think dammit!”

  White unhooked the baby carrier and got Jamie. This was the trigger—the rest of the A-Cs and humans started to move forward, like zombies. “Mister White, run, get out of here.”

  He nodded. “Hurry.” If I looked at it like a human, he disappeared. But I could see that he was just running very, very fast. Superpowers were fab.

  Distractions, however, weren’t good. Al Dejahl got loose, spun and swung at me. He was fast, too, and we were fighting furiously in a moment. “How did your mother keep you hidden and under control all this time, Ronnie?”

  He grinned. “Call me Ricky. I’m in charge now.” He swung at my face.

  I blocked, ducked, and kicked at his legs. “Your plan won’t work.”

  He snorted a laugh as he jumped to avoid my leg sweep. “You’re all so naïve. My father raised me in secrecy, so I’d be protected . . . and ready to carry on his master plan.” His eyes narrowed as he brought a hammer fist down toward my collarbone. “I’m going to enjoy avenging his death, believe me. And what I do to my little sister will make it even better. My father didn’t want her, but I have plenty of uses for her planned.”

  All the theories gelled into one certainty as I spun out of the way and managed to kick his butt at the same time. “You’re a full A-C, not a hybrid. In fact, you’re Serene’s brother, aren’t you? Same mother, same creepy father.”

  “Same powerful father, same latently powerful mother. Yeah. One of the many reasons I can control all these sheep.” He faked a punch and, when I blocked it, grabbed my upper arms.

  “Zombie mind control won’t last long.”

  “It’ll last long enough. Kill her!” He shoved me into the crowd and took off running.

  I landed in a group of people I knew well—my family. I realized the Martinis were here, too. He’d called everyone to Dulce, presumably to do whatever horrible thing his master plan called for. They were lunging for me—I couldn’t hit my grandparents, and now that we were past all of Jeff’s childhood issues, I couldn’t hit his parents, either.

  Someone landed next to me, and a hand reached down, grabbed, and pulled me up. We slammed through bodies. “Camilla, great to see you.”

  “Yeah, wonderful. You guys couldn’t kill him when he was right damned there?”

  I pulled off my iPod and dropped it into a pocket. “Who put you in place?” We were heading for the isolation area at full speed.

  “Who do you think?”

  “I only have two guesses, since I know it wasn’t Chuckie. My mother or Alfred. And, I have to go with Alfred.”

  She grinned. “Yeah. Royalty’s used to people trying to off them.”

  “How do you get away with the lying?”

  “Training. Trust me, we can do it, but it’s almost like our other talents, it’s a specialized gift, and it’s very rare—most of us can’t lie, at least not to humans. Those of us who can? Well, we learn how to do it effectively.”

  “The Diplomatic Corps is good at it, aren’t they?”

  “Some of them. Not all.”

  Reached isolation and decided to table this discussion. No one was there. “Where are they?”

  “He’s hiding.” Camilla looked around. “But where?”

  “Which he?”

  “Both, probably. But Richard’s the one with the baby. So he has more reason to hide.”

  “Let’s get the others out of isolation. They may be able to help us.”

  “They may be mind-controlled. Al Dejahl was back and had them locked up before I got here.”

  “Yeah, ’cause they were using a body double at Notre Dame.”

  “Figures.” We reached the isolation chamber with my mother in it. Camilla did something with the door. It didn’t open. She cursed. “They changed the sequence. We don’t have time to break it.”

  “Gladys! Open the damned isolation chambers.”

  “Commander Martini, the Pontifex has advised us you’re under mind-control. Cannot take your orders, therefore.”

  Camilla and I started off, looking for where Al Dejahl or White could be. “Gladys, for God’s sake. Aren’t you watching? You don’t sound mind-controlled, maybe he can’t do it to you. He couldn’t control Serene, don’t think he can control Richard. Maybe it’s a blood thing, though Lucinda seemed all over beating the crap out of me.”

  “Who is ‘he,’ Commander?”

  “Ronaldo Al Dejahl. Illegitimate son of Ronald Yates, also known as your father. Same mother as Serene. He’s a troubadour and an imageer and God alone knows what else, and, like your father, he’s pure freaking evil.”

  “You are working with an identified mole, Commander. Your views cannot be trusted.”

  We spun around a corner and saw two men. “Oh, hell, not this again.” They both looked exactly alike—both had the Timothy Dalton look going, both were holding Jamie. I knew Al Dejahl was faking it, but it was a damned good fake.

  “Who’s who?” Camilla asked.

  I could hear pounding feet in the distance. “The anti-cavalry’s coming. And I have no idea.”

  Both men were fighting, sort of. They were both holding the baby, in that sense, so she wouldn’t get hurt. They were both decent at fighting one-handed, but I had no guess as to who was who. The footsteps were louder; we were almost out of time.

  “Rick!”

  The one who was likely the real White turned toward me. Unfortunately, this gave the other one the chance to both hit him and move them around so fast that I couldn’t follow who was who when they separated. I figured we could do the name and speaking stuff, but the real White was going to be killed before I could figure it out.

  The zombie army was almost to us, and I had nothing but the crazy left. I ran toward both of them. “Poofs assemble! Save Jamie and the real Richard White.”

  Out of nowhere six large, toothy Poofs showed up. They surrounded one of them, and I tackled the other one.

  We hit the floor, hard,
and he shifted. It wasn’t White, or the little dark guy playing Al Dejahl. This man was handsome—typical A-C handsome. He was older than Serene but not by too much. I saw resemblance to her and to White and realized I was finally looking at the real Ronaldo Al Dejahl. He flipped us, pinned my legs with his knees, and grinned as his hands went around my throat.

  “Maybe I’ll keep you around, have you pop out more kids. More of my kids. She’ll know me as her father and do what I say. They all will. You’ll like being the mother of the galaxy, won’t you? You don’t have to have a functioning brain to pop out the babies, did you know that? At least, not with the advances in medicine Gaultier’s made.”

  He was incredibly strong, stronger than Jeff, which was saying a lot. So much for the idea he wouldn’t take the drug until it’d been tested—I could tell he was enhanced, probably using Christopher’s method. Camilla was shouting, but I got the impression the zombies had captured her. I could hear the Poofs growling.

  “Poofs—”

  Al Dejahl tightened his hands on my throat, choking me so I couldn’t talk and could barely breathe. “No, no, no. I think we’ll leave your pets confused.”

  “Poofs, help Kitty,” White said. The growling continued, but the Poofs didn’t move.

  Al Dejahl leaned closer. “Your baby’s trying to help.” He looked over his shoulder. “Good girl, Jamie. You keep those fluffy monsters from hurting your mommy just like I told you to.” He looked back at me. “You got empathic blocks into her mind somehow, but that’s all right. It actually helps me, because she can’t feel anything. She can hear, though. She’s a good girl and does what she’s told.”

  I really wanted to kill this guy, but, enhanced or not, I was definitely losing this fight.

  “Let her go, Ronaldo. You can have me, take my place. Just let Missus Martini and the baby go free.”

  Al Dejahl laughed. “You really think I’ll take that offer, big brother? I already took your place. They all believe, even Gladys. She was hard, but even the strongest minds can be controlled.” He grinned at me. “Young minds are so impressionable. And, in the case of my soon-to-be-daughter, quite powerful.”

  Rage helped me jerk my neck out of his grasp, albeit only a little. “Loser,” I managed to gasp out. “Mind controlling a newborn is the best you can do? You couldn’t control my parents or my girls.”

  He tightened his grip again, and I went back to wondering if he was going to break my neck or just asphyxiate me. I already knew I had about five seconds left before I blacked out. “They need a little more time, I’ll give you that.” His smile went wider. “Can’t wait to see Martini’s reaction when he watches me fuck you in front of him. Right before I kill him, of course.”

  A fist slammed into Al Dejahl’s head. He let go of my throat and went flying. “Yeah? Let’s discuss that possibility.”

  CHAPTER 64

  JEFF LOOKED AT ME. “You okay, baby?”

  “Scary man attacking!” Al Dejahl lunged for Jeff.

  Jeff grinned and slammed his fist into Al Dejahl’s face. “Really? Hadn’t noticed.” He turned and gave Al Dejahl his full attention. “You think you can show up and just walk all over my people?” His roar was already past “rabid dog” and “enraged bear.” Jeff was at “lion takes over the veldt,” which meant Al Dejahl was toast. “You think you can threaten my uncle, terrorize my child, and attack my wife?”

  Al Dejahl was landing some hits, but Jeff wasn’t tied up. I got to my feet and pulled Camilla away from the people holding her. They looked like they were waking up—I had to figure Al Dejahl needed to focus on Jeff’s fists. Went to White. “You okay?”

  He nodded. “Good thing you arrived when you did. I’m not quite as good with the fighting as you and Jeffrey are.” He handed Jamie to me. “I’m a bit concerned about the Poof situation, of course.”

  I couldn’t be sure, but Jamie also looked worried to me. “It’s okay, Jamie-Kat. You were right to keep the Poofies around you and your Uncle Richard. Daddy was here to save the day, wasn’t he?” I kissed and cuddled her. She gurgled happily, heaved a little sigh, closed her eyes, and went to sleep.

  I put the Snugli back on with Camilla’s help. “We’ll deal with what damage your loser half brother did to the Poofs later. For all we know, they were just waiting for the right order, and neither one of us gave it to them. And, dude, you were fighting a guy at least young enough to be your own son, while holding a newborn, and you remained standing and said newborn remained completely unscathed. I say again, you totally rock.”

  “As much as Jeffrey?” he asked with a chuckle.

  Turned to watch Jeff continue to beat Al Dejahl to a pulp. “Okay, not quite as good with the fisticuffs as Jeff, but, you know, he’s enhanced.” And totally, drool-worthily hot. It never failed—when he was protective, I got weak in the knees. And this was the example of protective to the tenth degree.

  “Stop lusting after my uncle.” Jeff tossed this one off as he picked Al Dejahl up bodily and slammed said body into the door of a nearby isolation chamber.

  “Had to pick my next husband in case you and my other options were all dead.”

  “Nice. Gladys, you’d damn well better be off the mind control. I want everyone who was locked into isolation out, NOW.” He bellowed it. He was so good with the bellowing. Jamie made a few fussy sounds. I realized it was probably close to time for her to eat.

  “Jeff, can you finish him off? It’s torpedo time.”

  “Oh, sure, no problem. I’ll just hurry it up and stop being fancy. Richard, you want him dead or alive?”

  “Did Mister Reynolds have an opinion?”

  “Don’t know. He’s with Christopher and the others.”

  “Um, what? You were supposed to stay with them and save Amy.”

  Jeff slammed Al Dejahl against the door again. “Yeah? Well, I could have let him kill you, I suppose. I happened to remember, though, hey, I’m in charge and, therefore, I don’t have to be a good little soldier and follow orders.”

  Al Dejahl was limp. Jeff was still pounding. “Son, I think he’s out of it.” Alfred looked shaken.

  “He’s still breathing.” Jeff looked at his father. “You know, I can see every damn emotion she has, and most of the thoughts when they’re strong. Nothing like seeing my parents do the mindless automaton attack on my wife to make me feel great about the next family get-together.”

  “Speaking of which, Clarence is out of solitary.”

  Alfred sighed. “Yes, Sylvia couldn’t take it. We let him out.”

  “Beg freaking pardon? He was trying to kill Christopher and my baby!”

  “No. He was being deceived.”

  “He wasn’t mind-controlled. He was using his own free will.”

  “Yes, he was,” Alfred said patiently. “However, people do make mistakes.” He gave me a rueful smile. “And my eldest daughter loves him, despite the fact he’s an utter moron and a traitor. He’ll be watched, believe me.”

  “You’re nicer than I am.”

  “Yes, I believe I am.” Alfred grinned. “Not that I’m suggesting for one moment that you soften up.” He sighed. “I think we want to keep him alive.”

  “Clarence?”

  Alfred gave me the “duh” look. “No, Ronaldo Al Dejahl. Richard, what do you think?”

  White shook his head. “I can’t give you an answer to that, Alfred.” He was looking past me, and I saw Gower. He had one arm around Serene and one around Lorraine. My father had his arms around my mother and Claudia.

  “Paul, Dad, are you guys okay?”

  My father nodded. “Yes, kitten, we’re fine. A little shaken—nothing like being in solitary and hearing the same message over and over again.”

  “What message?”

  “You will obey me.” Dad shrugged. “It’s an old trick. Your mother and I know how to ignore it. And our girls here were all little tigers.” He hugged Claudia. “Never make the mothers mad, that’s my advice.”

  I hugged all of t
hem. “Mom, you sure you’re okay?”

  “Yes, we’re fine. He didn’t want to hurt us—I know he wanted the babies, and I think he wanted me to take care of Jamie. Lord alone knows. Don’t care. Why isn’t Jeff just breaking his neck?” She sounded annoyed. Knew where I’d inherited my desire to kill the baddies and save trouble.

  “He’s enjoying himself. You should have seen what they did to him and the other guys. Let him have a release.”

  “Right. Where are the other guys?”

  Oh, right. Most of our team were still out there, somewhere. “Jeff, we have to get the others.”

  “I’m not done killing him yet.”

  White was speaking to Gower. I could see they were arguing. I went to them. “Richard, it’s not time for this, and I’m not the right person.” Gower sounded upset.

  “Paul, you are the right person. By the way, how is ACE?”

  He sighed. “Better. Not fully back to normal, though. He had to protect me again while we were in isolation so Al Dejahl’s mind control couldn’t work on me.”

  “So ACE wasn’t, ah, spotting me during any of this?”

  Gower shook his head. “ACE says that you were able to do what you did because of all the hormones running around in your body right now.”

  “Don’t piss off the new mother?”

  “Exactly.”

  “The drug does work on the id, doesn’t it? And I’m seriously pissed.”

  “Yes. Your rage was definitely helping you.” Gower cleared his throat. “ACE also says to expect to be extremely tired once your rage fully wears off.”

  “Can’t wait. How long before ACE is better?” It was bad enough when someone was hurt, but it wasn’t as though I could tuck ACE into bed and give him juice and aspirin to make him feel better.

  He twitched. “ACE says that he should be fine shortly, so, and I quote, Kitty can stop worrying about ACE.”

  “Okay, as long as both of you are going to be alright soon, I’ll focus the worry elsewhere. But I think Richard’s right. Who we protect needs to change. And the best way for our people to understand that is if you do what he’s asking.”