Alien Diplomacy

how.”
    “Where’s the body?” Chuckie asked as the elevator showed it was just reaching the second floor.
    “The morgue,” Nurse Carter replied. “It’s on this level.”
    “We don’t have the time. Caro’s in danger.”
    Chuckie looked torn. “We’ll do it, sir,” Len offered. Kyle nodded.
    “You’ll need me to identify and get the body,” Nurse Carter mentioned.
    Chuckie shook his head. “They’re too new.”
    “I’ll go with them,” Oliver said.
    “No offense,” Chuckie said, “but you’re not trained to stop an operative.”
    Jeff growled. “I cannot believe I’m going to say this. I’ll stay with the jocks. Kitty told Caroline you’d be with her, not me.”
    Chuckie and I both gaped at him. “Seriously?” I asked finally. “You’re actually okay with letting me and Chuckie go off on this mission together? Without you?”
    The elevator finally arrived. Jeff nodded as the doors opened. “Yeah. Because you won’t be alone. James sent over some backup for us.”
    Michael Gower stepped out. “Hey everyone. James said I needed to get here pronto and be ready to kick some serious ass. What’s going on?”



CHAPTER 35
    M ICHAEL WAS A SLIGHTLY SMALLER VERSION of his older brother—big, black, bald and, like every other A-C, beautiful. He was also a major player. It had bothered me a lot when we’d first met. Now, I just looked at it the way I looked at Chuckie being the Conspiracy King—part of what made him who he was.
    “Good,” Chuckie said. “Martini, check on the teams who were in charge of this botched hospital transfer. We need to know if they were fooled or if one or more of them are traitors.”
    Jeff looked like he wanted to argue, but the logic of this directive was too much for him. “Yeah, we’ll get that taken care of.” He stared at Michael. “You know, Michael could stay here…”
    “He’s not trained either,” Chuckie pointed out.
    Jeff sighed. “True enough.”
    Michael grinned. “I’ll take care of Kitty, Jeff, I promise.”
    Jeff grunted, and I kissed him good-bye. “Be careful.”
    He hugged me. “You, too, baby.” He gave Chuckie a glare. “If anything happens to her…”
    Chuckie rolled his eyes. “I’d better be dead first. Yeah, yeah, as if that isn’t my mindset already?”
    “Which team should I go with?” Oliver asked.
    “Stay here,” Chuckie said. “Take pictures of anything that seems remotely relevant, odd, interesting, you know the drill.”
    Oliver nodded. “My cameras and investigative skills will be fully focused.”
    “Let’s go,” I said to Michael as I grabbed his hand and Chuckie’s. “We’ll explain on the way. And let’s use the stairs, because these are the slowest elevators in the world.”
    I let Michael control all the hyperspeed. Doubling the effect was hard as hell on a human, and I didn’t want Chuckie puking his guts out if we could help it. Michael, who worked with a lot of humans, seemed more willing to go easy on it. Then again, it might be that he didn’t have any jealousy or dominance issues with Chuckie.
    Whatever the reason, we made it to the limo quickly, and Chuckie had to gag for only about half a minute before we could take the gate.
    Floater gates were harder to create and maintain, but they usually allowed more than one person to go through easily. Now that I had the A-C powers, I could actually see the gate as a real thing, as opposed to a weird, almost invisible shimmering. The A-C agents who’d come to guard the limo were still there. We had them stay, because I didn’t want Jeff in a rigged car any more than he wanted me in one.
    I kept a hold on Michael and Chuckie as we stepped through the gate. It had been a long, exciting, exertion-filled couple of days already, and my body really hated going through gates when I was fully rested and relaxed. I managed not to barf my guts out, but only because it was a really short trip, as gate transfers went, and I had a death grip on their hands.
    We exited, as was totally par for the A-C course, in a men’s bathroom. Not in a stall, for once, but still, right there, in the bathroom. The joys of floater gates were without number. Amazingly enough, there was no one at a urinal, though most of the stalls seemed occupied. Doing my best to ignore the sounds, smells, and my own nausea, I dragged both men out, fast.
    I hadn’t had the brains to ask Caroline where in the airport she actually was, but fortunately, that’s what phones were