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“Any of our four friends involved in that?”
He nodded. “Cooper and Cantu for certain. Cooper wasn’t promoted, Cantu was.” He shook his head. “I’ll need to discuss this with your mother.”
“She’s on alert, just waiting for the baby. You should be able to get a hold of her easily enough. But I’m kind of curious why and how the people we met with today, who shouldn’t have known anything about this, knew all about the attack, when none of us did.”
Jeff’s eyes narrowed. “Who shouldn’t have known?”
“A senator, a Pentagon liaison, the head of one of our terrorist units, and John Cooper,” Chuckie replied. “Cooper’s angling for my job.”
“He’s a prick,” I added. “Not that I liked any of them much.”
Chuckie nodded. “I’d really hoped to have both of you at this meeting, and White, too, if possible. I need these people read.”
“Sorry, busy trying to stop an international incident. Christopher’s still there—the imageering alterations necessary are unreal.”
“Why are you back already?” I asked. “Normally you’d be taking care of the cleanup portions.
Jeff shot me a “duh” look. “I knew who you were with.”
Chuckie rolled his eyes. “Just the two of us and four people we can’t trust at all.”
“Am I right that all four hate you and want Centaurion turned into the War Division?” It was such a safe bet—most people were intimidated by Chuckie’s brains, drive, and success and cha
“In a nutshell.” Chuckie sounded like he always did when talking about people who didn’t like him—resigned. I knew there was hurt under there, too, but he hid it well.
Jeff looked like he was going to say something nasty to Chuckie, but I glared at him and he stopped himself. Possibly he’d picked up the hurt, too, but I wasn’t sure if he cared about it. “But are they in any position to be in on whatever the hell is going on?” he asked instead.
Chuckie nodded slowly. “It’s possible. I wouldn’t put anything past Cooper. He wants my job, and every job above mine, too. Cantu’s a slippery bastard. And Anderson’s your typical politician on the rise. Cartwright I’m not sure of, but she works closely with the three of them.”
There was a knock at the door and Wayne and William came in. “We have what you wanted, Mister Reynolds,” William said, handing him a file. Wayne handed one to Jeff.
“That was fast.”
The brothers gri
“Oh.” Okay, had to give Jeff and Chuckie the “duh” on that one. I chalked it up to another Space Cadet moment and called the Poofs over to make myself feel better. I petted the cuteness bundles while Chuckie and Jeff both read through the files.
“Good work,” Chuckie said finally. “I wish I could get field reports from my operatives this well-detailed.”
Wayne and William looked pleased, but then they both looked at Jeff. He nodded. “Lots of good information here, thank you.” Both brothers visibly relaxed. “I appreciate the notes from the C.I.A. meeting, too.”
“We recorded it as well, Commander,” William said, “per Mister Reynolds’ request.”
Jeff raised his eyebrow at Chuckie. “You tape everyone?”
“Just everyone I don’t trust. I’d like a copy of the recording.” Jeff nodded and William pulled out his phone.
“Coming down to you now, sir,” he said, hanging up.
Chuckie heaved a sigh. “I don’t think we have enough to go on definitively yet, but I’ll work on it.”
“It’s the holidays. You’re allowed time off. The rest of your agency’s taking their two weeks, why not you?”
Chuckie shook his head. “You know the saying—evil never sleeps.”
“Yeah, too true.” I yawned. Wow. Nap time already. In addition to the other joys, I got tired out much more quickly these days.
Jeff opened his mouth but Chuckie beat him to it. “I’m going to get back to my office. I’ll be in touch on this, and I expect the same from you if you hit on anything. You get some rest, Kitty. Gentlemen, Martini,” he said with a nod. He whistled softly and Fluffy jumped up onto my shoulder, purred, rubbed, and then leaped onto Chuckie’s shoulder, did the purr and rub thing, then snuggled into his pocket. I managed to refrain from saying how adorable this was, but it took real effort.
Before Chuckie could leave, William’s phone rang. He put up his hand. “Yes, got it.” He hung up. “Commander Martini, we have an issue with the recorded copy Mister Reynolds requested.”
“And that is?” Jeff asked.
William looked grim. “All the recordings have been destroyed.”
That sat on the air for a moment. “How?” I asked finally.
He shook his head. “We don’t know. All recordings for the past week have been corrupted, the ones from today are completely gone.”
“Internal sabotage,” Chuckie said, and from his tone, he was certain. “Not good. Any clues as to who did it?”
“No, sir,” William said. “Commander White’s ordered a full investigation.”
“It’ll have to do.” Chuckie didn’t look happy, and I couldn’t blame him. I also couldn’t control another yawn. “I’ll add this to the pile of things we need to know about. Please guard those reports—you two are the only proof we have now that something was wrong with those superbeings.”
“Yes, sir,” Wayne said with a small smile. “We’ll guard them with our lives.”
Chuckie managed a short laugh. “Good job.”
Jeff seemed to be struggling with something. “I’ll walk you out,” he said finally. “You two, take down the equipment.”
They left while William and Wayne did as instructed. “You didn’t give me a file,” I mentioned.
Wayne laughed. “We’re already clear you wouldn’t read it.” He gri
“Wow, you are good. So, what’s the CliffsNotes version?”
They both looked at me blankly for a moment. A-Cs were capable of reading at hyperspeed, too, so why read an abbreviated version? William recovered first. “You want the highlights, Commander?”
“Please and thank you.”
“We think they’re genetically engineered,” Wayne said. “But there’s no human in there.”
“That we can tell,” William added. “Didn’t feel like there’s parasite in there, either.”
“That we can tell,” Wayne said. “They didn’t feel…right.”
“Robotic?”
“Could be,” Wayne allowed. “But if so, it’s a more natural robot.”
“Like an android?”
William shrugged. “Could be. We don’t really work with this side of things. Kill ‘em, get the folks to safety, that’s our normal assignment.”
“Why are you doing live at the exciting scene of my bedroom, then?”
They exchanged a quick glance. “Ah, special assignment,” William said.
That meant either they were being punished or they were hand-selected. “Assigned by whom?”
“Commander White,” William answered.
So, handpicked. Unless Christopher was really interested in seeing how my space cadet ways messed with their minds. I voted for the former. “Why you two?”
Wayne’s turn to shrug. “We’re really good. Commander White doesn’t trust the C.I.A. any more than any of the rest of us do.”
“So, what did he have you read on Chuckie?”
They both busied themselves with the screens. I doubted these two were going to fall into the “able to lie to us” category.
“Dudes, don’t make me pull rank. What were you monitoring Chuckie for?”
“Whatever he might be hiding,” Wayne said.
“Chuckie’s not hiding something from us.”
“Everybody’s hiding something, Commander,” Wayne said as Jeff came back in, accompanied by several other A-Cs who were clearly along to help with clearing out the video stuff. “Everybody. But not always for the same reasons.”