Alien in the Family

that’s what’s going to happen, least of all you.”
    Martini deflated a bit. “Fine. However, once the state of emergency abates, sovereignty reverts back to the Pontifex.”
    “Yes.”
    “Define, clearly, when the C.I.A. will consider the state of emergency abated.” I wasn’t C.I.A., but I’d been a marketing manager before I’d joined Centaurion, and I knew the dangers of doublespeak better than most.
    Chuckie looked away from Martini and grinned at me. “Once all the hostile aliens have left or been subdued.”
    “I want it in writing, and I’ll be going over it for loopholes.”
    He laughed. “Not a problem.” He looked back at Martini. “Okay?”
    “No, but we’ll deal with it. Officially, Centaurion unwillingly concedes the C.I.A.’s limited authority during a time of interworld crisis.”
    “And unofficially?” Chuckie sounded supportive, not challenging.
    Martini closed his eyes. “Unofficially,” he opened his eyes, “help us. Please.”
    Chuckie nodded and stood up. “Unofficially, I may want to marry her, but she wants to marry you. So, yeah, let’s get that taken care of.” He walked over to where Martini was standing. Christopher joined them.
    It was always interesting to me to do a physical comparison. Martini was big, well over six feet, broad-shouldered, built like a brick house, rippling muscles without being overdone like a bodybuilder. Of course, I couldn’t see all that right now, but I had his naked body happily memorized. His hair was dark and wavy and his eyes were light brown.
    Christopher was a head shorter, smaller all the way around, the lean and wiry kind. Straight, lighter brown hair and green eyes. As Chuckie had mentioned at our high school reunion, Christopher was actually more the type I’d always gone for in school.
    Chuckie was like a blend of the two of them. Tall like Martini, but more along Christopher’s build, sinewy and smooth. He moved casually but had the reflexes to make you think he could be part A-C. Dirty blond hair, which would have a bit of a wave in it if he’d let it grow long, and blue eyes.
    All of them were good-looking, but though Chuckie was handsome by human standards, only Reader and a couple of other human agents had a shot of passing as an A-C in the looks department, after all.
    Normally I enjoyed looking at any of them, Martini in particular. But tonight I got a bad feeling, seeing them standing there together. Martini caught it and looked at me. “What’s wrong?”
    I shook my head. “I don’t know. But I think we’d better be prepared for the worst. Whatever that’s going to end up being.”
    Before we’d met ACE, Martini had implanted a portion of Christopher’s mother’s consciousness into me. It was only a trace, but I’d liked having it there, liked being able to connect to Terry in times of trouble. ACE had removed it, telling me it was better this way. That bit of Terry was now a part of ACE—but I never got to connect with it any more. I wanted to now, more than ever.
    If Terry had still been inside my mind, I’d assume the nameless dread I was feeling was coming from her. Since that couldn’t be, I had to assume what Martini called my feminine intuition was picking up something. Either that or I just needed a nap.
    Reader got up and went over to the other three. “Look, how do you want us to get things rolling? Sitting around isn’t getting the troops prepared.”
    Same size as Christopher, pretty much. Most gorgeous human I’d ever laid eyes on in the flesh. Our joke was that if he were straight, we’d run off, get married, and forget there were aliens on the Earth.
    It occurred to me that I was looking at four men who’d achieved the top levels early in life. Martini was the strongest empath on Earth, and Christopher was the best imageer; Chuckie was the smartest guy in any room, and Reader had been the top international male model for years. There was a lot of drive and talent there, and the rest of us weren’t slouches, either. I relaxed, feeling confident we’d be able to handle whatever was coming.
    The dread hit me, harder. I looked over at Paul. He looked sort of glazed. I tried thinking in my mind, the way I had with ACE in the past. ACE, are you there?
    Yes, Kitty, ACE is here.
    What’s wrong?
    Terry wishes ACE to warn Kitty. His mental voice sounded upset. ACE’s prime directive was to protect, but he also knew doing everything for us would destroy us and turn him into a despot.