Alien Collective (39 page)

“W
ELL,
I guess that answers one of the questions we were here to ask.”

“Sorry, Kitty,” Stryker said. “But we’re getting nothing. Less than nothing. Time-wasting, frustrating nothing.”

“It’s clear Chernobog has covered her tracks, and that anyone who knows something about her is afraid,” Henry added nervously.

“We had a lead that she was in France,” Big George added. “But it petered out.”

“France is always suspect.”

“There was a lead for Paraguay, too,” Ravi said. “I think they were fakes, honestly.”

“Why so?” White asked quickly, to forestall the arguments or offers of support clearly about to come out of the other hackers’ open mouths.

Ravi shrugged. “Like Kitty said, we always suspect activity in those countries because of our past history. So, toss us some bad intel that sounds real, it sends us racing off to research a lot of nothing. Wastes our time and keeps us from finding the truth.”

“The truth is out there.”

“It is,” Stryker snapped. “But unless we can call it a day and do an
X-Files
marathon, we’re still not anywhere close to finding it.”

Yuri finished cursing. “First, no one believes Chernobog is real. Then she
is
real and everyone’s terrified of her. Make up your minds!”

“Deep breaths, Yuri, think calming thoughts. You guys have only been at this for a few hours.”

“No, we’ve been at it for a year,” Stryker said, patience clearly forced. “You don’t think we’ve spent time on this? Sure, we’ve been working to recreate the lost data and shore up our security, but the fastest way to do that is find Chernobog and figure out how she hacked us and where she hid her copies.”

“We’ve done the other work you guys wanted,” Big George said quickly. “But that’s slow going, as you know. Plus, after what happened yesterday, we were hoping to get a solid lead that could help the team.”

“Wow, Jennifer’s been working with you guys on the right way to talk to people who control your paychecks and living situation, hasn’t she?”

“Speaking of whom, have you seen her?” Ravi sounded worried.

“Not since yesterday. She’s on a mission.”

“She hasn’t checked in with me. At all. We always check in.”

“Maybe she can’t. Not that she’s hurt or something,” I said hurriedly. “But I think they’re doing something very covert. She just might not be able to check in without blowing cover or something.” From his expression, this didn’t comfort Ravi all that much.

“I’m sure she and the others are fine,” Olga said reassuringly, as she rolled her wheelchair over to Yuri’s station. She shot me a look that said she was lying, however. Great.

“What I don’t understand,” Serene said, in her Innocent Voice, “is how anyone, even Chernobog, could hide her tracks so well. Our enemies found her before. And Kitty figured out where she was a year ago.”

“She’s got access to the highest-grade stuff,” Stryker said. “We’ve got the best, but she’s got better.”

“We have the best money can buy, at least per my husband. So who could have better?”

“Major world powers,” Henry replied.

“Jennifer should have been home by now,” Ravi fretted under his breath.

My brain nudged. “Home. Wait a second . . . no one say anything for a moment.” I could tell Reader, Tim, and the flyboys weren’t here—the room went dutifully still.

There was information Serene and I had that White and the others in this room didn’t. Information sent to Colonel Franklin via Colonel Hamlin, who I was now sure was being assisted in some way by Mr. Joel Oliver. I’d focused on the part about the ricin bombs. But Hamlin had said more.

“He said, point blank, that Home Base was infiltrated. But Franklin got the note after Oliver’s team had gone out, meaning they probably confirmed this for him. And he told Franklin to watch his back, and to watch everyone’s backs. Now, why would he say that?”

“Who is this he?” White asked politely.

“Colonel Hamlin,” Serene replied for me. “I saw the note, too. Kitty, you think Mister Joel Oliver went to investigate Home Base?”

“Yeah, I do. I also think something else. You’ve met Colonel John Butler over at Home Base, right, Serene?”

“Yes. He’s a nice enough man. Pro-alien as far as we’ve seen. I’m not used to the resistance his office gave us yesterday.”

“His office? Wait, was the colonel at Home Base yesterday?”

“No, per his secretary, he was overseeing something at Luke.”

“Have you met his secretary?”

She nodded. “A couple of times. She’s an older woman, seems pleasant enough.”

Looked at Olga, who looked surprised, but in a really pissed off way. Started to laugh.

“Kitty, what is it?” Stryker asked. “You okay?”

“I am. I’m all kinds of thrilled because I just figured out something before Olga did. Mark this as a total red-letter day. Also, Siler’s right—I’m going to get along really well with Chernobog. I like the way that sneaky Russian beeyotch thinks.”

“Y
OU CAN’T GO TO HER ALONE,”
Olga said. “And all who I would suggest go with you are elsewhere.”

“I know. But I have Mister White here. And I think I’m going to have some serious support, too.”

“Want to catch the rest of us up?” Stryker asked, sounding more than annoyed.

“Sure, because someone should know where we’re going, just in case. Chernobog was hiding in Cuba these past years, right?” Heads nodded. “But she was hiding
on
the Naval base and its surrounding areas, on the American side. I’m sure she went over to the Cuban side a lot, especially since we couldn’t find her, but she was spending most of her time on that tiny patch of American soil around Guantanamo.”

“You think she’s still in Cuba somewhere?” Ravi asked.

“No. I flat out know she’s not there anymore. Frankly, I know exactly where she is. She’s somewhere the only person who could pick her out of a lineup never goes, but where she still has access to the best damn equipment in the world.”

White jerked. “Oh. Oh dear.”

“Put so much more diplomatically than I would say it. Yeah, Chernobog is at Home Base. In fact, she’s got a great job there—she’s Colonel Butler’s secretary. Bet he thinks she’s the greatest and trusts her completely, too, doesn’t he?” I asked Serene.

“Yes, he does. She came over after his former secretary took ill.” Serene looked a little ill herself. “She made that poor woman sick, didn’t she?”

“At least she didn’t kill her. I hope. But yeah.”

“But how?” Serene asked. “There are security checks, a large number of them.”

“If Madeleine Cartwright could infiltrate the freaking Pentagon, why would we think that the best hacker
in the world
couldn’t make herself a shiny, perfect persona that would pass muster anywhere and everywhere?”

“She always had a plethora of identities when we worked together,” Olga said. “What trouble would creating one more be? I’m sorry, this should have occurred to me, and it did not.”

“Well, it only occurred to me because of what all’s gone on and Hamlin’s note. Telling Franklin to watch his own back makes sense. But telling him to watch everyone’s backs? Really? That seems like overkill, and I’ve met Hammy, and he’s not an overkill kind of guy. But what he
is
is former military intelligence. He knows how to leave a coded message without writing in actual code.”

“When are you going there?” Big George asked. “I mean, we all know you’re going.”

“As soon as possible.” But not before I talked to the Dingo and Surly Vic. However, I had no way of knowing when they were going to call. On the other hand, I should be ready when they did call, because I was sure we were heading to Home Base again the moment I told them what I knew was going on.

“Before you run off, why does Serene have two phones?” Henry asked.

“Oh! Right. Let’s get the pictures downloaded. We can start facial recognition or whatever and see what we come up with. Do mine first. I need to go change but I’m expecting a call.”

Stryker snatched my phone from me, plugged it into a computer, tapped some keys, and pulled up my photo file. “Just take the ones from today.”

“We don’t want to see your naked pictures of Jeff, don’t worry,” Stryker muttered.

“Careful, Eddy. I’m not against hurting you.”

The pictures were downloaded quickly and my phone was back in my hand. “Mister White, I need to change clothes. You coming or staying?”

This caused Yuri and Big George to almost choke to death on their respective Big Gulps. White chuckled. “If you promise to call me when you’re ready to go, I’ll stay here and peruse the pictures of the crowd for a bit.”

“Works for me. Serene, you coming along or staying here to run point?”

“It’ll depend on what we get before you’re ready to leave. Check with me, because I can get us into Colonel Butler’s office without an issue.”

“Sounds good.” Gave Olga a hug, and took off. I was revved, so I took the stairs at hyperspeed, and did so well I kept it up across the walkway and up to our apartment.

My father and Lucinda were there along with Jamie. And our dogs. Had to greet the canines first. Then gave Lucinda and Dad big hugs. Then I finally got to actually hold my daughter for the first time in a day, which was nice.

Cuddled her and took her with me while I changed out of the Armani Fatigues and into jeans, my Converse, a short-sleeved Iron Maiden T-shirt, in order to look intimidating, and a light Aerosmith hoodie, because I was going into action and that required my boys to be on my person.

Made sure I had plenty of clips for my Glock in my purse, verified that anything and everything else I could need was in there, gave my hair a fast brush and pulled it into a ponytail, and I was ready.

Through all this, Jamie had been happily cuddling her Poof and prattling about her day and all the fun things she’d done with her grandparents. “We watched you and Daddy on TV!” she said in summation, as I slung my purse back on and checked—Harlie and Poofikins were in it, snoozing. Poofs on board was never an issue. “You looked really pretty, Mommy.”

“Thanks, Jamie-Kat.” Kissed her head.

“You look pretty now, too,” she said judiciously.

“I appreciate that. Daddy looked handsome as always, didn’t he?”

“Yes! Gran’ma Luci said Daddy looked proud and happy.”

“I hope so. I’m very proud of Daddy.”

“Me, too. Papa Sol said that Daddy is going to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. What does that mean?”

“It means that, if Daddy and Senator Armstrong win the jobs they’re trying out for, that Senator Armstrong will become the President and Daddy will have a very important job, helping him.”

“Oh.” She was quiet as I picked her up. “Mommy?”

“Yes, sweetie?”

“You need to take Mous-Mous with you.”

“But Mous-Mous is your Poof. Harlie and Poofikins are in Mommy’s purse.”

Jamie shook her head. “You need to take Mous-Mous with you.” She kissed the Poof, which purred and rubbed against her. Then Mous-Mous purred at me and jumped into my purse.

“Are you sure, Jamie-Kat?”

She nodded. “Lola will cuddle with me.” As she said the Peregrine’s name, Lola dechameleoned. She was right next to me and looked up as I looked down. Lola winked.

“Lola, where’s Bruno?”

Lola cooed, flapped her wings, bobbed her head, and cooed again. Bruno was on the job with Jeff and the rest of Team Announcement, along with half of the other Embassy Peregrines. Lola recommended extra Poofs if I was going into danger, since the remaining Peregrines were on guard in the Embassy.

“Gotcha. Okay, I’ll take good care of Mous-Mous, Jamie, I promise.”

“I know you will, Mommy. And Mous-Mous will take care of you, too.”

“Good to know. Any Poofies who want an adventure get into Kitty’s purse. Any Poofies who want snuggle time with Jamie stay here.” Several Poofs joined the ones already in my purse.

The rest of the unattached Poofs, all of whom lived with us because I was the Ambassador and I could make that rule stick, stayed on their luxury Poof Condos, snuggled around our cats. All but two. Those two jumped down and into Jamie’s arms, purring like mad. Had a feeling they’d have names by the time I got back. Oh well, Poofs for everyone and more Poofs for me and my little girl was my motto.

Left the bedroom, gave Jamie back to Dad, gave everyone more hugs, with extra hugs and kisses for Jamie, then got out of the apartment before I didn’t want to do anything but stay and be a mom doing mom things with my little girl.

My timing was good. The burner phone rang as I reached the elevators.

“Uncle Peter?”

“Yes, Miss Katt. We are nearby.”

“Where?”

“Conveniently close.”

Thought about it. “You’re on the Embassy’s roof, aren’t you?”

“Yes, we are.” And they could be up there because Walter was off with the rest of Team Oliver. Had no idea if we even had someone running Security now, but based on the fact that Lola had told me to take Poofs with me because the Peregrines were staying put, my bet was that we didn’t. William was probably monitoring from Dulce, but that wasn’t the same thing as having someone here. “Are you able to join us?”

“Yes, but I’m bringing two people with me. Both unarmed and friendly to the cause.”

“As you wish.”

We hung up and I sent a text to White and Serene, then headed for the stairs to wait for them to join me. They were both A-Cs so they showed up within a couple of seconds. “What’s the word on the pictures?”

“Olga spotted some similarities throughout the crowd, so we’re running full facial recognition on everyone the three of us captured,” Serene replied. “And I gave Vance his phone back, so we should be good. The meeting’s still going on in the kitchen.”

“Great, then let’s head upstairs.”

We trotted up and onto the roof. Sure enough, as we stepped through the roof access door, no one was there. “Why would they be hiding?” I asked White.

“To ensure you did not bring people we wouldn’t want to see,” the Dingo said, as he closed the door behind us and Surly Vic stepped out from behind the roof entrance room. They were both dressed in black T-shirts, black painter’s pants, lightweight boots, black baseball caps, and leather gloves, and were carrying backpacks, also black. They were also carrying guns. Not pointed at any of us, however, so we had that going for us.

Managed not to scream and only jumped a little, go me. “You know Richard White from the last time you visited, and this is Serene Dwyer. Serene, these are my uncles Peter and Victor Kasperoff.”

The Dingo nodded to White and Serene, but Surly Vic gave her a wide smile. “Pleased to meet you.” He rarely smiled, so, clearly, Serene was his type.

“She’s married,” I pointed out.

He laughed. “All the beautiful women are, aren’t they?”

Serene blushed and I didn’t think it was faked. “Pleased to meet you both.”

“Your embassy is safe again, I see,” the Dingo said.

“Yes, thanks to you. Oh, you know, I have a question about all that’s gone on, unrelated to what we’re here to talk about. What was the bio-weapon you destroyed for me when it was delivered to our embassy a year and a half ago?”

He gave me a small smile. “Exactly what you think it was.”

“It was a ricin bomb, wasn’t it?”