Alien Diplomacy

them were sniffing like mad.
    “Seriously? You’re trying this tactic again, after it worked so well for you yesterday? Oh, by the way, give me back the picture and the rest of the things you stole.”
    He grinned at me. “Finders keepers.” He had good teeth, whichtended to indicate an affluent country of origin. Or at least an affluent upbringing.
    I did a quick check. The other taxis were behind his, idling, with their drivers behind the wheels, no firearms in evidence. If this was a kidnap attempt, it was a really low-key one.
    I wasn’t particularly worried, not the way I’d been the day before, and not just because we had more, and better, backup than yesterday, or because we were less than a block from our Embassy. I just wasn’t getting any indicators that it was time for fight or flight. “What’s going on?”
    “We’re hoping you can tell us.”
    “Who is ‘us’?” I could see Len out of the corner of my eye—both girl dogs were on their feet and straining at their leads. Checked Kyle out of the other corner—same with the boy dogs. All four seemed quite intent, though they weren’t barking or growling.
    “We’re friends.”
    “Right. Friends don’t kidnap each other.”
    “That depends.” He cocked his head. “If you’d come with us yesterday, you wouldn’t have ended up in the river.”
    “I like swimming. And I’m sure I’d have ended up somewhere else unpleasant.”
    “Unpleasant is in the eye of the beholder.” He checked his rearview mirror. “Some of what you have to do is very unpleasant. Many of those you consider friends are considered by others to be unpleasant. But you still trust them. And you should trust us, too.”
    “Why would you think I’d trust you at all? Especially since I have no idea who ‘you’ are, whether it’s just the three of you on some bizarre crusade or if there’s a whole bunch of you out there, or what you actually hope to achieve with any of this, other than stalling us from getting around the block.”
    He shook his head. “Just because you refuse our offers of help doesn’t mean we’re your enemies.”
    “It also doesn’t mean you’re our friends. Why are you protecting the Dingo?”
    He rolled his eyes as he checked his rearview mirror again. “We’re not. We’re not the ones who took him. We’re trying to protect you . Why do you think we arrived before?”
    “You mean after the bomb two days ago before, when you chased us, or last night before, when you also chased us?”
    “Both. You needed us, we arrived. Just because you didn’t take advantage of our services doesn’t mean we’re not here to help you.”
    “Why are you here now? Nothing’s going on.”
    “There’s always something going on. You know that. Besides, you’ll enjoy the ride, trust me.”
    “Fine. You want us to become bestest buds? Start with sharing your names. And your affiliation.”
    Dudley started it. He growled, low, deep, long, and nasty. Duke followed suit, then the girl dogs joined in. Dottie started the barking, but it took almost no time for the others to add in. They were barking at the taxi and the ones behind it, as near as I could tell, and it was taking all the strength the boys had to keep them under a semblance of control. These weren’t friendly barks—these were Enemy Alert barks.
    The reason for my dogs’ reactions raised its head. There was a German shepherd in the backseat. It bared its teeth at my dogs, who shared that they were perfectly willing to take him or her on, best two out of three.
    I checked the other cars. I could see dog ears in the taxi behind us, and I heard the sound of other dogs barking, so I assumed each cab had a dog of some kind in it.
    “What the hell is going on and who the hell are you?” I shouted over the din.
    The taxi behind him honked. He grinned. “Call me Ishmael,” he called. “And I’m affiliated with Rapid Response Taxi Service.” With that he gunned it, and the taxis headed off, each one with a German Shepherd leaning out a window, barking and snarling right back at my dogs.
    All of a sudden, Dottie’s bark changed. She spun and started the Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy bark. The others caught on and did the same. I recognized this greeting.
    I turned around to see whose arrival had signaled to the Three Stooges that it was time to go and to my dogs that it was time to calm down. I was sort of unsurprised to see that it was Chuckie.



CHAPTER 60
    C HUCKIE WAS ALONE, WHICH DID