Alien Diplomacy

of some kind directly above us. I couldn’t tell if it was Coast Guard or Air Force, but its belly was opening up, and some guys in dive gear were lowering down on cables.
    Jeff surfaced with the driver in tow. “I don’t know if they’re still alive,” he shouted to me. “I also don’t know if we should care. Or why we just risked our lives to save them.”
    The guys on the cables jumped into the water. What looked like giant baskets were now lowering from the plane. The guys in wetsuits took the two unconscious men. “Be sure they’re restrained,” I shouted to one.
    He nodded and gave me a thumbs up sign. He also winked. I looked closer. It was hard to be sure, but the eyes looked familiar. He and his partner hauled my guy into his basket and rose up with him. The same thing was happening with Jeff’s rescue.
    Jeff swam over to me and put his arm around my waist. “This is going to be fun to explain.”
    “How did you get here?”
    I got the “duh” look. “Hyperspeed. You’ve heard of it.”
    “I mean into the middle of the river.”
    “I can swim almost as fast as I can run.”
    “Wow. I didn’t know that. You’re just all around awesome, aren’t you?”
    “I do what I can. Our lift’s here.”
    Two more guys lowered down. They had harnesses attached to cables they hooked us into. Then we all rode up in the air. If I ignored the fact that I was freezing cold, had just swum in and swallowed some of the Potomac, and undoubtedly looked beyond awful, it was kind of cool.
    We got inside, and the giant chopper closed its belly door. One of the guys in a wetsuit put a blanket around me and one around Jeff. “Thanks for the save.”
    He pulled his face mask off. “The U.S. Navy lives to serve, Chiefs.”
    “Jerry!” The rest of the gang pulled their headgear off to reveal the rest of my Top Gun pilots and Tim. “Wow, you guys moved fast.”
    Tim shrugged. “We’re always prepared for it, and Andrews has this equipment ready to go.”
    “How’d you get to Andrews so fast? Traffic’s been backed up for hours.”
    I got a full complement of “duh” looks. “Gates,” Matt Hughes said. I realized he’d been the one who’d winked at me. “You know, that we have everywhere? Especially in bathrooms and military bases?” Alien technology was great for many things, including movement of goods and personnel. The gates looked like airport metal detectors to me, but they moved you hundreds or thousands of miles in seconds. Two years in, they still made me sick to my stomach, but they were effective.
    “Oh. Right. Kind of distracted. It’s been a busy day. What’s the status on the two guys Jeff pulled out of the limo?”
    “I think they’ll make it,” Chip Walker said. “This was fun, Kitty, but I don’t know how Imageering’s going to cover it all up.”
    “We have agents at the scene,” Tim added. “But I’m not certain if they’ll be able to alter all the memories.”
    Randy and Joe were busy doing CPR on the two gunmen. “One’s shot,” Randy shared.
    “In the shoulder,” Joe added. “Kind of a weird angle.”
    “His buddy shot him instead of me while we were fighting.”
    “So we saved those murderers why?” Jeff asked me.
    “They have information about who hired them to kill us.” I thought about it. “You know…one of them called me Miss Katt.”
    “So?”
    “So I haven’t been Miss Katt for a year. And he said I wasn’t the target, that he didn’t like killing pretty girls or babies, that I was merely in the way.”
    “Again, so? I’m wondering why I didn’t let them drown. Almost as much as I’m wondering what part of ‘stay in the car with our baby’ didn’t register for you. And nearly as much as I’m wondering why you ran outside and then after those two.”
    “I didn’t want them to get away or you to get hurt.” Why share that I’d overshot them unintentionally? Though I had a feeling Jeff knew.
    Jeff shook his head. “Only my girl.”
    “Where’s Jamie?”
    “Back at the Embassy. The jocks and Pierre are apparently the only ones capable of following any kind of order.”
    “Are they all okay?”
    “Yes. Your newest pal’s there, too. Your mother and Reynolds are taking the others into custody, I assume.”
    “You assume?”
    “I had to leave. Something about saving my wife from drowning. I know, I don’t have my priorities in order.” Jeff’s sarcasm knob was right up at eleven again.
    I leaned against him. “No