Alien in the Family

grabbed his arm as my phone rang again. “Dad, did you reach them?”
    “No. Your mother didn’t answer. I tried several times. Either she left her phone in the room or they’re in the casino and can’t hear it. Should I call the hotel management?”
    “No. I’ll take care of it. Keep calling, keep me posted.” I dumped my phone into my purse. “Everyone’s there. Jeff’s parent’s, Paul’s, Michael, my mother, my female relatives, the rest of Airborne. The Amazons weren’t the ones bugging your room. They were the ones setting bombs up to go off in the palace at the height of the sun.” I was shaking and shaking Chuckie. It didn’t seem to help.
    “What palace?” Chuckie asked me, looking as confused as everyone else.
    Martini grabbed my hand. “GLADYS!” The man was the king of bellowing
    I heard the com activate. “Yes, Commander.”
    “I want this live to all A-C personnel, all A-C bases worldwide, now !”
    “Live, Commander, go ahead.”
    “This is Commander Martini. All active Field and Imageering agents to Las Vegas immediately, unless dealing with a superbeing. If so, kill it, leave it, and get to Vegas. Bombs spread throughout, at least, the Mandalay Bay complex. We have no more than an hour to save tens of thousands, including our own people. Anyone who doesn’t pull weight answers to me when it’s over. Bombs are alien in nature, likely to look like something imitating nature. Move out, NOW.”
    Gower and Tito appeared. “Ready,” Gower said.
    Christopher grabbed Chuckie, and we all took off at hyperspeed for the launch area. Ran the stairs instead of the elevator—it was faster. Realized I should have mentioned it on the 15th floor. Decided to worry about the bigger issues.
    “The entire city of Las Vegas imitates something,” Christopher said as we waited for an open gate and the humans all dealt with the aftereffects of the hyperspeed. Apparently all the gates had been calibrated for Vegas by the time we got up here, but there was a huge stream of A-Cs pouring through them, and we were at the back of the line. “The bombs are going to be impossible to find.”
    “I can help,” Queen Renata said. “I will know them.”
    “We need more than one person.”
    “Chuckie, how many of those alien-detector things do you have?”
    “On me? One. At my office in Headquarters? Plenty.”
    “On it,” Christopher said. He grabbed Chuckie, and they disappeared.
    “Where’re they going?”
    “Operations,” Martini answered. Meaning where the Head of Security hung out. Meaning, I assumed, Gladys had a personal gate. Martini didn’t seem concerned, so I decided to focus on the bigger problem.
    “What if the alien-detector things don’t work on the bombs? If only Renata can recognize them, we’re in trouble.”
    “The others could assist as well,” Queen Renata said.
    Alexander shook his head. “Not Lenore or Uma. Lenore has no idea, and Uma’s more on the side of Kyrellis than us.”
    “What about the lizards, dogs, and cats?”
    “They could, yes.” He looked uncertain. “Gregory could, too. We’ve seen the bombs.”
    Martini grabbed two random A-Cs. “Get the prisoners in the holding cell. Everyone but the two women who look humanoid. The rest I want here before I go through. That’s fifteen seconds, tops.” They disappeared. “Describe the bombs.”
    “They can look like more than one thing,” Queen Renata said. “But they will normally resemble a large, spiky fruit. I believe you call them pineapples here, or at least, your world’s equivalent.”
    Martini and I looked at each other. “What, are pineapples the universal fruit of badness or something? I think they’re tasty.”
    He shrugged. “Easier to find.”
    “Not at the Mandalay Bay.”
    “Good point.”
    The A-C agents were back with the rest of Animal Planet. “Long story short—Kyrellis is about to blow up what she thinks is Jeff’s palace. It’s not, but we have a lot of innocent people in it as well as people we care about personally. Alex and Renata seem to think we can trust you, even Gregory, to help us find and defuse the bombs.”
    Willem nodded. “How many?”
    “No freaking idea. Figure a ton.”
    He looked to his Major Doggie companions. They nodded. “Wahoa, Wrolph, and I will help. We should be able to hear and smell them.”
    “Loud and smelly in a casino, guys.”
    “I am a girl,” Wahoa said.
    “Sorry, didn’t count the teats, okay?”
    She looked at Queen Renata.