Alien Diplomacy

balance. White and I righted ourselves, and I helped Prince back up onto the seat.
    Ishmael turned around, a shocked look on his face. “How did you know?”
    I looked straight at him. “Well, we don’t let just anyone in on the secret, but the truth is…I’m psychic.”



CHAPTER 68
    I SHMAEL GAPED AT ME. “REALLY?”
    “Seriously, you really have to ask? No!” I waved my phone at him. “It’s all here, matter of public and World Weekly News record. Titan has the main contract to provide security to the parts of D.C. deprived of officers of the law. This city’s the test case before Titan and the rest of the big security companies go into a major battle to get protection contracts throughout the U.S., and then Europe and the Middle East. What I want to know is—what the hell is your plan? Because I get a lot of flack for my plans, but at least mine have some coherency.”
    He stared at me for a long few seconds. Then he sighed. “Our plan is simple. To do what we agreed to do—protect and serve.”
    “Why have I been your main protection focus?”
    Ishmael gave me the “duh” look. “Because you’ve been targeted by assassins. And those assassins were hired by Titan Security.”
    “How did you know that?” White asked.
    “Her limo blew up. She was chased by a lot of men. And someone just tried to shoot you.”
    “Good points. But you showing up on the scene, every time, seems a little too coincidental. Especially the first time.”
    “We’re good.”
    “Officer Moe, you were on the scene far too quickly. No one’s that good.” At least, no one human.
    “We had a tip something was going down.”
    “A tip from whom? The only tipster who seems remotely accurate right now is Mister Joel Oliver, and I don’t think you’re on his call list.”
    When I said Oliver’s name, Ishmael’s eyes shifted a little. Living with A-Cs for the past two years had really honed my ability to spot the poor liars. He hadn’t said anything, and I hadn’t asked a question, but he was acting shifty. Light dawned. “You really were in the right place at the right time. Because you weren’t following me, were you. You were who was following Mister Joel Oliver. To protect him, right?”
    He looked ready to argue, so I hit him with Mom’s intimidating stare. It worked. “Right,” Ishmael said with a sigh. “He’s in danger, because he found out and wrote the truth. He might write for a complete rag, but when it comes to what happened with the police department, he was completely on the money.”
    I pondered some more while hoping he didn’t believe everything Oliver wrote. Because I had the impression Ishmael currently thought we were regular people, and I really wanted someone, anyone, to buy that we were “just folks.” At this point, it would make a refreshing change.
    “The three of you who’ve been tailing me, you weren’t the ones he spotted, were you? It was some of your fellow K-9s, right?”
    “Right. We all honestly work as cab drivers. Have to make money somehow, and it allows us the mobility we’re used to while also letting us blend in. We tend to stagger driving shifts, though. When we’re not driving, we’ll patrol on foot, if we have a good tip about things going down.”
    I shook my head. “Twelve of you policing a town this size isn’t a drop in the bucket.”
    “Better us than Titan,” he snarled. “They aren’t in it for the protection. At least, not the kind we mean. They’re worse than the Mob, and deadlier.”
    “Dude, on your side. Just pointing out that you’re all sort of sounding like modern day Don Quixotes.”
    Before anyone else could make a comment, my phone rang. Prince helped me dig it out and helped himself to another teething biscuit as a reward for a job well done.
    “Hi, Jeff, we’re fine.”
    “Thanks for calling to let me know.” His sarcasm knob was already at eleven.
    “We were kind of busy until now.”
    “Yeah, I know, I picked that up. You’re back to annoyed with some feelings of satisfaction and sympathy, which is why I called.”
    “Thanks for waiting. I probably couldn’t have answered the phone any sooner. Is everyone else okay? You and Jamie in particular?”
    “Yes. I have a headache, but everyone’s fine. No one shot at the jocks or Reynolds. Only you.”
    “I feel all special. Why do you have a headache?”
    “Reynolds did something to my neck to keep me immobile when the bullets started flying. I haven’t killed him