by Gini Koch
“I’m sure he does. He and Kevin are my best agents, but still, neither one of them has your skill set.”
“Yeah, my ability to mind meld with the Crazed Evil Genius Society is consistently stellar.”
“We all serve in the best ways we can. Some ways are conventional, some are not. But as long as the good guys win more than the bad guys, it’s worth the effort and sacrifice.” Her voice softened. “Just be sure you aren’t what’s sacrificed, kitten.”
“I promise, Mom. Cliff and his team are going down, not me or my team.”
“Good. Leave Gadhavi and G-Company alone. Don’t engage with them unless you’re forced to. There are too many of them and now isn’t the time.”
“Will do, Mom. Love you, and love to Dad.”
“Love you, too, Kitty.”
We hung up, and I wasn’t scared anymore. I was pissed and worried and excited, but not scared. However, I had no plan at all now, since all our prep seemed to have been cancelled out.
Left the bathroom, left my stuff all over the floor, and trotted out to the main area. Buchanan and Siler were inside with the others now, and Alpha Team was back onsite, too.
“We’re trying to determine next steps,” Reader said to me.
“Originally there was going to be a large dinner,” Raheem said. “What are your thoughts on that?”
Our relaxed, three-hour combination tea and planning session seemed so very long ago. Checked Mr. Watch. “My God, it’s only six thirty in the evening?” Good. That meant the dinner could still be on.
“Time flies when you’re having fun,” Vance said, sarcasm meter around eight on the scale. “But if the dinner was planned, is it wise to change or cancel it, Your Majesty?”
Raheem shrugged. “Under these circumstances, Queen Katherine can say or ask for whatever she wants.”
“Oh, Queen Katherine wants to go to that dinner and she wants everyone on Team Commando to go to that dinner, too.” Shared the intel I’d gotten from Mom and her assumptions about the same.
“We should just have the P.T.C.U. raid it and keep you out of it,” Buchanan said the moment I was done.
“Per your boss and my mother, you’re going to need me and my special skill set.”
Tim’s phone beeped. “Uh oh.”
“What?” half the room asked.
“Jeff’s on his way here. With the head Themnir and head Lyssara and any other aliens who’ve landed already or will land shortly. They’re going to be coming to the State Dinner. Apparently someone invited them.”
Raheem shook his head. “No one should have done that. The dinner was set up to honor Queen Katherine, only, and no one other than those already here were invited. Give me a moment to verify who did not follow my instructions.” He got onto his phone and started speaking rapidly, as he stepped into one of the other rooms. Butler followed him, though he stood a polite distance away.
“So that means Chuckie’s coming, too, right?”
Tim nodded. “I’d assume so. My text came from Chuck.”
“Why’d he contact you and not me?” Reader asked. “I’m not mad, I’m just curious.”
Tim’s phone beeped again and he snorted a laugh. “Because I’m the Head of Airborne. He’s telling me that the rest of my team will be in the helicarrier, cloaked, hanging out in the Persian Gulf.”
“Do they know the Treeship is landing there?”
“Yes, and they’re going to be there to assist if needed. But they want to remain close to the President, and under the circumstances, they’re right. But that means that Chuck will be here for sure.”
Raheem returned and he looked worried and furious. “No one from my team will claim responsibility. They insist that no one invited the President, nor have any of them heard from him or his secretary or anyone else from the White House.”
Looked at Butler, who nodded. Nice to have him verifying that Raheem wasn’t lying to us. It also wasn’t hard to guess what was going on. “None of your people invited Jeff. Cliff invited Jeff. It’s a trap.”
“And every leader in the Middle East and every religious leader in the world will be at this dinner,” Lorraine said.
“For all we know, other world leaders have been invited, too,” Claudia added. Which earned looks of horror from the entire room.
Raheem got back on his phone and trotted out of the room again. Butler remained at his Listening-In Post.
“Invited and able to come are two different things,” Mona pointed out.
“Not with us,” I countered. “If they’ve been invited, they’ll all use gates to get there, and there won’t be any delays or issues with that, because they’re all with Field agents doing their best to accommodate these people and make them continue to be happy and play nicely with others. Wow, Cliff’s amazing.”
This earned me the room’s full attention. “Excuse me?” Mona asked, clearly speaking for everyone.
Mossy rolled his eyes. “Seriously?” Okay, Mona wasn’t speaking for everyone. “There is no way in the world that your enemy could have planned to attack the State Dinner because it was only planned in the last few hours and the likelihood that the summits were going to dissolve into the usual human bickering was high, so there would have been no need to attack it. Things worked out far better than anyone could have expected, so he had to regroup and form a new plan, which he’s done far faster than we’ve formed our new plan. She’s impressed by her enemy’s abilities. That’s not a bad thing—it’s far better to realize when your enemy is superior to you, so that you can look for their weaknesses, than to consider yourself invincible and discover that belief to be untrue.”
“Mossy, I sincerely feel this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. What he said. All of it. The Treeship is landing at dawn and I guarantee Cliff knows it. If he’s in with the Indian Mafia, and he is for certain, then he’s got access to their spy network, so he knows when the ship is landing and everything else that’s going on. He has the same amount of time we do to stop us, only he has the luxury of knowing that if he misses here, he still has all those aliens, the Q’vox in particular, to capture and clone. And he has the Aicirtap coming, too.”
“He’ll be eaten just like the rest of us,” Vance said.
“I doubt he believes that, and I refuse to believe we’re going to get eaten by them. Well, as long as we win. If Cliff succeeds in killing all the world leaders, that means he has a plan for how to deal with the Aicirtap and the Z’porrah, too.”
“He will have no need to deal with the Z’porrah,” Raheem said as he returned, “if what Prince Gustav promised happens.”
“It won’t happen if Drax is killed,” Reader said.
“Cliff will just figure out a way to tell the Vatusan Royal Family that we killed Gustav and that will be that. I don’t care what Cliff’s plan is to handle the Aicirtap. I care that we stop him tonight, before he can kill everyone he wants to, which includes my husband and everyone in this room. We’ll worry about the Aicirtap tomorrow, when, the way our luck runs, they’ll show up.”
“I agree with Queen Katherine,” Raheem said, “in no small part because I called the restaurant in the Burj Khalifa where the dinner is planned. We always had the entire restaurant reserved, but now we have every seat accounted for and more besides. Per the restaurant manager, they expect over two hundred and fifty people. And at least half are there already, possibly more. And more are arriving. And the restaurant believes that my staff requested this.”
“Every head of state plus the religious leaders fits that headcount, yeah. And, again, this was Cliff. It’s not hard to fake a restaurant hostess out, no offence intended to anyone who might have done that kind of job in the past. It’s just, why would anyone at the restaurant question this? You’d reserved the entire place and we just all sang “We Are The World” together—that every freaking leader in the world other th
an North Korea’s is hanging out having a Coke and a smile together makes total sense. Sure the restaurant may be having to scramble, but this is the highest-profile reason to scramble there is. I expect the food to be amazing. If any of us get to live to eat it.”
“How would you kill that many people?” Rhee asked, potentially to get me back on topic. “A bomb?”
“A bomb puts the entire building at risk,” Reader said. “I doubt his benefactor is going to appreciate that.”
“He may not care,” Rahmi pointed out. “Besides, a self-contained bomb would work.”
“If he owns property there, he will care,” Mona said dryly.
“I agree with Mona, and besides, bombs are messy and still have a chance of not getting an A-C. And there’s always a chance that the A-Cs will get to the bomb or bombs before they can explode. We’ve done it before.” Jeff had certainly done that before.
“It’s a meal,” Jareen said. “Poison would seem obvious.”
“But it’s uncertain, and you can’t count on it getting everyone.” Definitely had experience with that one, and I knew Cliff remembered that particular failure. “Poisoned gas would be more effective, especially if you have everyone locked in. How high up is the restaurant?”
“The one hundred and twenty-second floor,” Raheem replied.
“So jumping to safety is out of the question. I know what floors G-Company controls and which ones they only control part of. Interestingly enough, Floor one hundred and twenty-one is one of theirs.”
“So, what do we do?” Raheem asked. “Evacuate? They’re bringing the leaders in via your gates. Can’t we just take them out the same way, immediately?”
“Why are they bringing everyone in that way?” Antoinette asked. “I thought it was policy not to use them all the time for non-Centaurion personnel.”
“But this is a world event where the world has changed,” I said slowly. My brain was really nudging. “The agents are using gates because it’s the safest way to transfer personnel and they’re all Field agents and this is what they use to get places all the time. It’s less difficult and dangerous than dragging humans everywhere at hyperspeed and, besides, they’re coming from all over. But that does mean we can get them out just as quickly . . .” My brain shared what was bothering it.
“What?” Reader asked. “I know that look.”
“He’ll have something that’s going to prevent our using gates. They already figured out how to create floater gates. Not as good as ours but good enough. If he’s letting them congregate he’s going to get them all in and then he’ll close the trap.”
“Sounds like time for evacuation,” Siler said briskly. Buchanan nodded.
“Wait.” Tim waved his hand. “Jeff’s already there, along with Chuck and the aliens and anyone else you’d think would be there other than Christopher and Serene. I’d asked Chuck to keep me advised of their schedule. I was hoping to have time to tell them not to go, but he’d told me they were there after they’d already arrived.”
Looked at White. “Call your son. We’re going to need the Flash. Tell him to take a gate.” Looked at Colette. “Call Serene, tell her to stay where she is and send over whatever we’re going to need in order to infiltrate the tallest building in the world, which undoubtedly has some of the best security in the world.” Looked at Siler and Buchanan. “If we try to evacuate now, they’ll lock it down. Cliff has the two main people he wants to kill.”
“Aside from you,” Tim pointed out.
“Aside from me.”
“Our mother is still there,” Rahmi said in a small voice.
“So is your Secret Service detail,” Lorraine shared.
“And your Field team, too,” Claudia added.
White looked around. “I presume it’s a safe bet that if the person is not in this room with us right now, they are in the Burj Khalifa’s restaurant.”
“Raheem, what legitimate reason can you give for why the two of us and Mona and anyone expected from our entourages are late? Needs to be a damned good reason or Cliff will see through it.”
Tim groaned. “It’s worse. Per Chuck, the only world leaders missing are King Raheem, you, Kitty, and the Australian Prime Minister.” He looked up from his phone. “That makes no sense.”
“It might.” Serene hadn’t told me how to work the Bluetooth, but she’d sure felt I could reach her on it, so I tapped it. “Serene?”
“Here, just got off with Colette.” She sounded tense and ready for action. Good. “I told Christopher what to get from Dulce that you’ll need, I think, for what Colette says you’re going to be doing. I have these kinds of supplies stored in various places.”
“Great thinking. I need you to put me through to Tony Costello, the Australian Prime Minister.”
“Okay. Huh. Uh, why, just out of curiosity, do you need me to call him for you?”
“What do you mean? I need to warn him to stay home.”
“Too late for that. He’s in Bahrain. In the same place you are, as a matter of fact.”
CHAPTER 69
SHARED THIS NEWS with the others. “Why is he here?” Reader asked, echoing Serene.
Gower jerked. “He’s here to help Kitty. He considers himself her friend, and he knows how often she gets into, ah, difficult diplomatic situations.”
“You mean how often I blow it with the bigwigs, Paul, we all know.”
“I do not,” Raheem said. “You are the most competent and commanding woman I have ever met.”
“Raheem is my favorite. However, Tony doesn’t see me in quite the same light.” Because during our first meeting I’d accidentally flipped him off in Australian, caused hot coffee to be spilled on him and his wife, and fallen and knocked myself into another universe. Tony didn’t know all about the last one, but he sure knew about the first two.
Other Me had saved the day, and she’d thankfully left me a note filled with information so I’d know what I’d supposedly done. And one of those things she’d done was to forge a very strong bond between our family and the Costellos.
“Tony’s coming to help me because he knows I’ve done what I’m good at already. The rest? This is supposed to be a Washington Wife Extravaganza, and I am not the girl for that job.”
Saw the light go on for both Vance and Buchanan. “He’s not wrong,” Vance said. “So how did he get into the palace?”
“He’s with Field agents, right Serene?”
“Yes. They took a gate. He’s waiting for someone to call the king to allow him in.”
“Super. Okay, Raheem, you need to have them let the Prime Minister come here. Insist he bring the A-Cs along, don’t allow him to allow them to leave.” Raheem made the call, this time not even bothering to step away.
“So, we can save one whole world leader?” Abigail asked. “That seems underwhelming at best.”
“And you know that’s not my whole plan.” Looked at her and Mahin. Raheem got off the phone. “Raheem . . . how often does this area get hit with haboobs?”
“I’m impressed you know the word. Often enough. And the Prime Minister and his escorts are on their way.”
“I’m from Pueblo Caliente, Arizona. We get haboobs all the time. Serene, would a haboob affect a gate transfer?”
“I doubt it, but it’s possible. I can ask Walter or William. I believe they’d know.”
“Make it so, Number One.”
She laughed, and I could tell I was on hold. Silent hold, not that some music right now wouldn’t be a great thing for me. Maybe once we had some semblance of an effective plan in place.
“What do I tell Chuck?” Tim asked. “He’s starting to get suspicious based on what I’m asking him.”
“You can’t tell him the truth,” Gower said quickly. “If you do, he’ll try to find and stop Cliff himself.”
“Which will mean that Cliff gets Chucki
e and probably Jeff, too.”
“Technically, he has them already,” White pointed out.
A gate shimmered into view and Christopher arrived, carrying a big bag. “Serene says that we’re going to need everything in here. She also said we were at DEFCON Worse. I assume that means it’s the usual end of the world as we know it.”
“Right you are, Christopher. Mister White, the speedy talking again falls to you. Just, please do it in another room with the door closed.”
White nodded and he and Christopher stepped into the nearest room, which happened to be mine. Oh well, hopefully they wouldn’t step on all my clothes.
“Clothes. Those of us doing action duty are going to need to change, women especially. I’m actually packed for it, but how about the rest of you?”
While the Jeans and Sneakers Roll Call was sounding off, Serene came back on my line. “Per William and Walter, a haboob of enough ferocity, size, and speed would mean they would route anyone using a gate to a different location, first.”
“So, like changing planes because your flight doesn’t go nonstop?”
“Somewhat, yes. It’s also similar to us evacuating from any other natural disaster. When there are earthquakes in Southern California, many times we can’t use the gates here to leave because they’re being too affected by the shaking. It’s one of the reasons this base is small and normally runs with a skeleton crew.”
“Gotcha. So, a natural event would mean we can use that as an excuse.”
“Yes. But there isn’t one I see on any weather service maps right now. But, if you can create a haboob, Jeff would understand why you’re late, because you can’t go outside in that, and in order for you to arrive on time anyway, you’d have to take a gate, and William could believably tell him conditions were too bad to bring you in.”
“We’ll do that!”
“Kitty, one thing—William and Walter both said that whether it’s real or made by Mahin, they truly can’t safely transport anyone through it.”
“Not to worry. We’re going to go over, then create the haboob. Jeff just isn’t going to know about it.”
