Alien Diplomacy

designers were doing anything other than laughing derisively, but they all seemed unworried, so I decided to focus on the scary picture of who was trying to kill whom and why.
    Despite serious mental effort, by the last stop, I was still at pretty much zero. “My Psycho Meter is off,” I said as we left the last designer and settled back into the limo for the ride home. “I’m coming up with nothing.”
    “I’m more concerned with what we’re going to do with him,” Kyle said over his shoulder, pointing to Oliver. “I don’t know that Ambassador Martini wants him at the Embassy.”
    “I don’t know that we want to leave him wandering alone.” I didn’t. I didn’t want something bad to happen to Mr. Joel Oliver when he’d both come to warn me and then saved our lives.
    “I’m right here,” Oliver said dryly. “But I do agree with your concerns—both of them. I’m sure the ambassador isn’t going to be excited by my appearance, but I’m also attached to staying alive.”
    A thought occurred, and I called Chuckie. “Any developments?”
    “No, unless you count your husband’s blood pressure rising.”
    “Nope. We’re coming up with nothing here, too. But I wanted to ask what you wanted us to do with Mister Joel Oliver. Was his car okay?”
    “His car was burned to a crisp when we found it.”
    I made eye contact with Oliver. “I hope you didn’t leave anything important in your car.”
    He shook his head. “No. I assume it’s not safe?”
    “It’s a crispy critter.” I went back to Chuckie. “So, have you checked out his living quarters?”
    “Yes. They’ve been rifled with extreme prejudice. So do what Iknow you want to, even though it’ll mean I have to listen to another one of your husband’s temper tantrums: Bring him to the Embassy. White will handle film and disk exposure, and Serene’s team can fix whatever he doesn’t catch.”
    “You got it. You know, Jeff doesn’t exactly throw tantrums.”
    “In your opinion.”
    “It’s been a crappy day for everyone, I see.”
    “Yeah, it has. You’re all alive not due to anything your people or my people did, but rather because you, thankfully, listened to a tabloid reporter, who also happens to be my source, my only source, for putting a large number of operatives on the highest of alerts.”
    “Dude, our limo and his car are toast. I think he’s got the goods, so to speak.”
    “Yeah. God alone knows what’s coming next.”
    “Well, let me add more for the confusion grist mill and share what’s already happened.” I brought him up to speed on the taxis, including the fact that they hadn’t seemed to want to kill us.
    Chuckie groaned. “It’s worse. Did anyone get a license plate on any of those?”
    I checked and was able to confirm none of us had had the foresight to look. Chuckie managed not to say that he thought the four of us were idiots, for which I was grateful. He merely heaved a sigh. “Fine, I’ll see what we can find out from other channels. Not that I expect to find anything.”
    “You’re Mister Polly Positive.”
    “I’m not used to none of us having any idea of what’s going on.”
    I thought about this as we sat in traffic. “Maybe it’s because we actually have a head’s up.”
    “Mind explaining that?”
    “Sure. Usually, we’re in complete reactive mode. Something bad happens, then we go into action. This time, we know the bad’s coming, but that’s all. We’re all used to being reactive and this is a proactive thing right now.”
    “Wow, great to know you can still pull up the marketing talk when you have to.”
    “Blah, blah, blah. Think about it. I know I’m used to having more clues to work with. I think everyone else is, too. We had more even when Amy triggered Operation Confusion.” Our last big mission had happened right around and after I’d given birth, when the creeps had been after my baby. “Think it’s another attempt to get Jamie?”
    “No, not the limo explosion, or if it is, it’s the most roundaboutplan ever conceived. She’d have been killed right along with you if you hadn’t listened to Oliver.”
    “So it’s not the ‘control the A-Cs’ team in charge, then.”
    “How do you mean?”
    Amazing. I was running my mouth and the ideas were flowing. Some things never changed. “The ones who want to control Centaurion Division want at least one of us under their complete control. They don’t want Jamie dead—they want her, and Jeff, and