by Gini Koch
“So, we still need to know how they got pictures of me and Jeff from last night.”
White cocked his head at me. “Do we feel our current enemies, whoever they are, know us well?”
I pondered. “I think they know us well. They clearly didn’t know Senator Armstrong as well as they thought they did.”
“They didn’t know Mister Joel Oliver as well as they thought, either,” Len said.
“No,” Oliver corrected. “They didn’t know my editor.”
“But our reactions are right out of our playbook. That’s what you mean, right Mister White?”
“Yes, Missus Martini. I’d assume it’s going to be catsuit time again shortly?”
“You never can tell, but I’d put money on that being a big yes. You know, since acethe Embassy was scanned several times last night, I have to assume that one of us brought whatever bug in. Either that or one of our personnel are working for the bad guys.”
“Mister Reynolds has us scan everyone,” Kyle said. “Regularly.”
“Even me?”
“Especially you,” Len said. “After all the bugs you carried in during Operation Assassination, he made it a daily task.” The boys were the only ones who used whatever Operation name I’d assigned. I loved them.
Christopher snorted. “He was late on that one, because that sure as hell wasn’t the first time Kitty had a bug planted in her purse.”
He and I looked at each other. “Oh. Snap. Sandra was doing double duty, at least. Maybe she was supposed to self-destruct, maybe just run away. But, hell, I carried the bug in, didn’t I?”
Len and Kyle exchanged a look. “Yeah, we didn’t scan anyone yesterday,” Kyle admitted. “At least, not after the incident.”
“I don’t think Mister Reynolds did, either,” Len added.
“He didn’t, because he didn’t say, ‘hey, Kitty, there’s a bug in your purse.’ So we still need to know what happened to it.”
“I may know.” Armstrong’s eyes were narrowed. “Titan Security was working on micronized weapons and surveillance. They had some strong prototypes, including what they called the Tarantula.”
“Let me guess, it’s a metal thing that looks like a big ol’ spider?”
“Yes. It can adapt to look like other things, as well. It ‘sleeps’ as a sphere.”
“So, they took their cues from Minority Report and Transformers.”
Armstrong shrugged. “What the mind can imagine, the mind can create.”
“Excellent. Can’t wait to see what the League of Really Crazed Super-Geniuses comes up with next.”
“I’m going home,” Christopher said. “I want to see if we can find the Tarantula.”
Armstrong shook his head. “It’s a gatherer, not a transmitter. It gets what it’s sent to find and returns to its nest, so to speak.”
“Let’s be really sure.” Christopher said. “I’ll be right back.”
“You could have Walter search, you know.”
“I want him focused on security, not on searching.”
“Oh. Wow. So that was the Club Fifty-One play.”
Everyone looked at me. “Want to explain that?” Christopher asked.
“Sure. They were testing to see what our reactions would be, when most personnel are off site at an event, when a huge bunch of suicide bombers appeared out of nowhere.”
“On the plus side, no one came out of the Embassy,” Len said. “I kept watch, and the only people on the street were Mister Buchanan, the three K-9 cops and dogs, an">“On d the three of you.”
“So we showed them we were hanging out with Romania in the off hours. But we showed them that we have people on surveillance of some kind, too. Meaning they did, as Christopher pointed out earlier, what Senator Armstrong said they were doing—they flushed us out of hiding.” Jamie was in the room, so I resisted the impulse to curse.
“I’m still going to the Embassy,” Christopher said. “I want to brief Walter and anyone else over there on what’s going on.”
“Fine. Call me before you come back.”
“Why?”
“I may not want you returning alone.”
I wasn’t sure if Christopher was on my wavelength or not, but he didn’t argue. He gave Amy another quick peck and zipped off.
“So, was the Tarantula sent to get new dirty pictures?” I wasn’t thrown by spiders or bugs, only snakes, so the idea that some big metal thing made to look like the Godzilla of Spiders had been in my purse didn’t freak me out all that much. It pissed me off to no end, though.
“Maybe.” White looked thoughtful. “Maybe it was sent to get information on the interior of the Embassy and pictures of you two being intimate was a bonus, so to speak.”
I wondered if it had seen the Peregrines’ arrival or not. Bruno pulled his head out from under his wing and stared at me. Check. If an enemy Tarantula had been there, the Peregrines would have destroyed it. Good to know. I’d worry about my complete mental breakdown later. For right now, I was going to embrace the Dr. Doolittle and just run with it.
“Why use them, though?” Armstrong asked. “Doesn’t it just give them away?”
“Only because you came to us, instead of going elsewhere. And only because we figured it out.”
“And maybe they needed a better shot of Jeff,” Amy said.
“Ames, again you bat a thousand. There are lots of pictures of the senator out there, I’m sure, but most of them won’t be of him making the o-face. So the few that would work have to fit onto a specific body position. We gave them new options, they ran with them.” Very quickly. Meaning they were either really good or had A-C traitors on staff. It was, like most of today’s problems, a fifty-fifty bet either way.
“I believe the important question now is, what do we do?” Adriana asked.
“That is the question of the moment, isn’t it? So, what do we know? Whoever’s in charge wants Chuckie out permanently.”
“Or to have him so disgraced that nothing he’s ever said or done will be regarded,” Armstrong said.
“I’d assume both,” White added. “But they also want to steal our children.”
“That cannot be allowed,” Olga said, and I knew she wasn’t saying it just because she liked us and didn’t want to see Jamie hurt.
“True enough. Okay, so, what did we tell them about how the Embassy’s set up, how we protect the kids, and all that jazz?” White handed me the papers he and the othersdisgrace had written. “Dude, seriously. It’s me.”
“She can read, you’d just never know that she does,” Amy said dryly. “In addition to how we handled the children, with focus on dealing with their powers and how we protected them, my questions were about lockdown and how it worked, where we took people for lockdown, what we did when we couldn’t get to a secured A-C facility, and things of that nature.”
“Ours were similar,” Len said. “Only with a lot more emphasis on actual tactics.”
“Fabulous. So, they definitely know our playbook, or most of it, which is probably more than enough, since they most likely already had some of it. You know, whatever they didn’t ask about.” And they’d done a live test less than a half an hour ago, too.
That meant Dulce was out. So was NASA Base. Caliente Base was probably out, too. We always ran to these places. I ran through options in my mind. The last place we’d want to be was Euro Base, since it was in Paris. But I wasn’t coming up with a lot of options. Decided to forge on. “Hiding here is out.”
Adriana nodded. “Even if we hadn’t been the test target, so to speak, we have none of the defenses your locations do.”
“I believe hiding is the right answer,” Olga said. “For some of us.”
“Mister White, where is the last place you’d choose to hide someone?”
“I assume you mean other than ‘in plain sight’ or similar. And what you’re asking is where could we go that would have all the security we’d need that, at the same time, our enemies wouldn’t expect, correct?”
<
br /> “As always.”
He was quiet for a few moments while I tried to come up with not only who we should hide, but who should hide with them. I knew Jeff and Chuckie would both want me hiding, but that wasn’t going to happen. However, someone had to be along who could and would kick butt. More than one, if possible.
“Are our phones tapped?”
“Mister Reynolds checks regularly,” Len said.
“I would assume they are,” Olga countered. “If not your Embassy’s phone lines, or even your cellular phones, certainly some of the phones you wish to call will be.”
I contemplated some more. Jamie had a full diaper bag, complete with bottles, formula, food, and change of clothes. I could ensure everyone else I needed to hide would be adequately prepped. But we were going to have to make it look like we weren’t actually going into hiding and then hide somewhere effective.
“I believe I may have an option,” White said finally. “It’s not actually a Base.”
“But it has the A-C bells and whistles on it?”
He smiled. “And then some. It has the added advantage of being the most secured place on, I believe, Earth. And yet, it’s very easy for us to access.”
I stared at him. “Wow. I think I know where you’re talking about. And, yeah. It’s perfect. And loaded with A-C Security dudes.”
“The reth="2st of us aren’t so clear,” Amy said.
“Probably not. But, um, just in case, I’m not going to say aloud where Mister White and I are talking about.”
I looked at Bruno, who nodded his approval. Excellent. Now for the hard part—getting there. Well, in one sense, getting there was fairly easy. But we had to do it in such a way no one would be aware we were going there until everyone was safely tucked away.
I looked at White. “One big floater gate or do we all trundle over to the Embassy?”
“I believe a variety of jumps might be preferable.”
“Makes sense.” It did. If we were congregating in one area then jumping again, logic would determine that we hadn’t left someone behind. Logic would be wrong, but it was worth a shot, and I didn’t want to take too long to get things and precious cargo locked up and away.
My phone chose this moment to ring. “Hey Christopher, what did you find?”
“Nothing, which I suppose is a good thing. What have you come up with?”
“Oh, I think it’s time for us to have a party.”
He was quiet for a few long moments. “Is this you trying to pass along information in a way no one else would understand?”
“Yes.”
He sighed. “I’m not James, Jeff, or Reynolds. I don’t get your Kittyisms first thing out of the gate.”
“And yet, there you are, right with me on the plan.”
“No. I’m nowhere with you on the plan. I have no idea what the plan is, and if we continue on this way much longer, I won’t have anything other than a migraine.”
I had to accept that this was probably true. “I want to get everyone who’s in danger and not equipped to properly protect themselves to safety. I also want to be sure said someones have others with them capable of kicking butt. And I want them hidden very safely somewhere that’s still easy enough for us to access.”
“Kitty, seriously, in the time you’ll spend trying to get me to figure out your innuendos, they could launch their plan and kill everyone. Let’s assume our phones aren’t tapped and everyone in the room with you is trustworthy, and
just tell me what the hell you want me to know.”
“You take all the fun out of everything, you know that?”
“Not according to Amy. Seriously, what’s going on?”
“We need to gather up every family with a new hybrid baby or one on the way, along with any Embassy personnel who aren’t A-Cs or equipped to kick serious butt, and get them hidden safely where our enemies wouldn’t expect.”
“Where is that? We gave them all our responses to emergencies. They know everywhere we’d go, and in what order.”
I rifled through the papers. Sure enough, no one had mentioned it. I could try to get him thinking along my lines but Christopher was probably right—I had to trust those with us and that our phones weren’t tapped or we got nowhere. Nothing fort him it but to forego innuendo and tell the world of the genius that was me and White.
“Your dad and I want to get everyone out of Dodge and into the Dome.”
Yi
CHAPTER 43
THE DOME’S FULL NAME was the Crash Site Dome. It was the real spot where the first aliens to visit Earth, the Ancients, had crash-landed on their second visit. So far as we knew, they’d done a lot better their first time coming around to say hi.
The remains of the Ancients’ spaceship powered the Dome. Apparently their fuel cells had a half-life like nothing else in the galaxy. The Dome was the main gate hub for the entire world, and had the most Security of any A-C facility. It was, essentially, the A-Cs’ version of JFK, LAX, and every other big airport rolled into one, without the mess and fuss most airports put you through, like parking garages and a zillion Cinnabon outlets.
It was also hidden from anything and everything human technology could discover. As far as I could tell, it was hidden from alien technology, too, because, so far, no one had tried to take the Dome out of commission. Maybe they couldn’t, I didn’t know. But I did know where it was and that it was going to be the last place anyone would think we were staying.
“Oh.” Christopher was quiet. “That’s a really good plan.”
“Thank your dad, he’s the brains of the operation. Anyway, I want everyone other than you, Tito and Walter out of the Embassy and over to the Dome. Tell them they’re going to a tea party.”
“Why?”
“Because I want the kids excited or acting like kids who don’t want to go to a girly thing, not crying. Ask Denise to pack some extra clothes and diapers and such for Jamie. Ensure all the pets, including my dogs and cats, go along as well.” I hoped he’d realize that “all” included Poofs and Peregrines.
“Can’t wait,” he muttered. “What about Jeff’s bird?”
What about Bellie? Reality said I didn’t like her and she didn’t like me. Reality also said that if any animal was going to stress out the folks in hiding, it was going to be her. Of course, reality additionally said that if I left Jeff’s bird to die, he’d never forgive me. Reality also said that if Bellie tried anything with me, she was going to be dinner.
“Keep her at the Embassy. I’ll get her and take her with me. Have her stay with either Tito or Walter, depending on which one she likes best, until I get back.”
“Why?”
Nice to see he was still focused on asking the big questions. “Because she has intel, and lord knows when she’ll want to share it, but those of us in active roles need to hear it, and not filtered through from those in hiding.”
“Whatever. She likes me better than Tito or Walter.”
“Then you score Bellie-sitting duty. Get everyone, Denise an. She d her kids and Doreen, Irving, and Ezra in particular, moving. I want Pierre with them.”
“Why?”
“Because out of every adult I’m going to send over, Pierre’s the one who’s most likely to come up with things that will keep everyone calm and focused on the fun of the moment, versus the terror. If he wants to bring ‘picnic’ supplies, let him. I don’t think we want them sending for take-out and such.”
“Good points. Should I escort them?”
“Yes, then get yourself back to the Embassy. Leave Bellie in our room, in her cage, until you’re back, and don’t let anyone say anything about this in front of her.”
“Why not?”
I resisted the impulse to give a sarcastic reply. “Because she’s a freaking parrot, and the last thing we want is her blurting out where we hid everyone in front of the wrong people.”
“Oh.” He sounded embarrassed. “Right.”
“Get moving. I’ll meet you at the Embassy i
f we don’t time out to go back together.” We hung up, and I dialed again. “Lorraine, how goes it?”
“Fine. You sound stressed.”
“Nice to see maternity leave hasn’t slowed you down.”
“I love my little Ross, but I’m also kind of bored.” I heard Claudia chime in that she felt the same way.
“Awesome, you’re together, and with the kiddos. I have just the cure for boredom, too. I need you two to pack up diaper bags for an extended stay of possibly a couple hours and possibly a couple days. Pack some extras for Jamie, please and thank you.” Sure I’d told Christopher to have Denise do the same, but extra diapers, food, and clothes weren’t going to be a bad idea.
“We’re at DEFCON Worse?”
“And this is why I call you. Yes, we are.”
I heard Claudia in the background. “Claudia wants to know if they’re after our kids.”
“You know, you two are so much smarter than the rest of us.” Well, they were Dazzlers. Dazzlers had it all when it came to brains.
“We’re not surprised, really,” Lorraine said. “I’ll tell you why later.”
“Ross and Sean are already manifesting hybrid talents?”
“You’re smart too. Okay, where are we meeting you, and who else, if anyone, should we bring?”
“Your mothers, if they’re around, and your dads, if they want to go. Serene and Bryan, regardless of whether they want to go. Any other families with hybrids newly arrived or coming. Other than those in our Embassy, who are likely already there waiting for you.”
“Gotcha. So, where is it they’re waiting and we’re going?”
I considered playing the innuendo game, but figured that time was really of the essence and decided to just go for it. “The Dome.”
She was quiet forgame, a moment. “You’re really worried, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, I am.”
“Okay, I won’t tell anyone else where we’re going until we get there.”