Alien in the Family

“With all haste, yes.”

“Super. So, any other issues we should know about that I’m sure will make my eyes cross?”

“Not that I know of, but, again, I’ll contact you if something occurs to me. Besides, if you’re feeling stressed or confused by something I tell you, just pull your top up, and I’m sure we’ll be even.” He did have a sense of humor. He hid it, but it was there.

“Point taken. Talk to you soon, Mister White.”

“I’m breathless with anticipation of the next call, Miss Katt.”

We hung up, and I tossed the phone back to Christopher. “Okay, so there’s someone here who’s spying on Jeff and probably Christopher, too. Possibly all of the Martini family. The Pontifex has no guess as to who, and we have no guess as to how many. Could be Earth A-Cs who are still loyal to the home world, could be that the home world opened the door on their side and sent one or more spies here.”

“I don’t think it’s anyone who calls Earth home,” Gower said, in his own voice. “Beverly backing Yates, that was understandable. He was our religious leader before he’d been exiled. But we have no loyalties to the Alpha Centaurion throne.”

“You know, the person I’d like to talk to about this is your mother.”

Gower looked startled. “Why? She’s an Earth woman.”

“She warned Michael, so she’s smarter than the rest of your family.” And I had to figure she’d gone through what I was going to, at least in some way. I wanted to talk to her for more than this threat—I wanted to talk to her to find out if she regretted falling in love with an A-C.

“Call your mother and ask her if she’d prefer to come here or have us to go to her.” Martini’s voice made it clear this was an order.

“She’ll want to come here.” Gower gri

I knew I’d be able to relate to her. “Great, let’s ensure she gets here safely.”

“I’ll have my father come with her.”

“Have them under guard.” I looked to Chuckie and Martini. “Seriously. Human and A-C. I think Chuckie’s right, and we should be considering this as an invasion of some kind. Which means I want to bring Kevin in, full-time, on this.”

Everyone in the room but Chuckie nodded agreement. We’d all like Kevin around to give Chuckie someone to focus on other than Martini or Christopher.

Chuckie, however, gave me a slow smile. “Nice try. But no. I have Mister Lewis otherwise occupied.”

“But he doesn’t report to you.”

“Oh, actually, he does. Since he’s the assigned P.T.C.U. representative to Centaurion Division, and Centaurion currently reports in to me, so does Mister Lewis.”

I tried not to grimace. “Okay.”

Chuckie gri

“Jerk.”

He laughed. “It’s my job. And I’m good at it.” He looked around. “Okay, any ideas about who delivered the bug? And are there any more in the room?”

“I have a question first.”

Chuckie rolled his eyes. “What a shock.”

“Does the necklace transmit information like the bug did or does?”

Martini shrugged. “No idea. Didn’t know they were sentient, bugging us, or tracking us until this hour.”

“Let’s assume it does, in some way. That means whoever’s watching you has been watching for at least six months.”

“Okay,” Martini said, patience clearly being forced. “I can buy that. So what?”

“So, why now? I mean, why right now? It’s six weeks before we’re supposed to get married. I can understand that maybe they wanted to come out and give me whatever test it is that I’m undoubtedly going to fail, but why wait until now? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to do it, say, before you officially proposed? Or right after I said yes?”

“No idea. I don’t know these people, their archaic rituals, or why they’re coming. I just know I hate them.” Martini’s teeth were clenched.

“She’s got a point,” Chuckie said, and I realized he was speaking in a soothing tone. “Look, I’m not accusing you, hell, anyone in this room, of some sort of subterfuge. It’s pretty clear this is a surprise to all involved. Let’s get Gower’s mother and your father out here, and maybe we’ll get some answers.”

“He won’t come without my mother,” Martini said, sounding utterly depressed. “She gets upset if he comes out West without her.”

“Why?” This sounded odd, since all their family, other than Martini himself, Christopher, and White, were back East.

He sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Like every other woman in my life, apparently, she loves Vegas.”

“Great, road trip.” I looked back to Chuckie. “Whoever’s watching Jeff must be watching you.”

“Why so?”

“You got the pineapple. You know, in the Mob, that means you’re marked for death.”

“It’s not a pineapple. And we’re not dealing with the Mob. Besides, that’s F.B.I. territory.”

“I just think they’re after you, too.”

“What are you suggesting? We all go underground into one of the Bases?”

I thought about it. “Actually, no. I think we all want to be really easy to find.”

“What?” This was chorused by Martini, Chuckie, Christopher, and a few of the others.

Reader shrugged and leaned against the table next to me. “Girlfriend’s right. Why make it hard for them? Hard means we have less maneuverability. Easy means they have more of a chance of making a mistake.”

“How so?” Chuckie didn’t sound convinced.

I sighed. “Look, someone’s on Earth, someone I think it’s safe to say we can all consider at least somewhat unfriendly. We haven’t known about it, but they’ve been here at least six months. Maybe they didn’t show up when Jeff made the decision he wanted to marry me, but I feel pretty sure they showed up as soon as I put on that Unity Necklace. So call it six months. We’ve been under observation, close observation, since then. And no one, including ACE, has spotted it.”

Gower twitched. “ACE was not looking for this kind of threat.”

“Can you look now? I mean, if it’s not going to be a conscience issue.”

Gower’s head nodded. “ACE will look. ACE will tell if it will not go against how ACE must interact.”

“That’s great, ACE, and thanks.”

Gower twitched again. “I don’t mind ACE, but I hate the palsy that comes with him.” He sighed. “You’re right, though. I can tell when ACE knows something he desperately wants to tell me but feels he can’t. He’s as worried as the rest of us, but he has no idea of what’s going on any more than we do.” Gower looked directly at me. “No one in his consciousness is clear on what’s going on, either.”

Ah, I’d always known putting ACE into Gower was the right choice. So Terry had no idea of what was up, either. Then there was more going on than just the standard Royal Wedding crap. I considered that my thinking the word crap, let alone the rest of the way I spoke, thought, and acted, was probably going to guarantee that whoever was administering whatever test were going to flunk me. I wondered if Martini was going to have to listen to them and tried not to let the worry that he might get out of control.

A hand was on the back of my neck, massaging gently. He’d picked the worry up, of course. “It’ll be fine, baby,” Martini said softly.

“Let’s hope so,” Chuckie said, his voice crisp. “Because I think Kitty has a point.” He tossed the alien-detector to Tim. “Check out every single thing in this suite.” He looked at my pilots. “There are a few more of them in the small black bag on my bed. Get them, and help him.”

None of them moved. “Guys? We’re answering to Chuckie right now, remember?” I got a couple of betrayed looks, but they all got up and did as requested. “Chuckie, you might want to remember that they haven’t adjusted to the change in chain of command yet.”

“And you might want to remember that they’re all military or A-C trained, which means they adjusted to it the moment Martini said yes. As long as you, White, and Martini are fighting it, however, they’re going to do their best to support insubordination.” He wasn’t smiling