Alien Diplomacy

best maintained Embassy in the world?”
    Jeff nodded. “Fine. Walter, start scans and have Dulce scan us as well. You stay here,” he said to me. “I’m going to check the Embassy.”
    “Don’t go alone.”
    Jeff kissed me. “Want you to stay with Walter.” With that, he was gone.
    I decided not to spend the time muttering about how my spouse didn’t listen to me in a danger situation, mostly because Jeff could probably do that rant better than I could. Instead I chose to try to figure out what was going on.
    Walter was engrossed and intent, so I did my best not to bother him. Which meant I could think or look around. It was me, so I looked around while thinking, to score the double, at least in my own mind.
    Walter’s Mini Command Center was attached to his living quarters—similarly to how the nursery was set up in our apartment. It made it easier to understand how he, and Gladys, ever got any sleep—there were monitors, switches, microphones, and all sorts of impressive-looking apparatus all over the place.
    Walter sat in a reasonably comfy chair at what I figured was the main console, in part because it was big and impressive and in part because it said “Main Console” on it. There was a small cot next to this, though I could see a real bedroom in the other part of his suite. The real bedroom had a smaller set of switches and monitors and such.
    There were a variety of voices talking. Walter seemed to followthem all as he flipped switches, turned knobs, wrote things down, and replied back. He was doing it all at hyperspeed, not that I could blame him.
    “We need to make sure the Pontifex’s residence is secure.” My baby and father were there; I didn’t want them running into the street for no reason other than to potentially get kidnapped.
    “Pontifex’s residence is secure,” Gladys’ voice came over one of the feeds.
    “Is everyone who was there secure, as in, inside and not getting snatched off the streets or something?”
    Gladys sighed, and she put a lot of sarcasm into something that in reality had no syllables. “Yes, all personnel are inside, safe, and secured. I’m physically there, Co-Chief Martini.”
    Oh. Right. She was. And per everyone Gladys was not only talented but extremely formidable. I’d still never met her in person. I still didn’t want to. Somehow, I felt that knowing what she looked like would either ruin my impression of her or scare the crap out of me. I was fairly certain Gladys could take me. She might even be able to take my mom. Maybe not me and Mom together though. So we had that going for us.
    Someone over at the Dulce Science Center was confirming that they weren’t picking up anything untoward going on in the Embassy, which pulled me back into the moment. “My scans don’t show anything either, Chief,” Walter added. “Including how the alarm was tripped.”
    “Confirmed by all bases,” Gladys chimed in. “No sign of how the alarm was triggered or by whom.”
    “By someone working against us,” Chuckie said from behind me.
    I turned. He looked pissed and stressed. “What’s wrong? And why are you back inside? Did Jeff get you?”
    “No. I realized you and Martini weren’t out with the rest of us standing on the sidewalk. It dawned on me that I’d reacted without thinking, I saw nothing looking, smelling, or sounding dangerous within the Embassy, so I came back in to see what was going on.”
    “What is going on?”
    Christopher arrived, Glare #1 going like there was no tomorrow and he really wanted to ensure it was his legacy to future generations. “You were right, Reynolds. I can’t find it anywhere.”
    “You couldn’t find what?”
    “I found nothing,” Jeff said as he joined us. “There’s not one thing out of place in the entire Embassy.”
    “Oh, there’s something out of place,” Christopher snarled.
    “I didn’t check the hidden level.” Jeff’s eyes narrowed. “The stress from the two of you is off the charts. Should I check that area just in case?”
    “Don’t bother,” Chuckie said, jaws clenched. “They already got what they came for. And we’re once again screwed.”
    “And,” Christopher added, “this time, it’s all my fault.”



CHAPTER 47
    W E ALL STARED AT CHRISTOPHER for a long moment. “That was nicely dramatic. You want to share what the two of you are talking about?”
    Christopher nodded. “The picture Nurse Carter had is gone. And I never read it. So we have no more information on