Alien Diplomacy

to it. “Everyone’s here.” He nodded, leadingly. “Waiting for you and Chuckie to get back.” Jeff’s eyelids lowered to slits.This wasn’t his sexy, jungle-cat look; this was his “you’re really trying to be stupid” look. I pondered a little more. “And waiting for me to get back?” I asked hopefully.
    He finished up with Jamie’s diaper and helped get her eating. She’d been a chowhound from birth, and that hadn’t waned; she was happily snorking down breast milk in a matter of moments. “Yes. We have no idea who the target is, but you and I will be at the President’s Ball. Therefore, you and I are integral to whatever plans are put into place.”
    “So what was decided without me?”
    Jeff heaved a sigh. “Not much. James wanted to wait for you to get back.”
    On cue he popped his head in. Reader was still the best looking human I’d ever seen in the flesh, and if he wasn’t gay and married to Gower, my life might be very different. Seeing as he was, however, the cover-boy smile being flashed at me merely reminded me that someone thought my input was necessary.
    “Girlfriend, while you feed the baby, want you thinking about a couple of key points I’m sure Jeff and Reynolds didn’t tell you.”
    I tried not to visibly perk up but failed if the grins I got from both Reader and Jeff were any indication. “Sure, James. Lay ’em on me.”
    He nodded. “First, Reynolds’ ‘source’ happens to be our favorite investigative reporter of all time.”
    “Really? Chuckie takes information from Mister Joel Oliver?”
    Reader shrugged. “Per Reynolds, the guy’s almost never wrong. The second point, however, is that we have no idea if it’s a lone assassin, a group, or anything else you can come up with. I’d like you to come up with everything you can, though, because we have less than two days to avert God literally knows what.”



CHAPTER 6
    R EADER POPPED BACK OUT, and we switched Jamie to the other torpedo. “What do we actually know?”
    Jeff sighed. “Sadly, baby, that’s it.”
    “So you saved it all for me?” Things suddenly seemed more like they used to be.
    He grinned. “Yeah. See? I said you were getting yourself upset for nothing.”
    “Humph. So, what are the chances that this is aimed at Centaurion Division as opposed to the President or another high-ranking human official?”
    “No guess. Reynolds and I have already communicated with Alpha Four, just to be safe.”
    That we were able to casually talk to people in the Alpha Centaurion solar system had much to do with ACE, the superconsciousness I’d managed to filter into Gower during Operation Drug Addict. The rest had to do with the fact they were a lot farther along the advancement scale in that solar system and occasionally shared with us.
    “What did Alexander and/or Victoria have to say?” I’d put Alexander on the throne of Alpha Four, and Victoria was, therefore, the Queen Mother. They were Jeff’s cousins, though they were closer in the bloodline to Christopher. I liked them a lot, especially since they hadn’t resented me or Tito for killing their other family members. Hey, some royal successions are bloodier than others. “Could this be our fave escaped megalomaniacs coming back to try to snatch our baby again?”
    “As far as Alexander knows, all’s quiet. All of the A-C systemmonitors for them regularly, and we do as well; happily, there’s been no sign of either Ronaldo Al Dejahl or LaRue Demorte Gaultier, let alone my loser of a brother-in-law.” Amy’s stepmother had been the brains behind Operation Confusion and had hijacked an interstellar ship with the illegitimate son of the devil himself or, as we knew him, the Ronald Yates/Mephistopheles superbeing, in tow. As far as we knew, they’d also taken A-C Traitor at Large Clarence Valentino with them. Good riddance to all.
    “Okay. So, more importantly, what did Councilor Leonidas have to say?”
    “Per what he told Reynolds, if there’s a threat, it’s not coming from any agent outside Earth.”
    “Does Chuckie believe him?”
    “Yes, as far as he’s told me.” I let go of the breath I hadn’t realized I was holding, and Jeff grimaced. “It’s so nice to know you still think he walks on water.” Jeff’s sarcasm knob went to eleven, though I put this response only around five. Personal growth, it was a good thing.
    “Oldest friend. Brilliant. Massively successful in three separate careers. Risks his life to protect us.