Alien Diplomacy

idea is. So, back to the assassins. It seems like overkill, so to speak, especially since it alerted us that something was going on.”
    “So what? You were supposed to be alerted.”
    “Really? Hadn’t seen that one coming,” I admitted.
    She nodded. “We let just enough leak so that the reporter would scramble to warn the world. Unsurprisingly, he went to Reynolds.” The way she said Chuckie’s name, I knew she’d absolutely planned some horrible way for him to die.
    “Why leak that? We’re actually prepared.”
    Cartwright laughed. “There is no way you’re prepared for this. Either our enemies will all die, shortly, or they’ll fail to save all those people and lose their jobs. I personally can’t wait for your mother to get offloaded.”
    “Stay away from my mother.”
    “Or you’ll what? Kill me? I have the gun and the remote control.”
    I needed more information, so I let her have that one. “True enough. So, who all is in on this with you? I mean, clearly you’re in it with Marling and the kids. Who, as I think of it, are pretending to have a relationship with their sibling.” I was too wired to gag, so I saved that reaction for later, taking the optimistic view that I’d have a later.
    “Why not? They’re pretending to have relationships with Marion and Langston.”
    “Get out! So, they aren’t gay, either one of them?”
    “No. They’re very adaptable. Marion and Langston were both vulnerable and in useful positions.”
    “Wow. Are they, um, you know…actually a…um, real couple?”
    “Who can tell? Antony’s machinations have certainly affectedtheir psyches. Among other things.” She sighed. “I’d be upset, but they’ve been too useful.”
    We were, I realized, gossiping, and she seemed to be enjoying it. It dawned on me that she probably didn’t have a lot of friends, if any, she was surrounded by people she was faking out, everyone liked to let their hair down every now and again, and every supergenius liked to have someone to impress, especially if they’d been doing most of their genius stuff in the shadows for a very long time.
    “Amazing. Do they know you’re their aunt?”
    “No. Their mother died when they were young. It was better that we broke emotional contact.”
    “How’d she die?”
    Cartwright looked sad for a moment. “Early experiments with the supersoldier program. It was very unstable when we first started.”
    “Bummer. Why hide the kids, though?”
    “Antony was concerned that they’d be used against him. So he hid them to be safe.”
    “Interesting the way things change. So, was Ronald Yates involved? At the beginning, I mean.”
    “Oh, yes. He’s the one who approached us first.” She smiled fondly and even looked a little misty. “He was a great man.” Uh-oh. I knew what was coming. Decades ago Cartwright would have been young—hard to believe, but reality said it was so—and that meant she’d have been Yates Bait. And I’d killed him.
    Sure enough, she looked at me, and her eyes narrowed. “And you killed him.” Right on cue.
    “He was dying anyway. Mephistopheles was all that kept Yates going.”
    She gave me a long look, then nodded slowly. “True enough.”
    I was shocked to my core, but I chose to not show it. “So, Cantu, Armstrong, Kramer, all the rest of the Cabal of Evil, how much do they know?”
    She laughed again. “I do love your names for things. Everyone else says you use the names to belittle or because you’re not bright enough to remember the real names, but I think you do it because you have an interesting worldview.”
    “Thanks, I think you’re the only one who feels that way.” It was the weirdest thing, in an entire day of ultra weirdness, but I was sorry she was evil. I was actually enjoying the conversation. “The names just sort of come to me, it’s not like I even try. But everyone else seems to find my names for things wince-worthy at best.”
    “Not everyone appreciates those of us who can think outside of the box.”
    “True enough. So, the others, are they patsies, informed helpers, or what? And, seriously, what is Lillian Culver’s damage? You want a supersoldier? Just clone and enlarge her, and the world will run screaming in terror.”
    Cartwright gave a belly laugh. “I know! She’s horrible. And clueless, for the most part. She, like the others, is aware of the supersoldier projects, as you call them. But they’re not aware of what powers the soldiers possess.” She