Alien Diplomacy

enough, Pierre was ushering in a man about White’s age. He resembled Armstrong and most of the other congressmen I’d met—he was well dressed, well coiffed, and exuded chummy confidence. “So sorry I’m late, all. Had to drop Marcia off at a friend’s place. What have I missed?”
    “Oh, we’d just shared our little request,” Culver said quickly.
    “Great.” Kramer seemed pleased. “So, what’s your answer?”
    Both Jeff and I opened our mouths. But before we could speak, Pierre dashed in. “Ambassadors, I’m so sorry to interrupt, but you’re already terribly late. You know how the king gets when you keep him waiting. As your Majordomo, I’m going to have to insist you both leave immediately.”



CHAPTER 31
    J EFF AND I SNAPPED OUR MOUTHS SHUT. The rest of the room looked as though they’d been goosed or had just eaten spoiled chum, depending. Chuckie looked as though he wanted to make Pierre his top operative.
    Jeff recovered quickest. “Thank you, Pierre. You’re right.” He gave everyone a charming smile. “Thanks so much for dropping by. Please, next time, set up an appointment so we can really spend some quality time together.”
    “Madeline, perhaps you could organize that and coordinate with the Embassy Majordomo,” Chuckie said pointedly. Cartwright’s eyes narrowed—an interesting look behind her cat’s-eye glasses—but she nodded and managed her standard fleeting smile.
    Jeff took my arm and jerked his head at Chuckie. He nodded to the others. “We all need to get going. Pierre will see you out.”
    The three of us left the room in a reasonably stately manner and continued it to the stairs. Then Jeff grabbed Chuckie and zipped us back up to the room where Oliver and the boys were. It was a short trip, so Chuckie only gagged for a second or two.
    “I want you two jocks ensuring the ten people who just came in leave immediately. Shove them physically if they aren’t doing what Pierre wants, which is getting the hell out of our Embassy.”
    Len and Kyle took off. “What was that all about?” Oliver asked. We gave him the fast, confusing rundown. He nodded sagely. “Ah.”
    “Ah?”
    “Sorry. You’re too new. This is a tight-knit group. The politicians are in the lobbyists’ pockets. For those not in the know, American Centaurion has the reputation of being very well placed politically,in terms of both national and international defense. Obviously, for those in the know, you’re a key group.”
    “Yeah, everyone wants to make us the War Division.”
    Oliver nodded. “Understandable. Deplorable,” he added quickly as Jeff glared at him, “but understandable.”
    “So Lydia’s already on Culver and Gadoire’s payrolls?” This was disappointing. I liked Eugene and I didn’t want to hate his wife.
    “Maybe not,” Oliver said. “She’s new. However, they’re a hugely influential group. If she wants to rise up in the Washington hierarchy, they’re a good set to join. One of them is related to the head of Titan Security, too.”
    “Really? Which one?” I figured it couldn’t be Madeline Cartwright—not only did she seem just too boring for this level of intrigue, she was a Pentagon employee, and I knew their background checks rivaled Chuckie’s.
    Oliver shook his head. “I don’t know, can’t find the information. The records have been cleaned, so to speak.”
    “How do you clean off records of your relatives?”
    “Change their names, steal and delete all the birth records, replace them with new ones.” Chuckie shrugged. “We do it all the time with witness protection. I didn’t know Titan had this direct a Washington connection, though.”
    “They’ve taken great pains to hide it,” Oliver said. “I only know from piecing together little bits of information here and there, found over time and while I was doing my exposé on the situation with the police department. So far, it hasn’t been enough to even write an article about, let alone take to someone like you.”
    “Take it to me now,” Chuckie said. “I don’t like discovering a conspiracy theory I know nothing about.”
    “Losing a perfect track record?”
    He shot me a glare. “No. But part of my job is to determine which of the theories and rumors are true. Like the supersoldier project that came out of nowhere. I don’t like being blindsided. Titan’s got a lot of clout—I need to know who or what they’re connected to, and discovering who they have hidden in our