Alien Diplomacy

mentioned it.
    “I beg your pardon? I’m calling about your relative, Peter Kasperoff.”
    “Who?”
    “The man brought in from the crash yesterday, the one where the car went into the river?”
    “Oh! Yes. Peter.” My would-be assassin had me listed as a relative? “I’m sorry, but why are you calling?”
    “You’re listed as his next of kin.” Next of kin. Wow. I was moving up in the world of the weirdo assassins.
    “Um, okay. What’s going on with him?”
    “I’m sorry to tell you that he’s expired.”
    “Expired? He’s out of code?”
    “He’s passed away.”
    “You mean he’s dead?” He’d been hurt, but he hadn’t been the one with a bullet in him, and he’d been well enough to pass me a secret disk before being admitted.
    “Yes.”
    “How did he die?”
    “Heart arrest, based on hypothermia.”
    “Huh. I really thought he’d pull through.”
    “I’m sorry for your loss. We’d like you to come to the hospital to make arrangements and collect his personal items.”
    I got the rest of the information, assured Nurse Carter I’d be right over, and hung up. “We need to table the blocks and babies discussion. I think we have bigger issues.”
    Jeff cocked his head at me. “What’s going on?”
    “Remember Peter from the river?” Jeff nodded. “Well, he’s a deader, and I’m apparently his next of kin. And somehow, he has personal items I need to collect from the hospital.”
    Jeff stared at me. “You’re kidding.”
    “No, unless this is the medical center’s idea of a great practical joke. We need to get back to the Embassy fast.” I considered my options and dialed. “Dad, are you done with your apartment thing?”
    “Yes, I just finished about five minutes ago.”
    “Great. Can you please come back to the Embassy and take over the Jamie babysitting gig a little sooner than you might have planned?”
    “Sure, kitten. It’ll give me a chance to brief Walter on how to take care of the pets.”
    Lucky Walter. “Great. We’ll be back in a couple of minutes.”
    “You’re still in the infirmary?”
    “Oh. No, we’re not.” I brought Dad up to speed on the new births.
    “Tell the girls mazel tov for me, kitten. I’ll come by to see them when things aren’t so tense for you.”
    “Thanks, Dad, I will.” I hung up, trotted into the still packed delivery room, shared Dad’s congratulations, told Tito what we were doing, and left.
    Serene and the Gower girls opted to stick around in case Claudia or Lorraine needed help. Reader and Tim were still on duty, so they were also staying at Dulce. Reminding myself that our game was afoot in D.C., I grabbed Jeff and headed to the elevator banks, Christopher and White accompanying us.
    White went to ensure the infirmary was out of lockdown. We left Christopher in the great room while we fed Jamie. I figured wecould be gone a while, so I pumped out another dairy’s worth of extra milk, just in case.
    My father was waiting for us when we got done. Jamie squealed with joy to see her Papa Sol again so soon. “Where should I watch her?” Dad asked.
    “You need me for this?” Christopher asked.
    “I don’t think so.”
    “Then come over to our half of the floor, Sol. I think Amy’s been needing some time with you or Angela.” This was Christopher’s code for when Amy was having issues dealing with what had happened three months ago.
    Dad nodded. “Certainly. It’ll be fun for all of us.”
    “I have no idea where her diaper bag is.” I sucked as a mother sometimes, and this was obviously one of those times.
    “Not to worry, kitten. We’ll handle it.”
    Dad, Jamie, and Christopher left. I went to my jewelry box and heaved a sigh of relief—the memory card was still in it.
    “I don’t think the Operations Team is where our problems lie,” Jeff said.
    “You really never know.” I examined the card. “I’m hoping it didn’t get water damage. It looks like a standard memory card for a camera.”
    Jeff zipped off and was back immediately with a video recorder. He took the memory card and inserted it and hit replay. Nothing.
    I sighed. “Oh, well, it was worth a shot.”
    “I think we want this over to Imageering. This camera isn’t high-tech enough, but I’m sure we have equipment that can handle it.” Jeff pulled his phone out. “Serene, hi. Yeah, long time no see. I need something extracted from a small camera memory card. It could be nothing, could be dangerous, could have vital information.