Alien in the Family

card. Len hugged me, and Kyle shook my hand, then they trotted off. “You sure you’re not bucking for Gower’s job?”
    “Nah. Just a lot of talent in Sin City right now.”
    “Yeah. Martini didn’t go to human schools, so he’s mostly buying that those football players were gentlemen.” Chuckie looked right at me. “I’m not. How close were you to being in real trouble?”
    “Well, Harlie was with me, so not as much as I could have been. Len was protecting me, and he had some backup.”
    “Right. And the line were the problem, led by Kyle?”
    “Yeah. Look at it as proof of his leadership. I don’t know if he was just blustering or would have gone through with it. But he didn’t, and he came to help. Oh, and he’s a total comics geek.”
    “So that’s where you two bonded. Okay, I’ll consider them. Believe me, though, I’ll be watching him.”
    Chuckie seemed really upset. I put my hand on his arm. “Are you okay?”
    He sighed. “Not really.” He looked down. “I know Martini thinks I like being here with you.” He looked back up at me. “But I don’t. Because I’m not with you. He is.”
    “Why did you choose this location, then?”
    He grinned. “Because it bugs the hell out of Martini. And I enjoy doing that.”
    I rolled my eyes. “I’m not going to even try to follow the logic.”
    “Fine with me. So, how many A-Cs do you think we have here? I mean that we don’t want or know about?”
    “No clue. At least those two, maybe more. They must have used the same gate the Amazons did.”
    “I’ve added some C.I.A. personnel into the Science Center.”
    “Oh, Chuckie, come on.”
    “Not to take over.” He sounded exasperated. “Try thinking like you, or me, not Martini, for just a minute, okay? We have three to five interstellar criminals in the lowest level of that place. A level with external access, as you, White, and your flyboys have all confirmed. I want some humans there I can trust to kill without hesitation.”
    “You think they’ll get out?” My stomach clenched.
    “I think they’re going to try. I also have C.I.A. around your father and Reader. And the Pontifex. Again, to protect them. I know the A-Cs have been vulnerable before, but nowhere near as much as right now.”
    I tried to think the way I knew he did. “You worried this was all an elaborate ruse to get them inside the Science Center?”
    “I think it’s possible. There are too many variables, but there’s more going on, you know it, I know it. We had to pull every active agent out of the field and put them here. I don’t even want to consider how much could have been affected by that. However, it’s my job to figure that out. So you’ll have to accept that I’m going to put humans I can trust into these alien strongholds, to ensure they remain strong.”
    “Not your enemy. Not saying you’re wrong. Chuckie, you’re really . . . tense.”
    “Yeah.” He looked at Martini then back to me. “Can’t imagine why.”
    I forced myself to look past jealousy and try to figure out what he was worried about in regard to Martini. “You think Kyrellis was taking it easy on Jeff, don’t you?”
    “Yeah, I do. Not that I want him dead, but he’s doing pretty well. Better than Reader.”
    “James was fooled.”
    “Yeah, but not as much as you may think. I’ve had a chat with him. He was lured out by Moira pretending to be Gower, but the moment Gower didn’t talk to him, Reader was on guard. He thought he was fighting an A-C imageer, not an Amazon, but he knew he was fighting someone. She was just more than he could take.”
    “He’s human. Jeff’s an A-C. They’re a lot stronger, and they heal amazingly fast.”
    “I know.” Chuckie sounded exasperated again. “But Moira almost killed Reader with one blow. One. There was only one hit on him—she smashed his head into a wall, and it almost killed him. Kyrellis is bigger, stronger, and older, meaning she’s far better trained. She’s bigger than Martini, stronger than him, and wants to kill him for a variety of reasons. But he walked out of that fight pretty much under his own steam. It doesn’t add up.”
    “I’ll spend a lot of time worrying about it.”
    “I’m not trying to make you worry needlessly.”
    “No, I think you’re probably right. So it’s not needless.”
    “I want guards in your room.”
    “Not just no,” Martini said, coming up to us. “But hell no.”
    “You explain it to him.” Chuckie sounded ready to