Alien in the House

it would be convenient.” Nathalie sounded disappointed. Out of all the Cabal left, I liked her the most. Jeff liked Brewer and had been gently urging me to give both of them another chance, even before the party. And Vance was going to go over with us.
    “Well, maybe. Can I call you back? If we’re done in time, it’d be fun.”
    “That would be wonderful.” Nathalie sounded a lot happier. “Let me know if you have time for us to do lunch. You want to have a good meal before the ceremony, because there are a lot of pictures taken and I’m sure there will be reporters.”
    Reporters. Knew I’d forgotten something. “Gotcha. I’ll call you in a while.” Hung up from Nathalie and dialed. He answered quickly. “MJO, how’s my favorite reporter?”
    “Quite well, Ambassador. Hoping to see you later in the day. If I can get into the Capitol.”
    “Oh, you’ll definitely be getting in. We’re coming to get you,” I tossed over my shoulder. Len nodded, and turned down the next cross street. “Leave the parrot at home.”
    “He doesn’t have to,” Jeff said.
    “Oh, yes, he does, he definitely does.”
    “Miss Bellie will remain safely at home. I’ll hurry up, Ambassador.”
    We hung up and a thought occurred to me. We were heading out into dangerous territory, and my Royal Guardians were nowhere around.
    No sooner did I think this than I realized that there was something on the seat next to Reader. I stared and a yellow eye opened, looked at me, winked, then closed. So Bruno was in Stealth Mode. Didn’t know if that meant Vance was untrustworthy, or Bruno felt playing it cool was the word of the day. Figured we’d find out.
    Opened my purse to drop my phone back in and discovered Harlie, Poofikins, Gatita, who was Reader’s Poof, as well as a variety of other Poofs in there. Good.
    We collected Oliver. He sat next to Reader, so technically on Bruno. Casually put my hand onto the seat next to me. Sure enough, I felt feathers. Gave him a hopefully unobtrusive pat and put my hand back in my lap.
    Vance was clearly happy to be with his idol again. “I just wanted to say that last week’s edition of your “Get to Know Your Aliens” series was amazing. Each one has been so informative, but your in-depth analysis of how many people have been saved from superbeing attacks over the course of time was mind-blowing.” Oliver had been doing regular articles to explain how great the A-Cs were. None of us would have called them mind-blowing, but they were good, and very pro-alien, of course.
    “Thank you,” Oliver said, looking both flattered and embarrassed. “I must confess, I’m not used to having fans. Well, sane fans.”
    Vance shook his head. “You have a lot of fans now. You’re a celebrity.”
    “Ah.” Oliver winked at me. “It’s always nice to be popular.”
    Reyes’ office was in the Rayburn House Office Building, which was the biggest and most modern of the buildings that housed the representatives. It went up four stories, had two stories underground, and three levels of underground parking. Resisted the urge to ask if the A-Cs had helped build it.
    Modern in D.C., of course, didn’t mean the twenty-first century. It was a big, sturdy, stone and marble set of buildings architects said was in an H design. If it was an H, it was the most humongous H ever. As we drove around to get to the right entrance to the parking garage, I got the two huge city blocks full view. This one building made our Embassy and Zoo setup seem small and ordinary.
    The less said about the security stops and checks to get into the Capitol complex and down into the bowels of the Rayburn House the better. They were there for a reason, but more than once the desire to park the car elsewhere and use hyperspeed to get inside was almost overwhelming.
    “This is taking forever.” Okay, I’d ruled out hyperspeed, but not whining.
    “It’s because so many things are different now,” Oliver said.
    “It’s a lot to do just because people now know there are aliens living on Earth.”
    “It’s not just that,” Oliver explained patiently. “Most Congressmen don’t spend all their time in Washington. They’re here the days Congress is in session, perhaps for special events, and a few other days besides. The rest of the time, they’re home, in their districts.”
    “I won’t be doing that,” Jeff said. “I live here now.”
    “Yes, you do, and I’m sure that’s understood. You also, ah, have a very easy