by Gini Koch
A squad car door opened, but no one got out. Well, no one human.
A giant German Shepherd bounded toward us, barking his head off. Then he jumped at me.
CHAPTER 10
I CAUGHT THE DOG and gave him a big hug while he licked my face. “Prince! Kitty’s so glad to see you! How’s my favorite officer of the law?”
Prince was great, thank you very much, and really happy to see me, too. He was also relieved I was okay. Prince was the greatest.
Two other dogs joined us for their lovies and praise. “Duke, Riley, good dogs! Where’s Officers Moe, Larry, and Curly?” They were Larry’s and Curly’s dogs, respectively, so they should know where their handlers were.
Much barking ensued, to share that, naturally, their handlers were getting out of their squad cars.
When we’d first met the K-9 squad, during Operation Assassination, I’d nicknamed these dogs’ owner-handlers after the Three Stooges. Moe’s real name was Herman Melville, because he had literary parents who’d never been to a playground, apparently, and he didn’t care for my calling him Moe. Since we’d become good friends, I’d stopped calling him that. To his face.
“I hate that nickname,” Officer Melville said as he joined us.
“Your buddies are good with being Officers Larry and Curly.”
“They like you better than I do.”
Possibly true. At any rate, I had no idea what Larry and Curly’s real names were. Possibly really Larry and Curly. No one had ever said and I’d never asked. And I wasn’t going to break that streak today, either.
“Did anyone catch the woman who tried to kill us?” I asked now.
“No.” Melville sounded pissed. “Your car chase and subsequent motorcycle joyride caused enough havoc that we lost her.” He went over to Culver and the boys. “You three alright?”
Culver nodded. “Our driver was very good.”
“And we were lucky,” Len said.
“We need to pull the arrows.” Kyle pointed to the tires that had arrows sticking out of what was left of them. “Just in case we can get evidence off of them.”
“She’s human. No A-C could ride a motorcycle, and she didn’t hit like an A-C or an android.”
“She’s new,” Melville said. “What with the attack on two politicians already, we’ve contacted all international law enforcement, including Interpol. There’s no criminal footprint like this out there.”
“She’s making a hell of a splash,” Officer Larry added. “It’s been sheer luck that no one’s ended up dead.”
Christopher and I looked at each other. “I don’t believe in luck like that,” I said slowly. “Especially because we’re talking someone trained enough to have taken out a car going at top speed. And then she jumped off a motorcycle going at top speed and she’s not dead.”
“We assume,” Christopher added.
“We have cars at every off-ramp,” Melville said. “And there’s no body. Or any sign that anyone might have jumped off a motorcycle and landed somewhere.”
Christopher made a call. “Yeah. Yeah, we’re all okay. No, she got away. Yeah. Please. Send teams to search all the off-ramps. No, I don’t think Kitty really knows where she jumped off at either.”
I shook my head. Christopher nodded.
“Nope, she doesn’t. It was just someplace she could land, versus fall. Yeah. Look for any trace evidence. Thanks, James.” He hung up and turned back to Melville. “Our people will do a thorough search. We can do it faster than your teams and we’ll let you know if we find anything.”
Melville nodded. “I’d argue about procedure, but I know you’re right. And we’ve found nothing, and I can’t justify sending CSU to every off-ramp and area without a drop-off on the Beltway.”
“Lillian’s car is totaled. Is someone coming to tow that and take us back to the Embassy?” Clearly lunch was out at this point. Couldn’t speak for Culver or the boys, but I could have eaten. However, it didn’t seem appropriate under the circumstances.
As I asked this, a big black Lincoln Navigator pulled up. Buchanan got out, and he looked seriously pissed. “Why didn’t you wait for me?”
Len and I looked at each other. “You were behind us in a cab,” I said.
“No, I wasn’t. I was, in fact, blocked from leaving the Embassy’s garage by several cars.”
“The driver looked like you,” Len said. “I checked.”
“I did, too, Malcolm. I mean, he wasn’t close enough for us to make out details, but it looked like the cab you use and he looked like you.”
“He wasn’t, and that means this assassin isn’t working alone.”
We brought Buchanan up to speed on what had transpired. “This was coordinated,” he said when we were done. “They knew to block me. Meaning they know how we work.”
“Can we go back to the Embassy to discuss this? I mean that seriously. Lillian’s being a total champ, but we were just attacked and in a crash, and I’d like our Embassy doctor to take a look at all of us.”
I did want Tito to check us out. But I also wanted to discuss what Culver had told us, and I knew without asking she didn’t want us sharing that with the D.C.P.D., even though Melville and his team were 100 percent on our side.
Melville nodded. “I’ll escort you home. The others will stay with the vehicle. We know how to reach Miz Culver.”
She smiled weakly, not her usual wide smile that always reminded me of the Joker’s. “Thank you, officers. But I’d really like to see the doctor, if it’s acceptable for us to leave the scene.”
It was and we did. Prince insisted on riding in the car with us, which Melville allowed, mostly because I figured he didn’t want to hear Prince whine for the entire trip back.
We brought Buchanan and Christopher up to speed as Buchanan drove home and I petted Prince, who was sitting in my lap.
“Think she’s working with Drax?” Kyle asked when we were done. “I only ask that because she’s new and he’s new.”
“I think that’s a very good possibility,” Buchanan said. “And I’ll be checking out the options once we’re home.”
Knew he’d be calling Team Assassination. “Give them my love when you call.”
“I will. Miz Culver, I think we need to keep you under protection. Do you want Centaurion Division personnel or D.C.P.D.?”
Culver managed a laugh. “A-Cs, please and thank you.” Kyle nodded and made the call.
“So, if the assassin was after Lillian, does that mean they wanted to prevent her from telling us about Drax, prevent her from telling us about Huntress, or are these attacks about something else entirely?”
“That, Missus Chief, is the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question.”
CHAPTER 11
WE GOT HOME without incident and immediately went to medical. The Secret Service harangued me the entire way, until Buchanan told them to shut it up and take the whining elsewhere. Literally.
Nurse Magdalena Carter—who we’d met during Operation Assassination and who had not only become our Embassy nurse but also Richard White’s girlfriend and therefore potentially Christopher’s stepmother one day—greeted us as if she’d been expecting us. No surprise, really.
“Doctor Hernandez is waiting for you,” she said as she hugged Christopher tightly. He hugged her back, showing impressive personal growth in the acceptance that his father had found love again over twenty years after his mother’s death. Amy had helped a lot with that.
“Nice to see you guys are up on current events.”
“Jeff is, too, and he’s on his way here,” Nurse Carter said. She let go of Christopher and gave me a gentle hug. “Glad you’re all okay.”
“Us too.”
Culver went into the examination room first. I waited another second and Jeff arrived. He didn’t say anything, just picked me up and hugged me, gently, like Nu
rse Carter had.
“I’m okay. I’m not hurt. What little banging up I got has already gone away.”
Jeff grunted, then pulled Christopher in. Group hugging was an A-C thing, but I didn’t mind it. Even when Jeff then pulled Len and Kyle in, too.
“We’re all okay,” Len managed to get out. “Really, we were lucky.”
“No,” Jeff said as he let go. “You’re a great driver, Christopher reached all of you in time, and Kitty chased off the lunatic and didn’t crash that Harley.”
“We made the news?”
“In this town, someone’s always watching,” Buchanan said.
“Too true.” We brought Jeff, and Nurse Carter since she was right there, up on current events. “So, you think the Mastermind hired the Huntress, or are you on the side of it being this Gustav Drax?”
“No bet. But we sent teams over to check on Don. He’s alright and already out of Walter Reed and back home. We have teams assigned to him. We also put them onto Lillian’s husband.”
“Good. So, I think Huntress is missing on purpose.”
Buchanan, who’d been texting this entire time, nodded. “It seems likely. Our sources don’t know of her. She seems remarkably new and unknown for someone with this high of a skill level.”
“You’re sure she’s not an A-C or android?” Christopher asked. “And before you point out the fact that she was riding a motorcycle, for all we know a hybrid could do it.”
“Paul can’t,” Jeff said. “Neither can Abigail. Chuck tested them years ago. They have the same issues full-blooded A-Cs have with human machinery.”
“Did he test Serene?”
Everyone looked at me. “I don’t know,” Jeff said slowly. “I sort of assumed he did.”
“You know how they teach you to spell assume, Jeff. I think we need to know.”
Christopher nodded and started texting. Hyperspeed being what it was on both sides of this conversation, he had an answer fast. “No, Serene hasn’t been tested. It’s not for a lack of Chuck asking, either, or her being unwilling. Brian objected.”
“Why?” Brian Dwyer had been my boyfriend in high school, but, after the events of Operation Drug Addict, had seen the light and fallen in love with Serene. They were both a tad obsessive when it came to relationships, though.
“As far as I can tell and Serene knows, it’s because he didn’t trust that she wouldn’t get hurt.” Christopher shrugged. “It wasn’t a vital thing before, so Chuck stopped pushing, since he’d tested Naomi and Michael, too. None of the Gowers have the ability to handle human machinery.”
“But none of them are a direct Ronald Yates/Mephistopheles progeny, either. I think we need to test Serene, pronto.”
Christopher nodded. “She agrees. She’s going to do it in a controlled environment, without telling Brian. She wants to know if we want Chuck there.”
“We do,” Jeff said. “Stay here and make sure Tito checks every one of you, and that includes you, Christopher.” With that, he zipped off, presumably to wake Chuckie up and share what had transpired while he’d been sleeping.
Culver came out and gave us a weak smile. “Doctor Hernandez recommends rest and some food.”
“Once I get checked we’ll get you something here.”
She shook her head. “I feel fine, I’ve told you what I wanted you to know, and the need for secrecy is clearly gone. If it’s alright with you, I’d really like to go home.”
“We’ll get your protection unit to take you back,” Buchanan said. “I’ll escort her to them,” he said to me.
I nodded and they left. Sent Len then Kyle in to Tito before me. They didn’t have faster regeneration. Both boys were declared the same as Culver—a little banged up, but otherwise okay.
My turn with Tito. He shook his head at me. “We can’t leave you alone for a minute, can we?”
“This wasn’t my fault.”
He grinned. “It never is, Kitty, when you think about it.” He did a fast check. “You seem fine. Any pain anywhere? Be truthful.”
Did a body check. “No, honestly, I feel fine. Still a little pissed, but nothing hurts.”
“Let me know immediately if that changes. And next time you go out, maybe you should have Rahmi and Rhee with you.” They were sisters and princesses from Beta Twelve who’d come for Jamie’s first birthday party and stayed. Beta Twelve had the best warriors in the entire Alpha Centauri system, and Tito, who’d been a UFC cage fighter in his spare time when we’d met, had been training them and Abigail on fighting techniques for several years now, so this suggestion was a good one.
“I’ll keep it in mind.”
He grinned again. “You know they won’t cramp your style.”
“Oh, true enough. But the question right now is going to be if Jeff will let me leave the building at all or not.”
“My money’s on not. But when you disobey him, like you always do, take one of the other gals with you. Abigail and Mahin are trained, too. And all the women fight nastier than all the men, other than Christopher.”
“True dat. But what I think you’re telling me is that all the girls are bored.”
Tito laughed. “But you didn’t hear it straight out from me.”
Headed out of medical and went downstairs to Jeff’s office. He was there with Chuckie, and they were both watching something on a video screen. Serene handling a car in the middle of Groom Lake, to be exact.
“Hey,” Chuckie said, looking and sounding normal. “We’re on a feed with Serene.”
“Hey, Kitty,” she said through gritted teeth. “This is hard but not impossible.”
“Then you can stop now.”
“No, I really think I need to learn how to drive.”
“No you don’t,” Jeff and Chuckie said in unison. Decided not to worry about the unison thing—great minds were just thinking alike was all.
“As long as it’s safe and you don’t overdo it, Serene, go for it.”
“Thanks! Jeff, Charles, I’m going to disconnect from you, then. I’m still on with Dulce and Area Fifty-One.”
“Fine,” Chuckie said with a sigh. “Please make sure I get a copy of all the results and transcript.”
“I will do. Head of Imageering out.” Our screen went blank.
“I love how she reminded us of her rank right before hanging up on us,” Jeff said.
“I love more that she can do it. So, this means that the likelihood is that a Yates offspring with enough Yates in there can probably handle human machinery, doesn’t it?”
“One test subject isn’t enough to be anything close to conclusive,” Chuckie said. “But I’m willing to hypothesize that the answer is yes.”
“I thought Buchanan and the assassins got rid of all the Yates progeny out there,” Jeff said.
“They got rid of all the Americans they could find and Nightcrawler knew about. But there could easily be Ronnie’s Kids that they missed or that are in other parts of the world. Ronaldo Al Dejahl Prime was raised in Europe, remember, and so was Nightcrawler.”
“We have the results from the Field teams’ investigation,” Chuckie said. “They indicate that no one jumped off of anything on the Beltway, other than Lillian Culver’s car.”
“Meaning Huntress has some kind of skills. I’m going to work under the assumption she’s one of Ronnie’s Kids until proven otherwise.”
“What that means is that she’s not Stephanie,” Jeff said, sounding relieved.
Chuckie shook his head. “Actually, if one A-C can learn, even if that A-C is a hybrid child of the most powerful A-C we know of, that means a regular A-C can learn. Would it take a lot of time and training? Yes. Is it a doable thing? Absolutely yes.”
Hugged Jeff’s shoulders, which I could do since he was sitting down. “I know you’d like to believe Stephanie isn’t involved. But I think we have to acc
ept that even if we do everything we can, and even if TCC does everything he can, she may still not ever come back to our side of things. Or even Cleary’s side of things.”
Jeff heaved a sigh. “I know. I just want to believe that she will until I have proof positive that she’s not redeemable.”
“The truth is out there, Jeff. And I’m sure we’ll find it.”
CHAPTER 12
THE REST OF THE week was fairly uneventful, other than Tito calling it right and Jeff not allowing me to go anywhere, and the raging arguments for who was going with us down to Florida.
Fewer people were staying to keep things running than were coming along. Of course, other than Doreen and Irving Coleman-Weisman and their son, Ezra, pretty much the entire staff and extended friends and family who lived with us wanted to take the train. Possibly because I’d raved about it a little too much. My bad.
Doreen didn’t want to go because her parents had been in the Diplomatic Corps all her life—well, before the Poofs ate them. But we were all okay with that, Doreen included, because Robert and Barbara Coleman had been traitors of the highest order and also not the most loving and supportive parents someone could want, especially when their only daughter had wanted to marry a human.
Doreen was our only truly trained diplomat on staff and also the only one who took the job seriously. Why she wasn’t our ambassador I didn’t know, but every time I mentioned this, Doreen was the loudest voice shooting down the option.
I’d bowed out of most of the passionate arguments for who should be allowed to cause us to have to add ten more cars to the train. But we were a day away from leaving and we weren’t finalized in any way.
Finished my breakfast meeting with Embassy staff, which consisted of almost all of them sharing why they needed to go to Florida, then decided to head upstairs to see what the daycare set was going to demand, in part because Amy was up there again and in other part because I wanted to see what Denise thought about her and her kids coming along, too.
What Denise thought, it turned out, was that I was an idiot. Not only did she not want to go, she also specifically didn’t want some others to go, and had apparently been waiting for the last minute to share this with me. Probably so I’d have to give in.