Alien in the House

but his cover’s been pretty much blown along with everyone else’s, so if I walk in with the head of the C.I.A.’s E-T Division, you know people are going to pay far too much attention to what we and he are doing.”
    “Same goes for Cliff,” Christopher added. “I know he falls under the ‘met once we were in Washington’ group, but even if he didn’t, he’s too high-ranking. But we need someone with higher-level skills than any of us have.”
    Considered the options. “Take Doctor Wu with you.”
    “You’re kidding,” Amy said.
    “No, I’m not. Of the five of them, Henry’s the best with software and you need someone who can hack in in less than a minute and find what you need in less than five.”
    “How do we explain him?” Christopher asked.
    “
You
don’t,” Amy said. “Because you can’t lie. At all. Richard, if I do the talking, can you believably pass Henry off as your assistant?”
    White nodded. “I’m not up to Camilla’s standards, but since you’ll be assisting me, I won’t have any trouble with it.”
    “Take Raj, too,” Jeff said.
    Christopher made a face. “What do we want with a troubadour?”
    “Wow, will you stop hating on him and his talent? Raj is great for this—and no one can charm like a troubadour. Other than you, James.”
    Reader laughed. “Thanks, girlfriend. But I agree. I’d like to go to Gaultier, but honestly, my job is to protect you guys, and if we’re still going with the idea that Vance is on to something, then I need to be guarding Jeff.”
    “Raj works well with the squatters,” Jeff added. “They’ll listen to him, and that means less whining from Wu.”
    “Raj can also run point between you guys and us, so no one asks why Amy, her husband, or her supposedly interested father-in-law are busy texting instead of paying attention.”
    “Okay, we’re set,” Amy said. “I don’t know that we’ll be able to be done with all this before the swearing-in, though. Will it matter if we’re not there?”
    “No,” Reader said. “You could go, but Paul will be there, and as the Supreme Pontifex, his presence represents for every A-C, so you can be absent without it causing issues.”
    “The press will find a way,” Amy said. “They always do.”
    “Speaking of which, should we invite Mister Joel Oliver along?”
    “Only if you want to present him as your personal photographer,” Reader said.
    “Yeah, we do,” Jeff said. “I want him around—we can actually trust him, and he’s the one who will know who’s lying and who isn’t.”
    “You normally know that,” Christopher said.
    Jeff shook his head. “We can’t count on that, on any empath, any more. With devices that can block or overlay emotions, being an empath becomes less of an advantage. Now I can be lied to in even more ways than the rest of you.”
    “Duh. I forgot. You guys need to search for three things. Omega Red found something like what we found—the emotional blocker that blew up—and the emotional overlay, but he found them not at Titan, but at Gaultier.”
    “Well, aren’t I so proud to hopefully become the head of Evil Incarnate.” Amy’s sarcasm knob was definitely at eleven. “Does that mean we need to bring him along, too?”
    “How do we pass off a blind guy as anyone’s aide?” Christopher asked.
    “There are ways, but I think he’ll be happier staying home. Henry can connect to him, and that means we have someone downloading info here as well as there.”
    “What will the rest of you be doing while we go perform corporate espionage?” Amy asked.
    “Searching Santiago’s office for clues,” Reader said.
    “Prepping to get sworn in for the latest job I don’t want to do.”
    “Checking on Malcolm.”
    “There’s no change,” White told me gently. “Magdalena and Tito spent the night in the infirmary, but Mister Buchanan is still non-responsive.”
    “I don’t care. I’m going to see him before we leave.”
    “Let’s eat, shower, and dress first,” Jeff said. “Breakfast is ready.”
    “How come you never make breakfast?” Amy asked Christopher as we headed for the dining room.
    “Because I don’t need anyone’s votes.”
    “I heard that,” Jeff called from the kitchen. “It’s really because you’re worse in the kitchen than Kitty is. No offense, baby.”
    “Absolutely none taken. But I appreciate having yet more dirt on Christopher to use against him when he least expects it.”
    “As if my not being a good