Alien Diplomacy

feeds.”
    “Not your fault. You acted just as they expected, meaning normally. Besides, Jeff had you turn most of the cameras off, so I’ll wager you’re not a big fan of watching them, because you know it makes us feel uncomfortable.”
    Walter blushed, so I knew I’d hit that one on the head. “We haven’t had a need before, Chief.”
    “There’s a need now,” Chuckie said. “But Kitty’s theory makes sense. The garage has more security, so assume they came in and left through the side. It would be fairly easy to block that camera, which we need to remedy, by the way.”
    “Will do,” Walter said quickly. “I’ll get expanded lenses onto all the cameras tomorrow, Mister Reynolds.”
    Chuckie nodded. “Good, but for all we know, they blocked it earlier in the day, and we just didn’t notice, though they could have just as easily worn dark clothing and ski masks to cover the cameras right before they triggered the alarm. They got what they were looking for, turned the front camera back on, left through the side entrance and removed whatever they’d put on the camera there, went to the garage entrance, removed whatever was covering that camera, and walked on down the street.”
    Jeff sighed. “Let’s go share the latest news with Alpha Team.”
    “Why?” Christopher asked morosely.
    Jeff chuckled mirthlessly. “I don’t want to be greedy. Let’s share the misery with our friends and family.”



CHAPTER 49
    W E LEFT WALTER AND TROOPED to the elevator. Why make the humans sick for no reason? We’d undoubtedly have a reason shortly.
    There were a number of agents zipping through our facility. “We figured if they could plant bugs in the ballroom, there was a chance for elsewhere,” Tim said as we joined him, Reader, Gower, and Serene, all of whom looked tense and alert but fully in charge. At least someone was.
    “There was a chance for more than bugs,” I said. “We’re really batting a thousand right now on getting fooled, scammed, and ripped off.”
    We shared the wonderful news that we’d lost the picture and had been far too easily broken into while all of us were essentially on the premises while I wondered if the Suicide Hotline made house calls.
    The four of them took this in better stride than some of us had. “Mistakes happen,” Reader said as we finished our tale of woeful inadequacy.
    “Find anything else?” Jeff asked.
    Reader shook his head. “Not so far, but they’re not done.”
    William joined us. “Commanders, Chiefs, no other bugs found on premises. We also checked for things of a more dangerous nature. Nothing.”
    Everyone looked relieved, but the ol’ feminine intuition felt twitchy. “Why go through all of this merely to take the picture Nurse Carter had? Even if Christopher had read it, it’s not as though he’d have gotten ‘current hideout’ out of it.”
    “Serene might have,” Reader said quietly.
    “True, but that presumes they know us really well. I get how they knew we had the picture. Chuckie interrogated Caroline, and she was talking about it while we were sitting in the room with all the bugs. But to remove us all from the building to steal one little snapshot seems like overkill.”
    “It was incriminating evidence,” Chuckie said. “Proof Titan has assassins on the payroll and around some of our most influential politicians.”
    Nurse Carter and I looked at each other. “Where did you put the things the Dingo left for you to claim?” she asked me.
    “No freaking idea, but I’ll bet that stuff’s gone, too.”
    Reader swore under his breath while Gower zipped off. He was back quickly, empty-handed. “We had the things Jeff brought back from the hospital in the conference room. All gone.”
    “So anything the Dingo wanted you to get is gone,” Chuckie said, migraine clearly arriving at any second. “Do you remember what it was?” he asked Nurse Carter.
    “A wallet, a man’s personal care kit, a small Bible, and a manila envelope. We’re not allowed to look into anything that’s going into lockup, and two hospital personnel as well as Security put the patient’s belongings away, so I didn’t get to look inside anything.”
    “I can’t believe the Dingo Dog carried a Bible with him. He kills people for a living.”
    “The personal care kit could have held explosives, a disassembled gun, poisons…anything.” By the way Chuckie rubbed his forehead, I knew the migraine had made its grand entrance. “For all we know,