Alien in the Family

time’s not exactly what I’m used to when we’re under alert, so yeah, I’m pretty sure we have a problem.”
    “Only one?”
    “Hilarious.” Christopher looked at Martini. “Jeff, if my department’s infiltrated, what about yours?”
    “If we have a rogue imageer out there, who knows?” Martini sighed. “At least it’ll be fast.”
    “How so?” Chuckie asked.
    “We move fast,” Martini said. “And we move faster in these kinds of situations.”
    “How fast?”
    Christopher and Martini’s phones both rang. Martini grinned at me as he answered. “That fast.”

CHAPTER 14

    MARTINI AND CHRISTOPHER WERE BOTH DEEP in conversation when there was a knock. Chuckie pulled a gun out of his jacket and motioned for the rest of us to get away from the door. I dug my Glock out of my purse, and Reader and Gower pulled their guns out of their jackets as well. Nice to know the three of them were wearing shoulder holsters. Martini and Christopher still refused to, another thing I was working on.
    Everyone else got out of the way. Four guns were probably good for one door, and that way, the others were in fallback position.
    Chuckie opened the door so that he was to the side. And we were greeted by the threatening sight of Melanie and Emily, Lorraine and Claudia’s mothers. “Nice welcome,” Melanie said dryly. She looked a lot like Raquel Welch had when she was playing a cave girl.
    Emily, who looked like a young Sophia Loren, shook her head. “Nice to see things are always tense for you guys.”
    We put the guns away. “Nice to see you. What’re you two doing here?”
    Melanie shrugged as they started dragging several fully loaded luggage carts into the room. “James felt having people you could trust deliver your supplies, particularly Jeff’s adrenaline, would be a good idea.”
    I loved Reader. “Great idea.”
    “Plus, we wanted to have a good time, too.” Emily laughed at my expression. “Lucinda’s coming, we got the word. You’ll be happy we’re here, trust me.”
    Lorraine and Claudia trotted over to help their mothers. “You’re going to stay?” Lorraine asked.
    “We won’t cramp your style,” Melanie said. “Promise.”
    “Sure, you say that now.” Lorraine grinned. “It’s great to have you here, Mom. Joe’s being a stick-in-the-mud and doesn’t want to let me gamble.”
    Melanie laughed. “We’ll see about that.” I’d never really questioned where Lorraine and Claudia got their personalities from. As mothers went, Melanie and Emily were my faves, right after my own and Chuckie’s mom. I pushed the fact that I didn’t really like Martini’s mother, and she really didn’t like me, as far down as possible.
    “Are your husbands coming, too?”
    Emily rolled her eyes. “No. They hate Vegas. Which is good, because that way we have contacts back at the Science Center we can trust. I can’t believe Imageering’s been infiltrated.”
    “How did you know about that?”
    Melanie shrugged. “The Science Center’s already been searched. We’re all clean, but you never know.”
    “In five minutes?”
    They exchanged glances. “Um, Kitty? Hyperspeed, remember?” Emily looked concerned. “Are you feeling okay?”
    “Just overwhelmed.” A thought occurred. “Hey, do you two happen to know what this is?” I pointed to the dish of creepy food. “Don’t eat it, we think it’s poisoned.”
    They stared at it. “It’s familiar . . .” Melanie shook her head. “I think it’s a dish from home.”
    “You think? You don’t know for sure?”
    “All of you always act like there are only two generations here,” Emily answered. “But really, there are three or more. We’re a lot younger than Jeff’s parents, as an example. We don’t count as the older generation, and since we have children in it, we don’t count as the younger generation, either. Our parents came as operatives, too, but they were older, and many of them aren’t with us any longer. We were little when we left the home world, but we remember it.”
    This made sense, it just hadn’t really occurred to me. I felt unobservant, which was pretty much my par for any course.
    Chuckie sauntered over. “Ladies, glad you could join us. Charles Reynolds.” He put his hand out.
    Melanie took it first. “Right, the new boss.” She gave him an obvious up and down. “Hmmm. Well, I suppose if Jeff ever acts stupid again, you’re not a bad option.”
    Chuckie managed to keep his jaw closed, but his eyes