by Gini Koch
Melville heaved a sigh. “Mickey and Garfield are regulars, Kitty. So are Star, sorry, Jane, and Rhonda. Meriel, it’s her first time in.”
“You guys keep track of all that?”
Officer Larry nodded. “We try to stay up on all our repeat offenders. For various reasons.”
Would have questioned this more, but the K-9 unit was quite specialized and, frankly, knowing them, I didn’t really doubt that they and the rest of their squad were tracking everything they could. They looked for patterns beyond normal police work. It was the reason we’d become allies, really. And the reason it made sense that our enemies would figure that they’d have contacted me right away. As had been pointed out more than once, we had a predictable playbook.
“The jocks and the classy drunks are first-timers,” Officer Curly added. “At least around here.”
“We’re visiting friends in town,” Bud said. “But we don’t have records at home or at school.”
“Jocks never do,” Melville muttered. Len and Kyle both rolled their eyes at me. Managed not to laugh, but only just.
Looked at the guys in suits. They both looked about forty, normally decent looking, the blond in a navy pinstripe and the black-haired one in charcoal. They looked like any typical businessmen or political movers and shakers—dressed well, well coiffed despite being in lockup, and, unlike the hookers, the homeless men, and the frat boys, totally bored.
“You two gentlemen have anything to add to this?”
The blond opened his mouth, but words didn’t come out. Instead, there was a shrieking sound.
CHAPTER 21
EVERYONE JUMPED, the homeless men and the working girls in particular, as the man slammed his mouth shut without ever getting to say a word and winced, along with the rest of the room. Not that I could blame them—the alarm was loud and insistent.
“I know that sound,” Reader said from the LSR. “That’s a bad sound.”
“Scramble,” Jeff said to him, Commander in Chief Voice on Full. Didn’t have to ask who was scrambling where, as Reader, Tim, Lorraine, and Claudia got up and disappeared from view. Checked out the rest of those in the LSR. Couldn’t see Buchanan, Siler, and Wruck and assumed they were either already on their way or possibly here already.
Prince, Duke, and Riley also scrambled, right over to me. They were trying to guard me, but they were in pain from the sounds. Tried to cover their ears, but they had six ears and I only had two hands. Seeing the dogs’ distress Kevin covered Riley’s ears and Evalyne covered Duke’s while I did my best for Prince.
A-Cs were pouring out of various rooms and hallways, all Field agents as near as I could tell. Some of them were older, so I assumed this meant that they’d been sent over from Dulce. Sure, Caliente Base might be considered separate, but there was no way the rest of Centaurion Division was going to ignore an emergency at this Base.
Sure enough, Buchanan came in and made a beeline for me. An A-C I didn’t recognize at all raced into the room right behind him and headed for Romeo. “We’re under some kind of attack,” he shared, sounding very worried and a little confused. Was amazed any of us could hear him, but presumably he’d learned to project from his diaphragm.
“Some kind?” I asked, as the alarm kept on singing us the song of its people. Refused to stand, even though Buchanan was tugging on my arm. Not only did I not want to leave until I knew what was going on, I had a dog’s ears to try to protect.
Romeo hit something on the table and we got the LSR on our individual screens and an exterior view on the rest of the table. The term “some kind” was actually appropriate.
There were what looked like hundreds of tiny dirigibles sailing down from the sky. Well, tiny wasn’t quite right—they looked to be about three feet or so in length and probably around two feet in diameter.
“Is there a steampunk fair or festival happening around here that we weren’t informed of?” I asked as Alpha Team came into the room. We were at Marx Brothers territory. That happened to me a lot. Figured now wasn’t the time to mention it, however.
“No,” Chuckie shouted from the LSR. He had to shout—the alarms remained hella loud. “No kite festivals or hot air balloon events, either.”
“Shut those alarms off,” Kevin thundered. Romeo did something and the sounds muted. The alarms were still going, but now they were at elevator music level. “Thank you.”
“Make that quadruple for me and about a million-fold for Prince, Duke, and Riley.” The dogs heaved huge doggy sighs of relief. They licked Evalyne and Kevin, then buried their heads in my lap. Rubbed their necks, with assists from Evalyne and Kevin. “Our favorite law officers want you two to know that they love you both almost as much as me right now.”
“I’m flattered,” Evalyne said.
Kevin grinned. “Me, too. It’s always nice to have more friends.”
“We need to get you back to the White House now,” Buchanan said, interrupting our doggy lovefest.
“No.” Looked closer at the images. Some of the dirigibles, those already on the ground, were turning into what looked a lot like turtles. Memory nudged. “Did anyone else notice the turtle statues that were in the D.C.P.D. bathroom?”
“We have no statuary in our bathrooms,” Melville said.
“Yeah you do.” Looked more closely at the screen. “Or rather, you did. Lorraine or Claudia, can anyone other than an A-C calibrate a gate?”
“Sure,” Lorraine said. “It’s not that complex. Seeing through the cloaking is a bigger issue than turning the dial.”
“Well, that would depend, though,” Claudia countered. “I don’t think Kitty means could she do it or could Kevin do it or even if one of these new, ah, temporary team members could do it. I think she means could they do it.” She pointed to the screen.
“Got it in one. I saw three turtle statues in the bathroom. And they looked a lot like the space turtles landing all over the outside of Caliente Base.”
“It’s time to go,” Buchanan said in a tone that brooked no argument.
Pity, because I was going to ford that brook. “Again, Malcolm, no, and I mean that in my totally FLOTUS Willing to Declare Sovereignty Again way of mine. Ev and Pheebs, did either one of you notice the turtle statues?”
“I didn’t,” Evalyne admitted while Buchanan cooled his jets. He’d been with me when I’d declared the helicarrier I was in as its own nation. Knew that, brave as he was, he didn’t want to be the focus of my wrath.
“I did,” Phoebe said. “But I was waiting with you and Evalyne wasn’t.”
“I saw them, too,” Kevin said. Len and Kyle also chimed in with turtle statue sightings.
“So, those of us who waited in the bathroom saw them.” Looked around. “Where’s Siler?”
“Here.” He appeared out of nowhere. I enjoyed jumping due to being startled and watching the rest of the room do so, too. I knew that he hadn’t used hyperspeed for this—he’d blended. He grinned at me. “I like to make an entrance when the opportunity presents itself. And to anticipate your question, I’m sure that others can do what I can. The Peregrines can, chameleons on Earth can—that another race from another planet can blend or give themselves the appearance of being inanimate isn’t surprising at all.”
“Super-duper. Malcolm, despite your growling at me and muttering under your breath, the only place we’re going is outside. Jeff, that statement goes double for you if you’re still on audio with us. I don’t think this is an attack. And not only because I literally see no weapons being waved about.”
Heard some talking from the LSR, but it was clear they were speaking amongst themselves and weren’t trying to talk to us.
Reader and Tim exchanged a look then looked back at me. “You thinking what I’m thinking, girlfriend?” Reader asked.
“I sincerely hope so. I don’t think this particular part of the Upcoming Alien Invasion was spotted by our lookout
because they’re all too small.”
Reader nodded. “And the rest of what I’m thinking is that they want an audience with you, Kitty. Specifically.”
“That tracks,” Buchanan said from behind me, sounding as if he’d accepted reality and had given up trying to remove me from the situation.
“Which is why you all ended up here,” Tim added. “They wanted you here for when the rest of them landed.”
“That makes sense. We’ll worry about how they can see and calibrate the gates later. Where is John?”
“No idea,” Buchanan said.
Siler shrugged. “He’s fine, wherever he is.”
“I honestly wasn’t worried. I was wondering if he could give us a rundown on who’s arriving in droves. Oh, and by the way, and I’m seriously just spitballing here, but have we done anything, anything at all, to alter what the rest of the world might be seeing on their TV screens and such?”
“Yes,” Jeff said, sarcasm knob already at eleven and threatening to go to twelve shortly. “Amazingly enough, we managed to figure out that we needed to take action. Serene and Christopher are handling it, in coordination with Dulce.”
“Our imageers are capable of this work,” Romeo said, just a tad stiffly.
“Yes, they are,” I said quickly. “But your base is the one under attack. Normally, it’s okay when your friends, families, and allies try to help out and protect you.”
“Deal with internal politics later, please,” Chuckie said. “We have a galactic issue that needs to take precedence and requires everyone’s focus.”
The issue didn’t look like much. The turtles were landing and then just sort of standing there, looking around. Wasn’t sure if I was reading their expressions correctly, but if I was, they looked hopeful and expectant, not threatening.
“We need to go out there and determine if we bring them in here or not. Christopher and Serene on this particular case or not, someone’s going to spot this and we’re going to have a lot of media here soon.”
“Not you,” Jeff said in the Growly Man Voice he still persisted in believing I obeyed outside of the bedroom. In all the time we’d known each other, I never had, but apparently his base emotion was optimism.
“Of course me,” I replied as I finally stood up. Stood up to get going but mostly because I knew Buchanan was clear that if he tried to grab me and run I’d kick him in the tenders. “Alpha Team is here. Doctor Strange and Nightcrawler are here. The Martian Manhunter is around somewhere.” I mean, I presumed Wruck was still around, since he’d come over with the others. “The K-Nine squad is here, and Prince, Duke, and Riley are ready to bite down hard.”
Interestingly enough, it was the mention of the dogs that caused Jeff to relax. Not that this was a surprise. Prince had saved Jeff’s life at the end of Operation Defection Election, and despite what he might want to insinuate, Jeff loved the animals as much as I did, and he believed in their willingness and ability to protect almost as much as I did.
“Fine,” Jeff said in a resigned tone. “Just be careful. All of you.”
Prince wuffed.
“Oh, good point. Prince wants to know what we’re doing with the sorta prisoners who are sorta on the team right now.”
“I supposed saying that they should go into cells in the facility will be met with complaints, derision, and whining,” Chuckie said. “So just ensure that they’re under guard and don’t allow people who were in lockup to be the first Earthlings these new aliens interact with.”
“I resent that,” Rhonda said.
“Me too,” Cujo agreed. “We’re not bad people.”
“Duly noted. It’s field trip time, gang. Let’s go see what the new turtles in town have to say for themselves.”
CHAPTER 22
WE HUNG UP WITH THE LSR, then headed for the door. Buchanan barked some orders, so the K-9 guys took the three streetwalkers, Len and Kyle had Bud and Cujo, Lorraine and Claudia took Mickey and Garfield, and Siler and Manfred took the two dudes in suits.
Buchanan, Evalyne, Phoebe, Kevin, and the three dogs took me. Actively had to work to neither be offended nor annoyed.
The rest of the team were determined to be able to walk without escorts, so they went on ahead.
The Base was on Full Alert but, thankfully, Romeo gave some orders and the alarms all went to low, though they didn’t stop.
We wended our way through the floor and headed for elevator banks. As per usual, I was lost within about a minute. Sure, I’d lived here for a while, but that had been years ago now, and Centaurion Bases were far more maze-like than the White House could ever hope to be. Maybe Buchanan wasn’t wrong to have me surrounded. I certainly didn’t have to worry about getting lost this way.
Viola joined me and my particular part of the entourage. “What do we do?” she asked me quietly. “We haven’t had an issue like this before.”
“You mean other than every other attack and similar?”
She looked down. “I mean that we’ve had to handle. Not since . . . you put us all in place.”
Considered my response. If I advised them incorrectly it could have terrible ramifications, not the least of which would be everyone losing confidence in Viola, Romeo, and Carmine.
But, I had no clear idea of what to do with all the personnel. We were at high alert but the threat didn’t seem all that terrible at the moment. On the other hand, looks were often deceiving.
When in doubt or unwilling to give a reply, I’d learned to go with my father’s sage advice of answering a question with a question. It was advice that was quite flexible in terms of the situations it would work in. “What do you think you all should do?”
Viola didn’t hesitate. “I don’t believe we should take this threat as benign. Just because these new aliens look cute doesn’t mean they aren’t here to cause problems.”
Dad’s wisdom was once again shown to be the right call. “Good thinking. What else?”
She was quiet for a few moments while we walked along. “We should be ready to evacuate, in case of emergency.”
“I agree. I’d give the ‘pack up anything that matters’ order and have everyone err on the side of overstuffing the suitcases. That includes any and all pets and the humans.”
She laughed. “We don’t leave our friends and family behind.”
A reminder that I’d turned Caliente Base into the Hybrid Breeding Facility. “Take Romeo and Carmine with you. I think this will require the Top Dawgs to ensure that no one panics, everyone obeys, and those with hyperspeed use it.”
She shot me a small smile. “Thank you, Kitty.”
Gave her a fast hug. “No worries. And let’s hope that we’re just being Nervous Nellies right now.”
Viola grabbed Romeo and Carmine and they headed off, taking the Field agents we’d had with them.
We reached the elevators as the Field agents assigned to us returned. They assured me they were all packed and that others had their belongings and loved ones accounted for. Hyperspeed was the best.
Particularly with the extra Field agents along there were a lot of us and, needless to say, not all of us could fit into one elevator at a time. Frankly, we were at a bank of three elevators and there was no way all of us would fit into three cars. For safety reasons, we went six to a car, though Siler, Manfred, and the two DUI Dudes went in their car alone. The Field agents decided to speed things up and they took the stairs.
The first sets went on up and the agents headed off, leaving me and my current protection detail along with Claudia, Lorraine, Mickey and Garfield waiting for the next cars.
Was about to ask the girls what had been going on in the LSR that we’d missed—since pretending that aliens weren’t showing up seemed kind of pointless now—when I heard a sound.
“Hist!”
Looked around. “Um, did someone just sneeze or hiss or something?�
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As I asked all three dog started sniffing like mad.
“No one spoke that I saw,” Buchanan said. “Though your mouth was open, Missus Executive Chief.”
“I’d been about to talk.”
“I guessed. The silence was a special rarity.”
Before I could ask Buchanan if Christopher had asked him to keep me on my snark toes, Prince growled. Then Duke and Riley joined him. They were growling at nothing as far as I could tell.
Of course, this was reminiscent of how Prince and I had met Siler, so I didn’t tell the dogs to cool their jets. “Don’t attack,” I said to them. “We want to be sure before we bite.”
At this the rest of those around me, Mickey and Garfield included, started looking around in a protective manner. Felt the love. Also felt that they probably weren’t making whoever had tried to get our attention feel confident about making any more noise.
Looked for turtle statues, or a sign of someone blending. Due to having spent a lot of quality time with Siler when he was blending, I’d gotten decent at being able to spot the way someone blending looked—just like the disguise Sherlock Holmes wore in one of the Robert Downey, Jr. movies—hidden but just a little more there in the space than should be.
However, I didn’t see any signs of this. And from the way the dogs were sniffing and growling, they weren’t sure where the hisser actually was.
“Whoever just sneezed or whatever, we have no idea who or where you are, so if you want to talk to us, now might be a good time to, you know, speak up.”
The dogs broke rank and trotted off. Decided to follow them. Because I had hyperspeed, I used it to avoid anyone being able to grab me. Because they weren’t stupid, the others followed us.
The dogs headed into another room that was close to the elevators. If I’d ever been in this room before I didn’t remember the experience. There was nothing amazing about the room—there was a small conference table and a few chairs and far less of the usual A-C bells and whistles than the rooms I was normally spending time in—it just wasn’t familiar.
