Alien in the House

familiar man in the brown UPS uniform was standing there when I opened the door. “Hi Ted, what do you have for us today?”
    He smiled. “You mean, what do I have for you again. Found a package I missed earlier today.” He held out a small box. “Sorry about that. Been happening a lot today. I’ve pretty much done my route twice.”
    “Oh, bummer for you, but cool for us, so thanks!” Took the box and was about to look at it when something caught my eye. From where our front door was, I could easily see our street and a good part of Sheridan Circle. Sure it was the part with a lot of foliage, but it was quite visible.
    My enhancement had improved my vision, so I was able to spot what I probably wouldn’t have before Jamie was born—there was a man standing among the trees.
    Being someone now very used to having enemies attack at all times, I didn’t dismiss this. I took a better look, though I made sure I wasn’t staring straight at the guy in the trees. From the corner of my eye, the lurker looked familiar.
    In point of fact, he looked like someone I was pretty sure was dead.
    My eyes could easily be deceiving me, but if they weren’t, Clarence Valentino, A-C Traitor at Large and presumed deader, was hanging out in the bushes across the street.



CHAPTER 6
    T HE MAN IN THE CIRCLE who might be Clarence returned from the dead hadn’t caught me looking, at least I figured he hadn’t because he hadn’t disappeared. Wanted to be sure of what I was seeing before I alerted anyone, so I needed a better look.
    I smiled at Ted. “So, you think we should search your truck, in case anything else for us turns up?”
    He laughed. “You can come take a look if you want. My route’s almost done. Again.”
    We chuckled together and I went down the walk with him to his truck. I didn’t care if we had ten more packages Ted had missed or nothing at all left in his van. This angle meant I’d have a clear enough look to be able to tell if I was seeing things or not.
    Ted took me to the back of his truck and opened the doors. “Not much left, but I’ll triple check it if you want.”
    “Sure, if you have the time.” I lounged against the back of the truck, so that I could look around while seeming to be not paying attention. While Ted rummaged, I observed.
    It was hard to be sure if the man in the foliage was actually someone I knew and not just some random lurker. But considering one of the last times I’d seen Clarence had been when he was trying to lure the Gower girls into the trees by the Lincoln Memorial, I felt I was on the right track.
    “I don’t see anything else for you,” Ted announced.
    Turned to look inside the truck. It was in a decent state of disarray. “How do you find anything in here?”
    “Normally? No problem. Today I must have turned a corner too fast or driven over a bump I didn’t notice, because about midday I get to a stop and bam, all my packages are on the floor or on top of each other.”
    Our UPS man didn’t normally get involved in high speed car chases, and there was no way he could have gone over a bump big enough to toss everything on the floor without his knowing. Ted might be lying, but I doubted it. An A-C moving at hyperspeed would be invisible to the naked human eye, and I had a good bet an A-C had done this. A specific A-C, in fact. The one hiding at the Circle.
    Why was the big question. I didn’t have a good answer. Yet.
    Said good-bye to Ted and watched him drive off. No sign of anyone chasing him at hyperspeed. Of course, if this
was
Clarence, he was enhanced. Which might be how he’d survived.
    Turned to face the Circle. This time, whoever it was seemed aware I was looking at him. He disappeared.
    I didn’t stop to ponder—I took off running. At hyperspeed.
    Christopher had been working with me a lot on control, so I didn’t slam my face into a tree. I reached the edge of the Circle and stopped. Then I trotted around at human level. I was quite proud of myself. Pity no one was around to see and rate this performance.
    “What the hell are you doing, Missus Chief?”
    Okay, someone was around. Point of fact, it was Malcolm Buchanan, aka the P.T.C.U. operative assigned by my mother to be my permanent shadow. Couldn’t complain—Buchanan had saved my life more than once already. He was also a big, tall, good-looking, muscular guy with deep blue eyes and brown hair. I never complained about that, either.
    “Hey, Malcolm, I thought I saw—” Clarence, and