Alien vs. Alien (42 page)

CHAPTER 76

W
E HUNG UP AND I REJOINED THE OTHERS.
Jamie’s Poof jumped onto my shoulder, rubbed and purred, then disappeared. Hoped it was heading back to Jamie.

Bruno, job done for the moment, went back to his nest in Omega Red’s crap and went right back to sleep. Bruno was clearly an A-C animal and fully on board with the A-C idea of napping anywhere and anytime the opportunity presented itself.

Bellie, being an Earth animal, wasn’t cooperating in that way. However, she and Oliver had obviously bonded, because she was happily snuggling with him and staying mercifully quiet. I’d been given to understand parrots were one-person birds. Clearly Bellie didn’t go in for that sort of nonsense and was of the opinion that she wanted a sugar daddy to nuzzle at all times, regardless of where her cage resided. Worked for me.

The people weren’t napping, which was nice. Abigail gave me the thumbs up, so I assumed this meant Tim was clear on his part of our current Plan O’ Fun. The hackers were hacking, everyone else was looking stressed and concerned, and Tito was holding a box. I looked in it. It was filled with printouts.

“Are you trying to take over the job of doing the light reading?”

“No. We need to get these in for analysis. And it has to be fast analysis. Due to what’s going on, the person who takes these to the Dome needs to be someone Paul, Christopher, and Serene will listen to. Came down to me or Richard. I’m less necessary.”

“Hardly. You’re our medic and chief butt-kicker.”

Tito grinned. “Thanks. But we’re not fighting here, Kitty. And I can get back fast if you need me. We need the information, and you need the A-Cs here focused on something other than analysis.”

He was right, and I knew better than to argue. “Tell Christopher he’s the acting Chief Ambassador right now, because I’m abdicating.”

“Not a good time for jokes,” Abigail said.

“I’m not joking. Jeff’s disappeared, so he’s abdicating, too, or whatever the proper term is for an ambassador who’s been kidnapped and so can’t make any decisions. I’m about to make a call, and when I do, I’m going to get some high-level information. When I get that, I’m going to commit political suicide. Ergo, I’m not the Ambassador any more and am not speaking for American Centaurion in any way.”

White nodded. “That makes sense. I’m not convinced anyone will believe it, however. At least, not anyone who matters.”

Oliver coughed. “I can make one call and get this story onto the front page of the
World Weekly News
. I realize that’s not the same thing as the
Washington Post
, but it’s still a legitimate news outlet, in that sense, and if it’s followed up by an official announcement from other sources, it will indeed be believed.”

“And if you’re right, then you don’t have to resign in reality,” Armstrong added.

“What do you mean?”

He shrugged. “Your mother and Mister Reynolds have been trying to find out how far and deep various connections run. Gaultier, Marling, Yates, Al Dejahl . . . to name only four. These people were connected at the highest levels. Therefore, the P.T.C.U. and the ETD have to be politically careful. You’re distancing yourself so you don’t have to be careful at all. However, if you can prove their suspicions correct, then you’re a hero.”

“Or she’s dead,” Mona said. “Political intrigue is fraught with danger.”

“Everything is fraught with danger right now. I’m not doing the math—how long do we have until the alien armada shows up close enough for people to know or them to hit us?”

“We have no idea how long-range their weapons are,” Franklin said. “But the estimate is that they’ll hit the outskirts of our solar system by late tomorrow.”

“Wow, that’s going to bring new meaning to the term Blue Monday, isn’t it? Okay, do we need to call for a floater gate? It’s a long walk back to Colonel Franklin’s office.”

Hacker International all looked a little shifty suddenly. Franklin noted it, too. “Gentlemen, what are you trying to hide?”

They didn’t seem to want to share. “Guys, seriously, now isn’t the time to hide anything. Now’s the time to come through like heroes. Or, you know, I can just kick you until you talk, which is always nice for working out my stress issues.”

Stryker sighed. “Fine, fine. Keep your feet away from my groin and shins. Chuck had a gate installed here. So he could come and go without anyone at Andrews or the C.I.A. knowing about it.”

“Classic Chuckie. But how did he do that?”

White cleared his throat. “Under the circumstances, once you moved to the Diplomatic Corps, Charles requested a variety of additional security measures, which Paul approved. I’d assume this gate was one of them.”

“Why weren’t we told about this, though?”

White shrugged. “Need to know, and we didn’t.”

“Right,” Stryker said. “So, if you can see it and make it work, go for it.”

“You can’t see it or make it work?”

“You’ve known him how long and you somehow think Chuck trusted us with that information?” Stryker shook his head, obviously dismayed with my naïve nature.

I decided not to spend the time going for a battle of the witty put-downs. Instead, I did what the A-Cs with us were doing—I looked for the gate. Well, all the A-Cs other than Jennifer, who was clearly engrossed in helping Ravi. She seemed intently engrossed, meaning that she was probably giving in to the Dazzler Weakness—brains. Which spelled potentially lucky times for Ravi.

However, we needed to get the gate found and calibrated. Which wasn’t as easy as it sounded. “I don’t see it anywhere in the room,” Naomi said.

“I looked behind all the pizza boxes and other crap, too,” Abigail added.

“Seriously, why aren’t we going for the obvious? Dudes, where’s the bathroom?”

Henry led us to a door behind a bank of large servers. He opened the door. We all stepped back. “Wow. Does the cleaning lady like never come here?”

Henry gave me a dirty look. “It’s fine for our delicate needs.”

“I’m refraining from comment. So I don’t have to breathe. Jeremy, you’re low man on the totem pole. Find the gate.”

The Gower girls, White, and I
backed away. Jeremy shot me a look that said he’d liked me just fine up until now, then stuck his head into the room. He pulled it out fast. “If it’s in there, it’s really hidden well.”

Henry closed the door. “Sorry. Feel free to clean it to your personal requirements.”

“Dude, that would require a self-contained nuke.” I looked around. “Where does Chuckie appear from, when he drops in via Gate Express?”

“No idea,” Henry said. “He sneaks up on us.”

We left the bathroom area. “Yuri, when Chuckie sneaks up on you guys, do you hear him coming from one area more than any other?”

Omega Red seemed to give this consideration. At least, he cocked his head to the right, instead of to the left, which I chose to believe meant he’d stopped thinking about one thing to concentrate on my question.

“I’m not positive. But I believe he comes from the side nearest the bathroom.”

We trooped back to the area. A pseudo wall/hallway was created by the servers, separating the bathroom area from the rest of Hacker Central. But Jeremy said the gate wasn’t in the bathroom.

My brain chose to remind me that NASA Base had apparently had a server box that had contained a dead body instead of computer equipment. “Open the server boxes.”

“No!” Stryker shouted. “Don’t do it!”

CHAPTER 77

W
E ALL FROZE
. “Um, why not, Eddy?”

“You’ll damage everything, including what we’re working on.”

We all relaxed somewhat. “Fine. Thanks for the total freak-out—we hadn’t had one of those in, what, a minute, minute and a half? Besides, one of these things is not like the others.” I listened at each one. They all hummed as though they had computer stuff going on inside them. I touched them. All felt warm or hot, depending.

I noted something—this room wasn’t freezing cold. “Eddy, how are the big servers kept from overheating? This room doesn’t feel like a meat locker.”

“Individual cooling units directly above and below the servers.”

“Jeremy, you’re tall. See which server top doesn’t seem ice cold.”

He checked the top of each server. “All seem cold, all have air conditioning ducts directly over them, and all ducts are blowing cold air.

I sighed to myself. Someone was going to have to check out the floor level. I knew who that someone was going to end up being. Always the way.

I got down on my hands and knees and carefully put a hand under each server. Naturally, it wasn’t until I reached the server closest to the wall that it didn’t feel cold. “I may have it. Let’s open this sucker up.”

“Kitty, if you’re wrong, you slow us down or worse,” Stryker said. In a normal tone this time. How refreshing.

“Eddy, if I’m right, I speed us up a lot.” I stood up. There was a panel back here. Hit it with my hand, then jumped back. Hey, the last time I’d done that, a dead body had fallen onto me.

This time, however and thankfully, nothing fell out. The back panel did pop open, though, silently. The door had equipment attached to it, but it was obviously there to make noise and warmth, because the server was empty inside. Well, empty if you were looking with human eyes. “I’ve found the gate.”

White calibrated while Tito and his big box of papers joined us. “What do you want me to tell everyone?” he asked as White stepped out of the server box and indicated it was ready to go.

“The truth. Make sure they’re focused on figuring out how to control the superbeings, supersoldiers, and androids. Beyond that, I’m open to suggestions.”

He nodded. “We’ll manage, Kitty. We had just as much bad going on when I joined up, and we handled it. We’ll do it again.”

“God, I love your optimism.”

Tito grinned. “One of us has to look on the bright side.”

“Will you check on Jamie and make sure she’s okay? Not missing me or Jeff too much? Not worried? That’s she’s been fed and changed and—”

“Kitty,” Tito interrupted me gently. “She’s fine. Your father’s there, Amy’s there, Alfred and Lucinda are there, right?” I nodded. “Plus the rest of the Embassy staff. She’s in good hands. But I promise I’ll make a hundred percent sure she’s fine.”

“Thanks, Tito.”

“No problem. She’s my patient, remember. That means I have to watch out for her, too.” He stepped through the gate. The slow fade was still icky to watch.

“Christopher confirms Tito’s there,” Naomi said. “Glad our phones still work.”

“Oh, they’ll knock them out soon enough. They know how dependent we are on telecommunications.”

“Well, let’s hope they don’t do that before we find what you’re looking for,” Henry said.

“Speaking of which, where do we actually start digging?” Big George asked. “A direction, any direction, would be helpful.”

Armstrong cleared his throat. “Gaultier Enterprises would be where I’d recommend. As well as determining the whereabouts of Esteban Cantu and Colonel Hamlin.”

“Titan Enterprises, too, along with anything related to Antony Marling.” I gave them the spelling. “And the Pentagon. Search anything related to Madeline Cartwright. Oh, and lest we forget, anything related to Ronald Yates.”

“Most of those people are dead,” Stryker pointed out.

“Yeah. ’Cause all those dead people pissed me off, tried to kill people I love, and also tried to take over the world.”

Hacker International turned as one, Ravi included, hell, Omega Red included, and stared at me. “Kitty, are you saying you killed all of them?” Stryker asked carefully.

“I killed Yates. Christopher actually killed Gaultier. Adriana killed Cartwright. And Marling killed himself.”

“Oh. So, you’ve only killed one bad guy?” Henry asked nervously.

“No, I’ve killed more. Leventhal Reid and Howard Taft, for example. Well, really, Jeff killed Reid.” I considered. “I think I’m losing count.” Hacker International all looked mildly terrified. “So, um, get to work.” They flung themselves back to their tasks at hand.

“Found Esteban Cantu through GPS in his cell phone,” Omega Red said shortly. “He’s in his home. Same with Colonel Marvin Hamlin. He’s in his residence.”

“Bet you fifty bucks their phones are home but they aren’t.”

“We don’t have surveillance in their residences,” Omega Red shared. “So I have no way of knowing.”

“I can’t ask for an A-C field team to investigate; they’re all deployed.”

“Search for
alternate signatures,” Franklin said. “I’ll send people to both locations.”

He made the call while I tried not to fret, drum my fingers, or tap my foot. Human speeds really lacked a certain something when time was of the essence.

“Yuri, track Hamlin from Friday. That’s the day he disappeared.”

“I saw Esteban this morning,” Armstrong said.

“Track Cantu from today, then.”

“Oh, yes, no problem,” Omega Red said under his breath.

“I heard that, and good.” A thought occurred. I sent a text to Lorraine. She replied quickly in the affirmatived. I went to Omega Red. “Yuri, put the addresses up on screen.” He did as requested. I sent them to Lorraine. “Colonel, tell your people to expect some Alpha Centaurion agents to be joining them. They’ll probably be at the locations, searching, by the time your teams arrive.”

“I thought all Field teams were deployed.”

I shrugged. “They are. But in times of war, we let the gals help out.”

“Do you mean what I suspect you mean, Missus Martini?”

“You know it, Mister White. Lorraine and Claudia just promoted some of the younger female A-Cs who want to expand past math, science, and medicine into the exciting world of action, danger, and romance. Welcome to the future.”