Alien in the Family

by Gini Koch

  “Well, Harlie was with me, so not as much as I could have been. Len was protecting me, and he had some backup.”

  “Right. And the line were the problem, led by Kyle?”

  “Yeah. Look at it as proof of his leadership. I don’t know if he was just blustering or would have gone through with it. But he didn’t, and he came to help. Oh, and he’s a total comics geek.”

  “So that’s where you two bonded. Okay, I’ll consider them. Believe me, though, I’ll be watching him.”

  Chuckie seemed really upset. I put my hand on his arm. “Are you okay?”

  He sighed. “Not really.” He looked down. “I know Martini thinks I like being here with you.” He looked back up at me. “But I don’t. Because I’m not with you. He is.”

  “Why did you choose this location, then?”

  He grinned. “Because it bugs the hell out of Martini. And I enjoy doing that.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I’m not going to even try to follow the logic.”

  “Fine with me. So, how many A-Cs do you think we have here? I mean that we don’t want or know about?”

  “No clue. At least those two, maybe more. They must have used the same gate the Amazons did.”

  “I’ve added some C.I.A. personnel into the Science Center.”

  “Oh, Chuckie, come on.”

  “Not to take over.” He sounded exasperated. “Try thinking like you, or me, not Martini, for just a minute, okay? We have three to five interstellar criminals in the lowest level of that place. A level with external access, as you, White, and your flyboys have all confirmed. I want some humans there I can trust to kill without hesitation.”

  “You think they’ll get out?” My stomach clenched.

  “I think they’re going to try. I also have C.I.A. around your father and Reader. And the Pontifex. Again, to protect them. I know the A-Cs have been vulnerable before, but nowhere near as much as right now.”

  I tried to think the way I knew he did. “You worried this was all an elaborate ruse to get them inside the Science Center?”

  “I think it’s possible. There are too many variables, but there’s more going on, you know it, I know it. We had to pull every active agent out of the field and put them here. I don’t even want to consider how much could have been affected by that. However, it’s my job to figure that out. So you’ll have to accept that I’m going to put humans I can trust into these alien strongholds, to ensure they remain strong.”

  “Not your enemy. Not saying you’re wrong. Chuckie, you’re really . . . tense.”

  “Yeah.” He looked at Martini then back to me. “Can’t imagine why.”

  I forced myself to look past jealousy and try to figure out what he was worried about in regard to Martini. “You think Kyrellis was taking it easy on Jeff, don’t you?”

  “Yeah, I do. Not that I want him dead, but he’s doing pretty well. Better than Reader.”

  “James was fooled.”

  “Yeah, but not as much as you may think. I’ve had a chat with him. He was lured out by Moira pretending to be Gower, but the moment Gower didn’t talk to him, Reader was on guard. He thought he was fighting an A-C imageer, not an Amazon, but he knew he was fighting someone. She was just more than he could take.”

  “He’s human. Jeff’s an A-C. They’re a lot stronger, and they heal amazingly fast.”

  “I know.” Chuckie sounded exasperated again. “But Moira almost killed Reader with one blow. One. There was only one hit on him—she smashed his head into a wall, and it almost killed him. Kyrellis is bigger, stronger, and older, meaning she’s far better trained. She’s bigger than Martini, stronger than him, and wants to kill him for a variety of reasons. But he walked out of that fight pretty much under his own steam. It doesn’t add up.”

  “I’ll spend a lot of time worrying about it.”

  “I’m not trying to make you worry needlessly.”

  “No, I think you’re probably right. So it’s not needless.”

  “I want guards in your room.”

  “Not just no,” Martini said, coming up to us. “But hell no.”

  “You explain it to him.” Chuckie sounded ready to actually lose his cool.

  “No need. I heard most of what you said, and I’m touched.” Martini’s sarcasm knob was set to high again. “But I think I can handle anything they want to throw at us.”

  “Can Kitty? Because, let’s be honest here, she’s what I care about, and you know it. She lucked out with Moira in that dressing room because they wanted her alive. Figure they don’t any more. She’s got no hyperspeed, no extra strength, no double hearts, no fast healing. We’re lucky as hell we aren’t attending Reader’s funeral. Luck, like lightning, rarely strikes the same place twice.”

  “You saying I can’t protect her?” Martini was starting to growl.

  Chuckie got right up in his face. “I’m saying that six months ago, it was luck that you got to her in time. Yeah, you beat the rest of us. But if you’d been a split second later, she’d be dead. I’m saying that we may be in Vegas, but I’m not willing for you to ever gamble Kitty’s safety on your damned ego again. Kyrellis let you off easy. There’s a reason, and I’m sure when we find out what it is, it won’t be good for any of us. You’re a pawn in some interstellar chess game, and we don’t know if we’ve stopped it or just opened up our king to be taken.”

  They looked ready to go at each other. But something Chuckie had said struck me oddly. “Chuckie? Why do you think Jeff’s a pawn?”

  “Because he’s not the king, and we all know it.”

  “You’re right, he’s a knight. So’s Christopher.”

  “And you’re the queen.”

  “What are you?”

  “Bishop.” Chuckie turned away from Martini. “What are you getting at?”

  “Put the players on the board. White moves first, so we’re black.”

  “Gower’s our other bishop. Reader was a rook.”

  “Richard is our king.”

  “What are you two going on about?” Martini sounded confused and annoyed.

  “Chess. Jeff, you know how to play it. Help us. Who’s our other rook?”

  “We replaced Reader with Tito. Call him the rook.” Chuckie started talking faster. “Tim, the flyboys, your girls, they’re the pawns.”

  “They’re more powerful than that,” Martini protested.

  “A pawn can take the king,” Chuckie snapped. “I’m talking about power on the board. Tito’s new, and he already has more influence than the pawns do.”

  “I can get our side, Chuckie. But until we know who the opposition’s king really is, we don’t know who the power players really are.”

  “Who has the most to gain?” Chuckie shook his head. “It’s always who has the most to gain—or lose. Find them, you find the key to everything else. And we need to find them fast, because my gut tells me we’re running out of time.”

  CHAPTER 40

  WE WANTED TO TAKE A LIMO BACK TO THE hotel because Chuckie and Martini both wanted to powwow, and we didn’t feel confident about avoiding spies, bugs, or interstellar terrorists any more. Getting one was the issue.

  “We’ve got no available agents,” Tim told Martini. “Everyone’s still doing clean-up and prisoner transfer, or fixing what they were in the middle of when we had to call them here.”

  Martini looked at Chuckie. “Think you can put a limo on the expense account?”

  Chuckie shook his head. “I don’t think we want to do that.” He wasn’t looking at Martini. The rest of us turned to see what, or rather, who Chuckie was looking at. Our personal paparazzo was barreling toward us, crocodile grin on full.

  “I thought we got rid of Mister Joel Oliver,” I shared. “James had Security take him away.”

  He snapped a picture before any of us could move. “What did I miss?” he asked, as if he were part of the team.

  “What did we miss? How is it you’re not in jail or something?”

  Oliver chuckled. “Re
ally, so naïve. That’s cute. Babe, if a bribe doesn’t work, then my newspaper simply makes a few calls and I’m out.”

  “Blackmail pictures?” Chuckie asked.

  “Oh, and more.” Oliver beamed. “So, what’s the real story about what happened here?”

  “Weather balloon,” Chuckie said.

  Oliver snorted. “Of course. That’s the C.I.A.’s official statement?”

  Chuckie’s eyes narrowed. “We aren’t giving you an official statement about anything or for any agency.”

  “Why are you insinuating anyone here is with the C.I.A.?” Martini asked.

  “Same reason I’m ‘insinuating’ half of you are aliens. Because I know.”

  I wished Reader were here. He’d handled Oliver a lot better than we were. What had he done? We’d smiled, posed, and called Security. Well, it was worth a shot.

  I put my arms around Martini’s and Chuckie’s waists. “Smiles, everyone, smiles!”

  “What’s with the Mister Rourke voice?” Chuckie asked.

  “Not exactly Fantasy Island here,” Martini added.

  Oliver laughed. “Mister Reader is much more comfortable in front of a camera.” His smile disappeared as he took another shot of all of us. “Much more comfortable than you are, Mister Reynolds. I can hardly find any photos of you at all.” He winked at me. “But you’re in every one of the few there are.”

  Martini started the low growl that usually led to a much louder roar. This wasn’t going as I’d hoped.

  There was a loud whistle, and we all looked. Tim had gone to the valet area and procured a limo. At least one of us was thinking. “Let’s go,” he called.

  Oliver was still blocking our way, and Christopher knocked into him. “Get moving or get run over,” he snarled.

  Oliver backed away. “Care to make any comment for why there were thousands of aliens in Las Vegas this morning?”

  “Movie stunt,” I called over my shoulder. “Casting call for the next Ocean’s Eleven sequel.” We piled in while Oliver took more snaps as we drove off, Tim giving the driver directions to head downtown. “How do we stop him from printing our pictures? I mean, I doubt the government wants proof of things like Chuckie being with all of us on the front page.”

  “You have no faith, do you?” Christopher said. He sounded smug.

  Chuckie laughed. “You could alter the film just by touching the camera?”

  Christopher shrugged. “No.” He grinned. “I could, however, cause all the film to become exposed. He’s got nothing now. I exposed the roll in the camera and all the film on him.”

  “How?” Everyone other than our driver looked at me. Everyone had the “duh” look going. I thought about it. “Oh. Hyperspeed.”

  Chuckie shook his head. “I worry about you sometimes.” He looked at Martini. “I don’t think we want our driver sharing.”

  Martini nodded. “I don’t want us sharing until we know this vehicle’s safe. Tim, have our driver pull over.”

  The driver pulled off onto a side street. We piled out. While Chuckie and Christopher searched the limo for a variety of nasty things, Martini gave the driver a lot of money and a strong suggestion to walk to THEhotel and wait for us and his limo to return. The driver wandered off, the limo was declared safe and clean of bugs, Tim took the wheel, Christopher took shotgun, and the rest of us settled in.

  Even with those two in the front seat now, what with me, Martini, Chuckie, Gower, Lorraine, Claudia, Alexander, and Tito in the back, it was cozy. I was between Martini and Chuckie, which I knew Martini wasn’t happy about. But there was too much going on to worry about seating arrangements. We could worry about those for our wedding once we had the latest alien invasion schemes thwarted.

  “Reynolds, where do you want me heading?” Tim asked.

  “Where you were heading us already. Downtown. I’d tell you to leave the Strip, but I think we’d be too conspicuous on the regular city streets.”

  We turned back onto the Strip. “Got it, casual wandering on the way.” Tim sounded as though this was a normal order. I wasn’t used to us just meandering anywhere, however.

  “Why?”

  “Because we need time to regroup.” Chuckie sounded tense, which was a rarity. “Since tragedy’s been averted and White’s taken care of the annoyance, let’s get back to the real issues still at hand. What’s the likelihood that Gregory can demand to see your Diplomatic Corps now that he’s clearly a traitor to both Earth and Alpha Four?”

  “I’m honestly not sure,” Martini answered. “We haven’t dealt with anything like this during my tenure as Head of Field.”

  “I believe I could convince my mother that Gregory was acting dishonorably,” Alexander said. “And Councillor Leonidas would undoubtedly see things from your perspective.”

  “I got more about him out of the emissaries,” Chuckie said. “He’s playing a dangerous game, but it appears to be for the overall good of the Alpha Centauri system, not just Alpha Four.”

  “Why would he do that?” I asked. “Wouldn’t that make him a traitor to the Alpha Four monarchy?”

  “No,” Alexander said. “My great-uncle is perceived by some to be . . . unstable.”

  “Is he?” Gower asked.

  “No,” Chuckie answered. “From what I got from the Reptilians, Canus Majorians, and Feliniads, the king of Alpha Four is shrewd. He’s been in power for a long time. The Free Women’s attack was something no one seemed to have seen coming.”

  “Councillor Leonidas warned about it for years,” Alexander said. “He has never felt the PPB nets should be around any planet, Earth included.”

  “So, is he pro-Earth?” It would make him the only being in the A-C solar system who was, apparently, but it was worth a shot to ask.

  “I would call him more pro-planetary freedom. While he, like the rest of us, does not want the might of the Free Women brought down upon us, he has counseled for years that holding people prisoners in the way we have is not conducive to their becoming peaceful members of a greater solar and galactic community.”

  “Think Winston Churchill,” Chuckie said to me. “Only the A-C version.”

  “So Leonidas is a better ruler than the king, isn’t he?”

  Alexander looked uncomfortable. “Those kinds of questions are not voiced on Alpha Four.”

  “Because dissidents are eliminated with extreme prejudice,” Chuckie added. “They were actually being benign to our Earth A-Cs by sending them all here.”

  “I hate my family,” Martini grumbled. Alexander looked stricken. “Not the family here,” Martini added quickly. Alexander didn’t cheer up. “Oh, and not you. Probably not your mother, either, unless she’s just like your brother or great-uncle.”

  Alexander shook his head. “She’s more like me. My mother has been very . . . alone since our father died.” His eyes clouded. “I believe our great-uncle may have had a hand in his death, but I was only a child when it happened, and I could be mistaken.”

  “Assume you’re not,” Chuckie said briskly.

  Gower nodded. “Even without confirmation from Richard or our parents, I know the royal family was very . . . stringent . . . in how they dealt with what they considered insubordination.”

  “Wow, what a great bunch of folks they are. Let’s not plan to visit.”

  “Most of our people are like yours,” Alexander said. “They want to live their lives in peace and enjoy their loved ones and the fruits of their labor.” He sighed. “Councillor Leonidas has protected our people from my great-uncle’s whims, as much as he could, at any rate. He protects my mother, too.”

  “Leonidas actually runs the day-to-day,” Chuckie added. “Which is why he’s been able to influence the formation of a Planetary Council.”

  “You sure he’s a good guy?”

  Alexander nodded. “I believe if you knew him, you would feel he was trustworthy.”

  “So far,” Chuckie said, “Leonidas seems like the only thing that’s prevented Alpha Four from doi
ng even more damage than they’ve already managed.” Tim was winding us through the streets of downtown Vegas, and Chuckie sighed. “We’re no closer to knowing what’s coming, let alone how to defend against it. Leonidas can be the biggest booster of Earth and planets’ rights around, but the king’s word is the law.”

  “Maybe Jeff needs to accept the kingship,” Lorraine said quietly. “That would stop all the badness, wouldn’t it?”

  “I’m not going there,” Martini growled. “I’m not going there alone, or taking everyone back with me. Alpha Four isn’t our home, Earth is.”

  “There is no one else,” Alexander said. He sounded desperate. “If not you, or one of the others here who are in the bloodline, then we lose the monarchy.”

  “Sounds like a good thing to lose. Give the idea of democracy a try.”

  “No, it won’t work that way,” Chuckie said quietly.

  Gower nodded. “The other planets may not like the control Alpha Four has, but without it, they’d all fight like . . .”

  “Like cats and dogs and dragons?”

  “Exactly.” Gower shook his head. “Alpha Four remains in power because, in reality, the other planets want them to be in control.”

  “They’d like more say in their self-determination, but I agree,” Chuckie said. “From what I got from them, what they object to is the current king’s tightening of the screws, as opposed to Alpha Four’s leadership. They’d all welcome Leonidas as leader.”

  “Which is impossible, as he is not in the bloodline,” Alexander said.

  “Could he marry in? I mean, if he’s protecting your mom already, why not?”

  Alexander looked as though he’d never considered the idea, and now that he had, he wasn’t a fan. “Ah, I have no idea.”

  “He’d lose his position,” Gower said. “The Chief Councillor can’t be a member of the royal family. He wouldn’t really be considered royal, though any children would be.”

  “If they had any,” Tito said. “I’m not sure how long an A-C woman can continue to bear children, but if it’s Alexander’s mother we’re talking about, the chances would be slim if she was an Earth woman.”