Alien vs. Alien (36 page)

CHAPTER 64

J
ENNIFER LOOKED PALE.
“What’s in the spaceships isn’t a life form we’re familiar with, but I think there are more parasites than there are spaceships.”

This hadn’t shocked me because their reactions had been textbook for an imageer or empath touching the image of a superbeing. Jeremy pulled some wipes out of his pocket and handed them to William and Jennifer, which was the textbook response from any other A-C around someone who’d touched a superbeing image.

Parasites was the name given to the jellyfish things from outer space that attached to mammals on Earth and turned them into horrific superbeings. My introduction to my new life happened when a superbeing formation occurred right in front of me.

The parasites were attracted to rage, meaning they tended to attach to humans. Superbeings were just that—super, but in a bad way for the Earth in general and humans in particular. Most of them turned into enraged killing machines at the moment of transformation.

They were stoppable, but it took a whole lot of firepower to do it. If the invaders were bringing or driving more parasites toward us, we were in worse trouble than anyone could imagine.

“I thought we’d gotten rid of most of the parasites,” Tito said. “Based on what I’ve learned since joining Centaurion Division, we’ve destroyed hundreds of thousands of these things.”

“They came from a world whose sun went supernova. We have billions of people on this planet—why assume their planet had any less of a population?” Based on the number of parasites heading toward us, I felt confident they’d had a population to rival, or even beat, ours.

“Has anyone contacted Alpha Four?” White asked.

Franklin laughed mirthlessly. “Oh, yes. This is the answer we got back: ‘Until you verify via the proper protocols, we cannot trust your transmissions.’ Signed by King Alexander and Councilor Leonidas.”

“But they sent us the Peregrines.” I looked at Bruno, who looked right back. “Because they don’t trust Earth, necessarily, but they do trust us.” Bruno bobbed his head. “Why don’t you have the proper protocols?” I asked Franklin.

“We aren’t the ones who normally contact Alpha Four.”

The light dawned in a big, bright way. “Oh, crap. The notes that came with the Peregrines—the ‘mutual friend’ Christopher was being warned to protect wasn’t Jeff, it was Chuckie. He’s the one who Alexander and Leonidas trust. So if you take him out, then Alpha Four no longer knows who to talk to.”

“And they’ve been fooled before,” Naomi said.

“Exactly, and by those most likely involved right now. For all they know, Earth has called this invasion force out to take over the Alpha Centauri system.”

“Interesting that you say that,” Franklin said. “Because as of right now, we can’t be sure where this armada is headed. The direction they’re coming from indicates they’re headed for us, but they could easily branch off and head for Alpha Centauri, or even divide and attack both solar systems.”

“If the message was sent to Clarence, then somehow LaRue and Ronaldo have made new friends, and they’re the ones dropping by for a visit.”

“We need to be able to prove that,” White said. “Because if it’s not them, then there’s another action being taken against Earth, and that complicates the situation even more than we suspect.”

William and Jennifer were talking quietly, and he had the picture again. He nodded. “Ambassador, we’ve both read the beings inside the ships. It’s difficult, from this distance, because in addition to the distance, what we have is a metal of some kind that we have to read through. So we can’t identify any individuals.”

“But we can pick up generalities,” Jennifer said. “So I can tell you that the minds aren’t mammalian.”

“They feel somewhat familiar,” William said. “But not like anything I’m really used to reading.”

“You two can’t read through these ships, but I know someone who can, especially if he knows where to look and what to look for. We need to get these pictures to Christopher White, faster than immediately.”

“I can’t let these out of my control,” Franklin said. “You’ll have to bring him here.”

“No way. He’s all we’ve got right now. They took Jeff, who Alexander and Leonidas might listen to. If we lose Christopher, then we have no one who’s able to work at the super levels.” And I knew in my gut they’d be after Christopher. The Peregrines had arrived just in time, presumably at the exact moment Alpha Four had determined that the space invaders were absolutely heading for Earth.

“It might not be related,” Abigail said.

“It is. I know it is.” I did. What Jeff called my feminine intuition and my mother called gut reactions said this was all part of LaRue’s plan. She’d been the brains of Operation Confusion—the massive number of distractions that had been doing their evil double duty were classic LaRue. And when they’d escaped in the FTL spaceship they’d conned Alexander out of, they’d gone out of Christopher’s range, meaning far, far away. Who knew what, or whom, they’d found to help them?

Ronaldo was part Yates and, as we’d determined, he was Serene’s older brother, meaning his mother was an A-C, too. But Yates had been a player of the highest order, so there could be a ton of his kids, most likely hybrids, out here. They could be organized—after all, the Al Dejahl organization was back in action.

Yates was also one of the few who’d managed to remain in control of his human side once he’d joined with the Mephistopheles parasite. Meaning Ronaldo probably had that ability, too. For all I knew, White, Lucinda, and Gladys might have it, as well. They were all Yates’ offspring, after all. But whether or not this meant Ronaldo had joined with the parasites or just knew how to control them, I didn’t know. But only someone with experience in controlling them somehow would be able to use them as a strike force.

“What about ACE?” Naomi asked quietly. “He’s connected us to Alpha Four before, and that means of communication has been trusted.”

“This is why he’s been distracted. He can’t help us—he’s already torn.” And ACE had told me as much. ACE was going to guard the Dome. Or die trying. That statement had a lot more impact now that I knew what was coming. “We can’t rely on ACE for this. He’s protecting the only area of the world he can.”

I took the leap, but I took it silently—ACE was protecting what the invaders were after. We were making it easier on him by moving all the goals into one place, but that meant we were focusing more firepower at ACE, too.

Operation Assassination had been a good trial run, but I knew that Reader and Tim were still too untried for the magnitude of what was coming. So was I. We needed the guys who’d managed enemy attacks for over a decade and knew how to do it in their sleep. We also needed the guy who’d likely planned for this eventuality. The bad guys knew it, too, which was why Jeff and Chuckie had been kidnapped.

“How did Valentino get here?” Buchanan asked. “Without anyone noticing, I mean.”

“Tino! Tino! Tino!”

“Yes, Bellie. Seriously, MJO, shut her up. Anyway, Clarence used a gate of some kind. They’re using something like that to move as fast as they are through space. The Alpha Centauri system has faster-than-light travel and they use it, but they also use gate technology to move even faster.”

“Something else works that fast,” Tito said.

“True.” Nothing moved you faster than ACE, and I knew that was what Tito meant—he and I had been part of the team that had taken the Time Warp Express over to Alpha Four during Operation Invasion, after all. “You think they figured out how to reengage their mini-ACE?” I asked him.

“I think it’s a really strong likelihood, yeah. They could have sent Clarence here that way, too, which would mean we’d be unlikely to notice.”

“And we weren’t looking for Clarence,” Naomi said.

“We were supposed to be,” White
replied.

“But why didn’t ACE say something?” Abigail asked.

My conversation with ACE came back to me. “Because whatever it is they’ve got is also sentient and is trying to, I think, confuse ACE, turn him against us, something along those lines. At a higher level than we can understand. And ACE warning us goes against his ‘observe and don’t affect’ programming.”

“From what I’ve heard, ACE struggles with the decision every time he helps us,” Tito added.

“True enough. Look, we have to get these pictures to Christopher. We need to stop flying blind.”

White nodded. “I agree. I’ll take the pictures to him.”

“I need you here. Can’t we just calibrate and toss them through the gate?”

“It’s not a secure method,” White admitted.

“And I say again, I can’t let them leave our control.” Franklin neither looked nor sounded happy. I couldn’t blame him. “It sounds like it would be wiser for us to have him come here, in part because I’m sure we could use his help.”

“We can’t risk Christopher. Period. Right now, he’s the most important person on Earth. At least, if we want to have an Earth left.”

CHAPTER 65

“I
’LL TAKE THEM, SIR,”
Morgan said. “That way, they remain in our control.”

Franklin didn’t look excited. “Are you sure, Captain?” Captain, not Gil. Meaning he was likely going to approve it officially somehow.

“Captains in place!” Bellie squawked. “Captain is good man! Captain can do!”

“Why is that bird talking about Cliff and Esteban?” Morgan asked.

“Excuse me?”

“We were told whose bird she used to be. And the names she just said—Goodman, Cantu. She’s calling them captains. Why?”

The rest of us had heard it in syllables, but Morgan heard what, now that I thought of it, Bellie was probably saying. She called Clarence ‘Tino,’ after all. And, as I thought about it, she’d done Armstrong in two distinct squawks, not one, when greeting the senator.

“Chuckie trusts Cliff.”

“But not Cantu,” Buchanan said. “Rightly.”

“And good man is too wide a term. Everyone keeps on saying Colonel Hamlin is a good man, for example.”

“It’s Hammy time!”

This time we all stared at Bellie. “I have to ask this. While I was in Florida, was Jeff listening to a lot of M.C. Hammer?”

“No,” Tito said. “Not at all.”

“Then Bellie’s certainly heard someone talk about a Hammy.”

“That’s Colonel Hamlin’s nickname,” Franklin said. “At least among his peers and close friends.”

Morgan nodded. “Cliff calls him that, too. When they’re both at ease, I mean.”

“I really want to question the parrot some more, because I just live for bird chats these days, but we have to get the damn pictures to Christopher. Like now.”

Morgan and Franklin debated, but it turned out there were several sets of the pictures, and Franklin had another on hand. There was, of course, the standard, required angst about security breaches, as well as chain-of-command crap. Resolved by my pointing out that we actually were the only people likely able to do anything with the invasion information and the only ones with a prayer of getting Alpha Four on board.

Drama Llama Time over for the moment, I sent a text to Christopher to let him know what was going on and who was coming while White calibrated the gate.

Morgan stepped through. It was no less nauseating to see someone do the slow fade than to experience it. Christopher shared that Morgan was safely in the Dome and that he was calling a high-level meeting. He actually had more of Centaurion Division’s top personnel in the Dome than not, so this made sense.

As we left the bathroom, I asked Franklin the question I should have asked Chuckie during Operation Confusion. “Is there anyone at the C.I.A. we can trust to help us, and help Chuckie, or is it literally him and Centaurion against the world?” It was a shot in the dark that he might know, but I had nothing.

Franklin looked pensive. “Well . . . his superiors like him.”

“How superior?”

“Very superior. He’s well thought of, for a variety of reasons, by those at the very top. Which probably means that anyone at a similar level is angling for his position.”

This I already knew to be true. And Armstrong had confirmed that Chuckie was on the fast track to top levels; a track Cantu had been on before Chuckie had arrived at the C.I.A.’s doors.

“We need C.I.A. help, because we have to figure out what Chuckie’s protocols are so that we can contact Alpha Four. I don’t know if it’s a good idea to call the head honcho, though.” And I figured I’d rather have Mom do that than me. She was so less likely to screw that conversation up. But Mom was busy protecting the President, and, under the circumstances, that seemed vitally important.

Franklin headed for his office. I followed him. He went to his desk and rummaged around. “I was given a packet to review. Haven’t gotten all the way through it yet.” He pulled out a binder that would have given Paul Bunyan a hernia.

“Dude, are you serious? They call that a packet in the Air Force?”

He laughed. “Yes. Hang on, I think there’s something in here about C.I.A. contact.” He thumbed through the Encyclopedia Centaurion while I fretted.

The rest of the gang joined us, Bellie and Bruno included. It was more comfortable in the other room, but no one wanted to lounge around. Everyone looked worried, which I assumed meant everyone felt scared or terrified but weren’t willing to let it show.

“What are we doing to find Chuck and Jeff,” Naomi asked me quietly while Franklin continued his search.

“I don’t know.”

Bruno warbled, and I heard mewling from my purse. Looked inside to see Harlie, Poofikins, and Fluffy, who was Chuckie’s Poof. Bruno warbled again. The Poofs grumbled. Oh, goody, another argument.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and focused on my inner Talk To The Animals Powers. I was able to understand the Peregrines without trying. But I’d had the Poofs longer, so that should count for something. Opened my eyes. “Poofies, may Kitty have a word?”

The Poofs poured out of my purse, settled at my feet, looked up, and gave me their totally focused, adorable attention. There was a blanket of cuteness in front of me, making me think that Harlie had called in reinforcements, and that they all hadn’t been in my purse a few moments ago.

I knelt down. “Thanks. Harlie, does Fluffy know where Jeff and Chuckie are?”

The Poofs mewled and grumbled. Fluffy jumped up and down.

“I see. Can Fluffy
find
Jeff and Chuckie? It’ll require regular animal searching, I think. But I also think I know where to start.”

More Poof mewling. Bruno cawed derisively. Several Poofs growled.

“No fighting. Bruno makes a good point. We’re well beyond DEFCON Worse. We’re at DEFCON Oh My God, and even I don’t know what DEFCON we’re going to hit soon. We need Jeff and Chuckie, very much. We’d need them even if we didn’t love them.”

More Poof mewling and growling. “Yes, noted. But Jeff and Chuckie are more important. Kitty will work on that if you’ll find them.”

Poof purrs. Great. “Okay. Head to the tunnels under the Embassy. Start there and search. They could be farther away, but I think they’re being held closer.”

The Poofs cocked their heads at me.

“Feminine intuition.”

The Poof heads straightened up. I received more purrs.

“Super. Search high and low, and report back as soon as you know anything that might interest Kitty, even if it’s not about Jeff and Chuckie. You all be careful, too. Kitty doesn’t want to lose any Poofies.”

This earned me tremendously loud Poof purrs. All of them snuggled up to me, which was a lot of concentrated cuteness at one go. But I was fine with it and felt a little better afterward.

The Poofs disappeared, and I heard a throat clear behind me. “Ah,” Tito said, “what are you working on for the Poofs?”

“They want me to figure out what’s going on with the supersoldiers.”

“Really.” Tito’s tone was very neutral. “Why is that?”

“Because the Poofs think we’re going to need to use them.” I stood up, ignoring the looks of horror, amusement, and concern on most of the faces looking at me. “Anything yet, Colonel?”

“Here it is,” Franklin said. He was deep into the Encyclopedia Centaurion, so wasn’t paying that much attention to my Dr. Doolittle impersonation. “It’s sort of hidden, but it appears that I’ve found the hierarchy of command for dealing with Centaurion. In all cases, first point of contact is Charles Reynolds. If he’s incapacitated or unavailable, next options are to contact. . . .” His voice trailed off.

We all looked at him. “Who?”

Franklin shook his head. “This can’t be right.” He thumbed through a few more pages in the Book of Bigness. He shook his head again. And looked worried.

“Colonel, may I ask what you’re concerned about?” White asked.

Franklin grimaced. “I expected to see official names or titles—P.T.C.U., head of the C.I.A., the President, even.” Franklin seemed to be talking to himself more than any of us. “Possibly Reynolds’ second in commaÀnd or other underlings.”

Chuckie had a second in command? I knew he had underlings—Len and Kyle were two of them—and he did make calls and have operatives do things like hunt down the Pontifex when he was in danger. But they never interacted with us directly. Ever. And I’d never heard him call one person specifically.

“But the names are not those names?” White asked, managing to sound both polite and unstressed, which was better than I was going to manage.

Franklin was still talking to himself. “Hell, maybe Mort’s name, mine, even. This makes absolutely no sense.”

There was a pointed silence. “Erm, Colonel? What name do you see?”

He looked straight at me. “Stryker Dane.”

I couldn’t help it. I started to laugh.