Alien Diplomacy

Diplomatic Mission was housed in was one of the more boring and nondescript ones—not ugly, just not trying to shout “look at me!” like some of the others. Our Embassy wasn’t wearing glitter and fringe, but it was a lot snazzier looking.
    “You sure we should be here?” Len asked. “They tried to kill us all two days ago.”
    “No. Assassins tried to kill us. Sure, they’re associated with this diplomatic mission, but that doesn’t mean everyone else here is out to get us, or even knows what’s going on.”
    We all stared. The dogs got bored and sat down, heaving doggy sighs. “Looks like a building,” Kyle offered.
    “I don’t see anything overly suspicious,” I had to admit. “Should we go in?”
    “I doubt that would be wise, Missus Martini. However…” White stepped away from me and wandered toward the side of the building. He was blocked from view from most of the street when he went to hyperspeed, zipped around the building, and stopped right where he’d taken off from. It was as if he’d never left. He shook his head, turned around, and came back.
    “See anything good?”
    “Nothing we can use. All the curtains are drawn.”
    “Is that normal?”
    “We keep our curtains drawn,” White reminded me.
    “Yeah, ’cause we’re not normal.” I pondered my options. I really wanted to go into this Embassy. However, I had Jamie with me, and while I could legitimately get into trouble when I was alone, I didn’t think it said Mother of the Year to drag my baby into potentially hostile territory.
    “Remember, we walk in, we’re on their land,” Len said, apparently because he’d read my mind.
    “Fine.” I sighed. “Well, let’s head on back then. At least I know where this building is now.”
    “Actually, let’s head up a little farther,” White suggested. “We can look at other Embassies.”
    “Gotcha. We’re not casing Paraguay’s Embassy; we’re comparing architectural designs. Wise move, Mister White.”
    “I do my best.”
    I got Jamie out of the stroller and carried her. She might as well get to enjoy the architecture, too. After all, it was never too early to start learning, apparently.
    We got back into formation, White pushing the stroller, and walked on. No one talked—we were all thinking. At least, I knew I was, and I assumed White was. The boys might have been thinking, or they might have been contemplating their letters of resignation, I couldn’t be positive.
    We reached a major intersection, crossed the street, and started walking back on the other side. Passed the Paraguayan Embassy—still a whole lot of nothing going on, especially from a distance. This walk was boring, at least by my standards, though the dogs were living it up in the sniffing, snuffling, and peeing on random trees departments.
    However, as walks went, it was a nice one, sauntering up anddown part of what was nicknamed Embassy Row. I wasn’t expecting to see anyone I knew, since I didn’t really know our neighbors well. We hadn’t had a lot of bonding time during the one disastrous party we’d thrown.
    So it took me a couple of seconds to realize someone was calling my name as she came running out of the Croatian Embassy.



CHAPTER 57
    “K ITTY!” MARCIA KRAMER RACED OVER, dragging Nathalie Gagnon-Brewer behind her. “What are you doing here?”
    I stared at her for a long moment. “I’m an ambassador. We live in this neighborhood. I’m taking a walk, what does it look like I’m doing? What are you doing here?”
    “Visiting friends.”
    “You two have friends in the Croatian diplomatic mission?” I found it hard to believe either one of them had friends outside of the Washington Wife class. The idea that anyone else could stand them just seemed too unreal.
    “We have friends all over,” Marcia said with a sniff. Her sniff was returned by all four dogs, who were busy sniffing the two new arrivals with interest. Marcia tried to shove them away surreptitiously, but our dogs were pros at avoiding anything but the most strenuous of hints.
    Nathalie hadn’t looked up from her iPhone. Apparently she was deep into another Angry Birds session and couldn’t tear herself away, people in front of her and dog noses in her crotch or no. “Bonjour,” she said absently.
    “Nice to see you. See you tonight.” I tried to walk on.
    “Is this your baby?” Marcia asked as she sidestepped Dottie only to walk right into Dudley, who, after finishing his sniffing extravaganza, had