“On our way, William. Keep the com on us and patch us in to the kitchen. And try to reach Walter, please.” The four of us went to the elevator, because the three full humans didn’t want to have to deal with my hyperspeed prowess unless they had to, and I knew it.
“What’s going on?” Jeff asked via the com as we waited for the elevator.
“William’s here because Walter’s supposedly at Dulce for some Security training thing. But they aren’t at Home Base because of a dust storm. Walter called me to share there was big trouble, and he was cut off mid-word.”
“No response from Walter, Ambassador,” William said, voice tense. He’d already lost one brother—I knew he didn’t want to lose another. I didn’t want him to, either.
Elevator arrived, we got in. “We’ve tried calling everyone, Jeff,” Tito said as we headed down. “Only your father at NASA Base and the Pentagon answered their phones.”
“That includes Gladys,” I added.
Heard a variety of impressive cursing from the kitchen. Decided Amy’s was the winner, though Caroline’s came in a close second.
“Let me make it that much better. Per Jeff’s dad, Brian and Michael both called out today—which you’d think would be odd for astronauts to be able to do just like a normal person, but whatever. We can’t reach them, either, and Alfred thought they were both at Dulce.”
“Michael didn’t tell me he’d be there,” Caroline said. Since they were engaged, she’d be the most likely person Michael would give his itinerary to. “He didn’t spend the night last night, though, so maybe he was doing something with Brian.”
“Kitty, what’s your guess for what’s happening?” Chuckie asked.
“I love that you’re asking her for a guess before she has any information,” Christopher snarked as the elevator doors opened.
The four of us ran to the kitchen. “Oh, you’re just jealous because I usually guess right. Megalomaniac Girl reporting for duty. And I think the dust storm that prevented everyone being at Home Base is related to whatever’s going on. And I think we’re going to hate what’s going on.”
“But that’s all the information we have,” Buchanan said. “Unless Missus Chief is holding out on us.”
“Sadly, no. I’ve texted everyone—no one’s replied. Including Kevin, Brian, and Michael.” I cleared my throat. “And also including Mimi and Abby. They went over to help Gladys.”
“You told us before,” Chuckie said. “I’ve tried texting Mimi, but I thought maybe she wasn’t replying because I hadn’t answered her texts from this morning.”
“Where’s Patrick?” Jeff asked, worry plain.
“With Jamie and the other Embassy, Alpha, and Airborne children,” William replied. “On site, in the daycare center. I’ve advised Denise that she shouldn’t release the children to anyone at this point in time. Doreen and Irving are there as well. I’ve also requested that Len and Kyle go to and stay with them and the children. They’re there, as are all the Embassy animals.”
“All?” We had four dogs, three cats, twelve mated pairs of Alpha Four Peregrines, and more Poofs than anyone other than Rain Man had a hope of counting. All was a big number.
“All,” William confirmed. “Doreen said to tell you that their Peregrines sort of herded her and Irving to the daycare center. Denise said to tell you the animals look stressed and ready.”
“Shields up, William!”
“Already done, Ambassador. I activated the shields as soon as you told me to try to contact Walter.”
“Good man.” Effective thinking ran in the Ward family. “So, all we know for sure is that whatever’s going on, the only person who tried or was able to tell us anything was Walter.”
White looked thoughtful. “Missus Martini, correct me if my memory’s inaccurate, but wasn’t Walter one of the few who held out against my ‘younger brother’s’ mind control?”
“Yes, he was.” White and I looked at each other. “You don’t think that’s it, do you, Mister White?” I really hoped he was going to say no.
“Sadly, yes, I do, Missus Martini.”
“Think what’s it?” Caroline asked.
“I hate what you two just jumped to,” Chuckie said. “But with what we know, it’s a good hypothesis.”
“Which is?” Christopher asked.
I answered. “We think Ronaldo Al Dejahl is back in business.”
CHAPTER 15
“WILLIAM, patch us in with Hacker International, will you?”
“She means the computer lab,” Jeff added.
“Yes, Representative Martini, I know. Walter left detailed instructions, including the Ambassador’s nicknames for everything and everybody. Hacker International is connected. Have taken the liberty of putting them on-screen for you, Ambassador.”
After Operation Sherlock, Jeff had decided that if we could find a way for him to never have to visit with Hacker International in person, he wanted that way installed immediately.
So, we’d done an electrical remodel and added big screen monitors with video cameras built in into every room where we had meetings or might want to have meetings. This was most of the general rooms in the Embassy and the Zoo. Since it had been done by A-Cs, it had taken an afternoon. Just one. Hyperspeed was the greatest.
The interior of the Zoo’s computer lab came onto the big screen in the kitchen. It showed five men—Stryker Dane, aka Eddy Simms, from good old Pueblo Caliente, Arizona, Big George Lecroix from France, Dr. Henry Wu from China, Ravi Gaekwad from India, and Yuri Stanislav, aka Omega Red, from Russia. They were all busily at work at their computer terminals, but I wasn’t sure if that was because they were aware that Chuckie was in the Embassy. Chuckie was essentially their boss and he had them in a constant state of alert fear. Jeff really appreciated this, and told Chuckie so often.
They were the best hackers from their respective countries, though each one had his own specialties. In addition to hacking, Stryker was also the author of the very successful Taken Away series wherein he recounted his “totally true” tales of being kidnapped and probed by aliens. Needless to say, Stryker wrote fiction.
He made the most money of the team, therefore, because he had the extra income source to add into all the other income sources. He also had the strongest personality, so he was Team Hacker’s unofficial leader. Sadly, he still had manboobs, an appearance you could charitably call “slovenly,” limited personal hygiene, and long, unkempt hair that, if cleaned and brushed, would be his only attractive feature.
Big George was tall and thin, but still had the Uber Geek look going. Henry was small, balding, and timid in looks as well as actions. Ravi was pretty normal looking and he was engaged to a Dazzler, so he’d fixed up his look a little bit. Omega Red was blind and buffed out, making him the total Hacker International anomaly. I wasn’t sure if he knew that the others never lifted anything heavier than a Big Gulp cup, or if he just liked lifting weights, but he was the only one of them who’d be worth anything in a physical fight.
They were dressed pretty much alike in khaki cargo shorts, sandals, and T-shirts. Today’s group T-shirts were commemorating the X-Files. They had a nice selection, no one duplicating the other’s image choice. This was done because I’d made a joke about them having assigned Geek T-Shirt Days and instead of them dressing nicely for a change, they’d instead created a Shirt Rota Chart. With pride.
Chuckie had ferreted out Stryker’s “bunker” when he and I were in high school and, despite the age difference of about ten years, they’d become friends. So I’d known Stryker since high school, too. I’d known all the other guys by the time I was out of college. They’d joined us as a group, however, during Operation Destruction and had never left. Not a day went by that Jeff didn’t point this out to me. Unhappily. But I found them useful. And fun to bait. Though the baiting would probably have to wait. We had an emergency.
“Eddy! How’s it going? Actually I don’t care. You and the rest of the wacky gang need to roll into action.”
“Already on it, Kitty.” Stryker sounded tense and he didn’t look away from whatever he was working on. “Ravi was talking to the reverse engineering team at Dulce and was cut off. We’ve been trying to reestablish communications ever since. It’s definitely not our side.”
“Jennifer and Jeremy were at the same training session as Walter,” Ravi added, sounding worried. Understandable—Jennifer Barone was his fiancée. She and her brother were a Field team assigned to us permanently during Operation Destruction. Jennifer was an imageer and Jeremy was an empath.
“Why were they there?” I asked.
“Gladys said they performed security here, so they needed the training,” Ravi replied.
“How long have you been trying to make contact with Dulce?” Chuckie asked before I could ask why Len and Kyle, my C.I.A.-assigned bodyguards, hadn’t been requested. Not that I wasn’t glad that they’d been with me this morning, but if Gladys had asked for the Gower girls and the Barones for this security thing, why not the boys, too? But the boys being here was, all things considered, likely to be a very good thing, so I chose not to question aloud.
“Twenty-three minutes so far.”
“That times out about to when Walter called me.”
“Have also checked with Home Base,” Big George said. “No response. On any line.”
“And we had the system auto-call every line, too,” Henry added.
“What’s the weather like around Area Fifty-One and the Science Center?” I asked.
“Clear,” Omega Red replied. “Why?”
“Because there was supposedly a huge dust storm at Home Base earlier today, which sent training exercises to Dulce. Do you have any record of such?”
They were all quiet, and every one of them was typing. “No, weather services show nothing,” Stryker said finally. “As I know you know, it’s monsoon season in Arizona and parts of New Mexico, but there are no storms in either state today.”
“Caliente Base. Someone try to reach them, right now.” This was the base in my, Chuckie, and Stryker’s hometown. It wasn’t as big as most of the others, but it was of decent size, and it also housed a great majority of the A-Cs under thirty, due to my having declared them political refugees during Operation Drug Addict.
“Caliente Base is online,” William said. Felt the whole room relax a little. “They can’t raise anyone at Dulce or Home Base either. They want to know if they should investigate.”
“No. Tell them we’ll be there shortly. I don’t want anyone going in until we have all areas cleared. Check the Dome. And every other base worldwide.”
“Yes, Ambassador.”
We waited. Couldn’t speak for anyone else, but I was certainly praying that the Dome, which was the main gate hub for the entire world, was secure and still in communication with us.
“The Dome and all bases worldwide other than Dulce and Home Base reporting in,” William said. “All bases on High Alert. Dome is locked down. All personnel have been told to wait for your order, Ambassador.”
“Why oh why is Kitty somehow in charge?” Christopher grumbled. “The power goes straight to her head.”
“With Alpha Team inaccessible, she and the Pontifex are the highest ranking individuals available,” William replied. Could’ve sworn that, despite the situation, he was trying not to laugh. At Christopher, I hoped.
While Jeff and Christopher both tried to look like they didn’t hate hearing that, and also tried not to look like they desperately wanted to go back to being the Heads of Field and Imageering, Gower cleared his throat. “Kitty, I need to talk to you, alone, just for a moment.”
“Sure, Paul.” We stepped out and went down the hall to Raj’s office. Gower closed the door. “Paul, if this is about ACE, I know.”
Gower looked shocked. “What do you mean you know?”
“Jeff, Chuckie and I know that ACE isn’t . . . around right now. We haven’t told anyone else, and we won’t tell anyone else. If ACE needs us for anything, we’ll all do whatever we need to, but we know ACE isn’t here to help us.”
Gower’s shoulders slumped and he sat down. “How long have you known?”
“Chuckie’s known the longest. Jeff and I found out at the start of Operation Sherlock.”
He heaved a sigh. “I wish I’d known you all knew. It’s been hard to pretend to talk to ACE without him inside me.”
“We think he’s still there, Paul. Per Jamie ACE is still . . . around somewhere.”
“I don’t feel him, and I haven’t since a few weeks after the invasion.”
“Right when the tunnels went back to impenetrable?”
“Yes, right then.” He rubbed his forehead. “We’re clearly under attack of some kind. Someone’s going to ask where ACE is and why he isn’t helping us.”
“Specifically why he’s not saving James.” Reader was Gower’s husband. ACE had helped save his life before, and if something bad had happened to Reader, we were going to have to deal with our enemies knowing ACE was gone at the same time as grieving our hearts out. Which sucked.
“Or Serene. Or anyone else. Such as everyone at Dulce and Home Base.”
“We’ll deal with it. I’ll spin it in some way, Paul, don’t worry. Chuckie and Jeff are ready to follow either one of our leads on what’s going on with ACE. The four of us will handle it. We can’t let ACE being on sabbatical stop us from figuring out what’s going on and saving our people right now.”
“I know.” Gower heaved another sigh and stood up. Shoulders squared, expression of calm confidence on his face—back to the religious leader of an entire exiled race. Good. We needed him on his A game. “I’m going to officially give you full control of the A-C population when we’re back with the others.”
“Super. Why?”
“Because I can’t give it to Jeff, or rather, Representative Martini. I can’t give it to Christopher, or rather, the husband of the woman fighting to control Gaultier Enterprises. And I can’t in good conscience give the reins to Chuck because he’s C.I.A. and we don’t want them running us, nor do we want the F.B.I. and Homeland Security demanding their fair share of us. So, you’re our leader.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, there, Paul.”
He grinned. “And besides, when the evil madmen plans arise, as I’m sure we’re facing right now, there’s no one better at the helm than Megalomaniac Girl.”
“Ah, you do love me and respect the skills.”
Gower laughed. “Kitty, when it comes to someone figuring out what the crazy people have going on, there’s no one who’s your equal.” He hugged me. “And, as James would say, you’ll always be our girl.”
I hugged him back. “So, does this mean you two are willing to go bi and add me into the marriage?”
“I think Jeff should be worried about how hopeful you just sounded.”
“I think I’m still waiting for your answer.”
CHAPTER 16
WE REJOINED THE OTHERS. “So, you’re still willing to be my wife?” Jeff asked, sarcasm turned to only about a six on the scale of ten.
“Since Paul insists that he and James aren’t ready to go bi yet, yeah.”
Gower shook his head with a laugh. “No matter what Kitty insinuates, she loves you best, Jeff.”
Jeff put his arm around me. “A man can hope, anyway. So, what’s the plan?”
Gower cleared his throat, all levity gone. “William, please send this through to all bases and facilities.”
“Ready, Pontifex Gower.”
“To all Centaurion Division and American Centaurion personnel, as Supreme Pontifex I’m declaring that, until we know the status of the majority of Alpha and all of Airborne Teams, and the status of Home Base and the Dulce Science Center, we are officially in a state of emergency. Full leadership will reside with our Ambassador and Head of the Diplomatic Corps, Kitty Katt-Martini, who will now be considered as acting as the Head of Alpha Team until the state of emergency is removed. Please obey her orders as you would any
one else from Alpha Team. Kitty, to you.”
Fortunately, I’d been prepared for this handoff. “I’d like all bases and facilities to remain on high alert. If we have Field teams out, I want them brought in unless they’re dealing with a superbeing. In which case, they need to contain it as fast as possible and get back to a base.”
Superbeings weren’t nearly as common as they had been, in large part because we’d taken the ozone shield down on Alpha Four, and in other part because we’d eliminated the in-control Mephistopheles superbeing. That Mephistopheles had been joined with Ronald Yates was just the kind of fun that we associated with Centaurion got to have on a regular basis.
“What about other threats or the return of missing personnel or communications?” Jeff asked me quietly. “Who will personnel report to in case you’re not available?”
Resisted the urge to hug him. He wasn’t asking because he was curious. He was asking in this way to ensure I covered all the leadership bases. He’d been the Head of Field for over a decade, after all. And he’d been training me, in that sense, since we met.
“Advise the Embassy immediately of any other threats identified,” I shared in my Official Giving Orders Voice. “But barring an immediate threat such as fire and the need to evacuate a facility, don’t take action without it being approved by me, Richard White, or Rajnish Singh.”
Got a lot of shocked looks for that one, other than from White and Raj. Christopher opened his mouth. I put my hand up and he shut it.
“I want as complete a roster of missing personnel as possible. We have a lot of people who went to Dulce today who aren’t there normally. If you can’t verify that someone’s where you think they should be and can’t reach them to verify their well-being, that information needs to be sent to us immediately. By the same token, should personnel presumed missing turn up, let us know that immediately as well.”
Time to shoot for the rosy outlook. “The moment anyone establishes contact with either Dulce or Home Base, or any individual known to be at either location, determine situation as fast as possible and advise the Embassy immediately.” Okay, so not rosy so much as hopeful. Whatever. “Let’s keep calm, carry on, figure out what’s going on, and stop it. Embassy out.”
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