Alien Diplomacy

government would be an intelligent place to start.”
    “As far as I can tell, this was put in place decades ago,” Oliver said.
    “That’s some serious long-term planning.”
    “Our enemies tend to fall on that side of the house,” Chuckie reminded me. “And I consider Titan to be among our enemies.” He shook his head. “They’ve been investigated. Senator McMillan hascertainly had a number of background checks run on Titan’s board of directors and chief officers. They focused on Titan because they won the local protection contract, but they’ve done the same with all the other security companies bidding on government contracts.”
    “Go Arizona.” McMillan was our senior senator, and my sorority roommate, Caroline, worked for him now. “We rock the suspicious.”
    “And yet they’ve found nothing actionable against Titan,” Chuckie pointed out.
    “Are we safe in assuming they want to kill all of us and make Centaurion the War Division, or do we think they just want all the money and power in the world?”
    “Yes.” Chuckie shook his head. “And yes, I know that was an either-or question. Always assume they’re out to get you. It may sound paranoid, but it keeps you alive.”
    Jeff ran his hand through his hair. “What a great mindset to live with.”
    Chuckie shrugged. “Look back at the last few years and call me overcautious.”
    “What bothers me most is what’s bothered me since Operation Confusion—that there are conspiracies and plans going on that you and my mom know nothing about. And we don’t know if Titan’s part of an older plot we didn’t know anything about before but at least have an inkling of now, or if it’s part of a brand-new plan to kill the people we care about and take over. Or something else entirely.”
    Jeff, Chuckie, and I shared the “we’re doomed” look.
    “Ah, well,” Oliver said in a tone of voice clearly intended to cheer us up. “I’m sure it’ll all come out eventually. The truth always does.”
    “Does it?” Jeff didn’t sound happy. “Because if that’s the case, that means we’re going to be exposed somewhere along the line.”
    The boys returned before any of the rest of us could make a sarcastic comment about Oliver’s optimism or reassure Jeff that we’d remain hiding in plain sight without issue. Of course, it might just have been me who had to hold back the fact that the truth very often never came out because it was too busy being beaten to a pulp and rearranged into something “more palatable.” Yeah, I’d picked up a few things in the short time we’d been here. Which was why I was less worried about us being discovered than Jeff was.
    “Pierre had them all leaving, but we made sure they didn’t dawdle,” Len shared.
    “Good, then let’s get out of here. Our appointment with the ‘king’ is overdue.”
    “What?” Kyle asked. “We’re seeing a king?”
    “Not so much, no.”
    The six of us trotted off, me, Oliver, and Chuckie bringing the boys up to speed. We got into one of the limos that didn’t have a car seat in it. Jeff and I sat in the back, Chuckie and Oliver faced us, Len had the wheel, Kyle had shotgun. Not the team I was used to, but we were a team nonetheless.
    “How do you keep all these people straight?” Kyle asked as we finished our Weirdness Wrap-Up.
    “Unwillingly.”
    “And is there really a king?”
    “Yes,” Jeff said. “Only he’s on Alpha Four.”
    “So,” Len said, getting us back on topic, “whoever bugged Mister Joel Oliver, they had plenty of time and opportunity, right? Because he doesn’t live in a secured building, at least, not like you do.”
    “Right.”
    “But who bugged Kitty?” Kyle asked. “Because from what you all said, there were a lot of different bugs in her purse.”
    “But nothing in the baby’s things,” I added.
    “The baby would be presumed to be with her mother,” Oliver suggested.
    “Not all the time.”
    “So they aren’t after Jamie,” Chuckie said.
    “Good,” Jeff growled. “Not that it stopped them from trying to kill her.”
    “Is it the same people, though? I mean, we never have just one plan going on.”
    Chuckie sighed. “Good point. Let’s assume we have multiple actions against us active. It’ll make us more alert.”
    “Maybe whoever bugged Kitty didn’t have access to Jamie’s diaper bag,” Kyle suggested.
    Jeff’s phone rang before we could comment. “Hi, Gladys. Really. Really? Huh.” He looked at me and