Alien in the House

all that far away. And yet, here we are, all ready to get going, and we’ve been kept in the lobby the entire time. Convenient we were here, or Irene would have had to drag that man inside all by herself.”
    “I don’t get anything dangerous from her, but right now, that means nothing.”
    “Yeah. I don’t know that I’m accusing Irene. She’s not the one who hasn’t authorized us to go in. And she’s also not the one who asked the police to cordon off the dead representatives’ offices.”
    “You said the shooter’s on the roof. Should we check it out?”
    “No. I don’t want them shooting you.”
    “I’m not a target.”
    “Yeah? I’m firmly one with Vance’s theory right now.”
    “There’s a reason. If people are really being murdered on this scale, there’s a reason for it.”
    “Either there’s a reason or there’s a serial killer. Either way, Vance is right—you’re a target.”
    “I was out there twice and no one shot me.”
    “True.” I hugged him. “Superbeings were so much easier.”
    Len came to us. “Representative Brewer and his wife just arrived in a taxi. Kyle and I are going to escort them in.” With that the boys ran outside. As they got out of the taxi, Len grabbed Nathalie, Kyle grabbed Brewer, and they moved them in like they were Secret Service and the Brewers were the President and First Lady.
    Didn’t take a lot to bring the Brewers up to speed. We also now had enough people to play a decent game of volleyball. It was going to be harder than hell to search anywhere. But we needed to.
    Trotted over to Irene, who was off the phone but still crying. “I need to find a restroom, but I don’t want to go without my husband.”
    She nodded. “I understand.” She handed me a piece of paper and a key. “That’s the information for your husband’s office. I can’t imagine that it’s going to matter that you went up a little early, not with this.” She pointed to the man on the floor.
    “Who is that?”
    “Representative Juvonic.”
    “What committee was he on?”
    “Homeland security. Does it matter?”
    “I hope not.” I squeezed her hand. “Thanks, we’ll be back as soon as possible.” Gave Vance a look that I hoped he understood meant “stay here and keep Irene distracted.” He seemed to get it because he started talking to her about Juvonic.
    Rejoined the others. Brewer was on his phone, making angry calls. “I need to throw up. Seriously. Nathalie, can you manage things here? Because I need Jeff with me.”
    “Of course, Kitty. I’ll call you if you’re needed before you’re back.”
    “Thanks.” Grabbed Jeff and headed for the stairs.
    “Are you actually sick?” he asked, sounding worried.
    “No. But girls visit the bathroom together if all we’re doing is peeing, and experience says Nathalie is totally a group-goer. However, no one wants to help you vomit. And no one wants to barge in on that, either.”
    “So, where to first?”
    “We find your official office, so if someone needs to find me puking we can get back there. And then we find the office with police tape and search it. We’ll worry about the others once we get that done.”
    “I married the smartest, and sneakiest, girl in the galaxy.”
    “Let’s hope.”



CHAPTER 52
    A S SOON AS WE were out of sight, Jeff took us to the fast hyperspeed. Even though there were people on the stairs, they didn’t see us, and Jeff ensured we never touched them.
    It was a little confusing to find Jeff’s office, but hyperspeed made things go faster. Irene was right—he had a window and a nice view and newer furniture.
    “It’s going to take us a while to find Santiago’s office,” Jeff said. “This place is huge.”
    “Nope.” I pulled out my phone and dialed.
    “Hello?” Stryker sounded tired, but conscious. Good.
    “Eddy! Nice to see you’re up and about.”
    “Like we had a choice? What’s going on, Kitty?”
    “Need you to give me the names and, more importantly, office numbers for every dead representative that Vance had you identify last night. And, unfortunately, you need to add in Representative Juvonic.”
    “Someone else died?”
    “Just died. Show some respect for the dead and get me his office number so we can go through it for clues.”
    “Okay. Most of them are in one building, but not all.”
    “I hope it’s Rayburn House because that’s where we are.”
    “Yeah, it is. It won’t take long; Raj already had us compiling this list. Just need