Alien Collective (15 page)

T
HE WATER MAN
backed off and dissolved, water flowing back into the fountain as if it had never left. The film-type thing came up from out of nowhere, expanding through us and out again, until it was so far away I couldn’t see it.

“Ah, did you intend to challenge . . . whatever that was?” Mrs. Maurer asked, as I watched the sky to see if something nasty was going to come down out of it and attack.

“Sorta. Sorta not. Mister White, your thoughts?”

“I think we had more of an audience for this than you realized.”

Turned around to see Jeff, Chuckie, Reader, Gower, Tito, Buchanan, Siler, and Christopher standing behind White and Mrs. Maurer. To a man they looked shocked and rather horrified. Oh good.

Cleared my throat. “Um, you know how I say it’s not my fault when this crap happens?” They all nodded. Apparently no one trusted themselves to speak. “Well, this one was. My fault, I mean.”

“We heard, girlfriend,” Reader said finally. “All of it.”

“How long were you there?”

“Nightcrawler can extend his blend by touch just like the rest of them can extend the hyperspeed,” Buchanan answered. “So we were here for quite a lot of it.”

Now that I looked more closely, Chuckie had his hand on Jeff’s neck, which meant he’d been applying his Vulcan Nerve Pinch to keep Jeff from charging. Kind of wished Chuckie had shown less restraint.

“I know. I screwed up. It’s just . . . that entity thing is threatening ACE. And I promised ACE I’d always protect him.”

“It’s okay, Mommy,” Jamie said, as Jeff took her from Mrs. Maurer and Tito started examining his latest patient. “They won’t attack right away.”

“Well, there’s that. I guess.”

“I can’t express how happy I am that Jamie was involved in this,” Jeff said in a tone that indicated quite the opposite.

“That
wasn’t
my fault.”

“That thing was trying to hurt Mommy,” Jamie said reproachfully. “You’d have gone, Daddy. Why shouldn’t I?”

“Because you’re a little girl,” Jeff said. “Mommy and Daddy are supposed to protect
you
, Jamie-Kat.”

“I knew what to do,” she said stubbornly.

“She did. She dissipated Sloshy.”

“I don’t want to know. At this moment. I’ll want to know later. Right now . . .” Jeff looked around. “Why are we the only people here?”

“We were wondering that ourselves just before Sloshy showed up. No idea, but my bet is that either ACE or Sloshy kept everyone else away somehow.”

“Maybe ACE should return to me,” Gower said. Jeff nodded and handed Jamie to Gower. Gower was big, bald, black, and beautiful. Like Chuckie, Abigail, and Caroline, though, for the last year what he’d also been was quieter and sadder. Losing your brother, sister, and aunt in less than a week will do that to a person, religious leader of an entire race or not. “That way we can keep you out of the line of fire,” he said to Jamie as he gave her a kiss on her head.

She hugged him. “No, Uncle Paul. Fairy Godfather ACE has to stay with me.”

“What happened at the embassies?” I asked, before Jeff and Gower could start arguing with her, and in hope of a subject change, at least for a few minutes.

“Someone else planted the bombs Siler didn’t,” Chuckie said. “Not a bomb signature we recognized, but Vander and Serene have all the bombs so that’s in their court. We’ve evacuated the Israeli embassy as well, though, just in case.”

“Where is everybody staying, then? There’s already not enough room at Paul and James’ place. Are we all going to Dulce? Where I think ACE was trying to get us to go, by the way.”

Reader shook his head. “Paul and Jeff cannot leave D.C. right now, for political reasons. Alpha and Airborne are staying here too, because it’s clear that wherever you go, so goes the action, girlfriend.”

“I’m sorry I screwed up.”

“We’ll fix it,” Chuckie said, as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Somehow.”

“I hope we can get the world governments armed and ready fast,” Christopher said. “And not aiming the bombs at each other.”

“Maybe we can negotiate a diplomatic solution,” Gower said. No one pointedly mentioned that this was actually my job, but their expressions did that for them.

All but Siler. He barked a laugh. “You all seriously think she blew it?”

Everyone looked at him. “Yes,” Jeff said. He ran his hand through his hair. “Sorry, baby, but this is worse than when you declared war on the United States, and far less simple to fix.”

Siler rolled his eyes. “Come on. I was watching. Nothing shows up like that thing did, ensures that everyone in the world knows something’s around, and then hangs out to merely shoot the shit and idly threaten. It was here, testing her to see how she’d react to its threats.”

Reader nodded slowly. “Yeah, that makes sense.”

“Why am I always the one the intergalactic bullies want to test out?”

“You’re a protector,” Chuckie said quietly. “You always have been. And that’s what it was here to determine, wasn’t it? Who was going to stand up for ACE, and were they going to be afraid of something exponentially more powerful than they were, or were they going to go toe-to-toe with the aggressor?”

Siler nodded. “That’s what it looked like to me. It wanted to see if she was going to back down, try to negotiate, or just attack.”

“Nightcrawler, I have a name and I’m right here. Call me Kitty, Katherine, Missus Martini, Miss Katt if you just have to fall in line with the rest of the Assassination League, or even Wolverine.”

Siler grinned. “Okay, Wolvie. Anyway, I think aggression was actually the right response.”

Everyone stared at him, even me. “You mind explaining how you’ve reached that conclusion?” Christopher asked, speaking for all of us.

“I think I understand,” Mrs. Maurer said. “You don’t come across a galaxy to just check in on someone, even if it’s not a long trip for you. That . . . Sloshy . . . came to check us out. Why? Are more of his kind coming? He was being willfully stupid on purpose, why not be goading you for a reason? Perhaps they want to be able to declare war because you challenged them, but I’m with . . . Nightcrawler, did you say? I think the outcome was exactly what Sloshy wanted.”

“Squeaky, I just want to applaud your embrace and acceptance of the nicknames. Welcome to Team Megalomaniac. Speaking of which, where’re Megalomaniac Lad and the flyboys? I’d really like some comic relief right about now.”

Reader flashed the cover boy grin. “That’s your job, too, girlfriend.”

“You’re the best at it, though, James.”

“Babe, I’m the best at what I do . . . everything I do.”

“Hey, that’s
my
Wolverine line. You need your own line, Captain America.”

“The love in the fountain’s great,” Jeff said, interrupting our witty repartee. “And even if Siler, Chuck, and Missus Maurer are right, we still have to have a plan of defense or, laughably, attack. Uncle Richard, any ideas?”

“I’m wondering why, if Missus Martini’s bravado was taken as a challenge and accepted, the Entity Currently Known as Sloshy backed off.”

“Mister White, you’re my favorite.”

Jeff groaned. Buchanan shook his head. “And I lose favored status just that fast.”

“Oh, Malcolm, you’re still my favorite, too. But I think Mister White has a point. Why not just do whatever? Why take off to fight another day?”

Chuckie cocked his head. “He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day. Whatever it was, it wasn’t winning against you.”

“I honestly don’t think Sloshy was trying all that hard.”

“I think it might have been,” Mrs. Maurer said. “You were involved. We were watching. All of us.” She patted Prince’s head.

“The animals . . .” Looked around. The Poofs and Peregrines all looked right at me and gave me a full blast of the Sea of Animal Innocence Look. “Oh. Wow. Really?”

“I do think so,” White said. “It makes the most sense.”

“Really, what?” Jeff asked in that resigned tone he’d perfected by now. “So far, nothing that’s happened today makes sense to me, and I include the fact that I’m somehow a vice presidential candidate in that statement.”

“I think what Richard and Squeaky are insinuating is that Sloshy didn’t go for it because the Poofs and Peregrines were here.” And a superconsciousness from the Eagle Nebula would be likely to know that the Peregrines were powerful. Chances were also good that it was aware that the Poofs weren’t from around here.

The Water Man might have backed off because of the animals. It also might have backed off because it realized that if the Poofs were here, then Algar was here, and that could offer a unique opportunity for Sloshy to have a chat with the Black Hole People. Even odds for either option. Or both.

Needed to talk to Algar. Oh well, everyone, good or bad, wanted us there anyway. “James, I don’t care about the political crap.”

“This is news?” Christopher muttered.

Ignored him. “We need to get to Dulce, even if it’s just for the night. We have personnel from three very full embassies to house. We can freaking take a gate back if Jeff or Paul are desperately needed, you know, like we used to do all the damn time. I’m making another unpopular decision and saying that we’re all going to the Science Center, and we’re going there now.”

A
FTER THE USUAL ARGUMENTS,
which I won, and the usual protests, which I ignored, I played the Head Diplomat card yet again, White and Buchanan backed me, and floater gates were provided, for us and everyone else we wanted or needed to house.

Gates were A-C technology that allowed you to travel from one place to another in a matter of seconds. They looked like fancier airport metal detectors that were also doors to nowhere. But they worked like the most amazing and yet nauseating travel system ever.

The gates had been the bane of my existence from day one with Centaurion and nothing—including getting some A-C talents and powers—had changed this. Normally Jeff carried me through a gate transfer. Under the circumstances, however, I decided to tough it out and show whoever and whatever was watching that I could walk through a gate with the best of them.

Fortunately I had just the right amount of food still in my stomach, so I neither tossed cookies nor dry heaved. It’s the little victories you cherish.

The Dulce Science Center was the main base for all of Centaurion Division worldwide. It went fifteen stories down and I still wasn’t really sure how wide it was. Rather than waste valuable time and mental space on knowing its exact size and layout, I went with the simpler idea that it was probably about the size of five Pentagons and let it go at that. My lack of ability with mazes was, by now, legendary, and I saw no reason to sully that proud reputation.

In my first couple of years with Centaurion Jeff and I had lived on the lowest level, the fifteenth floor, in what I called his Human Lair. It was the only set of rooms in any regular A-C facility that looked like humans had designed it. Not that the A-Cs lived diametrically differently from humans, but they didn’t have the same adoration of TVs that humans did, for example, and they tended to go for hotel room-type functionality instead of sloppy hominess.

I still missed the Lair, but I’d gotten used to the Embassy by now. And, due to the fact that a lot of human politicians and the like came into the Embassy regularly, it was far more “human” than the Science Center felt the need to be. The one bright spot I could see so far was that we’d spend tonight in the Lair.

We arrived on what I called the Bat Cave level. It was loaded with computer terminals, screens straight out of
Minority Report
, machines and equipment that, four-plus years in, I still didn’t even try to identify, and lots of human and A-C personnel, all beavering away at their assigned tasks. Other than when we’d been infiltrated or had to evacuate for some reason, the Bat Cave always hummed with efficiency.

Field and Imageering Main were also on this level, and Reader trotted off to do the Worldwide Check on the Troops thing. Saw Jeff and Christopher both shoot longing looks toward Reader’s retreating backside. Not because they’d turned gay during the trip from D.C. to Dulce, but because they still missed being the Heads of those divisions. I could relate—there were many days, today being Exhibit Number One, when I missed being the Head of Airborne more than I could express.

Speaking of Airborne, Tim and the flyboys were also back with us, which was a relief in a variety of ways. Unsurprisingly, they were all for fighting Sloshy and none of them felt I was a major screwup for basically telling a visiting superconsciousness to suck it. I loved my guys.

“I’m with Kitty,” Matt Hughes said, after Christopher had explained why we were, we presumed, screwed.

Chip Walker nodded. “Best defense is a good offense.”

“Chip and Matt are my favorites.”

Jeff groaned and Jerry Tucker shot me a betrayed look. “Hey, I thought I was your favorite. I think your plan’s the right one, too, even if I don’t know what it is.”

“Well, that’s true, you are my favorite, Jerry.” This was actually true, but choosing between my favorites was like picking ice cream flavors—they were all great in their own way.

Tim pulled the flyboys and Jeff away before they could continue to discuss my brilliance and love for them. People were milling about, working, doing things, having meetings, but no one was asking for my input. Which was fine, because I’d done enough of that for right now.

In the days before what I called Operation Destruction and the rest of the world called the Terrifying Alien Invasion That Almost Destroyed Us All, we’d have had to either high-security brief, memory wipe, or memory alter everyone who we’d had to bring along.

These days, it was more like they were getting a special private tour. Mossad were certainly treating it that way. There were a ton of Mossad agents who’d been at the Israeli embassy, and, to a one, they were loving being at the Science Center. Oren, Jakob, and Leah, by benefit of being our close friends, were gaining major Envy Points from the rest of their crowd for having been here before.

My parents were here, too. Mom was, of course, discussing strategic military response options to address my latest screwup, but Dad was organizing tours. Dad had far more people clustered around him, therefore, and he was clearly enjoying himself.

Surprisingly, the entire K-9 crew was here, too. Prince was happy to be reunited with Officer Melville, and vice versa, but it was kind of weird to have the police here. However, Reader felt they were targets due to their known association with us, a fact Siler confirmed as I sidled over to where he was, since he was in a part of the Bat Cave that wasn’t loaded with people.

Buchanan had uncuffed him, based on Jeff’s assurances that Siler wasn’t feeling enemy-like toward any of us. There were a variety of empaths keeping tabs on him, though, Jeremy Barone included. Rahmi and Rhee were also on Siler Duty, and they were, as always, slavishly devoted to their assigned task. However, since I’d asked for a little privacy, they and Jeremy were standing about ten feet away, watching everything Siler did.

However, when a variety of D.C. bigwigs, Senators Armstrong and McMillan included, arrived, along with their spouses and close aides, I had to ask the obvious question. “Are we bringing every single person we know here, or is that just my impression based on seeing every single person I know here?”

“They need to be protected,” Siler said.

“Fantastic. My grandparents aren’t far away, are they?”

“All family members are with your in-laws, per what I heard. Because they, like the others, need protection. Trust me.”

Made sense. Martini Manor was gigantic and could easily handle my extended family. They certainly had before. It was probably another Old Home Week for everyone over there.

“You keep on saying that, and yet I’m not so sure that I should. By the way, do we need to pull my ‘uncles’ in, too? And I’m asking that seriously.” I’d figure out how to keep Mom, Chuckie, Kevin, and everyone else from arresting them. Somehow.

Siler gave me a long look. “You’re truly serious.”

“Yeah. They protect me. I think, if we’re trying to cover everyone who knows and even sort of likes us, that they deserve that protection, too.”

“No wonder they care about you.” He sounded sincere. He looked sincere, too. And a little wistful.

“Dude, if you’re actually our friend and not going to try to blow us all up now that we’re all finally herded here like so many lambs to slaughter, then that care and protection extends to you, too, you know.”

“No wonder they’re afraid of you. Not your uncles—your enemies.”

“Since when are our enemies afraid of us?”

“Not ‘us.’ They’re afraid of you, you specifically.”

“I discovered I was Evil Genius Enemy Number One when Jamie was born. But I’ve never noted that any of them are afraid of me.”

“Oh, they are. I think the thing you’re calling Sloshy is afraid of you, too.”

“If you say so, but I don’t see it.”

“No, you wouldn’t.”

“Care to explain that?”

“Maybe later. I actually do want to call your uncles. Doubt they’ll want to come in, though. Not with what seems like all of Mossad here, not to mention your mother.”

“Ask anyway. If they need to hide with the rest of us, then they get neutrality. This is A-C land, not U.S. or Israeli.” Technically. I hoped.

Siler gave me a half-smile. “I’ll let you know what they want to do.” He stepped off to make his call, his guardians following right behind him.

Needed to get out of the crowd and find a laundry hamper. Or at least a private room. Considered going to the second floor, but, frankly, the unused drainage pipe would be the best choice, and the easiest entrance to that was on the fifteenth floor.

“Heading down to check out the Lair,” I told Jeff, who was chatting it up with his political allies.

He shot me the hairy eyeball. “Be careful, and don’t leave without me.”

“Wasn’t planning on going anywhere but downstairs to make sure the Lair’s all ready for us. Want to be sure the Operations Team have things for Jamie in there, too.”

Jeff looked slightly relieved, probably due to the fact that I hadn’t said I wanted to see what the Elves were up to in front of a variety of senators and representatives. I knew he couldn’t tell what I was feeling—not that I thought there were emotional blockers or overlays around, but because Algar kept anything about himself blocked.

Dad had Jamie, so all was fine there. Everyone else seemed busy. Well and good. Headed to the elevators and down to the fifteenth floor. It was time to try to take a meeting with the King of the Elves.