The princesses weren’t alone, however. Adriana, the granddaughter of the Romanian Ambassador and his wife, was with them. Adriana was a pretty girl, but she was also being trained in the old ways of the KGB by her grandmother, Olga, who was a former operative and a literal fount of knowledge. I was particularly appreciative of this, since Adriana had saved my life during Operation Assassination.
“Grandmother said I should go along to help,” Adriana shared, proving that, as always, Olga likely knew what was going on, or at least some of it.
Adriana was dressed in her form of butt-kicking clothing—cargo pants, long-sleeved T-shirt, Doc Martins, and backpack, carrying who knew what, but all of it likely good for covert operations—all in black. In other words, she fit right in with the A-C Color Scheme of Choice.
“Awesome, Olga rocks and glad to have you along. I’m calling this team good because I want Len and Kyle staying with Jamie. Jeff, can you handle your part, as in, go off and pretend nothing’s wrong?” The man couldn’t lie, but hope liked to spring eternal.
He heaved a sigh. “Yes. I’ll be monitoring you. I’ll know when things go wrong.”
“When? They could go right, you know, Mister Polly Positive.”
Everyone other than the princesses snorted laughter. “While you race off into danger without me, I’ll see if I can come up with when, if ever, things have gone right all the way through a situation,” Jeff said, sarcasm meter heading toward eleven.
“Glad you’ve got a new hobby. My team, let’s get the eight of us to Caliente Base, get our people, and kick some bad-guy butt.”
CHAPTER 18
GOWER TOOK TITO’S LAPTOP and escorted Caroline upstairs while Chuckie called Cliff and told him to cancel coming to the Embassy and instead meet up with Chuckie and Jeff at the Capitol.
Rahmi and Rhee went and got their battle staffs, which looked like the lovechild of a javelin and a light saber. Sadly, they only had one each. Dulce had been working on making replicas, but hadn’t yet been successful, possibly because we didn’t have the right materials on Earth.
Amy and Nurse Carter came with us to the basement to say goodbye to their men. A-Cs tended to keep the gates in their homes and such in the bottom floor, preferably the basement, if one happened to be available. Either that or in a bathroom. Or both. Aliens were weird. But again, this was now down on the low end of my Weird-O-Meter Scale.
The Embassy’s gate was indeed in the basement. We also had a stationary floater gate in the computer lab, which was less of an oxymoron than you might think. I still felt that there had to be another gate, a hidden one, somewhere in the Embassy. But no one had found it, and even Chuckie thought I was just being a crazy paranoid about it. But my gut said there was another gate, and my gut also said that I needed to find it before our enemies used it against us.
However, now wasn’t the time. While the two White couples did their goodbyes, Jeff pulled me into his arms and held me tightly. “You know I’m not happy about this, baby.”
“I know. But you’ll know if I’m in trouble.” A thought occurred. “Speaking of which, can you pick up anything emotionally from anyone who might be at Dulce?”
“No, and I’ve been trying. I’m betting that means there’s an emotional blocker or enhancer, or many of them, over there.” His brow furrowed. “That could mean I won’t be able to feel you when you’re there.”
“We’ll manage. I promise to call for help if we need it.”
Jeff put his finger under my chin and tilted my head up. “I’ll hold you to that.” Then he bent and kissed me. Like always, his kiss was amazing—sensuous and arousing. And also like always, I was ready to go to bed by the time he slowly ended the kiss. He chuckled. “Nice to see your laser focus on the priorities is still intact.”
“Always.” I hugged him tightly. “We’ll be fine. I promise.”
“Prove it to me by coming back quickly and in one piece. You know, do you want me to take you through the gate?” he asked, just a little too casually.
“Nice try. Do I need to call Chuckie down here to do his Vulcan Nerve Pinch thing to keep you under control?”
Jeff sighed. “No. I just thought I’d offer.”
White kissed Nurse Carter goodbye, came over, and took my hand. “I’ll handle my partner, Jeffrey. You go off and handle the things we can’t.”
“Fine, fine.” Jeff didn’t budge.
“William, are you on the com?”
“Yes, Ambassador. I’ve advised Mister Reynolds. He’s heading downstairs now.”
Jeff rolled his eyes. “Fine! I’m going, I’m going. We’re all going.” He ushered Nurse Carter and Amy before him and they all headed for the stairs. Jeff looked over his shoulder as he started up. “Just remember that the main military base we call on for support is most likely under siege, and that means any real firepower will take a lot longer to arrive.”
“We will do, Commander.” This earned me a grin, then Jeff headed upstairs. I heard him and Chuckie start kvetching at each other. Well and good, they were taken care of.
“Nice to see he thinks we’re completely incapable,” Christopher muttered.
“He just wants to go with us. Mister White, if you’d do the gate honors.”
White spun the dial and calibrated the gate for us to go one at a time to Caliente Base. “Dad, you go first, I’ll go last,” Christopher said.
White shot a look over his shoulder. “Missus Martini?”
“Sure, I guess. We’re going to a base we know is secure. Mister White, then Malcolm, Rahmi, Tito, Adriana, Rhee, me, and Christopher. Sound good?”
“Yeah,” Christopher said. I wondered if this was some holdover thing for him from when he’d been Head of Imageering.
“Great. We’ll get weaponed up once we’re all there.”
One by one everyone stepped through. As Rhee did the slow fade that was like a nausea appetizer to my stomach, I steeled myself for the trip. But before I could go through, Christopher put his hand on my arm. “Kitty, I need to tell you something.”
It dawned on me that I hadn’t asked Christopher what he could see of our people. Considering his Surcenthumain boost had given him the ability to see beings in the Alpha Centauri system—both externally and, in that creepy-but-good way we seemed to attract naturally, internally—this was an oversight on my part.
He looked worried and serious, and my stomach knotted. “What can you see from over there? Are our people okay?”
His shoulders slumped. “That’s what I wanted to tell you. I . . . I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know?”
Christopher shook his head. “For the past few months my abilities have been . . . diminishing. Once all the chaos was over and Chuck and Naomi were married, I tried to see Alexander and the others on Alpha Four, to see if I could tell what was going on. And . . .”
“And?”
“I couldn’t. I couldn’t see anyone. I tried everything, but came up with nothing. I could still see people on Earth, though. But that’s been fading. My range has gotten less and less. Right now I can only see inside someone if I’m touching them. Otherwise, nothing.”
Had no idea what to say. “Wow,” seemed to about cover it. Congratulated myself on keeping the “that totally sucks” and “well this day just keeps on getting better and better” comments to myself. This diplomacy gig was good for something. “What about your speed?” In addition to his expanded imageering talents, Christopher had become the fastest A-C in the world due to the Surcenthumain.
“That’s still there. I don’t know why, but that hasn’t been affected at all. But I can’t tell if anyone’s alive or dead at Dulce or Home Base. Or anywhere else for that matter.”