Alien Diplomacy

smile gone, “I’ll give you that our other limo was destroyed.”
    “They had a lot of firepower.”
    “The limo was blown up, though,” Reader said shortly. “They shot out the tires, shot out the windows, and tossed in an explosive.”
    “Who saw it happen?” Chuckie asked.
    “What? Why?” Reader sounded almost as snappish as Jeff normally did when talking to Chuckie.
    “Because we still don’t know who bugged Kitty or how,” Chuckie replied. “And, as Kitty just pointed out, if they were taking the picture to avoid White or Serene reading it, then they know us very well. And infiltration is always a risk in any operation, especially this one.”
    “I hated my last driver. Not that I want to speak ill of the dead. If we really think he’s dead.”
    Reader, Tim, and Christopher were all on their phones. Jeff didn’t look convinced. “I didn’t pick up anything treacherous from any of your drivers, and I check for it.”
    I sighed. “Jeff, there are liars in the A-C community. It’s a skill, and it’s a well-hidden one.”
    “I know you’ve told me about it. I just don’t believe it,” he said.
    “Christopher can block you.”
    “He’s enhanced. Serene can probably block me, too. But I don’t really buy it with our regular people.”
    “Camilla is our shining example. I wonder if we should bring her over?” Camilla had been, thankfully, a double agent during Operation Confusion. Without her, and her ability to lie, we’d all likely be dead or enslaved by Ronaldo Al Dejahl.
    I liked her, though she wasn’t someone anyone hung out with. A-Cs who were truly able to lie convincingly were extremely rare, trained in secret, and pretty much could be considered the Jedi Monks of the A-C population. They had their own clubhouse somewhere, but the rest of us never got to go there. Most A-Cs didn’t know the clubhouse existed. Jeff’s father, Alfred, had, but Jeff hadn’t. Which was an interesting point to ponder, only not right now.
    “She’s on assignment,” Chuckie said.
    “Huh? What assignment?” I was never told anything even before I’d moved into the Embassy, and it was worse these days.
    “She’s doing something very delicate,” Chuckie said. “It’s approved at the highest levels.”
    “Seriously?”
    “Yes. And nothing you do or say is going to get the information out of me. However, I’m with you—it’s fairly easy for a human to lie to an empath if they know what to focus on.”
    “Huh.” Jeff shot Chuckie a dirty look. “Not that anyone can tell with you.” Chuckie laughed.
    “Boys…”
    “Not starting,” Jeff said quickly. “But do you really think we had a car full of traitors following you?” He sounded a little freaked out, a little angry, and a lot protective.
    “No. I think we had one guy, maybe two, whoever the humans were. I think, once the gunfire started, they shot the A-Cs in the car, rolled down the windows, jumped out of the car and into one of the many other limo options surrounding us, while their cronies tossed a bomb into the limo and blew up any sign of internal foul play.”
    “Glass in the limos is bulletproof,” Reader acknowledged as he hung up. “All the metal’s reinforced, too.”
    “So even if you’re slow on the laser shield button, you should have time to hit it, right?”
    He nodded. “Right. And there were two humans in the car, the one who’d driven you to your Washington Wife class and the one you’d had before him who also hadn’t worked out.”
    “One human was driving and I remember that the other one took shotgun. Meaning they were the ones who had the best access to said laser shield button, as well as every other doohickey in the car.”
    “So, maybe Kitty didn’t like them not because they hadn’t gone through a danger situation with her, but because she picked up something wrong they were doing,” Len suggested.
    “Or maybe it was both,” Tim said, closing his phone. “But I just checked on the teams James and I sent out to reclaim our agents’ bodies. They found six A-C bodies.”
    “Oh, let me play! Let me play! No humans, right?”
    Tim nodded. “Forensics is looking to see if they can tell if the blast was internal and where it was centered. Not sure they’ll get much, it was pretty big.”
    “Okay, no worries, ’cause I think we’re right unless they find something that completely contradicts this theory. Let’s get back to the bigger worries. Jeff, I know you monitor emotions, but