“Who else knows?”
“No one. I haven’t even told Amy.” He swallowed. “I don’t know if the regression is done or not.”
“We’ll have Tito test you later. Are you okay to go on this mission with me?”
“Yeah. The rest of me is fine. I can still read and manipulate images, and do everything else I could before I took the drug.”
“That’s good. Let’s get over there. You want to tell your dad or you want me to?”
He grimaced. “I don’t really want to tell anybody. I didn’t want to tell you, but I figured you were going to ask me to check on something somewhere along the line.”
“Yeah, I would have. There’s no shame in it, Christopher.”
“Yeah?” he said as he made the “after you” gesture, meaning it was time for me to head through the gate. “The only positives from my taking the Surcenthumain were my expanded powers. Now I’ve lost the majority of them. So where does that leave me?”
I patted his cheek. “Back to where you started. You know, at the awesome level.”
CHAPTER 19
DECIDED THAT CHRISTOPHER AND I had both stalled enough, took one for the team and stepped through the gate. The usual feeling of moving very slowly and very fast at the same time ensured the usual additional feeling of overwhelming nausea.
But, as with all gate transfers, it didn’t last too long and, happily, I wasn’t bounced back. I stepped forward quickly, so Christopher wouldn’t run into me, and took a look around.
Caliente Base was like a miniature version of the Dulce Science Center. If the word miniature could be applied to a huge complex that went down ten stories and was who knew how wide. Someone knew, of course, that someone just wasn’t me. I’d decided early on not to sweat the small stuff and the various bases’ dimensions definitely fell on the “small stuff” side of the house for me.
We were in the main gate level for Caliente Base, which meant that, if memory served, we were one story under ground level. This level didn’t have as many A-C bells and whistles as the rest of the base, but the impressive display of gates, computer banks, and Field agents made up for the lack of snazzy, high-tech equipment.
In the olden days of six months ago I’d have been worried, with good cause, that Rahmi and Rhee would have attacked the men. However, the princesses were actually fast learners, and they’d adjusted well to the fact that we had a lot of men around and most of them weren’t evil or in need of a beating.
I let out the breath I’d been holding—there were a lot more than our team here. To a person, every face I could see looked worried. There was a face I wasn’t expecting to see here, though. Said face was chatting with the princesses.
“Dad, what are you doing here?” I trotted over and gave him a hug.
“I was with Alfred when the trouble started,” Dad said. “I asked to come with the agents who verified Caliente Base’s gates were functional.”
“And Alfred let you?”
Apparently I hadn’t kept the shock and disapproval out of my tone, because Dad chuckled. “There was no risk, kitten.”
Chose to refrain from explaining that there was likely a lot of risk. Dad was here, in one piece, and the troops needed me focused on the matters at hand, not to be asking why my father had suddenly decided he was Action Professor.
“No worries, Dad. When Jeff and Chuckie arrive, then you can tell them to go back home, and you can go back home with them.”
“You told them to go to Congress,” Christopher pointed out.
“I did. And did you notice that Jeff only argued a little and Chuckie didn’t argue at all? I hope you don’t think either one of them has actually decided to be a big boy and trust that I can handle things on my own, because that would be a ridiculous assumption on your part.”
White laughed. “I noted that Charles passed a little sign to Jeffrey.”
“I missed that, but good catch, Mister White. I made my assumption based on years of experience. Anyway, Dad, I expect them to give us a few minutes and then show up. Please let them know I’m not happy that they’re here any more than I’m happy that you’re here.”
“Will do, kitten,” Dad said with a sigh. “What’s your plan?”
“I want to see if we can get to Home Base via a gate.”
“I’ll test it,” Christopher said before anyone else could. “I’m the fastest and if the bounce back is what I expect, my speed will make it less of an issue. And if we have hostiles there waiting, again, I’m the fastest and they’ll have the hardest time hitting me.”
Chose not to argue. I didn’t want Christopher hurt, but it had to be an A-C testing the transfer, and if there was a problem he was indeed the best guy for the job. Plus, he’d been a Commander for over a decade. “Go for it, just go with a weapon at the ready.”
“And your phone on,” Buchanan added. “Wear a Bluetooth and be in contact with us.” He handed Christopher an earpiece.
“Where’d you get that?”
Buchanan gave me the “duh” look. “From the hackers. They’ve already paired the devices with everyone’s phones.” He slipped one on and handed out identical headsets to the rest of our team.
“Good thinking,” I said as Buchanan gave me mine. Decided not to ask when he’d gotten these. Could have been while we were all talking, could have been days prior. Buchanan worked in those mysterious ways and I didn’t have time or mental bandwidth to worry about said ways right now.
Christopher shot Buchanan Patented Glare #3, but acquiesced and put on the earpiece. My phone rang and I answered it. “Hello?”
“It’s me,” Christopher said, joining Buchanan in the Duh Experience. “Your bodyguard wanted me on with you, remember?”
“I was just being polite, geez. Carry on, and let’s hope that whatever’s on the other side isn’t faster than you.”
The gate was calibrated and Christopher stepped through. “I’m here,” he said a second later. “No issues.”
“We’ll come over, then,” I said.
“Wait and let me check the entire base out.” We waited. I counted. A whole fifteen seconds went by. “No one’s here. It’s completely deserted.” Good to know Christopher hadn’t been wrong about his speed still being all that and an extra-large bag of chips.
“We’re all coming, then. See if you can find us a jet that will hold the full team.”
“Do I have to?”
“Yes. Would you rather run across a state to get there?”
“You’re the only one around with a pilot’s license. So the answer is ‘yes.’”
“Ha ha ha, you’re hilarious. Find a jet and be sure it’s got a full tank of fuel. That’s an order.”
“Oh, yes ma’am. Hope your head can fit through the gate.”
“Wow, I can’t wait to get over there and hurt you. Stay on the line, just in case. And so you can hear me disparage you to everyone.”
“You’d better hurry if you want to beat Jeff and Chuck.”
He had a point, and we were both bantering because we were stalling. Decided to act like the Head of Field again and get the next phase of our plan going. “Okay, my team, let’s get over to Home Base.”
“What are you expecting over there, kitten?” Dad asked.
Saw no reason to lie and figured the troops here should probably know what was going on. “We think Ronaldo Al Dejahl is alive, well, and back in business. Clearly he has a hacker on staff now, because I don’t buy that we got hacked at the level we’ve just experienced in a random coinkydink. And, since none of the weather services or military bases or NASA picked up a sandstorm big enough to make everyone at Home Base feel security training had to move to Dulce, he’s probably also got someone who can create some seriously impressive illusions.”