Alien in the House

going to leave Nathalie alone, though, police around or not. Raj gave the police our Embassy’s number and, once they’d gotten our statements and hers, we bundled Nathalie into the limo. Jeff hadn’t been able to let her go—the one time he’d tried she’d practically collapsed.
    Len drove slowly back to the Embassy, in part because we didn’t want to attract any more police attention. I tried calling Caroline, Senator McMillan, and Senator Armstrong. None of them picked up, all had the same locked-door meeting message going. Sent a text to Kelly McMillan.
    “They’re investigating it as a suicide,” Raj said. “And we’re going to let them, at least for now.”
    “There’s no way that’s true,” Jeff said.
    “I know. However, Congressman, we need to have you and the ambassador as removed from the situation as possible.” Raj stressed the titles.
    Jeff sighed. “Point made.” He looked at Nathalie then back at me. “What are we going to do?”
    “We’re going to figure out who’s behind this and stop them. Permanently.”
    Of course, this was a hell of a lot easier said than done. I’d hoped to glean some insights from Caroline or either senator we were close to, but Kelly’s text explained why they hadn’t been available—they were all in a very high-level meeting regarding Armstrong’s presidential run. The presidential election was two years away, but was, like everything else, being affected by the government’s moratorium on elections this year.
    She said she could reach them if it was vital, but it had to
be
vital for her to do it. Passed along the news of Brewer’s death, but chose not to use Kelly’s access at this moment. Mostly because I figured I might need it at another time.
    We got back and got Nathalie into Tito and Nurse Carter’s care. She had to go to the infirmary because Tito had to give her a sedative to calm her down, and, as with Buchanan, he wanted her watched.
    The others were already back, so the rest of our team met up with them in the Computer Lab. Thankfully it was big. What it wasn’t, though, was full of answers.
    “Serene’s checked in,” Gower told us. “She hasn’t gotten much from the emotional overlay device. Once she had all she could get, she tried to open it.”
    “Is she okay?”
    “Oh, yes, she used robotic arms within a blast-proof container. Unfortunately, it was a good thing she took the precaution.”
    “Blew to bits?” This was an easy guess.
    “Yeah, so we have nothing, other than what we’ll get from what we took from Gaultier Research.”
    “It’s going to take us weeks to go through everything from Gaultier,” Amy said. “It’s giving me great ammunition for my case to take over the company, but otherwise, it’s a morass of data and information, and it’s going to require detailed attention and a lot more time before we have a hope of knowing what all’s going on.”
    “So, we say we got what we needed out of Gaultier, which is Malcolm hopefully back with us soon, and we say they’re a dead end for now.”
    “What if the Mastermind is at Gaultier?” Amy asked.
    “Then we don’t find him or her right now. Look, I go back to what I said to James yesterday, I think it was—we need to solve these murders, first. If that leads us to our Professor Moriarty, great. If it only leads us to the Sith Apprentice, then at least we stop that person.”
    “If Clarence is back, where’s he hiding out?” Jeff asked.
    “I’m more interested in who he’s working with. Because I’m going to bet money that Clarence is who hit Malcolm with the suspended animation drug. He’s about the only one who could.”
    “Clarence isn’t the brains of the operation,” Christopher said. “There’s no way.”
    “There’s no way he’s the Sith Apprentice, either. I’m sure he’s being used as really effective and apparently quite loyal muscle.”
    White shook his head. “Loyalties shift. I’m sure Clarence is loyal to whoever helped him recover after the invasion. That may not be anyone he’s known before.”
    “Sith Lord or Sith Apprentice,” Stryker suggested. The rest of Hacker International nodded their agreement.
    “Chief,” Walter said over the com, “Mister Beaumont is here.”
    “Send him in and up, Walt. Scan him first, if you’re able.”
    “Yes, Chief.”
    “Did you invite him?” Reader asked.
    “No. I’m assuming he’s heard about Edmund’s death.”
    Vance arrived. “Now do you people believe