by Gini Koch
The Poofs bounced up and down, mewled at me, and disappeared. Their work here was, apparently, done for the time being, and they were back on the hunt for other evil to thwart. At least, that was my take on it.
“Girls, that was, I must say, amazing. And timely. Did we get the entire room?”
“I think so,” Stryker said, sounding shaky. “But we need to get everything hooked back up.”
“Really? Because everything still looks . . . active.” It did. The screens were still showing their images, the computers and such had stopped going haywire and appeared to be running, even the big servers.
“Hurry,” Naomi said through gritted teeth. “It’s harder to keep this going than it looks.”
“Com on! Walter! Need some help here!”
“On it, Chief.” No sooner said than a large number of A-Cs arrived and started plugging things in to what appeared to be portable generators. More came in with what looked like telecommunications apparatus.
“Not that I mind, but how did so many agents become available?”
“Sent over from Imageering Main,” William shared. “They’re always the last imageers pulled into Field situations.”
“And because you didn’t use the gate, Chief, they were able to come through without delay,” Walter added. “Embassy shield is back at full power.”
“Okey-dokey, good job, and keep the com line open.”
“Will do, Chief.”
Everyone did what they could to speed things up, but being A-Cs, they were done quickly even without the additional hands. Hacker International confirmed all their stuff was working. But Naomi and Abigail still looked taxed. “What hasn’t been reconnected?”
“The gate,” Abigail replied.
“Wow, you brought the gate, too?”
“It was in the room. We left the bathroom, though.”
“Wise choice. So, um, what do we do about the gate?”
William zipped over to the server box containing the gate. “Hang on, I think I can fix it so that it’ll function like a stable floater.” A couple of other agents went to help him. “Okay, let go.”
Naomi and Abigail relaxed, took deep breaths, and let them out slowly. “I don’t want to have to do that again,” Naomi said.
“Was it a big power drain?”
She shook her head. “Not as bad as it could have been. But controlling all the electrical and information and so on isn’t easy.”
Abigail nodded. “I just wasn’t sure we’d be able to react in time.”
“You girls did great, and now isn’t the time to start doubting your abilities.” We had had enough of that already. “Do you need to go into isolation or anything?”
Naomi shook her head. “We need to be quiet and meditate.”
“That’ll be easy.”
The Gower girls both laughed, then they moved a few feet away, sat down, and appeared to become one with the mystic forces. Or they went to sleep. Being personally quite poor with meditation, I couldn’t tell. Decided there were more pressing things that needed my attention. “Eddy, talk to me. Are we up and running as if we never stopped?”
“Close to, yeah.”
“Super. Walt, ensure that whatever electronic information we’re getting is being housed here and sent to Home Base, NASA Base, and any other Base it makes sense to go to for backup and analysis.”
“On it, Chief.”
“Excellent. Will, is that gate really functioning?” If we could keep the gate here, then we saved valuable seconds if we had to evacuate again and the Gower girls weren’t ready.
“Yes, I think so, though no personnel have tried it yet.”
“How did they know where you were?” Franklin asked. “That bunker was secured, and yet they took it down as if it were a cardboard box.”
“Tell me the President’s bunker is more secure than that one was.”
“I hope so.Std">“e se="-1" fac Franklin didn’t sound convinced.
“The electronic trail,” Big George said. “That’s how they found you. Who else would be looking at what you’ve had us investigating?”
“Yeah, I agree. You gave us the printouts so whoever’s been keeping nasty files on us and away from Chuckie wouldn’t know who had that intelligence. However, it must have triggered a destruction mechanism or sent a destruction order.”
“That sounds like Esteban’s work,” Armstrong said. “And to reassure everyone, the President’s bunker is far more secure than the one we just escaped.”
“Good.” My mother was there. I cared about the President and everyone else who would be down there, but not like I cared about Mom. Whom I even more desperately wanted to talk to. Mom wasn’t here. However, it was time to do what she’d taught
me and keep things moving. “Can we get eyes on Andrews and the One World Festival?”
“We don’t have the spare screens,” Stryker said.
“We will have in a moment, Chief,” Walter shared. “Last contingent from Imageering Main on their way, with extra equipment of all kinds.”
“Good. Colonel, can we alert our Bases that we have both an attack by unknown parties on Andrews and an alien invasion heading our way?” The last of our assigned agents arrived, equipment in tow. They bustled about, getting more screens, phones, computer terminals and such set up.
Franklin nodded. “We’re in a state of emergency, and as of right now, I’m the highest-ranking officer on site, so, yes, please warn all Centaurion divisions, bases, and personnel that we’re under attack.”
“Advising Gladys now, Chief. She’ll get information out and personnel prepped.”
“Thanks, Walt. Henry, let’s get eyes on Andrews and the One World Festival if it isn’t too much trouble, and, yes, I’ll keep on nagging until we have the visuals. Speaking of nagging, Eddy, I still want all the information I asked you for right before our enemies tried to blow us to kingdom come.”
“Your wish is my command.”
“I wish we could find Jeff and Chuckie alive, well, and unharmed. Make it so.”
No sooner were the words out of my mouth than a weird beeping filled the room.
Yi
CHAPTER 80
“TELL ME THE EMBASSY ISN’T being bombed. And I’m not kidding about that.”
“We are not under attack, Chief,” Walter shared. “And I’m not kidding about that, either.”
The biggest screen in the room—which heretofore had had the schematic of the world with all the dead zones and tunnels on it—flashed to much more active life.
“We have action in th e D.C. area tunnels,” Big George shouted.
“We have action in areas other than the tunnels,” Omega Red added as more beeping started. “France and Paraguay have gone hot.”
“Ah, Kitty?” Henry said nervously. “What did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything.” Well, I’d made a wish. “I wish the alien armada would go away without harming us or the Alpha Centaurion system. Make it so.”
“Kitty, are you high?” Stryker asked.
“No. Just in case I’ve somehow gotten super wishing powers, though, I figured I’d toss another one out there to the Powers That Be. Yuri, what do you mean about hot in terms of France and Paraguay? We’ve seen and are seeing the action onscreen, and it’s been hot there for a while now.”
“Not what I mean. It’s a long explanation that I’m not going to try to give you because Chuck isn’t here to translate it for you. Suffice to say, we’ve got some electronic signals that aren’t normal.”
“They match the ones Ravi isolated,” Henry shared.
“Hone in and confirm locations, numbers, access points, and potential hostiles,” Franklin said.
Before I could ask Big George what was going on in the tunnels, I heard a step behind me. I spun around to see Christopher standing there, Patented Glare #3 going strong.
“What are you doing here?”
“And how did you get in?” William asked. “The basement gate is secured because o
f the Embassy’s shield.”
Christopher shared Patented Glare #4 with William. “I came in via the floater gate you have in this room. And, Kitty, I’m doing what I spent my life training for. You’re not the only one who can ‘resign.’ ”
“But we need you managing things at the Dome.”
He snorted. “The last time you were there? Sure. Now? Now I have five women running things.”
“Claudia and Lorraine are taking over?”
“Oh, yes, believe me, but they’re actually not the ones running the show.” He shook his head. “Commander Dwyer reminded everyone that with James and Tim off dealing with the superbeings and supersoldiers, she, as the Head of Imageering, was in charge.”
“Serene countermanded you? Really? How did she say this?” I normally thought of Serene as sweetness and innocence on the hoof.
“She didn’t exactly say it.” Christopher looked slightly embarrassed. “She snarled it. Over the intercom system.”
“She’s very pregnant.”
“And she’s apparently been watching you, because she pulled rank faster than I can run.”
I could see White. He looked quietly pleased. “Okay, but how did the Security team handle it?”
“You mean after they wet themselves? Trust me, when she’s angry, Serene’s really able to channel when she was crazy and trying to kill you and anyone around you.”
“That’s my girl. But still, why are you here? You weren’t supposed to resign. We need someone to be the face of American Centaurion if everything goes to hell.”
Christopher snorted again and switched to Patented Glare #1. “The moment Tito shared what was going on, Doreen said that if anyone was going to actually pretend to be the Ambassador in charge, it was going to be the one person with actual experience. She said to tell you that she has no issue returning to her regular position within the Embassy once things are normal, but until then, she said she’s taken over the diplomatic responsibilities.”
“What did Paul say about this?”
“You mean our Pontifex? Our Pontifex was politely told that, while he is indeed a member of Alpha Team, it’s more of a figurehead position, and as the religious ruler of our people and the vessel for ACE, he’d be sitting in his chair, under guard. He’s allowed to speak, I think, but only when spoken to. ACE, by the way, can butt in whenever, not that I think that’s going to happen. Before I was told to leave, Paul was allowed to share that ACE still seems distracted and distant.”
“Works for me.” Well, the part about ACE didn’t, but hopefully we’d solve ACE’s problems, too. “So, Serene, Doreen, Claudia, and Lorraine is four. Who’s the fifth gal in the A-C Girl Power Club?”
“My wife. And I can’t thank you enough for that.”
“How is Amy being one of the ones in charge my fault?”
“Oh, I don’t know. ‘Kitty’s not the only one who can handle an emergency or keep things going. Get out of here and do something useful and let those of us who understand crisis management handle the civilians.’ So, basically, thanks to you, my own wife kicked me out of the Dome.”
I managed to keep a straight face, but it took effort. “But they let Tito stay?”
“They like me better,” Tito said, as he rejoined us. “Glad you brought the gate along. I’ll ask how later.”
“Abigail and Naomi are hella awesome is how.”
“What about Captain Morgan?” Franklin asked. “Is he returning as well?”
“No.” Tito was also having trouble keeping a straight face. “We have a lot of single girls over there, for a variety of reasons. It was requested that he remain to help protect them and to ensure we had U.S. Military presence and advice.”
“Wow, awesome spin.” Nice to know Morgan met Dazzler requirements.
“Captain Morgan was deemed particularly necessary because all the single women were recruited into active duty,” Tito added with a rather wicked grin. “Supposedly our Head of Recruitment authorized it.”
“And I want to know when, where, how, and why you did that.” Christopher sounded pissed off and a little impressed.
“I’m sure I did authorize it, but it’s all a blur. Been so very, very busy and all that. But back to our missing captain. Are you saying the ladies liked Captain Morgan more than you, Tito?”
He laughed. “Nope. But he’s fresh meat.”
“Excuse me?” Franklin asked, sounding shocked and a little worried.
“A-C women prefer brains and brain capacity over anything else, Colonel. So, be happy, you have a smart guy as your adjunct.”
“It’s called being sapiosexual,” Tito added. “And it’s a definite perk that comes with working for Centaurion. Unlike Christopher, I was given the choice of staying or going. Serene’s close but not due yet, and there are plenty of doctors there, including Melanie and Emily, who are heading up whatever the other gals aren’t, assisted by Magdalena,” he said to White.
“And yet you chose to come back to help us?”
“I went to the bathroom before I came back, just in case. But everyone having moved back to the Embassy was the deciding factor.”
“You are the smart one, I’ve always said so. But not to worry—the Gower girls left Hacker International’s bathroom to be destroyed with the rest of the bunker.”
“Confirming their intelligence.”
“Too true. How’s Jamie?”
“Fine,” Tito said with a grin as Christopher snorted.
“Why does Christopher find that question funny?”
“Because Serene told me that as far as helpers went, Jamie was always more useful than I am. Jamie’s sitting with her Uncle Paul, along with Aunt Lucinda and Uncle Alfred and your father, and she’s having the time of her life.”
“Sorry Serene thinks Jamie’s more useful than you, Christopher.”
“I had to demand to be given a good-bye kiss. From Jamie and Amy.”
“Awww. She doesn’t seem to miss her mommy, and I’m not acting all down about it. Besides, I’m sure the girls are all just focused on doing their jobs and averting international and interstellar crises of epic proportions.”
“They’re crazed with power, you mean. I’m familiar with how it looks—I’ve seen it with you for over two years now.”
“Choosing to ignore your snippy attitude because things are going on. Right before you arrived, Big George said there was action in the tunnels.”
“Tunnels? Big George? What is going on?” Christopher sounded one syllable away from a full on snark fest.
“I thought you were briefed.”
“No. The Commanders and Chiefs were briefed. I was allowed to resign pending the end of the world.”
“Kitty,” Big George said urgently. “You need to look at this.”
Yi
CHAPTER 81
“TITO, RICHARD, MALCOLM—I need to focus. Someone catch Christopher up on what’s going on.”
“I’ll do it,” White said. “I can talk the fastest.”
“I’ll assist,” William added with a grin. “I can talk fast, too.”
“True enough. Just do it in a far corner and at low levels.” As they did as requested, I did my best to ignore the sounds—A-Cs could talk at hyperspeed and hear at that level as well. But it was so fast that it had a negative effect on most humans, me in particular. Enhancement hadn’t made that any easier, either.
Instead, I focused on the screen as most of those standing clustered around to watch as well. “All I see is tunnel, Big George.”
“I’ve got heat readings. I’m following them. They were extremely faint before, but are slowly getting stronger, so whatever’s giving off the heat is getting closer to our sensors.”
“We don’t have sensors throughout the tunnels?”
“No. NASA’s been generous, but we’re talking thousands of miles of tunnels, limited personnel, and somewhat limited budget. Chuck’s been extremely careful about who goes down there, let alone who knows about this in the first place. We
have cameras and security sensors all along what we call the Embassy Tunnel. We have security sensors along the tunnels we’ve finished mapping, but cameras are only placed intermittently, mostly near the dead zones.”
I saw a long, dark hallway. The camera was moving. “How is the camera moving?”
“It’s on a tread.”
“Wow.”
“It’s hardly amazing, Kitty. We’ve had things like this since the moon landing, if not before. It’s how we patrol the sections that don’t have stationary cameras set up.”
“You aren’t going to tell me the moon landing was faked are you?”
“No, that’s Omega Red’s thing. I know it was real.”
“Okey-dokey. You can share your pet conspiracy theory with me later.”
“You’ll want me to. I’ve proven that the world governments create boy bands in order to subliminally control the citizenry.”
“Yeah, I’ll wait until we’ve saved the world to get into that one.”
“Fine. You like rock anyway.”
I chose to refrain from mentioning that I also had a nostalgic fondness for *NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys. I didn’t listen to them all that often, though, so I was probably safe from the musical mind control.
Studied the picture on screen as the camera rolled along. Big George had said this was part of the D.C. tunnels, meaning it was connected to “our” tunnel and the Embassy.
Based on the use of a roving camera, knew it wasn’t near the Secret Lab, where they’d been creating Gaultier’s Zombie Army of Hot Guys. Even without the roving camera clue, we’d blown that up, and though A-C fail-safes meant the lab had explodeÀd in on itself, there had still been rubble. And I saw no rubble.
However, dark halls with murky-to-no lighting didn’t offer a lot of landmarks to compare against, and I’d only been down in our part of the tunnel system once.
Decided to stop keeping my questions to myself. “Big George, where is this, in the schematic of the underground tunnels?”