Alien in Chief (11 page)

CHAPTER 20

“A
MY?”
Evalyne sounded confused. “Why?”

“Because Amy is still fighting with the Gaultier board, and I think Somerall called to ‘tell' me about Lizzie because he's going to have someone attack Amy and try to put the blame on Lizzie.”

“It's very possible,” Chuckie said. “Especially because all the earlier attacks were perpetrated by a woman.”

“A much older woman,” Jeff said.

“Honestly, Huntress is wearing a mask. She could be any age.”

“I'm not here to kill anyone!” Lizzie sounded freaked out and scared, and I couldn't blame her.

I still had my arm around her and I hugged her again. “We know. But this is how our enemies work. And, under the circumstances, once we know what kind of surveillance that's in our home that we don't want, you're going to give me more of that story your father didn't want me to hear.”

“Okay,” she said quietly. “You can check my stuff that Pierre had picked up. There's nothing bad in it.”

“I'm sure there isn't,” Jeff said. “Because it was already searched before it was brought into our apartment.”

“Speaking of which, I haven't heard the melodious sounds of animal howling, so I assume our apartment hasn't been searched yet.”

Manfred, one of the A-C troubadours who was a part of my extended security detail whenever we left the Embassy, zipped over. “You're right, Ambassador. The Embassy has been searched, and Dulce has done scans, but due to the animals, we've saved your apartment for last. So far, we haven't found anything untoward.”

“Then, barring us finding all the bugs in the main apartment suite, how did Somerall know she's here,” Phoebe asked, nodding her head toward Lizzie.

“Saw us on the roof maybe?”

Evalyne shook her head. “I know why they want you to meet up there—unless someone's watching with a high-powered scope or in aircraft overhead, your roof is a good hiding place.”

Buchanan grunted. “Sheridan Circle.”

“You think there's someone in the trees?” I asked him.

“There was when the assassins weren't on your side, Missus Chief. More than once.”

“Operation Assassination was exciting, wasn't it? But could someone really see on top of our roof from the treetops?”

Buchanan looked at Manfred, who nodded. “We'll go check it out right now, Mister Buchanan.”

“Taking me with you,” he said. “Everyone else needs to stay put. And have Walter put the shields on, Missus Chief.”

“Already done,” Rob said. “So we'll advise him that you're going out.”

Buchanan nodded then he and Manfred disappeared, literally, thanks to hyperspeed. Hyperspeed was hard on humans, but Tito had created a Super Dramamine that controlled the effects. Every human on staff in the Embassy took it daily, as did most of our human agents worldwide. So Buchanan wouldn't be barfing his guts out in two seconds when they reached Sheridan Circle across the street from the Zoo. Unless he wanted to, of course.

Thinking about this reminded me of Cliff tossing his
cookies earlier. “I wonder if he was coming to see if Lizzie was here.”

“Who?” Jeff asked, while Rob talked quietly to Walter. Rob could have used the internal communications system but the Secret Service really seemed to enjoy their phones, earpieces, and lapel and wrist mics, and who was I to steal all their fun?

“Cliff,” Chuckie said, without snarling, which was impressive. “Maybe. We certainly can't rule it out, especially considering she'd only been here a short while when he arrived.”

“Yeah, and we need to make sure that Siler knows that Somerall and whoever his ‘friends' are know Lizzie's real name.”

“They do?” She sounded freaked out, not that I could blame her.

“Yes, Somerall told me our murderous juvenile delinquent was named Elizabeth Jackson.”

“Can I send my dad a text?” she asked.

“Only if we see it,” Chuckie said. “I'd really suggest you wait. This information is unlikely to be an issue for your father, and you're safe for the time being. We have other things we need to focus on.”

“Okay.” Lizzie didn't sound like she thought it was really okay. I hugged her again.

“So, now what?” Jeff asked Chuckie.

“Now we wait for what Buchanan finds.”

“I say we go in and get our apartment searched while we wait.” Everyone looked at me and I shrugged. “Either we find bugs or we find none. But I have two Junior Ambassadors who need to get to bed.”

“I agree with Kitty,” Jeff said, possibly because Charlie was yawning.

“Let us go in first, please, Mister Vice President,” Joseph said, as “Keep It Together” from Puddle of Mudd hit our airwaves.

“You know, I thought we'd broken all of you from the formality.”

“Not when danger's around,” Evalyne said with a quick smile. Phoebe was still holding Jamie and Lizzie had Charlie. And Jeff and I had hyperspeed, meaning that if someone was lurking somehow in our apartment, then we could avoid them or just take them out like we did in the good old days of not all that long ago.

While the animals were used to A-Cs and other Embassy personnel coming in regularly to walk them and ensure that they had what they needed food- and water-wise, they had to know a bunch of us were right outside in the hallway, and that meant they were probably worked up and ready for action of some kind, even if that action was just bowling over everyone who came through the door with love and demands for attention.

Jeff took my hand, so I knew he'd read what I thought we should do. “Nope.” Then he kicked up the hyperspeed and got us into our apartment in less than a second. We did a fast room check. Lots of fur and feathers—though not all the fur that we'd be getting shortly—no untoward humanoids. While I greeted our First Line of Animal Defense, Jeff went to the front door and opened it. “Come on in and check whatever.”

We had four dogs—Dudley the Great Dane, Duke the Labrador, Duchess the Pit Bull, and Dottie the Dalmatian—and they all wanted pets and praise for having guarded things so very well.

And, as Lizzie walked in, all four dog heads turned toward her. She was still holding Charlie and I worried for a moment that the dogs wouldn't like this.

Duchess bounded over and Lizzie froze. Duchess sniffed her all over, then jumped up and licked Lizzie right on the face. Charlie laughed and Duchess licked him, too. Then the other three dogs raced over to do their own versions of sniff and lick.

Jeff retrieved Charlie from Lizzie. “Feel free to go wash up,” he said. “All the dog licking can take some getting used to.”

“It just means they like her,” I pointed out.

“Good,” she said with feeling. “I wouldn't want the four of them mad at me.”

“Oh, you haven't seen anything yet. Trust me.”

“You have more pets?” Lizzie asked as she headed for a room one down from Jamie's, which was where I presumed Pierre had assigned her. “Jamie wasn't just talking about her stuffed animals?”

“You have no idea,” Jeff said as the others came in and the A-Cs started their standard hyperspeed searches.

Lizzie stopped in her doorway and backed slowly toward the living room. “I don't think they want me in here.”

Went to her room to see which animals were in there. Because we had lots of animals in the apartment with us. And when I say “lots,” I mean “more than you could easily count.” And all the animals I'd been expecting to be brought up from the Zoo not sixty seconds ago were in here, too, somehow. Though I had a good guess for the “how”—hyperspeed or temporal warps—as well as the “some”—Poofs or Peregrines.

Other than some people's assigned Peregrines, the Alpha Four Royal Protector Birds that looked like peacocks and peahens on steroids but could, like Siler, go chameleon, all the other Peregrines roomed with us.

We'd worried, way back when, that the Peregrines weren't going to go forth and multiply. As Jeff put it now, how silly we were to think their moratorium on reproduction would last. While we didn't have as many Peregrines as we had Poofs, there were plenty of them now. Thankfully, they used the toilet, literally, as opposed to messing up the Embassy or the Zoo.

We also had my parents' cats in addition to their dogs and all the Poofs that were ours and any that were
unattached. And we now also had ocellars and chochos, Beta Eight animals that had come home with us. And those were the animals that were normally delivered to our rooms at bedtime and by A-Cs assigned to the task.

Ocellars looked like a caracal-fox combo, and chochos were essentially pigdogs. The ocellar Ginger and chocho Wilbur had attached to me during Operation Civil War and they, along with a set of their fellow breeds, had come home with us. They did make the animal exhibit portion of the Zoo more interesting, so there was that. And they, like the other animals, were good protection. However, none of the animals slept in the Zoo. When not “on exhibit” they were with us. Literally.

And they were all in Lizzie's room.

CHAPTER 21

F
ORTUNATELY,
the rooms in the Embassy were large, but even so, there was a lot of concentrated Animal Kingdom in here.

“Huh. Who brought you all in from the Zoo?” Got a shot of the Sea of Animal Innocence look from all of them. “So, was it Poofs or Peregrines who brought the chochos and ocellars over? And stop trying to lie to Kitty, it's not appreciated in the least.”

Now I got some chagrined animal looks and the acknowledgment that, yes, since we had someone new living with us, they all wanted to pass judgment.

And I knew this, just as I'd known what the K-9 dogs were thinking, because, among the many weird and wonderful things that had happened to me over the past few years, I'd become Dr. Doolittle and could talk to the animals. All the animals. And all the animals had wanted to be here, just in case.

“And, your thoughts?” No one other than Lizzie was looking at me like I was crazy because they were all used to it, even the A-C Field agents I could see using the slow version of hyperspeed—that always sounded like an oxymoron but wasn't—in order to get around the animals safely and still do their search and seizure stuff.

One of the unattached Poofs bounded over and jumped
onto Lizzie's shoulder. “Ah, is this little
fofo
dangerous?” she asked.

The Poof purred. Loudly.

“Um, Lizzie? What does ‘
fofo
' mean?” I had a guess, of course, that it indicated something cute in some way.

“Fluffy. In Portuguese. Why?”

“She's okay, I see,” Jeff said with a sigh.

“Yep. You're Poof Approved, Lizzie. And, meet your new Poof, now named Fofo.”

Lizzie's eyes opened wide. “Really? It's mine?” She looked excited for a moment, then her face fell. “I can't have pets. Mister Dash says we can't have a living creature dependent upon us who can be hurt, used against us, or who we'll have to dump off somewhere in case we have to—” She stopped herself and looked down.

“Run,” Jeff gently finished for her. “But you're in luck. Poofs are . . . different.”

“And once you name it, and the Poofs tend to choose their own names, it's yours for life. Trust me, it'll be a great pet, and possibly the only pet you can have that can disappear whenever needed, find you pretty much anywhere, and protect you, too, when necessary.” And now I had a good guess as to what country Lizzie's School for Gifted and Wealthy Minors was in.

“It's okay, Lizzie,” Jamie said reassuringly. “Fofo wants to be your Poof. That's why the animals are here—they wanted to welcome you home.”

We all looked at Jamie. “Ah, home?” Jeff asked.

Jamie nodded. “Isn't Lizzie going to live here forever?”

There was something in how Jamie was asking this that made me really think about my reply. “We haven't really discussed it, Jamie-Kat. But we will, okay?”

“Okay. Lizzie, you can have some of the animals sleep with you if you'll feel better.” This was a generous offer—Jamie normally insisted on all the animals who weren't on duty elsewhere or who hadn't taken up residence with
others in the Embassy all sleep with her. Ergo, there were a lot of animals in her room every night. Not as many as before Charlie's arrival, but thankfully Jamie had been willing to share.

Well, she'd been grudgingly willing to share after Jeff and I had explained that Charlie was allowed to have his own Poof and other animals who favored him. That Jamie was offering animals to Lizzie without prompting said a lot about how much Jamie liked Lizzie already.

We used this as a segue to getting Jamie and Charlie into bed. Charlie was in the nursery attached to our bedroom and Jamie was in the room next door, otherwise known as the Shrine to Pink, which was her favorite color in the world. Charlie hadn't indicated any color preferences yet, but I figured that was just a matter of time.

While Jamie got ready for bed—being a
big
girl and not a
baby
like her little brother, at least as she'd announced a couple of months ago—Jeff and I tucked Charlie in and did with him as we'd done with Jamie. We sang songs and made sure that he was happily asleep before we left his room, baby monitor on.

Of course, he had animals in the room with him, a sampling of all we had. The dogs and chochos had doggie beds, the cats and Poofs had cat trees I called Poof Condos and we'd gotten some bigger ones to make into Ocellar Condos, and the Peregrines had bird hammocks. Charlie had one set of Peregrines, one Poof Condo where his Poof, so far unnamed as far as anyone other than Charlie knew, Sugarfoot the cat, and an assortment of other Poofs slept, plus Duchess, two chochos, and two ocellars, who mixed it up and shared a doggie bed in between the chochos and the pit bull.

Well, they slept there when Charlie wasn't in the room. When he was, it was Snuggle Fest Time on his bed.

That anyone could walk in the nursery was a miracle, and Jamie's room was even worse. She had most of the rest
of the unattached Poofs as well as her own Poof, Mous-Mous, and the cats Candy and Kane, all hanging out in several Poof Condos, a variety of ocellars in their Condos, the rest of the dogs and four chochos, all in doggie beds, and at least six Peregrines snoozing in hammocks.

Fortunately, all Embassy rooms were huge. Even so, we'd had to expand Jamie's room by breaking out a wall and combining two bedrooms into one. This was handled by the Operations team, meaning Algar, and had taken about five minutes. Leaving us with merely something like half a dozen other bedrooms of large size.

Once our room was, like the rest of the Embassy, declared free of bugs and surveillance we didn't want, we did our regular nighttime ritual with Jamie, which happily still consisted of singing songs to her, also now included the reading of a couple of bedtime stories, and definitely included the Parade of Animal Love. However, there were a few animals missing.

Once Jeff and I had finished up and kissed Jamie goodnight several times, I checked on Lizzie's room. Sure enough, there were a couple of Peregrines already in their hammocks, a chocho in a dog bed, and a Poof Condo with several Poofs and an ocellar in it.

“I'd ask when I started living in a real zoo,” Jeff said as we headed back to the living room, “but I already know.”

“They're loyal and they love us.”

“Oh, I'm not complaining, baby. Much.”

In addition to Lizzie—who was petting the Poof in her lap—Chuckie, Len, Kyle, Raj, Joseph, Rob, Evalyne, and Phoebe were waiting for us. “It's still a party. Yay.” Looked around. “Where's Malcolm and Manfred and the others?”

“Following a lead.” Chuckie was texting on his phone. “They found signs of surveillance exactly where he says he'd found it before.”

“You mean Operation Assassination before?”

“I do.” He looked up from his phone. “Do you think it was Huntress?”

“Honestly? Doesn't seem like her style, though she has to hang out somewhere. And, it could be.” After all, her father had lurked in Sheridan Circle, too, during Operation Sherlock. Maybe it was a family move. If, of course, Stephanie was our Huntress.

“If not her, then who?” Jeff asked.

“The list is so long. For all we know we were being watched to see if Lizzie came to the Embassy. But, you know, Nightcrawler knew what was going on today, including that Denise didn't want the kids and others going on the train trip. As in, he knew that Denise, specifically, didn't want to go. If there aren't any bugs, was he inside the Embassy somehow earlier?”

“Not to my knowledge,” Chuckie said. “But Buchanan doesn't tell me, or anyone else, everything.”

“No,” Lizzie said. “We weren't in here. We were visiting the nice lady across the street.”

“Olga?” I asked to be sure. “You were in the Romanian Embassy?”

She nodded. “Yeah. She told us what was going on. And gave us a lot of food and stuff. Though your mom's brownies are better,” she said to Jeff, which might have been her sucking up or her being honest, based on how great Lucinda's brownies actually were.

Jeff groaned. “What does Olga know that she wants us to know but won't actually come out and say?”

Chuckie rubbed the back of his neck. “I have no guess, and I also don't know if we should be happy she's friends with the assassins or not.”

The adults all shared commiserating looks, but Lizzie giggled. “She said you'd say that. And she said to tell you that she knows you'll figure it out and that everyone should always do their best to have a lot of friends.”

“She
is
the All-Seeing Oracle. So, Lizzie, was there anyone else with you while you were having this visit? I mean aside from you, your father, and my two ‘uncles.'”

“Adriana. She's nice.”

“She is. Anyone else? Anyone at all?”

Lizzie shook her head, then gave a start. “Oh!” She dug into her messenger bag. “Sorry, I totes forgot—she asked me to give you a letter.”

Took the envelope and examined it. There was no name on the outside. Not that weird, Olga was having it hand delivered after all. Opened it up and pulled out a piece of paper.

It was blank.