Alien in the House (15 page)

W
E TOLD MOM
and Chuckie that we were going to back out and let them and the Head of Field handle things while we returned Prince to his rightful owner. Got a suspicious look from both of them, but they let us go without comment. Reader and Cliff, assisted by Andrei, were tossing off a lot of comments about my unintentional declaration of war and what to do with good old Eugene, so that might have been why we were able to get away easily.

The three of us went downstairs. As Christopher joined us, Prince bounded over to Melville, who bent down to give his dog a big hug. “Were you a good dog?” he asked Prince, who licked Melville's face in reply.

“He was a hero and definitely caught the bad guy.”

“Glad he did his duty,” Melville said. “We've sent your medical staff and a large number of security personnel from your East Base with Representative Reyes' body. They're at the Georgetown Medical Center, and Doctor Hernandez asked me to tell you that Nurse Carter has gone with them as well.”

“Good to know.” It was. Nurse Carter had been working at the Georgetown Medical Center when we'd met her, so she'd know the people working there and could smooth things over where needed. The thought occurred that she also knew the Dingo and Surly Vic on sight, and that meant she could easily be in danger. The need to get all the things I knew shared with others was getting overwhelming. “So, do we still need to keep this floor secured?”

Officers Larry and Curly joined us and pulled Melville aside. He came back quickly. “We've cleared all the kitchen and wait staff, and based on what you and Prince found, I think we have our killer well in hand. We're almost done taking statements upstairs, too.”

“That's pretty fast.”

Melville shrugged. Christopher graced me with Patented Glare #3. “We had our personnel help. Since this is our jurisdiction.”

“Oh, go us.”

Melville smiled at me. “Yeah, it was helpful. And I'm sorry if I upset you earlier, Ambassador. Our unit takes our positive relationship with American Centaurion very seriously. And, based on the killer being caught essentially red-handed, you can relax the guard here. Good police work, by the way.”

“Thanks.” Wanted to bask in the glow of a job well done. Had a funny feeling in my stomach that said this wasn't the end, but merely the soup course.

Raj and White arrived on the floor and stood in front of the bathroom that had the gate in it. Melville went with Larry and Curly to handle some more police business, and the three of us trotted over. We waited for a few moments, then entered the stall using hyperspeed.

“Okay, what's going on?” Jeff asked once the five of us were inside and we had the door locked.

Tried to figure out where to begin. “I need to tell you things. Many things. But I need you to promise me that you're going to listen to everything and not go racing off until I tell you I'm done.”

“When have I ever done that?” Jeff sounded hurt. “I always listen to you, baby.”

“I always listen, too,” Christopher added. “When don't I listen?”

“Actually, both of you tend to react much faster on occasion than Missus Martini might like right now,” White said. “I, on the other hand, am always the picture of patience and good, attentive listening.”

“This is so very true. Anyway, Jeff, Christopher, I need to tell you guys things that I guarantee are going to make you mad, and you have to promise me you won't get mad and do anything until I tell you I'm done with my recap.” I wanted to add “especially not mad at me” but decided to let the general “don't be mad” cover.

“You're acting like I ignore you,” Jeff said. “I always pay attention to your theories, baby.”

“She knows,” Raj said soothingly. “But I agree that there's enough going on that you need to listen to all of it without passing judgment.”

“And Raj doesn't even know everything I'm going to tell you.”

“Oh, I think I know more of it than you realize.”

“How so?”

Raj shrugged. “I'm waiting for some goods I ordered to be delivered. And we're meeting here, not in the basement.”

“Gotcha. Raj, you impress me with your Soul of Discretion-ness.”

“I live to serve, Ambassador.”

“This is touching,” Christopher snapped. “But all you've told us is that you two have a secret that, one day, you might share with the rest of us.”

“Why should we be meeting in the basement?” Jeff asked, eyes narrowed. “What's there?”

“Nothing anymore, and that's part of the problem.” Took a deep breath. “I'm going to give you the high-level bullet points. Then we're going to discuss them. Then, after that, we're going to talk about and agree on what we're going to do. Promise?”

The men all nodded. “Jeff and Christopher, I want to hear you promise.” They both mumbled something. “You either promise and do whatever death swear Alpha Four has, or I'm only going to share what's going on with Richard.”

Jeff sighed. “Fine, baby, I promise to listen to everything you have to say and discuss it like a grownup, and then abide by what we all decide to do.”

“What Jeff said,” Christopher said. “I swear, or whatever will make you happy.”

“Works for me. I know I don't have to drag this out of Richard.”

“No, I believe I stand firmly on the side of the only person with the track record for success when running off half-cocked, Missus Martini.”

“I'll hurt you later, Rick, honey.”

“Oh, it's catsuit time again?”

“I think so, yeah. Right now, you four are the only ones I can talk to about this. If Raj hadn't been with me earlier, he wouldn't be in this exciting Inner Circle, but it's got to stay among the five of us only for now.”

The men all nodded. So far, so good.

Checked to make sure my thoughts were organized and in chronological order. Knew I had to leave out anything about our lack of ACE. Not a problem. Jeff knew and everything else I had to share was easily as stressful.

“Any time, Kitty,” Christopher snapped.

“Oh, cool your jets. Fine, I'm ready. Remember, bullet points, and none of you speak until I'm done.” They all nodded. “Okay, first off, I saw Clarence Valentino today. He's alive, can't verify how well, but he was watching the Embassy from Sheridan Circle.”

Jeff opened his mouth.

I put my hand up. “You don't get to speak yet. Our UPS man's truck was ransacked and he had to essentially do double deliveries today. Our second delivery was a package, addressed to me, but with the Embassy's return address. I had the package in my hands when I spotted Clarence and went after him. Malcolm was watching me, but he didn't see Clarence.”

“Was it a bomb?” Christopher asked.

“Did I say I was done? No, I did not. You don't get to talk yet. I chased Clarence into the Oak Hill Cemetery, where I lost him. Then my phone rang, and an old friend called. And no, it wasn't Sheila or one of my sorority sisters. It was Peter the Dingo.”

“We need to put everyone under guard,” Jeff said.

“Stop it! I am not done!”

“Jeffrey, you promised,” White said. “And, frankly, since your wife is standing here, alive and well, obviously there's more to it than we know yet.”

“Thanks, Richard. Okay, so I think the Dingo is actually sort of thinking of me as his niece, or at least as someone to protect. Surly Vic, too. They're here because Raul the Other Assassin is out of Guantanamo or wherever he was stashed and is coming after me to avenge the death of his wife, Bernie. Which means he's also probably after Malcolm, if he realizes Malcolm is the one who killed her. The package we were sent was indeed a bomb, Christopher, presumed to be a bioweapon of some kind, and the Dingo took it from me in order to defuse it. They, ah, also swore me to secrecy. And gave me a burner phone so I could call them if I needed their help.”

“Wait, the two top assassins are here to protect you? Seriously?” Christopher sounded like he couldn't believe me. Couldn't blame him, I could barely believe it, either.

“And you let them take a bioweapon?” Jeff asked, sounding like he could believe it but was hoping he'd heard wrong.

“Yes and yes, but we're still at my telling you all what's gone on and you shutting the hell up. So, I went back to the Circle, but Malcolm hadn't seen Clarence and he didn't remember I had a package. So I didn't push it, because I didn't want to have to lie to him.”

“I believe Mister Buchanan missed Clarence, and much of the ambassador's exploits, because they were both using hyperspeed more than perhaps the ambassador herself realizes,” Raj said.

“If you saw Clarence why didn't you say something?”

Raj shook his head. “I'm truly expecting a delivery that was guaranteed to come today, so when I spotted the UPS truck making a second round, I kept an eye on it. My office is near the front door; I thought I'd save Pierre a trip. But you answered the door first. So, I watched you. I spotted the man you think was Clarence Valentino about the same time I believe you did.”

“What do you mean ‘I think' was Clarence?”

“I've never met him, but I also didn't have a clear enough view to be able to pick the man out of a lineup let alone a crowd. I know he was an A-C because of how fast he was moving. I chose not to mention it because you returned safely and it was clear from what I overheard you saying to Mister Buchanan that you didn't want to tell anyone.”

“So, you think Clarence is the one who actually poisoned Santiago?” Jeff asked.

“No. I have no idea what Clarence is up to, but I think he's the one who planted the package in the UPS truck. The Dingo felt the bomb or weapon or whatever it really is was set to go off during the party or when it was opened. But wait, there's more. Remember that I had a visitor when we were all having mocktails, a person you and I both thought was probably Malcolm.”

“Yeah, Raj got you, I remember.”

“The visitor was actually Colonel Marvin Hamlin. Malcolm spotted him and moved him, Len, and Kyle into the basement. Raj can back me up on all of this, as can the boys, but Hamlin says he's been on the run a lot longer than we'd think—longer than the start of Operation Destruction. Since before Jamie was born.”

Jeff's eyes narrowed. “If that's true, who was impersonating him, an android?”

“That's our suspicion, yeah. Anyway, here's Hamlin's big reveal—he thinks that everything that's going on, and I mean
everything
, is the work of one Mastermind. A person who's been pulling the strings and manipulating all the other bad guys. He has the background in military intelligence to make us believe he knows what he's talking about, but he also has no guess who it is, but it's someone well connected and, per Hamlin, brilliant. And also per Hamlin, I'm the only one he can trust because I'm still identified as Enemy Number One by whoever's in charge.”

Here it came, the part I wasn't going to enjoy sharing.

“So, Colonel Hamlin suggested you not share any of this with either Charles, Clifford, your mother, or any other number of people you'd normally turn to,” White said without missing a beat.

“Wow, Richard, were you there or did Raj fill you in?”

“No, it just makes sense. If Colonel Hamlin is telling the truth, a Mastermind of that level would have to be brilliant. And we have a great number of brilliant people in our circle.”

“We do. We're missing two of them, though. We left Malcolm and Hamlin in the basement. Malcolm seemed to have everything under control, but when Santiago was first sick, before I knew how bad it was, Camilla told me why she was on-site, so I went to check on Malcolm and Hamlin. They're both gone, I couldn't reach Malcolm on his phone, and Christopher couldn't find him.”

“I didn't search the cosmos, but Kitty thinks he's in the tunnel system somewhere.”

“I think they both are. They have easy access to it from our basement. I'm worried that one or both of them are more than gone, though.”

“You think someone killed them?” Jeff asked.

“Hamlin feels there are assassins after him, and while Malcolm is amazing, he's not invulnerable.”

“He's also brilliant and capable enough to be the Mastermind,” Raj mentioned.

“And before we head down that path, I think Eugene said something that could be related. When he said he was told to poison Brewer's water—I realize everyone thinks he's trying for the crazy defense, but what if he was manipulated by the Mastermind?”

Jeff ran his hand through his hair. “What would the point be of having Eugene kill either Santiago or Brewer? From a Mastermind's perspective, I mean.”

“We probably don't have enough information yet,” Raj said before I could. “But I think we have more urgent concerns.”

“So many I'm losing count.”