Alien in the House

mind. “Wait. He said he had the papers at work. So I asked, again, if he meant his office. He said no, he’d been free . . . but what if he was cut off mid-word? Free could mean—”
    “Freelancing.” Reader let go of me, got up, and pulled his phone out of the pocket of his robe. “Sorry, I know it’s early there. Oh? Well, I slacked off and got a couple hours of sleep. Okay. Look, I need work history run on Eugene Montgomery. Yes, the guy who poisoned Santiago. Yeah, focus on the most recent trails first. Could have been under the table. Yeah, search financials. Great, thanks, Serene.” He hung up. “She hasn’t gone to bed, because you sent her the best Christmas present ever, I guess. She’s excited about the explosive mechanism on the disc and the components making up the shielding.”
    “Someone should be.”
    Reader’s phone beeped. He stared at it.
    “What?”
    “I’ll give you three guesses where Eugene was freelancing. And the first two don’t count.”



CHAPTER 47
    “I PLAYED THIS GAME with Omega Red last night. Let me skip my first two guesses and go for the answer he gave me. Gaultier Enterprises.”
    Reader nodded. “Got it in one. The research facility.”
    “Where Christopher found Malcolm, basically.”
    “Yeah.”
    “So, what do we do?”
    Jeff came out of the bedroom, also wearing our Sleepwear Standard Issue. “Now that you two have made up, we have a fast meeting, then we all get showered, get dressed, and get going.”
    “You were awake? All this time?”
    Jeff grinned, came over, and kissed me. “Not the whole time. But with all the angst and worry going on in the living room, I woke up.”
    “Sorry,” Reader said.
    Jeff shook his head. “No, this was the most important thing the two of you could have done. Besides, gave me time to check on Jamie and everyone else who’s staying with Paul. Per Abigail, the adults are all awake, something about the news being too ‘good’ not to share with everyone, and she told me everyone’s fine. They’re going to keep the kids there today.”
    “Denise isn’t going to do daycare?” Decided we could talk about the news another time. Like never.
    “She’s doing it at the Pontifex’s Residence. Gladys feels, since it’s a smaller building with far fewer people coming and going, that it’ll be easier to protect everyone there. Kevin agrees, as does Reynolds. Kevin’s staying with everyone, though Reynolds and Paul will have to leave later today.”
    “They’ll be with us at the swearing in?” Reader asked.
    “Yeah.” There was a knock at our door and Jeff went to answer it. He came back with Christopher, Amy, and White, all in their robes and PJs. We looked like we were either at a group day spa or a psych ward. Chose not to share this thought.
    “Jeff said that something from last night was connected to Gaultier Enterprises,” Amy said as she plopped down on the loveseat. “So, what do you need from me?”
    As Christopher joined her, White took the chair Reader had vacated, and Jeff started a pot of coffee, Reader and I caught everyone else up on the thinking.
    “We need to find two things at Gaultier—whatever Eugene had hidden there, and possibly whatever he was working on, and information on whatever was given to Malcolm, hopefully including a cure.” Tried not to worry about Buchanan. Failed utterly.
    “Getting in is no problem,” Amy said. “Legally, I can go anywhere I want in any Gaultier facility. The problem is finding what we need without giving anything away and before someone destroys whatever it is we’re looking for.”
    “I don’t believe we can all go,” White said. “We discussed it after Representative Martini called us to an early summit meeting.”
    “Uncle Richard, that’s not funny.”
    “No, but it’s accurate. You need to get used to the title, Jeffrey. I doubt very much that you’re going to be allowed to leave office as soon as you’d like.”
    “Wonderful,” Jeff groaned. “Let’s get back to Kitty’s murder mystery theory for a while, okay?”
    “Okay, and my father’s right,” Christopher said. “I can go in as Amy’s husband, and we figure we can use the excuse that she wants to impress her father-in-law, so she’s giving him a tour.”
    “That could work, really. I mean, Richard’s the retired Pontifex, and that has cachet in more places than just with every A-C.”
    Amy nodded. “That’s what we were thinking. I’d love to bring Chuck along,