by Gini Koch
“Excuse me?” Jeff sounded confused, which wasn’t a surprise.
“Earth saying. Your mother would understand it.” This I knew for a fact. Happily, the A-C Operations team, who I called the Elves because I never, ever saw them perform their wondrous and magical duties, handled the cleaning of every A-C facility, including the Embassy. If the cleaning was left up to me, we’d be decorating in the finest of Washington, D.C. dust. I didn’t hate housekeeping, but we weren’t exactly best buds forever, either.
Jeff grunted. “So, where do we start?”
“Basement,” Cliff said. “Let’s do this quickly so you can all get back to prepping for the party tonight.”
“You all go on ahead,” Chuckie said. “I need to talk to Kitty for a minute.”
Jeff gave us both a searching look, shrugged, kissed my cheek, and he and the other men trotted off. This was the result of massive personal growth on Jeff’s part, much of which had happened because he’d finally caught on that Chuckie was no longer in love with me and was, in fact, in love with Naomi Gower, who was one of Jeff’s cousins.
I waited until the others were out of earshot. “Okay, what’s going on?”
“I need to run some things by you, and I don’t want an audience for it.”
“Is this about the two dead Representatives and the one really sick one?”
“No.” He gave me the “you so crazy” look. I got that look a lot. “Why would those incidents, however tragic, be related to tonight’s party or any of us in any way?otheJe
“Dude, I figured it was safer to ask. You know how they teach you how to spell ‘assume,’ right?”
Chuckie shook his head and laughed, then led me down the hall into Jeff’s office, closing the door behind us. He sat at the edge of Jeff’s desk. “I need you to talk to ACE.”
ACE was a collective superconsciousness I’d managed to channel into Paul Gower what seemed like aeons ago but was, in reality, only about two years prior. Gower was not only one of Chuckie’s future brothers-in-law, but he was also the current Supreme Pontifex for the A-Cs, or, as I liked to think of it, their Pope With Benefits.
“Why don’t you ask Paul whatever it is you need to ask ACE?”
“I have. He says that ACE doesn’t want to talk to me.”
“Huh.” ACE had never had any issue with Chuckie in the past. “What do Naomi and Abigail think?” The Gower girls were the most powerful of the talented A-Cs, to the point where no one, not even Chuckie and the girls themselves, knew the full extent of their powers.
At least, they had been. Until the interstellar invasion.
Naomi and Abigail had used their powers to protect all the various D.C. monuments at the National Mall—and all the people inside them. They’d managed to preserve our nation’s capital and history as well as many thousands of innocent people, but it had come at a cost. They’d had to use so much power for such an extended period of time, it had burned them both out. No one was sure if the burnout was temporary or permanent. The girls seemed to be handling this well, but I didn’t sleep with them, in that sense.
Chuckie shook his head. “They haven’t talked to ACE since . . . right after the invasion attempt.”
“Operation Destruction was pretty hard on everyone.”
“Yes, it was. We test Mimi and Abby all the time. They still have no more powers than a non-talented A-C.”
“I know you’ll get mad at me for the suggestion, but have you considered giving them a Surcenthumain boost?” Surcenthumain had been created by a whole host of our enemies, and it was the reason Jeff, his cousin, Christopher White, and Christopher’s “lost aunt” Serene all had beyond expanded powers. It was also the reason I wasn’t fully human anymore, Jamie having done the mother and child feedback that turned me into a semi-alien.
Chuckie sighed. “All moral and ethical issues aside, Mimi and Abby aren’t handling being ‘normal’ as well as they think they are, so I’ve thought about it. But I don’t want to risk it without some sort of confirmation that it would actually work.”
“What does Tito think?”
“Doctor Hernandez isn’t convinced that we have enough data to safely guess, and none of us like the idea of using Mimi and Abby, let alone anyone else, as test subjects.”
Chuckie was giving me a look that said I was asking stupid questions. I decided to take the logic leap. “So that’s why you want to talk to ACE.”
“Finally. Yes.”
“Does Paul know why you want to talk to ACE?”
“Yes.”
“Huh. Well, okay, let me give it a shot.” I’d been the one who’d figured out what was going on with ACE when we’d first “met,” and therefore ACE had a soft spot for me. As Reader put it, ACE cared most about me and Gower.
Because I never wanted ACE to feel that I took him for granted, I only contacted when it was important. Nothing had been Earth-shattering, either literally or figuratively, for these past months, so I’d left ACE alone.
I sat in one of the chairs in Jeff’s office, closed my eyes, and thought in my mind. ACE, are you there?
I waited. ACE?
I waited a bit longer, while doing my best to hold down the panic. Maybe leaving ACE alone hadn’t been a wise plan.
ACE? ACE, are you there, are you okay?
Waited a few more long, silent moments. Opened my eyes, cleared my throat, and shared the scary news. “He didn’t answer. And I . . . I couldn’t feel him.”
Chuckie nodded. “That’s what I was afraid of.”
“Do you think ACE has left us? Or . . . died?” I didn’t know if ACE could die in the ways a human would understand, but I did know he could be injured, and we’d dissipated a similar superconsciousness, so ACE wasn’t invulnerable.
“I don’t know. I do know, based on the intel we got from Richard White, that if Gower were killed while ACE was joined with him then the PPB-Net that represents ACE will collapse in on itself and destroy the Earth. I’d have to guess if ACE were to . . . die that it would negatively affect Gower, perhaps even kill him. Gower’s alive and well and we’re all still here, so I don’t know that ACE is dead, at least as we’d be able to comprehend it.”
White was Christopher’s father and the former Pontifex, who now also resided at the Embassy and was my partner whenever we got to kick evil butt, which happened with a lot less frequency these days. “Have you asked Richard about this?”
“No. The people who are most likely to get a reply from ACE are you and Gower, Mimi, Abby, and Serene. Serene’s tried to reach ACE, as have Mimi and Abby. None of them could get a response. Mimi and Abby put it down to their talent loss. Serene thinks it’s because she’s not as close to ACE as the others.”
“But you don’t think that at all.”
“Of course not. ACE has never shown himself to be unwilling to talk to any of them. And he was talking to you well before you gained any kind of A-C talents.”
“Yeah, he’s always there for his favorite penguins.”
“I’m worried that our benevolent observer has left us, and if that’s the case, Earth is back to being very alone, lonely, and vulnerable.”
“Why so? Alpha Four are our friends, and so are the rest of the pfcNlanets in that system.”
“Yes,” Chuckie said patiently, “they are. And how do we contact our friends when we need them?”
“We ask ACE to connect us. Crap.” I felt sick to my stomach. I hadn’t worried about ACE much. I’d checked on him after we’d all survived the Dino-Bird alien invasion attempt, of course. “The last I spoke with ACE was when we were doing cleanup after Operation Destruction. He told me he was tired and needed to rest, just like the rest of us did.”
“There’s a possibility that ACE left us in case he was going to die, so he wouldn’t destroy the Earth.”
“There’s also a possibility that he’s so hurt that he can’t talk to us. I have no vote for which one of those ideas is worse, by the way, but thanks so much for choosing to have this convers
ation with me right before I have to entertain a bunch of politicians.”
He shook his head. “We’ve become reliant on ACE. If he’s not there for us any more, we need to be prepared for it.”
“Why are you discussing this with me and not Jeff or James or anyone else?”
“Because Gower isn’t willing to admit that ACE isn’t chatting with him on a regular basis. As far as I can tell, he hasn’t told Reader.” Reader was not only the Head of Field, he was Gower’s husband. “And if he hasn’t told Reader, then he hasn’t told anyone.”
“Yeah, I can agree there.” Chuckie was the smartest person in any and all rooms, so it didn’t shock me that he’d figured out what was going on. “So, you think Paul knows, or suspects something’s wrong with ACE and is hiding it to avoid mass panic?”
“Yes, nice of your brain to join the party.”
“Blah, blah, blah. Does anyone else suspect?”
“No, I don’t think so, mostly because no one else really understands how we work with ACE, and most don’t know that he exists, in that sense.”
“What about Naomi, Abigail, and Serene?”
“I told them I didn’t want to bother the Pontifex with my request. When they couldn’t reach ACE, I said I’d talk to Gower about it. Mimi and Abby can no longer tell if I’m lying, and Serene can only do it if she’s touching a picture of me, and I gave her no reason to race out to grab a camera.”
“Not dissing the skills, Secret Agent Man, just checking. Have you talked to Cliff about it?”
“Absolutely not, and you shouldn’t, either. I don’t even want you talking to your husband about this. This is the highest security issue we have right now, and it affects the entire world.”
“Well, I can do my best to take this news to my grave, but where have you missed the fact that, since his special Surcenthumain boost, Jeff can pretty much read my mind when he wants to?”
The door opened and Jeff came in, closed and locked the door behind him. “And I also pick up when she’s stressed, simply by being the strongest empath on the planet. Though, I get why you don’t want this spread around,” he said to Chuckie.
“Can you feel fACE?” Chuckie asked him.
Jeff shook his head. “No. I’ve never even thought to try before, so I wouldn’t know what ACE would feel like emotionally, even if I could access him.”
“Can you get Gower to tell me the truth about what he knows?” Chuckie asked.
“Possibly, but not tonight. The party has to take precedence unless you’re going to tell us to declare a state of emergency.”
“No, I agree.” Chuckie rubbed the back of his neck. “The last thing I want is anyone actually knowing that we have no idea where ACE is . . . .”
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Gini Koch lives in Hell’s Orientation Area (aka Phoenix, Arizona), works her butt off (sadly, not literally) by day, and writes by night with the rest of the beautiful people. She lives with her awesome husband, three dogs (aka The Canine Death Squad), and two cats (aka The Killer Kitties). She has one very wonderful and spoiled daughter, who will still tell you she’s not as spoiled as the pets (and she’d be right).
When she’s not writing, Gini spends her time cracking wise, staring at pictures of good looking leading men for “inspiration,” teaching her pets to “bring it,” and driving her husband insane asking, “Have I told you about this story idea yet?” She listens to every kind of music 24/7 (from Lifehouse to Pitbull and everything in between, particularly Aerosmith) and is a proud comics geek-girl willing to discuss at any time why Wolverine is the best superhero ever (even if Deadpool does get all the best lines). You can reach her via her website (www.ginikoch.com), email (gini@ginikoch .com), Twitter (@GiniKoch), Facebook (facebook.com/Gini.Koch), or Facebook Fan Page (Hairspray and Rock ‘n’ Roll).
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DAW Books Presents GINI KOCH’s Alien Novels:
TOUCHED BY AN ALIEN
ALIEN TANGO
ALIEN IN THE FAMILY
ALIEN PROLIFERATION
ALIEN DIPLOMACY
ALIEN VS. ALIEN
ALIEN IN THE HOUSE (coming in May 2013)
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