Alien Diplomacy

help.”
    “Dad, really, what the heck are you talking about?”
    Dad smiled at me. “We stayed in Arizona because it was a safer, more normal upbringing for you. But now that you’re here, your mother is acquiescing to what the President’s people have been asking her to do for years. Your mother and I are moving to D.C.”



CHAPTER 23
    “O H, DAD, REALLY? THAT’S SO GREAT! But what about our house?”
    “Oh, we’ll still keep it. It’s paid off, after all. But, we’re going to rent it out to Tim and Alicia.” Alicia was Tim’s fiancée. They were getting married soon, and Alicia wasn’t ready to stop working for the airlines. Living in a regular house made sense for them—Tim was one of the few human males working for us who’d actually chosen to marry a human girl. They were totally exotic for our generation of A-C agents.
    “That makes sense. But what about your job? Won’t it be the same issue as for Mom, only reversed, if you’re going back and forth to ASU all the time?”
    “I’ve taken a sabbatical for this semester, so I can get us settled and see how things go. Professors do it all the time, kitten.”
    “They usually have more going on than moving cross-country.”
    “I do. I’m doing a in-depth study of this region with a focus on Washington’s secret pathways and underground tunnels, separating fact from fiction.”
    “Like your own version of National Treasure ? Sounds interesting.” Somewhat, but I wasn’t going to tell my dad that I was more interested in using those tunnels to escape Washington rather than study it. “So, when are you moving out here?”
    “This week. That way, we can babysit our little Jamie-Kat and see you and Jeff and Amy and Christopher all the time.”
    I chose not to mention the fact that we saw them all the time already. Gates or not, I wasn’t used to being this far away from myparents, and having them close would mean I could run and hide with them if I screwed up too badly.
    Because Amy had been one of my besties since high school, and also because her parents were both dead, my parents had stepped in and were covering all the parental duties for her as well. So far, they gave Amy a lot less guilt than they did me, but since Amy’s dad had been Operation Confusion’s Big Bad, and she’d discovered then that he’d murdered her mother years before, Amy probably needed the slack they cut her.
    “We’ll be glad to have you guys close. Hopefully the pets will get along with the Poofs.”
    “I’m sure it won’t be any problem,” Dad said with utter confidence. I didn’t share it, but then again, the Poofs were fully able to take care of themselves, and the cats and dogs had heretofore shown good self-preservation instincts, so I hoped for the best.
    “Figure the jocks can walk the dogs when you’re not out,” Jeff said.
    “I think that’s kind of below their pay grade, honestly.”
    He shrugged. “Don’t care. Someone’s got to do it.”
    “They like you best, Jeff.”
    Jeff shot a glare at me almost worthy of Christopher. “I’m sure I’ll walk them with you. However, we’ll worry about dog walking schedules later.”
    “I’ve got it all written down,” Dad said, handing Jeff a stuffed folder. “Feeding schedule, exercise, play times. I’m sure you’ll do fine. Walter has all the animals’ equipment; he’ll have it brought up shortly.”
    Jeff gaped. I was saved from having to make a comment by another knock on the door. I went to get it to find Tito standing there. “Hi, what’s up?”
    I got the Long-Suffering Doctor look. “You, Jamie, and Jeff are scheduled for tests today.”
    We were? “Tests? What tests?”
    He gave the Long-Suffering Doctor sigh. “The standard tests we do monthly to ensure the three of you are…progressing properly.”
    “Oh, you mean the ones where we make sure we’re still more like the X-Men than the Thing?”
    “Something like that, yes. I need the three of you in the medical bay. You were supposed to be there fifteen minutes ago.”
    I managed not to say that Walter hadn’t reminded me. Walter might be stuck running my calendar, but this really wasn’t his responsibility.“Sorry, my dad arrived with the pets, and it just sort of washed it out of my mind.” Not that I wouldn’t go for the easy blame lay if I could do it, of course.
    “We can’t just leave the animals here,” Jeff said, making me wonder if he’d comprehended what my dad had told him and he’d