Universal Alien (39 page)

C
ONVENIENTLY,
my team was with me, so when the curved wall and its surrounding floor started to move, both men grabbed one of my arms, just in case. Our part of the floor started to sink as we turned, thankfully slowly, in a clockwise direction.

“Better hurry up and come along if you're coming,” I called to Cantu. Figured the commandos could do whatever.

“Follow them!” Cantu barked, as he trotted over and jumped down to join us. Cox caught and steadied him.

The commandos followed, but none of my team bothered to try to steady them. A couple of them bounced off the wall, but no one seemed hurt.

“How did you know?” Cantu asked.

“When all other options have been eliminated, the last choice, no matter how bizarre or right out of the movies it may seem, is the only option. Plus, I have a rule—I always go with the crazy. So far, it's never let me down.” Handed the projector to Cox. “I think if we put that down we go back up.” He nodded.

Turned to the nearest commando. “So, I understand you boys don't like following a female leader.”

“No offense,” he said, with offense definitely in his tone.

“Huh. You have some big guns and such there. Can I hold one?”

He sniggered, pulled a weapon I knew to be extremely heavy, and handed it to me. “Sure.”

“Awesome.” Took the gun without any issue. All the commandos looked shocked. “Yeah, I'm a lot stronger than I look. And you're a bunch of misogynistic assholes.” Slammed the butt of this gun into the commando's stomach. He buckled. Held the gun in my right hand, grabbed him by his throat with my left hand, and practiced Commando Bowling by tossing him at his buddies as hard as I possibly could.

“Wow, got a strike. Left handed, too. I've still got it.”

“Uh, why did you do that?” Cantu asked nervously.

Considered my options. Pulled off my mask and shot him a look I hoped was channeling Mom's most intimidating stare. My hair looking crazy bad could, in this instance, only help. Based on the way Cantu backed up, it worked.

“Because I am in charge and every asshole on this platform had better accept that, right now, or I'm going to beat the crap out of them and throw them up into that room we were just in, so that they don't endanger me and my far more awesome team.
Capisce
?”

The commandos nodded as they slowly got to their feet. “You take that suit off and try to tell us what to do,” the one whose gun I had muttered.

Went over to him. “I would, but I'm not as stupid as you.” Used my fist to give him an uppercut. He went down and out. “My team, strip him of all his gear. Do it fast.”

The other commandos looked like they wanted to intervene. Pointed the big gun at them. “Try me. I'm pissed, and you're not my boys. Frankly, you're hired guns, meaning that the next person to offer you more money gets your loyalty. I have no idea what the C.I.A.'s paying these days, but I'll just bet it's not what a Bond Villain can cough up.”

Missed Jeff something fierce. He'd have been able to tell what these guys were feeling and know if their entire plan was to get Cantu inside, hand him over to Cliff, and then take a bigger payday.

However, having spent the last several years with people who truly could not lie, I'd gotten exceptionally adept at spotting signs and tells—hanging with A-Cs was a master class in this, and considering how often the people around me passed little signs back and forth, I was an expert at spotting the most minute of reactions. And all the signs and tells were there. I'd hit their nail right on their heads—they were planning to turn as fast as the money came in.

“All done,” Alfred said.

It wasn't a large room, and my guys were near the commandos. Literally right on cue four of them grabbed Cox and Alfred.

“Now, let's talk,” the fifth one said, as he produced a gun and pointed it at me.

“Oh, blah, blah, blah. Let's not and say we did, okay?” I was mad as hell, and just wasn't going to take it anymore.

Stripes was pissed, too. He leaped for the commando's face while I hit the forearm holding the gun down and away. Felt and heard the satisfactory sound of bone breaking. As Stripes landed, I slammed my foot up and into the guy's groin. As he crumpled, cat still going to town, I tossed my big gun up in the air, jumped up to grab the faces of the two commandos holding Cox, and slammed them back into the wall, hard. As they both went down, did the same with the two holding Alfred. Caught the gun as it came down and pointed it at the guy Stripes was mauling.

“Good kitty, come to Mommy.” Stripes hissed one last time, then jumped back onto my shoulder. “Yo, dude, I want some answers, and I want them now.” He groaned. I stepped on his foot. Hard. He yelped. “There we go. Who are you working for?”

“No one,” he managed. “I mean, we're working for him,” he nodded toward Cantu, “but we were going to see if the drug lord was open to paying us more.”

Looked at Cantu. “You told them you were after a drug lord?”

He nodded. “I had to go outside of the Agency because I truly don't know who we can trust anymore. It's easier to get mercenaries to go after drug lords than Agency moles.”

“My God. You know, when this is over, you really need to have a session with Charles, James, and Malcolm, especially Malcolm, wherein you spend a lot of time listening and learning and they spend a lot of time telling you how to actually survive in the field.” Turned to Alfred. “You have zip ties and duct tape in your bag of Q Tricks?”

He nodded proudly. “I do. Duct tape is the best thing this planet has ever invented.”

“Really, that's not one of yours?”

“No, but it's one of my favorite things.” He produced a big role of tape and a handful of zip ties.

“You rock. Okay, my boys, strip 'em and tie 'em up. I want them all down to their skivvies and said skivvies searched. These are people I'm generously not going to kill,” looked at my lone conscious commando, “though I really want to, but we don't want them having a hope of getting free.”

Alfred did the stripping at hyperspeed, Cox did the tying up. Being the Sidekick, he also got stuck with the Skivvy Check, but since he was still wearing his weird mask, I couldn't see his expression. His reactions said that this was potentially the most unpleasant thing he'd had to do in a long time. Probably was.

“Alfred, am I right in that you want to keep your mask off to see what's on your Screen O' Wonder?”

“Yes but, under the circumstances, I think I'll put it on just in case.”

“Wise man.” Put my mask back on as well. “Esteban, you're kind of screwed in the protective department. However, we now have a lot of Kevlar for you to choose from. Find the stuff that fits you the best and put it on. Now. Oh, and that's an order, not a suggestion.”

Proving he was far smarter than his hired muscle, Cantu did as requested. He found a vest and got it on just as the slowest hidden elevator in the world stopped moving. Had a feeling all of this was setup so that Cliff could have his killer sharks with lasers all primed and ready.

But instead, what we were treated to was another hallway. This one had a light at the end. Figured it was going to be a freight train. “Okay, Esteban, if they have Kevlar pants, you want those as well.”

“Just the vests,” Cox shared. “What do we do with all their weapons?”

“Carry what we can, empty all chambers, take any extra ammo with us.”

“I can carry it,” Alfred said to Cox. “I have room in my bag.”

“It's going to be pretty heavy,” Cox said uncertainly.

“I'll let you know if it's too much for me,” Alfred replied.

“Take any and all knives, because I truly don't want these guys getting free.” Picked up the projector from where Cox had put it down and examined it. Looked like a regular projector. Put it in the doorway so that, should this elevator try to go up, we'd at least have a shot of hearing the projector get destroyed as an early alert.

Cox handed me a plethora of knives. “I have all I can carry and Alfred's bag is full.”

“Wow, Esteban, at least you're getting your money's worth in terms of weaponry.” Stashed the knives in my purse. I still had the big gun because I liked it. Maybe I'd even fire it, though I was enjoying using it as a blunt instrument.

“So,” Cantu said, “what do we do now?”

“I love a man who can learn. Now we creep down the hallway, weapons at the ready, looking for traps and such, and expect to find bad things trying to kill us at the end. Or, as I like to call it, routine.”

“O
KAY,”
Cantu said, “what I expected. Since you've incapacitated the people I would have sent first, who's leading?”

“Me.” Hey, none of the guys I worked with normally were here to shove me behind them, Jeff in particular. And the person with both hyperspeed and field experience should be going first anyway. “And I'm not going to apologize for incapacitating our potential cannon fodder. They're less of a danger to us this way.”

“I'm not arguing, and since you've broken right through that glass ceiling, lead on, Missus Reynolds.”

We headed out me first with Stripes on my shoulder, my purse over my neck, and a gigantic gun in my hands. Then came Cantu, Cox, and Alfred bringing up the rear. Would have preferred Cox back there, but I still wasn't sure that we could trust Cantu, so wanted Cox keeping an eye on him.

Showing that I could be taught, I looked carefully for tripwires and such as we moved forward at a snail's pace. Sure, I wanted to run in and save everyone, but I knew better. The Cliff here didn't know me, but he'd clearly memorized the Bond Villains' Guide to Wealth and Power and I didn't want to fall into the shark tank simply because I'd been too eager to engage.

Alfred's goggles were the greatest here. Not only could I see, but I could actually spot the areas on the walkway that had pressure plates on them without having to use Alfred's Super Duper Smarty-Pants Phone. Meaning the plates weren't as hidden as the elevator mechanism had been. Had no idea what this meant, so chose not to worry about it.

We were able to inch around or jump over all of the traps, though there were a couple where Cantu and Cox couldn't have done it without me and Alfred assisting. Hoped we wouldn't have to run back the way we'd come, because I wasn't sure I could spot and avoid these again, especially if I was going fast.

As we neared the doorway I could hear sounds. In addition to my improved hearing, the earpieces definitely made distant sounds easier to hear. So I could make out that people were talking.

Got a little closer and I could confirm the voices—Cliff, LaRue, and Chuckie. This boded, not that everything hadn't boded already.

Reached the point where I could hear clearly, which was conveniently right before another pressure plate, which was placed about twenty feet from the door. Put my hand up and everyone behind me stopped moving. The doorway was at one end of the next room, because all I could see was the wall on the left, which had nothing much to mark it as interesting, and the far wall, which had a lot of scientific-looking stuff, but nothing that I could identify. I couldn't see anyone, but I could indeed hear them.

“They're taking forever to get here,” LaRue said. “Make one of them scream and maybe they'll hurry up.”

“Leave my family alone,” Chuckie snarled.

“Oh, Cantu and his men will be along shortly,” Cliff said. He sounded incredibly smug. “And, really, Chuckie-boy, there's nothing you can do for yourself, let alone your adorable little moppets here. I'm just sorry that your wife was off having an affair behind your back and so is going to miss all this.”

“Keep away from her, too,” Chuckie said.

“Oh, we'll find her,” LaRue said. “If you're lucky, we'll find her with her boyfriend and you can watch her choose saving him over you.”

Wondered if they'd somehow found me and seen me meet up with Cox. However, from what Chuckie had said to me, it was clear that he and Other Me had some trust issues based on his secret career. So this was probably just the bad guys going for a weakness, not them having any clue about reality.

“You're both so full of shit,” Buchanan said.

“You're just jealous that she's not screwing you,” Cliff said.

“Can I give the kids some candy while you all argue?” a woman asked, with sarcasm dripping. Recognized who was speaking—Bernie. Meaning that Cliff and Company had attacked the Israelis to get their assassins back, and had scored my family and friends in the process.

Rage could be a bad thing if uncontrolled, but I'd learned that it was my friend. The more enraged I was, the more my A-C talents worked exactly as I wanted them to. Christopher had spent a lot of time working with me on being able to bring up the skills when I wasn't mad, but he'd never had to help me when Rage was riding along as my copilot. And Rage was now with me in full force.

“You're a mean, ugly lady,” Jamie said defiantly. “Our mommy's going to come and make you sorry.”

“This is a bad time for you to act like a normal kid,” Bernie snapped. Heard the sound of someone getting slapped and then heard Jamie start to cry softly. “I say we kill this little bitch first. I'd like to kill someone or something, after what they did to us. And she does look just like her mother, so that would be extra satisfying.”

“Stop hurting my sister, you big bully!” Max shouted. This earned him a slap, too, but he didn't cry.

“You're going to be sorry,” Charlie said defiantly. I could tell he was terrified, but he was still being brave. Was so proud of all three of them. “You can hit me all you want but you're still going to lose.” Yet another slap. If I thought I'd hated Bernie before, it was nothing compared to how I hated her now.

“Leave my children alone,” Chuckie said, and I could tell his teeth were gritted. “You want to hurt someone? Hurt me, not helpless children.”

Heard the unmistakable sound of someone being punched in the gut. “How was that?” This was from Raul. At least, I thought it was Raul. He sounded kind of slurred and as if his teeth were gritted even more than Chuckie's.

“You're
so
brave,” Reader said.

“No, just returning the favors you gave us earlier,” another man said. Was positive it was Lopez. Heard another punch being handed out and heard Reader shout. It was a
kiai
though, so hopefully that meant he wasn't badly hurt.

“Can I hit the other one, just to make it fair?” Sanchez asked as I heard Buchanan make the “ooof” sound associated with getting punched in the gut. Goody, the Evil Gang was all here. And, just possibly, they didn't have any hostages other than those I'd heard.

How Dad, Aunt Carla, Caroline, and Pierre, let alone everyone else, had escaped capture I had no idea. Chose to believe they'd escaped, as opposed to the alternative, which was that they'd already been killed in the attack. Rage said that it was going to focus on the latter option, just because it made Rage want to sing the song of its people. And that song sounded a lot like
Kill 'Em All
, which was also a great album from Metallica. Shared with Rage that I felt we should both “Seek and Destroy.” Rage gave me a high five.

“Stop playing around,” Cliff said, sounding bored. “Plenty of time for that later. We need everyone here so that we can finish this once and for all with no loose ends. We're ready to roll out my master plan, so I want to be sure that all the t's are crossed and all the i's are dotted.”

“The woman, she's not normal,” Lopez said. “You can't forget about her.”

“Oh, we haven't,” LaRue said. “But, really, she's the least of our worries right now. However, you can check and see what's going on with our visitors. It's taking them far too long to show up.”

“Nothing's been triggered,” Cliff said. “Stop worrying. They're probably just trying to figure out where to go, since there's all of one way.”

Realized what Cliff's weakness was—he'd spent too long being the smartest. He had the person he viewed as his only rival captured and essentially helpless, and that was making him sloppy.

However, this was a chess game. And the thing I'd learned about chess was that even when your opponent seemed overconfident, it could actually be a ruse to make you foolhardy.

So it could easily be that Cliff knew we were in the hall and was baiting us. Because Lopez didn't come to the doorway. Meaning the assassins had told them about me and what I'd done to them. Meaning that all the boyfriend crap was to bait me into racing in there to protest that I was a good, faithful wife.

There had been a grate in the first room, too high up to investigate. However, there could easily have been a camera up there, meaning that Cliff knew that all of us were here. And he also knew we were weaponized in some way.

But all the assassins really knew was that I was hella strong. And while Alfred had used hyperspeed while we were in the room, what it would show on camera is him suddenly having a duffel where he'd had nothing before. Meaning that Cliff might think we possessed some sort of super attractor or had had the duffel camouflaged.

In this world, there were no superheroes, after all. Just Alfred, who'd spent decades hiding, and me. They didn't know what hyperspeed was, because humans couldn't see someone going as fast as the two of us could. And there was no way any human would be able to see me going at Full Rage Level. And since Bernie had slapped Jamie, I'd gone well beyond that level of rage.

Put the big gun down carefully, took Stripes off my shoulder, and handed him carefully to Cox. “There's a pressure plate two steps away,” I said in the softest whisper I could. Cox and Alfred both nodded. Cantu opened his mouth and I put my hand over it. “Beyond that I'm not sure. Stay here and don't come in unless it's obvious that I need you.”

Really wanted to hear some music. Didn't think I could take the time to dig out the iPod. But Alfred had said the transmitters worked via our brainwaves. Concentrated. For this kind of battle, I wanted the song I'd used when I'd taken out the former Diplomatic Corps in the Parisian dungeon.

The sounds of Tina Turner's “Steel Claw” started up. Amazing. No wonder Alfred had every patent in his name in our world—he was a freaking miracle worker.

Picked up my big gun. Then, Tina rocking in my ears, I took a deep breath, jumped over the pressure plate, and kicked my hyperspeed up to eleven.