Camp Alien (55 page)

“J
AKOB! OREN! LEAH!”
Let go of Jeff's hand and raced over to give our friends from Mossad stationed at the Israeli Embassy hugs. “Feels like I haven't seen you guys for ages.”

“Well, it's been a busy time for all of you,” Leah said. She took Charlie from me. “He's grown so much since I saw you last, and it was really probably only a couple of weeks ago.”

“Feels like a lifetime,” Jeff said, as he shook Oren and Jakob's hands and gave Leah a kiss on her cheek. “This is Elizabeth Vrabel,” he said. “She goes by Lizzie.”

“Or Quick Girl,” I added. Leah raised her eyebrow and I nodded.

She turned to Lizzie and offered her hand. “It's always nice to meet a sister.”

“Sister?” Lizzie asked, sounding confused, though she took Leah's hand.

Leah laughed. “Sister in the Kick Butt Club. Kitty's mother is our Founding Member.”

Lizzie beamed. “Oh, that. Yeah, I guess I'm in.”

“Trust me, she's in. So, are you guys here officially or did you sneak into this secured area somehow?”

“We managed to get onto the Prime Minister's protection team for this meeting,” Oren said. “His staff is concerned. He's definitely not acting like they're used to.”

“We watched the video,” Jeff said. “Honestly, because we can't read it, nothing seemed really off to us.”

“It's not what they're saying or doing, it's how they're saying or doing it,” Jakob said. “And I'm saying they
because the Iraqi President is off, too. And in his case, it's getting more noticeable.”

“He's acting erratic,” Leah said. “One moment he's pleasant, the next he seems almost possessed.”

“Drugs?” Everyone stared at me. Resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “Seriously? Come on. It's not like no leader in the world has had addiction problems. That sounds a lot like drug addiction or withdrawal.”

“Not that we've discovered,” Jakob said. “But we'll search for evidence of such again.”

Raj came in. “There you are. We need you outside.” He nodded to Mossad. “Are you three done in here?”

“Yes,” Leah said. “And before you ask, we were installing bugs.”

Stared at her. “Excuse me?”

“Requested by the Head of the P.T.C.U. and the Director of the CIA,” Oren explained. “They want us monitoring here, just as they are.”

So much for having sex at Camp David. Actively chose not to be bitter, but it took a lot of effort.

Jeff grunted. “Take the bugs out, put the bugs back in. You people need to make up your minds.” He nodded to Raj. “We're coming.”

Mossad left by a door opposite the one we were going to walk out of so that they could look like they hadn't been in here.

Jeff swung Jamie—who was in jeans, pink tennis shoes, and a bright pink shirt—down and held her hand. I took her other hand while Lizzie took Charlie—who was in a cute green jumper and shirt set—and stayed on my other side. Lizzie was in tennis shoes, jeans, and a t-shirt. And Jeff was, of course, in the Armani Fatigues.

Would have suggested he put on jeans, but decided to see how everyone else was dressed first. So, thusly ready, we headed out to the pool. Aspen was only one story high, but it had an upper terrace and a lower terrace due to the slope of the terrain around it. The pool was near the lower terrace and was quite nice, a sort of figure-eight design with pretty flagstones instead of boring concrete around it.

There were people I was pretty sure were Field agents passing around drinks and light hors d'oeuvres. People appeared to be mingling. So far, so good.

We reached the Israeli prime minister first. He was rather short, only a little taller than me, balding, but not trying to hide it, which was refreshing. He wore glasses and had nice brown eyes. He was in slacks, a long-sleeved, buttoned-down shirt, and loafers. “Eitan, this is my wife, Kitty. Kitty, this is Prime Minister Eitan Harpaz.”

“Shalom. It's an honor to meet you,” I said as we shook hands and he beamed at me. Amazing, my father's teaching and the Washington Wife class came through in pressure situations.

“And I you as well.” He smiled at the kids. “A beautiful family. You both look too young to be parents to this lovely young lady, however.”

“True enough. This is Elizabeth Vrabel. She's my ward.”

Lizzie bobbed her head and rattled something off in what I was pretty sure was perfect Hebrew.

Harpaz's eyes lit up and he responded in what I was certain was Hebrew. They had a short, animated conversation, then he smiled at me. “A wonderful young lady indeed.”

“Yes, we think so. This is our daughter, Jamie, and our son, Charlie.”

Harpaz bowed gravely to Jamie. “It's a pleasure, miss.” Jamie giggled. Then he chucked Charlie under his chin, making Charlie giggle, too. “And what a fine boy. You have a wonderful family, Jeffrey.”

We made some more small talk, then Raj and Vance both came over to move us off to our next stop. “If that's off, I wonder what he's really like,” I said softly to Jeff. “That man was totally charming.”

Lizzie nudged me. “They're not wrong. His Hebrew is off.”

Didn't have time to ask her how she knew this before we were meeting the Iraqi President. He was taller than Harpaz but not as tall as Jeff. He was stout, with a full head of hair. I'd expected him to be in something traditional, but he was in a regular business suit. Clearly Jeff and the others in the Armani Fatigues weren't going to stand out badly in this crowd.

Jeff did the same introduction here as he had with Harpaz. The Iraqi President's name was Faiz Samara. For him I bowed my head and pointedly didn't offer my hand. “Peace be with you, President Samara. We are honored to welcome you to our home.”

He smiled gravely. “And peace be unto you, Missus Martini. Your hospitality has already been a gift.”

Since I hadn't done a thing yet, figured either he'd loved it at Blair House or he was just being extremely polite. Decided I'd follow that lead and introduced Lizzie, who again showed that the school Siler had put her in was amazing, because she said a greeting in what appeared to be perfect Arabic. Like Harpaz before him, Samara seemed pleased and impressed and replied in kind. Once again, they had a brief, animated conversation, and once again we received compliments on Lizzie the Teenaged Diplomat Extraordinaire.

When meeting Jamie and Charlie, Samara gravely handed Jamie a small gift. She thanked him profusely. “May I open it now, Mommy?” she asked.

Vance and Abner had run me through this particular gauntlet when we'd practiced the day before. “No, sweetie. That's a special present to open later.”

Samara smiled at Jeff. “Your family is thoughtful to our ways. I look forward to our time here together. I believe we will make great strides.”

More small talk, then we were once again led away. “Again, I think that man was totally charming,” I said quietly to Jeff and Lizzie as we managed to get to an area without people. “Was his Arabic off?”

“No, not at all,” Lizzie said. “The Prime Minister's accent is wrong, though. It's like he learned Hebrew in a country other than Israel. But not on every word. Just some of them.”

“Maybe he's just got a weird way of speaking.”

She shook her head. “It's like when you hear a Canadian talking. They totes sound like Americans until they hit a word that's got an O-U in it. Then they sound wrong, you know? It's like that, only different.”

“I don't see what Mossad sees in regard to Samara,” Jeff said. “He didn't seem odd to me at all yesterday. But Harpaz . . . I'm with Lizzie. There's something just a little off about him. But I can't put my finger on what it is, since he's not doing the wrong word things in English, or if he is, I'm not noticing.”

“Maybe he's an android,” Lizzie said jokingly.

Jeff stiffened. “Maybe he is. I remember . . . last night at
dinner, he blinked a lot. He said he had something in his eye, and I was focused on something Samara was saying so I didn't really pay much attention. Raj offered him eyedrops, which he didn't take.
Could
he be an android?”

“I don't know if eyedrop refusal and some odd pronunciations are enough to declare him an android. He seemed far more human than the Kendroid.”

“Is that Stephanie chick the only one who made androids?” Lizzie asked. “I thought you said there were other people doing it.”

Jeff and I looked at each other. “Chuck never felt that he'd found all of them.”

“And Antony Marling was an artist. Was Harpaz unpleasant?”

“Uh, no, why would that matter?”

“I've just noted that the Marling androids seem so human because they're always nasty. But that could just be the ones I've had the misfortune to deal with.” Looked around. Spotted who I was looking for. “Lizzie, go grab Chuckie and ask him to come over here, would you?”

“Sure.” She trotted off while Jeff sent a text.

Nadine arrived. “You ready for me to take the kids inside, Jeff?”

“Can't we go into the pool?” Jamie asked.

“Not without water wings, Mommy and Daddy, and a lifeguard.” Hey, Jamie had learned to swim while I was pregnant with Charlie, but there was no reason to take risks. And Charlie certainly had never been swimming.

Jeff chuckled. “Mommy's right. Why don't you open your present now and then you and Charlie can go play with Nadine. We saw lots of fun things for you to do, remember?”

“Okay, Daddy,” she said cheerfully. As she started to carefully open her gift, Lizzie came back with Chuckie. He was dressed like all the other men from our side of things—Armani Fatigues all the way. Chose not to mention that I knew he owned jeans. Now wasn't the time.

Quickly told him about our conversation with Mossad and Jeff and Lizzie's concerns about Harpaz. “So, what do you think?” I asked him as we finished up.

He shrugged. “No idea.” He sounded off and looked off, and I recognized his expression. I'd seen it any time he'd
thought that I was dumping him to be with cooler kids. I never had and never would, but it had taken him a few years to believe it would never happen.

“Stop it,” I said gently. “I'm not mad at you anymore. You can stop beating yourself up. You're still the smartest guy in any room, still my best friend, and still one of the most important people in the world to me, and I still love you as much as I did two days ago. I'm not leaving you for the cool kids, Chuckie, because you're still the coolest guy I know.”

“She's not lying,” Jeff added. “Trust me, her emotions, I can almost never block. She still firmly feels you walk on water.”

Chuckie managed a small smile. “I don't like failing, let alone failing you, Kitty.”

“You didn't. I promise. I'll talk to you about it more when we can be in private, but I just want you to know—”

Was interrupted by Bruno going visible and squawking and Chuckie moving in the superfast way he'd learned so well that he was a rare human who could take down an A-C. Only he didn't take anyone down—he snatched something out of Jamie's hands.

She stared at him openmouthed. “Uncle Charles, that's mine.”

He shook his head. “Jamie, Uncle Charles will give you a better present later, okay? This one you cannot have. Nadine, get the kids out of here,
now
. I want them underground as fast as possible. And all the Peregrines with them, too. On high alert,” he said to Bruno. Who bobbed his head.

“Underground where?” I asked.

“What's going on?” Jeff asked.

Bruno squawked. He wasn't arguing with Chuckie—he was saying the Peregrines agreed.

“Under this cabin. Your security personnel know where it is. And what's going on is trouble.” He opened his hand. There was a round chocolate candy in his palm, mostly unwrapped.

“Um, are we worried about diabetes or Jamie getting a sugar rush or something?”

“No.” Chuckie's voice was tight. “Nadine, this is an order. Get the kids out of here.”

Decided that we had two choices. I could argue with
Chuckie and pretty much say that I didn't trust his judgment for whatever he thought was going on, which, per Buchanan, would ruin our relationship and Chuckie's ego permanently. Or I could do what I'd done pretty much as long as I'd known him and do what he said when he was adamant like this.

Kissed Charlie and handed him to Nadine. Bent down and hugged Jamie. “Let's do what Uncle Charles says, okay? Maybe he knows that's a candy you won't like and doesn't want us to be rude to the man who gave it to you. Plus, you know Uncle Charles will get you something really special to make up for it.”

She nodded. “Okay, Mommy.” She looked up at Chuckie worriedly. “You'll all be okay?”

“Yes,” he said firmly.

Jeff kissed Charlie, then picked Jamie up and hugged her. “Be good, Jamie-Kat.” He put her down and Nadine took her hand. They headed into the cabin. All four Peregrines went visible, Bruno ushered the other Peregrines in, nodded to me, then went back to stealth mode. But he was definitely with the kids. “You should go, too,” Jeff said to Lizzie.