Alien Diplomacy

SURPRISE ME. “What the hell is going on?” he asked as he got nearer to us.
    “Where’s Jeff?”
    “Back at the Embassy, being the ambassador. The one who doesn’t get to run off at top speed any time he feels like it.” He patted the dogs, and they calmed down. The dogs loved Chuckie. Not as much as they loved Jeff, of course. I didn’t think they actually loved me, Mom, or Dad as much as they loved Jeff. But Chuckie was definitely up there on my dogs’ Top Ten List of People We Love the Mostest.
    “I don’t buy it.”
    Chuckie sighed. “I was alerted by your dogs barking their heads off.”
    “How could you have heard them? I know they were loud as hell, but the soundproofing in the Embassy is amazingly good.”
    He mumbled something.
    “Come again?”
    Chuckie sighed. “Fluffy and some of the other Poofs started acting stressed and were throwing themselves at a window. Since we know they can somehow travel wherever they want in a way no one understands, it was pretty clear they wanted us to see something. Your husband and I went to look and saw your dogs going nuts. Martini monitored your emotions. You weren’t scared; you were annoyed. We checked the surveillance cameras; I didn’t think it was a good idea to have a bunch of A-Cs race up out of nowhere. So, I came, since that’s part of my job. Now, I ask again, what the hell just happened?”
    “You tell us.” I brought Chuckie up to speed on the taxi situation. I deftly left out the fact that we’d walked up and down the street, or that we’d run into Marcia and Nathalie, let alone that we’d spotted Buchanan doing the Nonchalant Dude on Observation Duty routine. I’d save that for later. “Ishmael might be some sort of clue, but to me, he’s Moe, and the other two are Larry and Curly.”
    “Did you pick up anything?” Chuckie asked White and the boys.
    Len nodded. “They were watching for who was going to come out of the Embassy, all three of them, the two who weren’t talking to us in particular.”
    “They only watched the Embassy,” Kyle added. “They didn’t look around.”
    White looked pensive. He was also looking around carefully.
    “What’s up, Mister White?”
    “I’m trying to figure out why they came right now.”
    “Want to explain that?”
    He nodded slowly. “The two times you’ve seen them, you’d just gone through a dangerous situation and were, for all intents and purposes, out in the open. The only other interaction we’ve had with them was when they created the gas leak to plant surveillance in the Embassy.”
    “Correctamundo. And I see your point. Why did they drop by now? Nothing’s blown up, at least that I know of, and we’re not being pursued, so why show up when all we’re doing is walking the dogs?”
    Chuckie’s eyes narrowed. “We’re not done scanning the neighborhood, but this would indicate that they knew you were out. And that means you’re right—they installed surveillance somewhere we haven’t found and neutralized.” He cursed under his breath. “Every Embassy in this area could be compromised.”
    “Maybe. They were insisting they weren’t part of the big plan. They also said they were trying to protect us from the Dingo.”
    “No,” Len said. “He said they were trying to protect you .”
    “I assume he meant the inclusive ‘you.’ ”
    “I don’t think he did. He was only talking to you. He didn’t look at any of us, not even Mister White. Only you. And you were the only one of us here who ended up in the Potomac, and he didn’t say anything about how we’d have been spared worrying about you or anything like that.”
    “So I have a fan club? Lucky me.”
    Len looked at Kyle. “What about the other two?”
    Kyle shook his head. “Like I said, they were watching the Embassy, pretty much exclusively.”
    “So I have a fan club of one, and his pals tag along. Still not thrilled.”
    “No one got anything else?” Chuckie asked, clearly hoping one of us had managed a bit more.
    “Ishmael didn’t sound like he had an accent.” Hey, it wasn’t much, but it was something.
    “Does that mean you think he’s American or that you think he’s good at disguising his voice?”
    “No clue, sorry.”
    “Their license plates were caked with mud,” Kyle said, “so I couldn’t get the numbers.”
    “Figures.” Chuckie heaved a sigh. “Well, at least they didn’t attack you.”
    “No. Though with the dogs they had along, it was a possibility. But