Alien in the House

just different?”
    “Can’t tell without a full structural analysis, which we haven’t had time to do yet,” Omega Red said. “Not sure that they’re real, though, Kitty.”
    “But you’ll keep at it, right, Yuri?”
    “Right, because I know that tone of voice of yours, and I don’t like being kicked.”
    “Yuri, you are so much smarter than Eddy.”
    “I’ve been telling you that for years.”
    “Better looking, too.” Take that, Stryker.
    “
Anyway
,” Reader said, “I can see how someone with no real background in espionage, science, or the military could believe this. What’s still hard to swallow is the way he got this information.”
    “I think it’s time to visit Pia Ryan. Chuckie, your thoughts?”
    “I want to investigate her and her department again, first. I investigated them when you were in Florida. But we were treading on Internal Affairs’ territory, so I had to be careful.”
    “Don’t you still?” Jeff asked.
    Chuckie looked around the room. “Not nearly as much, no.”
    “Hacker International now work for us, Jeff. Therefore, they’re hacking into the C.I.A. illegally, but it’s not authorized by the military or by Chuckie. It’s going to be authorized by me.”
    “Why you?” Stryker asked.
    “Because I’m the ambassador now, no co-anything. So, make it so or make your reservations at the nearest Best Western.”
    “She’s even meaner than she used to be,” Henry muttered under his breath.
    “And my hearing’s better, too. But don’t worry; you did well, so you get to stay. For the moment.”
    “You know she’s not going to kick us out,” Ravi said quietly. “We’re too useful.”
    “I’d kick you out in a heartbeat,” Jeff said. “And I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it. The ambassador’s the only reason you’re all still here. So, do what she wants or I have another location in mind for you, and it’s called the Oak Hill Cemetery.”
    I looked up at Jeff. “Funny you should mention that place. That’s the cemetery where I lost Clarence but found the Dingo.”
    “Really?” Chuckie asked. “That’s interesting.”
    “Why?”
    “Because there are a couple of infamous Confederate Civil War spies who are buried there.” He turned to Big George. “Pull a map of the cemetery up.”
    “Does he actually know everything?” Jeff asked me quietly.
    “Pretty much, yeah.”
    Big George indicated the map was live. “Kitty, can you tell me where you were when Clarence disappeared?” Chuckie asked.
    “I think so.” Ran everything back through my mind. “About here. Keeping in mind that this map is a drawing, and I was running after Clarence at hyperspeed.”
    “That’s near one of the spy’s graves,” Big George said.
    “That needs checking,” Chuckie said. “It could be a long shot, but if someone’s got a sense of humor, I could believe they have a hideout around there.”
    “Clarence doesn’t have a sense of humor,” Jeff said.
    “At all,” Christopher added.
    “Does this solve our problem?” Amy asked. Everyone looked at her. She shrugged. “Look, I get it, Clarence is somehow alive and well and running around trying to blow us up. We think. But how does that relate to everything else? And if we rush off to the cemetery, does whatever we find there fix our problems?”
    “We don’t know,” I said before anyone else could. “Last night, we were thinking we had the usual three, maybe even five plans, going. Now, I don’t know.”
    “They sure don’t feel cohesive,” Tim said. “At all.”
    “Am I right in believing you’ve told everyone all the details, Ambassador?” Raj asked. Realized he’d been silent this entire time.
    “Yes, everyone in the room with us is presumed to be totally trustworthy.”
    “Good. Then I’d like to ask an important question.”
    “Go ahead.”
    “Where is Colonel Hamlin and what are we doing to find him?”



CHAPTER 63
    “G OOD QUESTION.” It was. “We left Malcolm alone with the good colonel and now Malcolm isn’t waking up.”
    Raj shook his head. “We don’t know that Colonel Hamlin is the one who injured Mister Buchanan. Based on the information we have, it was Mister Buchanan who moved the colonel out of the Embassy.”
    “Right, so, what?” Jeff asked. “You think Buchanan is a traitor?”
    “No. I think we haven’t asked a very important question—why did Mister Buchanan feel it was safer to have Colonel Hamlin in the tunnels than in the Embassy? Or, to put it