by Gini Koch
“She looks great and get ready, because she’s only going to get older. Just like Jamie and Charlie will.”
He heaved a sigh. “I’m not ready.”
Took his hand and squeezed it. “No parent is.”
There was a knock at the door. Jamie ran to open it to show my parents standing there. “You’re not ready to go yet?” Mom asked as she scooped Jamie up in her arms. Dad was in a tux and she was in a black dress that looked great on her.
“Close to,” Jeff said. “Just waiting for Raj and Vance to give us the go-ahead for when we’re allowed to leave.”
Mom hugged and kissed Jamie, then handed her to Dad as I trotted over. Got a big hug from Mom, which did a lot to make me feel better about everything. “No kissing!” Pierre shouted.
Mom rolled her eyes. “Got it. You look beautiful, kitten.”
“Thanks, Mom, you do, too. I’m so glad you and Dad are coming with us.”
“After the day you’ve had, it just seemed wise.” Mom let me go, gave Jeff a quick hug, went to Lizzie, hugged her, then did the put your hands on the other’s shoulders and do the critical examination thing. “All grown up already. You look wonderful.”
Lizzie beamed. “Think my dad is going to like it?”
“No,” Jeff said as he hugged Dad and took Jamie from him, so Dad could grab Charlie, who he brought over to Mom so she could get a hug and kiss, too.
“No father’s ever ready for his little girl to grow up,” Dad said. “But when she turns into a lovely, wonderful young woman, it’s worth it.”
“Your father’s already there, along with the rest of security,” Mom told Lizzie. “We’ve sent everyone else ahead, including your new Hollywood friends.”
“Was that wise?” Jeff asked.
“They’re surrounded by a variety of security personnel,” Mom said, sarcasm knob easily at eight and rising, “including seasoned A-Cs, so yes. The ones still here are Ansom Somerall and Talia Lee. Serene cleared them, but I’m not wild about you bringing them to this. Especially based on the request I got earlier today.”
“What request was that?”
Mom heaved a sigh. “Janelle Gardiner and Amos Tobin both want to attend.”
CHAPTER 61
“WHAT DID YOU SAY?” Jeff asked.
“I hope it was yes.” This got me the full room’s attention.
“It was, because we have to walk a fine line with them,” Mom said. “They aren’t prisoners, they’re in protective custody.”
“I for sure want Ansom and Talia there, then.”
Jeff ran his hand through his hair. “I have to ask, because I’m just funny that way. But why do you want all of them at the fundraiser?”
“Because Mom just said it—tons of security. I want to see these people interacting.”
“It’ll be cool,” Lizzie said. “Kitty’s right, what are they going to do at a big party?”
“The mind boggles,” Mom said. “I’d like to remind all of you of the President’s Ball from not so very long ago.”
“Angela has a point,” Jeff said.
“Whatever. As long as Gardiner and Tobin cough up donations to the school, they can come.”
“You know that will reflect positively on Marcia, not you, right?” Jeff asked.
“Yes, but I don’t care. Doctor Rattoppare is going to be there, and I’m pretty sure that Gardiner and Tobin want to go because of that. Whether it’s to exchange information, trade cutting insults, or try to kill each other, I want to find out and, if at all possible, have our people eavesdrop. And by ‘our people’ I mean all the covert ops people who will be attending and by ‘eavesdrop’ I mean take recordings and pictures and all that good spy jazz.”
Mom heaved a sigh. “Fine.” She pulled her phone out of her clutch and dialed. “Yes, as you suspected, we’re letting them out. No, not with you or with us. Separate vehicle, with the nastiest, most suspicious, and most trigger-happy agents we have.” She laughed. “True, but he has a job already. Yes, good idea. See you down at the Carpet shortly.” She hung up.
“Who were you talking to?”
“Kevin, who knows you very well.”
“So he suggested Malcolm be with Ansom and Talia?”
Mom laughed. “Yes, good guess.”
“I’m all about the good guessing tonight. But you said no, so who drew the short straw?”
“Airborne. Joe and Randy have the extra strength, all of them have been with you long enough to be suspicious fast, and they were going to be part of your escort anyway.”
“Go team.”
The others going over with us started arriving now, mostly so that Nadine could get a head start on this month’s Babysitting Challenge. Cameron Maurer came with his mother and kids to do their drop-off, and he pulled me and Jeff aside. “I received information from Alpha Team.”
“Are they alright?” Jeff asked.
Maurer nodded. “Butler is with them. They’ve started adding him onto the team anytime they’re going into a dangerous area. He and I can communicate on a different level from all of you, and both of us can connect with Chernobog and her team at almost any time.”
“You’re both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth equipped? And you use that ability to hang out with Hacker International from a distance?”
He smiled at me. “In a way, only better. At any rate, I’ve run a great number of background checks today, as have, ah, Hacker International. Soon, we’ll be able to verify where all the former human agents who used to work for Centaurion Division but left, disappeared, or retired are now living, what they’re doing both for work and for fun, and if they have any connections to companies or individuals who are our enemies. By soon, I don’t mean tonight or even this week. However, what Alpha Team was able to find will speed the work up.”
“So nothing that helps us out for tonight?” Hey, a girl could dream.
“A little something. Hacker International has been following up on the Rattoppare clue. They believe they’ve found the quite hidden records of those who have had the special surgery. Most of that is encrypted, but we’ve gotten some names to start digging into, and one was a name that we all believe matters—Kramer.”
“As in, Marcia’s had the surgery?” Felt disappointed in her. Not that we were pals, even if we both had that common enemy, but it just seemed so desperate and sad in some ways. She’d end up looking younger than her kids. My parents looked great for their ages, but they also didn’t look as young as Jeff and I did. Which was right and normal. Maurer would be younger than his kids soon enough, really, but that hadn’t been his active choice—it had been done to him.
“We don’t know, and Kramer is a common name. But everyone figured you should be advised, just in case.”
“Better forewarned and all that jazz, yeah.”
Jeff had left the door opened once the Maurers had arrived, so Joe and Randy came in without knocking, Ross and Sean in tow. Denise and her kids were right behind them, and Doreen and Irving with Ezra brought up the rear. “Christopher said they’ll be here in a minute,” Doreen said, as she gave Ezra a goodbye kiss.
All the men were in tuxes other than Joe and Randy, who were in their Navy dress whites, and all looked great. All the women looked stunning because Akiko was just that level of talented where she could dress anyone perfectly at any time. Plus, she’d been dressing most of us for several years now, so she kind of had our individual colors and styles down.
“Colette is already at the venue,” Mrs. Maurer said. “She went over with Abner and his wife and Vance’s husband. Vance is on-site, has been in touch, and he says that we can all get going as soon as we’re ready. Which is his way of saying hurry up.”
The Whites and the Valentinos arrived now, men and boys in tuxes, of course, Amy in a green silk gown that looked amazing on her, Louise in lavender and Claire in light yellow, all o
f them looking beautiful.
“Where’s Magdalena?” I asked White. Nurse Carter was conspicuously absent.
“She didn’t feel right leaving the Embassy.” Nurse Carter was both White’s main squeeze and had taken over the medical at the Embassy when Tito had come to the White House with us. “She and Doctor Hernandez discussed it. They both agreed that it was wiser for her to be available for both the Embassy and the White House, and he should go with all of us to the fundraiser.”
“She literally has all the luck.”
White chuckled. “She said you’d say that. And she agrees. Mahin and Abigail are already at the venue with Paul.”
“Is anyone left in the Embassy?”
“Oh, a few people. Everyone at the Zoo, and Melissa.” We’d taken Melissa from Sydney Base and had her running security at the Embassy these days. “Magdalena is going to spend the evening playing cards with her. Apparently they’re both disappointed that Denise and Irving are going along, since the four of them enjoy playing bridge.”
“I may not even want to know, but as long as Missy’s there, I won’t worry about Magdalena being bored by herself.” Boredom was something I envied and really enjoyed whenever I lucked into it, which wasn’t nearly often enough.
“Are we ready to go yet, kitten?” Dad asked me. “The room seems more than full.”
“Yeah, it does, but I thought Chuckie was meeting us here.”
“I sent him over to the venue the moment Vance advised me there’d been a change,” Mom said. “Nathalie is already with him.”
“Okay, but where’s Gadhavi? And we’re missing Wasim and Naveed, too.”
No sooner mentioned than all three of them were in the doorway, and the kids’ Secret Service detail, led by Keith, their P.T.C.U. detail, led by Devon, and their Field teams, led by Melanie and Emily of all people, were right behind them.
“We figured we were good at protecting kids, and that way, medical’s right here,” Melanie said.
“And also that way, Nadine doesn’t get to have fun with the kids all by herself,” Emily added, as the various security personnel spread out in the room.
Wasim and Naveed were both in tuxedos, and while Wasim hadn’t looked comfortable in the clothes he’d been in before other than in his Sidwell uniform, he looked fine in his tux. In the tux, I could see him as a prince with a car and a cool bachelor pad.
He looked around nervously, kind of ruining his Cool Tux Look. “I’m sorry we’re late in getting ready. Naveed felt that we should ensure that Mister Gadhavi was able to join us.”
Gadhavi was in new robes and a red and white checkered kufiyah. “I appreciate the great courtesy of the Royal Family of my adopted country of Bahrain,” he said formally. “And the hospitality of the United States and the King and Queen Regent as well.”
Wasim was going to say something else, but he stopped because Lizzie came into view. Gadhavi did him a solid and gently closed Wasim’s open mouth. “You look beautiful,” Wasim managed after a couple of moments.
Lizzie blushed. “You look great, too.”
Jeff grunted quietly. “I’ve never realized how your father really felt when he met me, and I say that as an empath, mind you, until just this moment.”
“And he got to run into you coming out of my room in the morning. So, you know, ponder that for a mo. Okay, everyone,” I said in a louder voice, “let’s let the kids do their sleepover and get ourselves to the fanciest impromptu fundraiser ever.”
One last round of kisses and hugs for all the kids, then we headed out and down to the garage. On the way, Mom divided us up into various cars so that everyone would have security. We picked up Tito, Rahmi, and Rhee along the way, upping our royalty quotient. Tito was in the standard Armani tuxedo all the menfolk were in, and the princesses had both gussied up quite a bit, but even so, knew they had their battle staffs with them somehow, and that made me feel a whole lot better.
Agents had gotten clothes and such for Ansom and Talia, so those two were dressed appropriately and let out once Joe and Randy were back with the rest of the flyboys. Insisted on Manfred going with them, just in case. Otherwise, didn’t pay a lot of attention to who was in what car. Mom had that under control.
Checked on the Christopher-Bot the Second. He was lying down but came over to the window. “Be careful.”
“Of what?”
“Of them,” he nodded toward Somerall and Lee. “They want to kill you, remember.”
“I think you’ve been programmed to tell me that,” I said gently. Considered asking him if he realized that the Bot he’d blown up was half of himself. But it wouldn’t give me any intel and besides, I wasn’t cruel like our enemies, so I refrained.
“Maybe I have been. That doesn’t mean that I’m wrong. Or that who programmed me is wrong.”
Pondered this while others got into vehicles behind me. “Was it you who met the Bahrainis at the airport?”
“No, that was him.” Which might mean this half of the original Christopher-Bot was indeed on our side. Or not.
“Of course, you could be lying.”
“But if I’m programmed, according to you, I can’t lie.” And this was one of those chicken or the egg conundrums that you thought about until your brain hurt.
“Kitty, come on,” Jeff said as my brain shared that lying could also be programmed. He joined us and took my hand. “Play with the robot later.”
“Be careful,” the Christopher-Bot the Second said. Then he went and lay down on his medical cot again.
“Stop encouraging those things,” Jeff said.
“I wasn’t. I just . . . what if he’s sentient and what if he’s right, regardless of sentience?” My dream made this seem unlikely, but then again, there was no guarantee I’d interpreted said dream correctly. Or that all of it wasn’t just my subconscious freaking out, Broadway style.
“I think the best thing for us to assume is that everyone’s out to kill us. That way, we’re always prepared or pleasantly surprised.”
“Cannot argue with that logic.”
Len and Kyle were also in tuxes and waiting for us with the rest of Jeff’s and my Secret Service details and a whole lot more, all the better to drive us all around. A-Cs had reflexes that were actually too good to operate human machinery, though Stephanie and Serene both had proved that this “handicap” could be overcome with enough willpower. But for the most part, A-Cs passengered and humans drove.
Jeff and I were stuck in the Beast, which was the President’s super-reinforced limo that the A-Cs had looked at, sighed at, and then improved by adding all the security bells and whistles their vehicles had as standard issue. It was a big, well, beast, and that meant that Jeff and I, Lizzie, Wasim, Naveed, Gadhavi, and my parents could all fit into it, with Len driving and Kyle handling shotgun as always. Just barely, because it wasn’t as roomy as one of Centaurion Division’s stretch limos, but it’d do in a pinch.
“Director Reynolds is already on-site,” Len said as he and Kyle helped us into the Beast. “He says that not all the guests are there yet, specifically the one we’re all the most interested in, at least as far as he’s seen.”
“It might not be Stephanie coming. The Tinkerer could be making the appearance tonight.”
“We’ll find out,” Mom said, as the last of us got in, Len and Kyle closed the doors and took their positions, and we all started off on the fifteen-minute drive to Sidwell. Mercifully, Kyle turned on tunes. “I Think I’m Paranoid” by Garbage came on. Wasn’t sure if this was an Algar clue or just random chance. Decided not to care at the moment.
Was about to ask if we had any idea of what the guest list looked like now when my phone rang. Got it out and looked at the number. Blocked. “Not this again. Hello?”
“Is this the First Lady?” Man’s voice, not one I recognized. Sounded like he was gasping or wheezing or else had a re
ally bad head cold.
“It is and aren’t you surprised? Who are you and why are you calling?”
“Don’t go to the fundraiser.”
“Why not, pray tell?”
“The robots are going to try to kill you.”
And with that, my phone went dead.
CHAPTER 62
“CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER.”
“Who was that?” Jeff asked.
Shared the contents of one of my briefer Opening Gambit calls. “So, no idea who it was, too short to have traced even if I’d thought to ask for a tracer thingy, and giving no information other than that robots might be out to get me.”
“I point to the two you put into a secured SUV as options one and two,” Mom said.
“Yes, but they’re not robots.” However, even though they hadn’t been onstage in my dream, they would count in the same category as Joe and Randy. Or would they? Wondered why they hadn’t appeared in my dream. Maybe that was the question I was really supposed to have asked Terry or Algar, but it was too late to do so now.
“To you,” Gadhavi said. “Perhaps to those who are your enemies, they are.”
“And perhaps there are robots we’re not aware of yet,” Mom pointed out. There had been a significant gap on my dream stage, so Mom was probably right. As per usual.
This gave us all something to ponder while the song changed to Garbage’s “The Trick Is to Keep Breathing.” Okay, seemed like we were on random on Garbage’s 2.0 album. Stopped worrying and just allowed the music to keep me calm.
“Wicked Ways” was next, then “Push It” was on as we arrived at Sidwell. Wondered again if these were clues or not as we lined up with all the rest of our big, black SUVs and limos in order to get parked. Had to say this for doing an event at a big hotel—the exit from the cars tended to be easier.
We ended up going into the parking garage because there was no parking available for us outside. “Is this normal?” Wasim asked.