Alien Research

CHAPTER 15

“WILLIAM, patch us in with Hacker International, will you?”

“She means the computer lab,” Jeff added.

“Yes, Representative Martini, I know. Walter left detailed instructions, including the Ambassador’s nicknames for everything and everybody. Hacker International is connected. Have taken the liberty of putting them on-screen for you, Ambassador.”

After Operation Sherlock, Jeff had decided that if we could find a way for him to never have to visit with Hacker International in person, he wanted that way installed immediately.

So, we’d done an electrical remodel and added big screen monitors with video cameras built in into every room where we had meetings or might want to have meetings. This was most of the general rooms in the Embassy and the Zoo. Since it had been done by A-Cs, it had taken an afternoon. Just one. Hyperspeed was the greatest.

The interior of the Zoo’s computer lab came onto the big screen in the kitchen. It showed five men—Stryker Dane, aka Eddy Simms, from good old Pueblo Caliente, Arizona, Big George Lecroix from France, Dr. Henry Wu from China, Ravi Gaekwad from India, and Yuri Stanislav, aka Omega Red, from Russia. They were all busily at work at their computer terminals, but I wasn’t sure if that was because they were aware that Chuckie was in the Embassy. Chuckie was essentially their boss and he had them in a constant state of alert fear. Jeff really appreciated this, and told Chuckie so often.

They were the best hackers from their respective countries, though each one had his own specialties. In addition to hacking, Stryker was also the author of the very successful Taken Away series wherein he recounted his “totally true” tales of being kidnapped and probed by aliens. Needless to say, Stryker wrote fiction.

He made the most money of the team, therefore, because he had the extra income source to add into all the other income sources. He also had the strongest personality, so he was Team Hacker’s unofficial leader. Sadly, he still had manboobs, an appearance you could charitably call “slovenly,” limited personal hygiene, and long, unkempt hair that, if cleaned and brushed, would be his only attractive feature.

Big George was tall and thin, but still had the Uber Geek look going. Henry was small, balding, and timid in looks as well as actions. Ravi was pretty normal looking and he was engaged to a Dazzler, so he’d fixed up his look a little bit. Omega Red was blind and buffed out, making him the total Hacker International anomaly. I wasn’t sure if he knew that the others never lifted anything heavier than a Big Gulp cup, or if he just liked lifting weights, but he was the only one of them who’d be worth anything in a physical fight.

They were dressed pretty much alike in khaki cargo shorts, sandals, and T-shirts. Today’s group T-shirts were commemorating the X-Files. They had a nice selection, no one duplicating the other’s image choice. This was done because I’d made a joke about them having assigned Geek T-Shirt Days and instead of them dressing nicely for a change, they’d instead created a Shirt Rota Chart. With pride.

Chuckie had ferreted out Stryker’s “bunker” when he and I were in high school and, despite the age difference of about ten years, they’d become friends. So I’d known Stryker since high school, too. I’d known all the other guys by the time I was out of college. They’d joined us as a group, however, during Operation Destruction and had never left. Not a day went by that Jeff didn’t point this out to me. Unhappily. But I found them useful. And fun to bait. Though the baiting would probably have to wait. We had an emergency.

“Eddy! How’s it going? Actually I don’t care. You and the rest of the wacky gang need to roll into action.”

“Already on it, Kitty.” Stryker sounded tense and he didn’t look away from whatever he was working on. “Ravi was talking to the reverse engineering team at Dulce and was cut off. We’ve been trying to reestablish communications ever since. It’s definitely not our side.”

“Jennifer and Jeremy were at the same training session as Walter,” Ravi added, sounding worried. Understandable—Jennifer Barone was his fiancée. She and her brother were a Field team assigned to us permanently during Operation Destruction. Jennifer was an imageer and Jeremy was an empath.

“Why were they there?” I asked.

“Gladys said they performed security here, so they needed the training,” Ravi replied.

“How long have you been trying to make contact with Dulce?” Chuckie asked before I could ask why Len and Kyle, my C.I.A.-assigned bodyguards, hadn’t been requested. Not that I wasn’t glad that they’d been with me this morning, but if Gladys had asked for the Gower girls and the Barones for this security thing, why not the boys, too? But the boys being here was, all things considered, likely to be a very good thing, so I chose not to question aloud.

“Twenty-three minutes so far.”

“That times out about to when Walter called me.”

“Have also checked with Home Base,” Big George said. “No response. On any line.”

“And we had the system auto-call every line, too,” Henry added.

“What’s the weather like around Area Fifty-One and the Science Center?” I asked.

“Clear,” Omega Red replied. “Why?”

“Because there was supposedly a huge dust storm at Home Base earlier today, which sent training exercises to Dulce. Do you have any record of such?”

They were all quiet, and every one of them was typing. “No, weather services show nothing,” Stryker said finally. “As I know you know, it’s monsoon season in Arizona and parts of New Mexico, but there are no storms in either state today.”

“Caliente Base. Someone try to reach them, right now.” This was the base in my, Chuckie, and Stryker’s hometown. It wasn’t as big as most of the others, but it was of decent size, and it also housed a great majority of the A-Cs under thirty, due to my having declared them political refugees during Operation Drug Addict.

“Caliente Base is online,” William said. Felt the whole room relax a little. “They can’t raise anyone at Dulce or Home Base either. They want to know if they should investigate.”

“No. Tell them we’ll be there shortly. I don’t want anyone going in until we have all areas cleared. Check the Dome. And every other base worldwide.”

“Yes, Ambassador.”

We waited. Couldn’t speak for anyone else, but I was certainly praying that the Dome, which was the main gate hub for the entire world, was secure and still in communication with us.

“The Dome and all bases worldwide other than Dulce and Home Base reporting in,” William said. “All bases on High Alert. Dome is locked down. All personnel have been told to wait for your order, Ambassador.”

“Why oh why is Kitty somehow in charge?” Christopher grumbled. “The power goes straight to her head.”

“With Alpha Team inaccessible, she and the Pontifex are the highest ranking individuals available,” William replied. Could’ve sworn that, despite the situation, he was trying not to laugh. At Christopher, I hoped.

While Jeff and Christopher both tried to look like they didn’t hate hearing that, and also tried not to look like they desperately wanted to go back to being the Heads of Field and Imageering, Gower cleared his throat. “Kitty, I need to talk to you, alone, just for a moment.”

“Sure, Paul.” We stepped out and went down the hall to Raj’s office. Gower closed the door. “Paul, if this is about ACE, I know.”

Gower looked shocked. “What do you mean you know?”

“Jeff, Chuckie and I know that ACE isn’t . . . around right now. We haven’t told anyone else, and we won’t tell anyone else. If ACE needs us for anything, we’ll all do whatever we need to, but we know ACE isn’t here to help us.”

Gower’s shoulders slumped and he sat down. “How long have you known?”

“Chuckie’s known the longest. Jeff and I found out at the start of Operation Sherlock.”

He heaved a sigh. “I wish I’d known you all knew. It’s been hard to pretend to talk to ACE without him inside me.”

“We think he’s still there, Paul. Per Jamie ACE is still . . . around somewhere.”

“I don’t feel him, and I haven’t since a few weeks after the invasion.”

“Right when the tunnels went back to impenetrable?”

“Yes, right then.” He rubbed his forehead. “We’re clearly under attack of some kind. Someone’s going to ask where ACE is and why he isn’t helping us.”

“Specifically why he’s not saving James.” Reader was Gower’s husband. ACE had helped save his life before, and if something bad had happened to Reader, we were going to have to deal with our enemies knowing ACE was gone at the same time as grieving our hearts out. Which sucked.

“Or Serene. Or anyone else. Such as everyone at Dulce and Home Base.”

“We’ll deal with it. I’ll spin it in some way, Paul, don’t worry. Chuckie and Jeff are ready to follow either one of our leads on what’s going on with ACE. The four of us will handle it. We can’t let ACE being on sabbatical stop us from figuring out what’s going on and saving our people right now.”

“I know.” Gower heaved another sigh and stood up. Shoulders squared, expression of calm confidence on his face—back to the religious leader of an entire exiled race. Good. We needed him on his A game. “I’m going to officially give you full control of the A-C population when we’re back with the others.”

“Super. Why?”

“Because I can’t give it to Jeff, or rather, Representative Martini. I can’t give it to Christopher, or rather, the husband of the woman fighting to control Gaultier Enterprises. And I can’t in good conscience give the reins to Chuck because he’s C.I.A. and we don’t want them running us, nor do we want the F.B.I. and Homeland Security demanding their fair share of us. So, you’re our leader.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, there, Paul.”

He grinned. “And besides, when the evil madmen plans arise, as I’m sure we’re facing right now, there’s no one better at the helm than Megalomaniac Girl.”

“Ah, you do love me and respect the skills.”

Gower laughed. “Kitty, when it comes to someone figuring out what the crazy people have going on, there’s no one who’s your equal.” He hugged me. “And, as James would say, you’ll always be our girl.”

I hugged him back. “So, does this mean you two are willing to go bi and add me into the marriage?”

“I think Jeff should be worried about how hopeful you just sounded.”

“I think I’m still waiting for your answer.”