Alien Diplomacy

Great, yes, good. Thanks.”
    He hung up. “Team will be here immediately.” No sooner were the words out of his mouth than there was a knock at the door.
    “Glad we can use the gates for most things. If we were waiting for a car, it could be hours.”
    “You’ll get used to the traffic around here, I’m sure.”
    “I’m not.”
    We opened the door to find Walter’s older brother, William, there, accompanied by Kevin and a couple of the big A-Cs who worked Security. They were standing back like bodyguards.
    William was an imageer, and before Operation Confusion hadbeen teamed with their middle brother, Wayne, who’d been an empath. Wayne had been one of our casualties during the end game of Operation Confusion, and I didn’t think William or Walter were over his loss yet. I wasn’t, and he wasn’t my brother. William had been reassigned to act as Imageering’s liaison between Serene and the Embassy, mostly because, as yesterday had amply shown, none of us were shining examples of success in our new roles and William was one of the best imageers we had.
    “Hey, Kevin, I thought you were with Mom and Chuckie.”
    “I was, but your mother sent me back to Dulce this morning to try to help Alpha Team get a handle on the situation.”
    “You mean the one that’s totally out of control?”
    Kevin grinned. He had a great smile and amazing teeth. I managed not to drool, but it was always difficult—he had bags of charisma. “Yeah, that situation. The births were a nice break, since we’re essentially nowhere. But it sounds like you might have something for us to go on.”
    I brought them up to speed on how I’d gotten this memory card and that the giver had apparently died from being cold. “Needless to say, I think something fishy’s going on.”
    Kevin nodded. “Under the circumstances, I need to go back with William. We don’t want this at any more risk than it’s already been. Could be nothing, could tell us who the assassination target is. But I don’t like the idea of you two going to the medical center by yourselves.”
    Jeff grunted. “We can handle ourselves.”
    William cleared his throat. “Yes, Commanders, you can.”
    Jeff sighed. “We’re not Commanders anymore.”
    William looked at us. I could tell he was trying not to smile.
    “And that’s William’s well-made point, Jeff.” And the one Reader had made to me only a short while earlier. “Alpha Team, the Commanders of the Field, Airborne, they can go handle whatever, and it gets cleaned up fairly easily. The American Centaurion Chief of Mission, on the other hand, can’t go off kicking butt at the drop of a shoe.” Oh, sure, we’d done that yesterday, but one swim in the Potomac was enough for me for a while.
    Jeff ran his hand through his hair. “Good point. Fine, you two head back, be extra cautious, and we’ll get some backup.” They left, and Jeff shook his head. “I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but…call Reynolds, and, if he can, have him meet us and the jocks there.”
    “Will do. And I’m so awed by the personal growth. A freezing swim and a couple of new babies seem to have done you a world of good.”
    “Don’t push it, baby.”
    “But it’s so fun.” I called Chuckie. “Dude, you able to tear yourself away from the interrogation of the Goon Squad?”
    “Yeah, I am.” Chuckie sounded seriously pissed.
    “What’s wrong?”
    “Angela got called into a meeting with the President. No sooner was she gone than another agency took the prisoners.”
    “You allowed that?”
    “I had no choice. They had the right authorization, and they had a lot more backup than I did.”
    “Well, I guess that works out.” I caught him up on the latest. “So, do you need a nap, or can you meet us over at the medical center?”
    “No, I’m fine. Angela and I traded off rest time, and I’ve done more on less sleep. But I’m coming to the Embassy. We’ll go over together. At the rate things are going, I don’t want the two of you out of my control.”
    “I think I’ll phrase that differently to Jeff.”
    “Whatever. I’m in my office, I’ll be there momentarily.” Chuckie had gates in his office and his apartment. They’d saved his life more than once. I’d asked for him to have a gate in his car, but that had been ignored by him and everyone else.
    “Great, we’ll meet you in the basement, just wait there for us.” I hung up, we grabbed our coats, and I looked around. “Where is my