Alien Collective (47 page)

“How did it go?”

She shook her head. “I honestly have no guess.”

My phone rang. Jeff tried to dig it out of my purse, without success. Christopher put his hand in and pulled it out. “First try. Hello? Oh, hey, Angela. Yeah, it’s Christopher, Kitty’s just not near her phone. No, she’s fine, hang on.” He tossed the phone to me.

“Hey Mom, what’s up?”

“Cameron Maurer took a call from his mother and then took off running so fast that no one could stop him. We’re fortunate that he didn’t break down White House walls. What’s going on?”

“Mom, I’ll call you back. If anyone says we killed Maurer, it’s a lie. It’ll be that he self-destructed on us.” Hung up. “Com on!”

“Yes, Chief?”

“Walter, we need a containment unit here pronto and all the kids and non-military trained personnel moved to the Pontifex’s Residence immediately. We have an android trying to come in from the cold depths of Hell.”

“W
E’LL WATCH THE DOOR,”
Len said, as he and Kyle jumped up and ran to the foyer.

“I’ll go with them, just in case,” Raj said, as he zipped off.

“I’m going to get Grandmother and ensure she goes,” Adriana said, as she ran off.

“Ah, Ambassador?” Pierre asked nervously.

“You and Vance and whoever else get the heck out of here. Make sure the kids are all over safely.”

“I’m staying here,” Mrs. Maurer said firmly. “You need me. Cameron needs me.”

“I agree. Bruce, MJO, staying or leaving?”

“I want them leaving,” Jeff said, Commander Voice on Full. “Jennifer, Jeremy, get everyone out of here and do likewise.” The Barones grabbed people and they took off at hyperspeed. This left me, Jeff, Christopher, Chuckie, and Mrs. Maurer in the dining room. Flung my purse over my neck.

“Chief,” Walter shared over the intercom, “your father suggests going to the Israeli Embassy instead of the Pontifex’s residence. Agents stationed with the Israelis report that embassy to be secured.”

“Dad wants to party some more, doesn’t he? What does the Paul think?”

“Pontifex Gower agrees that under the circumstances, our personnel being with others who can both protect and vouch for them is probably wise.”

“Make it so, Walter. Immediately if not sooner, for all personnel. Tell the Pontifex we include him in the people we expect to go over. Tell Rahmi and Rhee I want them guarding the Pontifex, Jamie, the other kids, and their caretakers—they need to be on full alert. And please advise Alpha Team of what’s going on.” Why stress Reader out any more than we already had? “I want all visitors and residents of the Zoo transferred with extreme care, our prisoner in particular.”

“Ah, the Pontifex says that the prisoner doesn’t wish to leave the premises. She insists it’s not because she’s afraid of the Israelis but because she thinks she’s figured out how to, ah, hot-wire an android.”

“Gotcha. We’ll bring our android to the Zoo, then. Keep all fifth-floor personnel there, Walter, but get anyone else like Amy or Abigail out of there. And tell them to have the floater gate in the computer center calibrated for the Pontifex’s Residence in case we all have to fling ourselves through it really, really fast.”

“Speaking of fast,” Christopher said, “we need to decide who’s grabbing the android when he shows up.”

“Has to be you and me,” Jeff said. “I’ll grab him, you shove a pen or whatever in his ear.”

“It has to be exact,” Chuckie said. “I know it looked like I just shoved that in randomly, but Ravi gave me specific instructions.”

“Conveniently, you still have my pen in your hand. I’m willing to sacrifice it to the cause.” Hey, it wasn’t my Mont Blanc.

“He’s here,” Kyle called.

“Walter, are all the kids out?”

“Yes, Chief, just now.”

“Okay, keep the com open and be prepared to run really fast.” We all raced to the foyer to see Cameron Maurer come through the front door.

“Mother?” he sounded funny. Fuzzy and almost metallic. This wasn’t a good sound.

“Hurry, guys.”

“Let them help you, Cameron,” Mrs. Maurer said. “Don’t fight them.”

Jeff grabbed Maurer from behind. It was a good thing that Chuckie was the assigned Ear Stabber, though, because despite his mother’s admonition, Maurer almost tossed Jeff off. It took both him and Christopher to hold Maurer still.

“Mother . . . I’m-m-m-m sorry.”

“Hurry, Chuckie.”

“Hope this works and we’re lucky a second time. Otherwise, been great knowing all of you.” With that, Chuckie slammed my pen into Maurer’s ear.

Thankfully, the same thing that happened with Butler happened now. Maurer went still as if dead or inactivated. “To the computer lab,” Jeff said, then he and Christopher disappeared.

Grabbed Chuckie and Mrs. Maurer, Raj grabbed Len and Kyle, and we took off after them, using the stairs because hyperspeed was faster than any elevator could ever hope to be.

Met up with those who’d remained in the Zoo in a couple of seconds. Maurer was already flat on his back and Chernobog was giving instructions to Hacker International.

A team of Field agents were setting up a 10x10x10 metal box at hyperspeed while another team impressively moved all the equipment to a safe distance while also not unplugging it or actually disturbing Hacker International and Chernobog. In addition to thick metal walls and a thick door, the containment room also had windows made out of the thickest glass I’d ever seen.

Serene pulled me aside while White held Mrs. Maurer as she gagged. All four of us, just like everyone else in the room, were still poised to run. “Once Richard calmed things down, Chernobog cooperated. We have all our data back. We’re not done verifying, but it looks to be all here. Chernobog was motivated to find our work on defusing androids.”

“Thank God.”

“Yes, she’s terrified of the Dingo, though she’s trying to pretend she isn’t.”

“She’s incredibly smart, and her being afraid proves it.”

“Serene, we need you,” Stryker called as they rolled Maurer onto his stomach and opened the back of his head just as Jenkins had described. Was glad White was holding Mrs. Maurer, because it was horrible to see as a relative stranger, so it had to be infinitely worse for her to see her child this way. Her freaking out and sobbing was also a clue that this was, indeed, horrific for her to experience.

“Commander, the containment room is ready,” one of the agents said.

“No time,” Ravi said urgently. He had a Bluetooth in his ear and was clearly talking to someone, probably at Dulce. “You have to start right now.”

Jeff and Christopher were asked to move out of the way, and Serene went to work. I’d have watched but my phone chose this moment to ring again.

I was glad for the distraction—medical stuff wasn’t my “thing” and while this was the least bloody medical stuff I’d seen, ever, it was still horrible. The tension in the room was high, too, because we were all waiting to go boom. Could tell the Field agents were wondering why they’d bothered to build a containment unit if we weren’t going to use it. Kind of agreed with them, but oh well.

So, I happily answered the call as Jeff moved me near to the stationary floater gate we had in the lab—that always sounded like an oxymoron, but wasn’t.

“Hi Mom. Kind of in a situation here.”

“So your father’s told me. Thought you’d like to hear the latest, however. Per a statement Gideon Cleary just released, Cameron Maurer has taken ill and resigned from the campaign. They’re announcing that Zachary Kramer is stepping in as Cleary’s running mate.”

“That’s hella fast. Wasn’t he just there with you and the President?”

“Yes, and the moment Maurer left Cleary shared that this was something they were both about to tell us.”

“Unreal. No one believes him, do they?”

“Well, the Secretary of Transportation claims to.”

“Langston Whitmore will side with anyone who hates us, so no surprise there. What about the rest?”

“Varying degrees of suspicion. Frankly, I think most feel that Cleary made the decision because Maurer just acted like a crazy person in front of them.”

“Makes sense. But can he do that? Isn’t their convention over?”

“Yes, but precedent exists for this. Since you’re certain Maurer has been turned into an android, and we think Kramer’s still human, this is a positive.”

“I’m not sure that Maurer’s going to come out of this as anything but an inoperable piece of machinery in a Cameron Suit.” Glanced over. Serene was deep inside his head.

The positive, if you could call it that, was that I could see gray matter in there, surrounded by wires and such, but there. Meaning they’d presumably left his brain intact in some way. Maybe that’s why he and Butler had been able to fight the programming. Maybe we’d live to find out. However, I didn’t like Serene’s chances if he exploded, though, nor Ravi and Henry’s, since they were assisting her.

“Just ensure that none of you die trying to save him.”

“Doing our best and thanks for reminding me to be stressed out of my mind. I’d forgotten for all of one second. On the plus side, Serene says Chernobog gave us back all our data.”

“Don’t trust it.”

“Well, it seems to be helping. She’s motivated to not be assassinated.”

Gasps in the room caused me to jump. Apparently they were gasps of appreciation, as Serene dropped some circuit thingy into Henry’s open palm. Went back to focusing on Mom’s latest warnings.

“This is a woman who redefines the term ‘sly fox.’ Keep her where you can see her, keep her under the severest form of lock and key, and ensure that your computer experts aren’t so awed to be in her presence that they allow her to pull one over on them. Because she will if she can. Captivity isn’t something she enjoys.”

“Gotcha. We’ll have Chuckie devise a clever plan once we see if, you know, we all survive this sorta rescue attempt. Oh, and tell me there are going to be amazingly stringent protections going on at our National Convention.”

“There are.”

“Great. Where’s it going to be, by the way.”

“Why am I even remotely surprised that you don’t know? At the Baltimore Convention Center. Wisely keeping close to D.C. this year.”

“Good to know.”

“I’m sure it is, kitten. Try not to die, I’d miss you.”

“Good to know. And, same here, Mom.”

W
E HUNG UP
and I unwillingly turned my attention back to the drama happening on the computer lab floor.

Serene was still digging around in the back of Maurer’s head like a brain surgeon. Or a computer technician. Kind of both.

Henry was holding a lamp directly over Maurer’s head with one hand and all of the spare exploding parts with his other, which impressed me with Henry’s manliness more than anything he’d ever done before. Ravi was functioning as the Head Nurse and handing Serene instruments or taking them away, depending, while also passing along tips from whoever he was talking to at the Science Center.

Omega Red was assisting Chernobog and passing along information as well. Stryker and Big George, however, seemed to be continuing the download of our old data.

Sidled over to Stryker because my staring at Serene wasn’t going to help anybody, me especially. Distraction, that was the key. Otherwise I’d probably cause Jeff to overload empathically. Hey, it was my excuse and I was sticking with it.

“Eddy,” I said in a low voice, “my mother doesn’t trust that Chernobog’s giving us the real goods, so to speak.”

He nodded. “I think what we have so far is the real deal. But we had to download it quickly to get to the information on androids. We kept it in a separate server we have here. It’s isolated, not connected to the rest of the system, or any other system.”

“Good security.”

“Only if the data coming is bad in some way. If it’s good, that means that much more of a delay in getting the information back out to Dulce and elsewhere.” He looked over his shoulder. “And if that explodes right now, then we’ve lost everything.”

“Yeah, thanks for the reminder. But Mom’s right. This woman’s spent decades hiding, in plain sight most of the time, and all of that time covering her butt. If she’s helping us, there’s going to be more to it than her hoping we can call off the assassins after her.”

“Yeah, and if it were me, I’d build in a fail-safe so that if I didn’t check in with whatever my special codes are at a specified time or similar, the data would corrupt, or worse.”

We looked at each other. “Enjoy searching for that.”

“I won’t be able to find it quickly, none of us will.” He grimaced. “It’s kind of tough on the ego, to discover that there’s some old lady who’s so much better at your life’s work than you are.”

“She’s had a lot more years at it.” Patted his shoulder. “You’re still number one in my book, Eddy.”

He gave me a rather nice smile. “Thanks, Kitty. Always nice to be appreciated versus threatened.”

Stared at him for a moment. “Yeah,” I said slowly, “you’re right. Flies to honey and all that.” Turned around and went over to Chernobog, who seemed to be done with her part of the medical stuff, at least for right now. “Thank you.”

She eyed me suspiciously. “For what?”

“For giving us the data so swiftly so that we’d have a hope of saving what’s left of this man and Colonel Butler.”

“It was in my best interests.”

“Maybe. But you could have stalled it out. I just wanted you to know that we appreciate this.”

“Enough to let me go?”

“No. I wasn’t kidding. You need to give us what you’ve taken from the U.S. government, and we need to verify that this data, and what you’ve given back to us today, is secure and not rigged with something.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because it would be smart, and if there’s one thing I know you are it’s smart.”

She gave me a long look. “True. I realize you’re holding back the other things you say I need to do so you get all the information you want. I’d like to know what those are.”

“And I’d like to know who hired you to hit us last year. You go first.”

“I didn’t meet them face-to-face.”

“Oh, come on. Why would they trust you without meeting you?”

She rolled her eyes. “Why would
I
be willing to meet with
them
? Until today, I’ve managed to be known to only a handful of people. Why in the world would I allow people who obviously have no morals or scruples to see who I am?”

She had a point. And it was interesting that she seemed to feel that she, unlike her employers, had morals or scruples. Hoped that was true, versus the Sly Fox playing me. “They were able to find your son.”

“Because I told them where he was. That was my price of participation—that they free Russell.”

That was confirmation of our strong suspicions already, which tracked. Then again, she could have figured we’d have already guessed this. My brain was already tired of trying to extrapolate all the potential if-then statements regarding Chernobog’s motivations. “We know that’s not his real name.”

She shrugged. “Who cares? It’s the name that works for right now.”

“Ronald Yates was his father, wasn’t he?”

“Yes.” Her lips quirked. “You seem to know quite a lot of things about me I’d thought were well hidden.”

“We kind of have an edge on all things Yates. Not as much of an edge as our enemies do, but enough to make some educated guesses. So, what’s Russell’s talent?”

“He has none.”

“Bunk.”

“No, it’s true. He has no talents. Believe me, I paid attention.”

“What did Yates think of that?”

“I have no idea. I never let him know we had a child.”

“Oh, come on. I’m supposed to believe that?”

“Believe what you want. I know what he did to his other children. I didn’t want my child to become some sick scientist’s laboratory rat.”

“How old is Russell?”

“I’m sure he’s told you, and you can guess from looking at him. He’s forty-five.”

This didn’t track. Chernobog turned away from me and started giving Serene some instructions. Decided now was as good a time as any to risk it and sent Buchanan a text to call me if he could. My phone rang almost immediately. Trotted back to my spot right by the floater gate. “What’s up, Missus Chief?”

“I have a question for your new bestest bud. Was the name Russell Koslow on the his list?”

“Hang on.” Heard voices murmuring. “No. But we’re assuming that’s not Koslow’s real name.”

“Yeah, but he’s about the same age and wasn’t listed.”

More background murmuring. “Siler knows of no other sibling in his age range.”

“Interesting.” So, Chernobog was probably telling the truth. “Thanks.” Caught him up quickly on what was going on here—trying to downplay the danger, mostly so I wouldn’t freak out anyone in the room, or stress myself out even more—which he relayed to Team Assassin. “So, Chernobog says she hid the fact that they had a kid together from Yates,” I said by way of wrapping up.

“Per your uncles, she’s extremely cautious. They feel that this tracks much more with what they know of her than her being a Yates groupie.”

“Gotcha, and thanks. See you soon if we don’t blow up.”

“I’d tell you to be careful but no one in that room other than Chernobog seems to comprehend what that phrase means.”

We hung up just as Serene gave a shout and I jumped. “Got them!” she said triumphantly as I landed. Thankfully, no one but Jeff was looking at me. He put his arm around me and hugged me, without even chuckling. Too much.

“The bombs?” I asked.

“Essentially, at least some. The self-destruct mechanism is fully removed.” Serene carefully closed the back of Maurer’s head. “Now, let’s turn him over.”

“Why?”

“Because the remote destruct wasn’t in his head, Kitty. So I have to assume it’s in his sternum somewhere.” Goody. We still had another bomb defusing scenario to go through. Couldn’t wait.

“It might not be an explosive,” Chuckie said. “If they can simulate a heart attack, that would work just as well.”

“Not if paramedics showed up,” Kyle pointed out.

“Oh, I imagine they’d have an ambulance standing by in that case. They’re not blowing someone up on a whim.”

Serene nodded. “Good point, Kitty. I’ll look for both, Chuck.”

“There are different intricacies,” Chernobog said. Then she started listing a lot of very detailed scientific things that my brain decided Chuckie should listen to. He’d advise me when I needed to pay attention.

“Commander, I’m going to have to insist that the containment room be used,” the Field agent said when Chernobog paused for breath. “We can move the body for you, and do the work if you want.”

“I’ll let you move him, but you’re not doing the work,” Serene said, in her Commander Voice, which was a lot like Jeff’s and Reader’s in timbre.

The agents nodded and moved Maurer into the room, putting him flat on his back. This room was set up inside like an impromptu medical lab, too. Serene and Henry were able to go in, but Ravi couldn’t get the Bluetooth signal through the thick metal, so he stood outside the door and relayed instructions. Fortunately, there was plenty of light, so Henry was able to show his range and hand her implements while also holding bombs.

This was great in that, if Maurer exploded, most of the room would be protected. However, in order for Serene to hear anyone, the door was opened toward the rest of Hacker International, Chernobog, and a ton of equipment.

Tried not to wonder if this was worth it or not. Forced myself to believe that Serene would be able to get herself and Henry out, and the door closed, before everything blew up. Figured this was how Reader had felt about all of us for this entire day. Made a mental note to ask Pierre to send him a gift basket with chocolates and spa certificates should we all survive.

This train of thought wasn’t helping my mental state at all. So, while Serene, Chernobog, and the rest went back to work or kibitzing, depending, I went back to thinking and pretending I wasn’t watching a game of High-Stakes Operation.

We’d countered every move thrown against us so far. But the other side had also bounced back from our counterattacks. Whatever happened with Maurer, Cleary had already given us an out by saying that Maurer was quitting because he was ill, which seemed oddly wrong.

“What is it?” Jeff asked me in a low voice. “You’re worried, but not just about what Serene’s doing.”

“Well, if we, hopefully, don’t blow up, I’m indeed worried about other things.”

“About what?”

“About everything. Because it’s been too easy.”