Alien Diplomacy

his PDA. “Back now, sir. This is Magdalena Rijos-Carter, R.N. She has dual citizenship in the U.S. and Paraguay. No outstanding warrants, no police record. On file because her husband was in the Air Force and to obtain citizenship.”
    Len looked at his phone, where he clearly had the same info Kyle did. “Her husband died during a training maneuver.” Len looked up. “In the New Mexican desert. Several years ago.”
    I decided to take the leap. “So, her husband died fighting a superbeing, right?”
    Len nodded. “From what this says, or rather, the way it doesn’t say anything, yes, I think so. He was given a hero’s funeral.”
    “And your brother was murdered in front of you.” I shook my head. “You knew about American Centaurion and didn’t come to us for help?”
    “I only knew my husband worked high security missions. He never said what he did. I wouldn’t have believed him if he told me. Not until…”
    “Until your brother found out about the supersoldier project in the Chaco?” She nodded. “Who did you lose to that project?”
    She looked down. “Our son. He was doing work with some of the indigent, and…” She looked up and there were tears in her eyes. “They took out the entire village. From what we were able to gather, some were infected with whatever it is that makes them turninto monsters. And they killed the others. I…don’t know if our son was one of the monsters or not. Or if he’s still possibly alive.”
    “When did this happen?”
    “About a year and a half ago.”
    Right when we’d handled the clustered formation in the Chaco, before Operation Drug Addict got underway.
    Jeff cleared his throat. “Your son isn’t alive. If he was turned into a superbeing, he was destroyed. I gave the order and watched it happen.”
    Nurse Carter looked at him. “Thank you,” she said finally.
    “Why are you thanking him?” Christopher asked quietly.
    “Because now I know. For certain, that there can be no hope, but also that there can be no more horror.”
    I looked back at Jeff. “What do you think?”
    “What I thought before. Reynolds, she’s not our enemy. Not sure what to do with her, but the underground prison isn’t the right choice.”
    “She’s not our friend, either,” Chuckie pointed out.
    Nurse Carter shrugged. “As the saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. I want these people stopped. If I can help you keep the Dingo’s target from being killed, I will. Especially if it means you can stop my enemies from murdering someone else’s brilliant, loving brother, or taking anyone else’s beloved son and murdering him in the way I know he died.”
    I patted her shoulder. “We’re doing our best. Today, our best is none too good, but, you know, we sometimes manage to pull out a miracle.”
    “We need that miracle, girlfriend,” Reader said with a sigh. “Because we’ve lost whatever clues we had and are, pretty much, back to square one. And time’s running out.”



CHAPTER 50
    “O KAY, SO, LET’S GET BACK to where we were before we finally got Nurse Carter’s full info. Let me ask, though, did you work with the taxi drivers, helping them get in here?”
    “Absolutely not,” she said firmly. “I wanted that information more than you do.”
    “Where did you get the gun you had in the security deposit box?”
    She shrugged. “It was the Dingo’s. He told me it was waterlogged when he slipped it to me, but I figured you wouldn’t know that, and I was hoping I wouldn’t have to pull the trigger.”
    “It worked. I had no clue it was his gun.” And said gun had been in front of my face only the day before, too. It figured. As Jeff liked to point out, I had fabulous attention to detail, just not usually the details most people cared about.
    “The relevant question is, does this mean the three enterprising taxi drivers are working with the Dingo and company?” Chuckie asked. “Or are they working their own angle?”
    Tim shook his head. “There’s always more than one thing going on.”
    “I think another question should be were the taxi drivers the only ones who broke in this evening,” Reader said.
    “We have no way of knowing, since the cameras were tampered with.”
    Len cleared his throat. “The guys in the taxis seemed a lot less…effective than the ones who blew up the limo and put us into that car chase.”
    “And Kitty into the Potomac,” Reader added, while shooting methe cover-boy grin. “But yeah,” he said,