Alien in the Family

decided to wait there and went into the Hooters restaurant. I enjoyed my feelings of inadequacy while waiting for the still-mobile rest of Alpha Team to arrive. We got a lot of looks from the patrons, but the Hooters girls were, to a one, hotter than any Vegas showgirl, and they were plentiful. The customers gave us the initial glance, then went back to the view they’d come to see. I had to remind the football players to keep an eye on the prisoners.
    Martini and Christopher, however, weren’t looking at the Hooters girls. They were talking on their phones, barking orders, keeping things moving. I wasn’t talking, I was thinking. I was getting tired of thinking, but someone had to do it, and we still had alien plans active.
    Chuckie and Alexander arrived first. Chuckie took one look and shook his head. “How did you get an entire football team helping you?”
    “Talent. We need real security on Kyrellis. She’s got eight bullets in her, and you’d never know it.”
    “We’ll take care of it. Your families are all fine. Once I found your mother, things moved faster, of course.”
    “Thank you.” I wanted to just curl up in Martini’s lap and pretend this had been a TV show. No such luck, of course.
    “Don’t mention it. Glad to ensure this wasn’t a tragedy.”
    “How did the hotel management deal with all this?”
    Chuckie shrugged. “As your mother knows, flashing the big Federal agent badge solves a lot of issues. For some reason, when people see Central Intelligence Agency, they get amazingly cooperative. They were relieved the terrorists weren’t able to destroy their properties and agreed to use an electrical fire in the basement as the excuse. Most of the guests have been comped a free meal for their inconvenience, and everyone’s heading back to their gambling.”
    “Good, so business as usual.”
    “Pretty much.” He looked around again. “How’s Martini? He looks like he had the crap beaten out of him.”
    “He sort of did. He and Kyrellis got into it. But he’ll be fine.” I really hoped.
    Alexander looked at his brother, who was glowering. “He did not try to help?”
    “No, he was all over Kyrellis killing Jeff and Christopher. He and Christopher got into it, but they were more evenly matched.”
    “This is all my fault. I should have told someone, anyone. And sooner than this.”
    I studied his face. “How old are you?”
    “Twenty-two.”
    “Wow, I thought you were older.”
    He shrugged. “No. Gregory is thirty.”
    “And thought he was younger.”
    “Sorry.” Alexander rubbed his forehead. “What can I do to help?”
    “Get the rest of the emissaries rounded up. I want to be sure they’re helping.”
    Chuckie snorted. “They helped, believe me.”
    Before he could expand on this, Gower, Tito, Tim, Lorraine, and Claudia came in. Lorraine took one look at Martini and cursed. Impressively. She’d been spending a lot of time with the pilots.
    She started doing some medical things to Martini while Claudia checked out Christopher. Gower gave me the rundown. “Found all the bombs, at least, if any are missing, they didn’t go off.”
    “Kyrellis was expecting an explosion when we figured, so I think we’re good.”
    “Hope so, but the Canus Majorians and Feliniads are still searching, just in case. They each have two field teams with them, so they should be good.”
    “How’d you get rid of the bombs?”
    “Spatiotemporal warp.”
    “Come again?”
    Gower grinned. “The Reptilians have the ability to create spatiotemporal warps between mated pairs. Once we started finding the bombs pretty much everywhere, they fired it up, and we tossed the bombs through.”
    “Going where?”
    “I asked, don’t worry,” Chuckie said. “It’s a complex scientific answer. You want it, or you want to trust me on it?”
    “I want to trust you on it.”
    “So I figured.”
    “Where’s Queen Renata?” Chuckie and Gower both started to cough. “Um, guys? Where is Renata? It’s a clear question.”
    Tito shrugged. “Don’t know why they’re acting like that. She’s with your mother and all the other women. Total girl bonding.”
    “Oh. Goody.”
    “At least,” Tito added, “I think it’s your mother. The woman who’s clearly in charge anywhere she goes and also looks like you? The one who could probably kick everyone’s ass, including the Amazons’?”
    “Yeah, that’s my mom. She’s not that horrid.”
    He grinned. “Wasn’t an insult. I think