Alien in the House

another way, who was Mister Buchanan trying to protect? The colonel, himself, or you, Ambassador?”
    “Why me?”
    “Because your safety is his sole and entire job,” Chuckie answered. “Your mother put her best and most highly trained operative onto you, Kitty. She gave me the full details once he was exposed to us as P.T.C.U. He’s worked all over the world. He’s more skilled than I am. So, while anyone can lose concentration and anyone can slip up, Buchanan’s about the last one out of all of us to do either.”
    “You make him sound like he walks on water,” Jeff said.
    Chuckie shot Jeff a look I could only think of as a combination of long-suffering and fed up. “Feel free to check your jealousy at the door on this one. We’re talking about someone who is expected to be the last man standing, and he’s expected to be standing in front of your wife and child. He’s down, without a mark on him, and Raj is right. We’ve been so distracted by everything else, we’re not asking what the hell happened to the person he was last with.”
    “We’ve reviewed all the feeds from the tunnels,” Omega Red said. “No signs of anyone in them, at any time. And before anyone makes a comment, I have ways of seeing things, I just see them differently than any of you.”
    “No one’s trying to pick on the blind guy, Yuri, cool your jets. So, we have no visuals of Malcolm or Colonel Hamlin in the tunnels at all?”
    “None,” Big George said. “We didn’t expect to catch any of Christopher, because he was moving at hyperspeed. However, we should have seen Mister Buchanan, even though he was hidden from the camera feeds where Christopher found him. But to get him there, someone would have had to pass one of the cameras.”
    “Someone disabled all the camera feeds?”
    “No. They’re all working.”
    “Have you checked for tampering?” Chuckie asked. “Because that seems impossible. Even if we say that Clarence showed up and overpowered Buchanan and Hamlin, which we know he could, they should have been on the feeds when they left the Embassy’s basement elevator.”
    “Unless . . . I told Hamlin to tell Malcolm everything. Let’s say he did. Immediately after that, Malcolm now wants to get Hamlin out of the Embassy. Why? Either Hamlin’s a threat to us, or there’s a threat to Hamlin here, and Malcolm believes Hamlin needs to be protected.”
    “Okay, all that makes sense,” Chuckie said. “He told Walter they were going into the tunnels.”
    “Right. Why? Why tell Walter that? He didn’t ask Walter to let me know they were going into the tunnels. In fact, he made Walter think that I already knew.”
    “To have Walter undo the shielding?” Raj suggested.
    “Maybe. If it was on at the time.”
    “It was.”
    “Okay, but we have nothing that shows that anyone left the elevator. The cameras aren’t focused on the elevator; they’re focused on the tunnels. Because we know who’s coming out of the elevator and that’s someone with access to our Embassy.”
    “Where are you going with this?” Jeff asked.
    “I’m trying to think like Malcolm.” Stryker snorted. “Eddy, I’m just saying, I’m going to kick you
so
hard, when you least expect it. Anyway, Malcolm has Doctor Strange powers. If he doesn’t want you to see him, you don’t see him. He comes and goes like the wind. And yet, he told Walter where he was going.”
    “Why are you so shocked by that?” Reader asked.
    “Dude, think. We’ve been all over the Embassy and the Zoo. Have we checked in with Walter? Has even one of us told Walter where we were? No. We assume that Walter is monitoring and will alert us if necessary and unless we need him, we leave him alone to do his job.”
    “You think Walter’s the traitor?” Jeff asked, sounding like he was hoping I was going to say no.
    “No. I think that Walter is very dedicated and that he was focused pretty much a hundred percent on the party. And I’m sure Malcolm knew he would be. However, Walter could stop worrying about the basement if Malcolm’s told him that he’s leaving it and going out the tunnels. Walter can turn all his attention to the Zoo, which is where everyone
other
than Malcolm and Hamlin are.”
    Raj looked at me. “You don’t think they ever went into the tunnels, do you?”
    “No, I don’t. I think Malcolm told Walter they were going into the tunnels so that Walter’s attention would go back onto everyone else. Then I think they walked out