Alien Diplomacy

the street and back down the block. “I’m not that new a mother anymore,” I mentioned to Oliver as I took Jamie out of the stroller and held her tightly.
    “Three months is still new,” he said with a smile. “How long for the bomb squad?”
    “Not too much longer,” Kyle said shortly. He and Len were busy looking all around. We weren’t exactly being subtle, but no one really seemed to be around to notice.
    I dug my phone out of my purse. Jeff answered immediately. “What’s going on? Reynolds has been making urgent calls for the past few minutes and his stress is off the charts.”
    “There’s been a lot of that today. Your blocks okay?”
    “I’m fine. I’m concerned about my wife and child.”
    “We’re fine, as far as we know. We’re with our personal paparazzo. Len found a too-convenient parking place and we’re all waiting for some folks to come and let us know if our limo’s been rigged or not.”
    “Reynolds says his people will be there in another minute. How far from the limo are you all?”
    “We can still see it.”
    “Get farther away.”
    “Jeff, really—”
    I was going to tell him he was overreacting. Only the limo exploded before I could finish my sentence.



CHAPTER 10
    L EN AND KYLE LEAPED TO COVER ME AND JAMIE. Mr. Joel Oliver leaped and hit the Laser Shield button on the stroller. I felt it activate as I lost my balance, what with two big guys trying to protect the loose footballs that were me and Jamie.
    Oliver grabbed me and held on, keeping me somewhat upright and his hand on the stroller. The boys were touching me, and because my vision was now A-C enhanced, I saw the shield go around all of us.
    Just in time. Jeff had been right, we’d been too close to the limo, and a twisted piece of metal slammed against the shield and fell to the street.
    “Everyone okay?” I asked as I checked Jamie. She gurgled at me, looked at Oliver, and smiled at him. “And yes, thank you, Mister Joel Oliver, for saving our lives.”
    He looked shaken. “I’m concerned I endangered them in the first place.”
    “You think that bomb was intended for you?” Kyle asked as he and Len tried to act like they weren’t completely freaked out, with limited success.
    “I think it’s possible.”
    “It was our limo that had the convenient parking place on the suddenly cleared out street,” I reminded him. Oliver didn’t look convinced one way or the other. I heard someone shouting faintly. I looked around, realized I’d dropped my phone. Len handed it to me. “Jeff, we’re okay.”
    “We’re on our way.” He sounded completely shaken. I couldn’t blame him. “Baby, are you and Jamie really all right?”
    “Completely unscathed, though scathing would probably have happened to the boys if not for Mister Joel Oliver.”
    “The jocks covered you?”
    “Yes. They acted just like Secret Service.” Len and Kyle perked up a little. “Chuckie’s people aren’t going to have a lot to look at.”
    “They’re not there yet?”
    “No. Probably a good thing. The bomb must have been on a timer, not an ignition switch.”
    Everyone looked at me. Oliver nodded his head. “I delayed you.”
    “Yeah, you did. And if you hadn’t…” I counted in my head. “We’d have been home, or close to it.”
    Len was squinting at the remains of our ride. “I think the bomb was in the middle of the car.”
    “So it was in the car seat.” Oliver and I looked at each other.
    Jeff was growling, well past “rabid dog,” already at “enraged bear,” with “lion takes over the veldt” on the horizon. “They tried to kill my daughter?”
    “We don’t know who ‘they’ are, but I think they wanted to ensure we’d have the bomb with us.” I checked my watch. “Did Chuckie order the really slow bomb service?”
    “No. There’s some accident on the Beltway, and there’s street construction stopping them. It’s stopping us, too. I could get to you on foot but Reynolds is saying no.”
    “He’s right. For all we know, whoever did this is trying to flush you out.” I looked around. People were starting to come out of the buildings, and I heard sirens in the distance. “Jeff, do we want to be questioned by the police? If they ever get here, that is.” I was used to faster response times in Pueblo Caliente. And every other city we’d ever had a situation like this in, which were, by now, plentiful.
    I heard him talking to someone. “Reynolds is against it. So is James. Can you