Страница 99 из 111
She looked confused but told the others what Jareen and I had already heard. There was dead silence when she was done. Claudia and Lorraine looked beyond shocked. “You didn’t know?” Chuckie asked them.
“Hell no,” Lorraine said. “We’re in the next group to get married. So’s Serene.”
A thought occurred. “Serene? How did you find out about the deadline?” She looked really embarrassed and more than a little scared. “Honey, you’re in Airborne now. That means if you were doing some sort of, ah, intelligence work, that’s okay.”
She looked a little less scared. “Well, when the invasion stuff started, after James was hurt, everyone was ru
“Yes, he’s fine with you calling him Richard. And that was really good thinking on your part, Serene.”
“Really? Great!” I gave her a meaningful look. “Oh. Okay. So, at one point, he was talking to a group of people—it was right when you guys brought me out, so James was still in the hospital—and since I couldn’t see them in my mind I . . . spied on them.” She looked ready to run.
“Good job,” I said quickly. Relief washed over Serene’s face. “What did you see and hear?”
“The people were really upset with him, saying he was destroying the race. Lots of arguments went on, and they made him agree to a new deadline.”
“There was always a deadline?” Chuckie asked.
“Yes, I think so. At least from what they said, it seemed that the issue wasn’t the deadline itself but the new date for it.”
“I don’t understand why Richard would cave to anyone.”
“Serene, were these people you knew?” Chuckie had his eyes closed.
“No. From where I was hiding I couldn’t really see anyone other than Richard, and I didn’t recognize their voices. But I don’t know everyone.”
He opened his eyes. “You don’t know all your relatives?”
“No.” She looked down. “I spend most of my time with the NASA team.”
“So it wasn’t anyone from the Space Center.” I looked at Chuckie. “What are you thinking? I mean besides that this is just freaking typical for my luck.”
He shook his head. “I’m trying to figure out who has the most to lose, or gain, by humans not being allowed to marry A-Cs. The American government wouldn’t be the answer—what we talked about last night is hugely exciting, and we will, of course, want to maintain a lot of interaction and such, but prevention wouldn’t be the idea.”
The girls all looked at me. “Top secret, Commander-level clearance only, sorry.” I got four disgusted expressions staring at me. “Really. Bug Chuckie and Christopher later, okay? I think we have more urgent issues.”
Chuckie nodded. “We do. This is beyond bizarre.”
A scary thought occurred. “Serene? Where’s Richard?”
She concentrated. “He’s with Christopher and all the other men.” She blushed bright red. “Jeff only has his pants on.” I refrained from mentioning she’d seen Martini with his pants off when we were in Florida. He and I spent a lot of time not mentioning that we’d unknowingly given Serene a personal how-to class in sexual athleticism.
“So Richard’s fine?” She nodded. “Who could have the influence to cause him to change his decision?”
“No one from our generation would,” Claudia said. “Even the ones who do want to marry A-Cs think it’s right for the rest of us to marry who we want.”
“None of our human operatives are against it, either,” Lorraine added. “I mean, Jerry, Matt, and Chip are playing the field, but with intent to find the right girl and settle down. They’re hotly contested items, so I can’t imagine they or any of our other human males would be causing this problem.”
I shook my head. “No human working with A-Cs would be talking about purity of the race, at least not since Brian had his wake-up call.”
“I agree.” Chuckie’s tone was thoughtful. “Humans who can work and live with aliens like your operatives do aren’t normally loaded with xenophobia.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but you want to bring Brian in for his perspective?”
“Maybe.” It was there, tickling the back of my mind.
A knock came on the door, and Mom stuck her head in. “Hello, Charles. I’m not going to ask. I assume it’s something horrible. Kitten, what do we do about the feuding families?”
“Pardon?”
Mom sighed. “Doreen’s parents, the entire A-C Diplomatic Corps, a few of the other parents of A-Cs dating humans? You know, the people who really don’t want to accept change?”
Chuckie and I looked at each other. “Oh. Duh.” Said in unison.
I looked back to my mother. “Can you please get Lucinda in here?” She rolled her eyes, but went off, presumably to comply. “Lorraine, please get Doreen.”
“On it.” Lorraine zipped off.
Lorraine, Mom, and Lucinda all joined us. Doreen came in right after them. We were now officially in Marx Brothers territory. However, it was better than where the Diplomatic Corps wanted us headed.
“My parents are doing something awful, aren’t they?” Doreen asked without any preamble.
“Shockingly, yes.” I brought everyone up to speed on what we’d gotten from Serene. No one seemed overly surprised by the information. Meaning everyone else had a clearer view of what was going on than I did. How unusual. “Mom? What’s your honest, brutal assessment of the A-C Diplomatic Corps?”
“That they’re not actually diplomats. It’s a pretty title for this side of the house. But what they actually function as are lobbyists.”
“Lobbying for what?”
“Protecting our interests,” Lucinda answered. “They deal the most efficiently of all our people with those in political power.”
Meaning they were the A-Cs most likely to be capable of lying. That some A-Cs could indeed lie had been proven at least somewhat by the fact that the late and unlamented Adolphus had had spies on Earth for a long while. “Do you trust them, Mom?”
She glanced at Doreen. Who grimaced. “Tell the truth, Missus Katt, I don’t know how anybody could trust my parents.”
Mom shrugged. “No, I don’t either. But, then, I don’t trust most lobbyists. What do you think they’re going to attempt?”
“My guess is that they aren’t going to go for violence,” Chuckie said, “which is one small favor. However, if they can cause chaos and disruption long enough . . .”
Lucinda looked ill. “I had to invite them. It would be very bad for Richard and the boys if I hadn’t.”
“They’d have shown up even if you hadn’t,” Doreen spat out.
“Things still tense between you and your parents?” I asked her.
She nodded. “We haven’t spoken, not really, since I moved to Caliente Base. The only messages I get from them say I have to leave Irving if I want their forgiveness. I don’t want anything from them, not any more. Not now, not ever.”
Lucinda put her arm around Doreen. “It’ll work out, dear.” Doreen didn’t look as though she believed this. I couldn’t blame her—I didn’t either.
Mom shook her head. “We need to stop them, but it has to be done in a politically correct ma
“How long has Robert Coleman been in charge? Maybe we can use inexperience as an excuse.”
“Hardly. He replaced Theresa White after her death.” Lucinda looked uncomfortable. “He wasn’t who Richard would have chosen. But he was in no condition to help make a selection.”
“The Pontifex normally chooses the Diplomatic Corps?”
“Yes, he makes the recommendations. They have to be approved by the majority of our people over the age of forty, though.”
“Who assigned the Diplomatic Corps when you all first arrived?” Chuckie asked.
“Richard and Theresa did. But once she died and Ronald came on in her place, most of the original Diplomatic Corps resigned.”