Alien in the Family

better than we were. What had he done? We’d smiled, posed, and called Security. Well, it was worth a shot.
    I put my arms around Martini’s and Chuckie’s waists. “Smiles, everyone, smiles!”
    “What’s with the Mister Rourke voice?” Chuckie asked.
    “Not exactly Fantasy Island here ,” Martini added.
    Oliver laughed. “Mister Reader is much more comfortable in front of a camera.” His smile disappeared as he took another shot of all of us. “Much more comfortable than you are, Mister Reynolds. I can hardly find any photos of you at all.” He winked at me. “But you’re in every one of the few there are.”
    Martini started the low growl that usually led to a much louder roar. This wasn’t going as I’d hoped.
    There was a loud whistle, and we all looked. Tim had gone to the valet area and procured a limo. At least one of us was thinking. “Let’s go,” he called.
    Oliver was still blocking our way, and Christopher knocked into him. “Get moving or get run over,” he snarled.
    Oliver backed away. “Care to make any comment for why there were thousands of aliens in Las Vegas this morning?”
    “Movie stunt,” I called over my shoulder. “Casting call for the next Ocean’s Eleven sequel.” We piled in while Oliver took more snaps as we drove off, Tim giving the driver directions to head downtown. “How do we stop him from printing our pictures? I mean, I doubt the government wants proof of things like Chuckie being with all of us on the front page.”
    “You have no faith, do you?” Christopher said. He sounded smug.
    Chuckie laughed. “You could alter the film just by touching the camera?”
    Christopher shrugged. “No.” He grinned. “I could, however, cause all the film to become exposed. He’s got nothing now. I exposed the roll in the camera and all the film on him.”
    “How?” Everyone other than our driver looked at me. Everyone had the “duh” look going. I thought about it. “Oh. Hyperspeed.”
    Chuckie shook his head. “I worry about you sometimes.” He looked at Martini. “I don’t think we want our driver sharing.”
    Martini nodded. “I don’t want us sharing until we know this vehicle’s safe. Tim, have our driver pull over.”
    The driver pulled off onto a side street. We piled out. While Chuckie and Christopher searched the limo for a variety of nasty things, Martini gave the driver a lot of money and a strong suggestion to walk to THEhotel and wait for us and his limo to return. The driver wandered off, the limo was declared safe and clean of bugs, Tim took the wheel, Christopher took shotgun, and the rest of us settled in.
    Even with those two in the front seat now, what with me, Martini, Chuckie, Gower, Lorraine, Claudia, Alexander, and Tito in the back, it was cozy. I was between Martini and Chuckie, which I knew Martini wasn’t happy about. But there was too much going on to worry about seating arrangements. We could worry about those for our wedding once we had the latest alien invasion schemes thwarted.
    “Reynolds, where do you want me heading?” Tim asked.
    “Where you were heading us already. Downtown. I’d tell you to leave the Strip, but I think we’d be too conspicuous on the regular city streets.”
    We turned back onto the Strip. “Got it, casual wandering on the way.” Tim sounded as though this was a normal order. I wasn’t used to us just meandering anywhere, however.
    “Why?”
    “Because we need time to regroup.” Chuckie sounded tense, which was a rarity. “Since tragedy’s been averted and White’s taken care of the annoyance, let’s get back to the real issues still at hand. What’s the likelihood that Gregory can demand to see your Diplomatic Corps now that he’s clearly a traitor to both Earth and Alpha Four?”
    “I’m honestly not sure,” Martini answered. “We haven’t dealt with anything like this during my tenure as Head of Field.”
    “I believe I could convince my mother that Gregory was acting dishonorably,” Alexander said. “And Councillor Leonidas would undoubtedly see things from your perspective.”
    “I got more about him out of the emissaries,” Chuckie said. “He’s playing a dangerous game, but it appears to be for the overall good of the Alpha Centauri system, not just Alpha Four.”
    “Why would he do that?” I asked. “Wouldn’t that make him a traitor to the Alpha Four monarchy?”
    “No,” Alexander said. “My great-uncle is perceived by some to be . . .