Alien in the House

until it’s time to get ready to go. Jeff, if you put one toe out of the Embassy Complex I will shoot it off, is that clear?”
    “Yes,” he said with a sigh. “Fine. I’m neutered, you don’t have to put the plastic collar on me, too.”
    Hugged him again. “It’s not being neutered. It’s being protected. Because I don’t want to experience what Nathalie is going through right now, ever.”
    He hugged me back. “I don’t, either, which is why I don’t want you to go.”
    “If you two are going to start, do you mind taking it to your room?” Tim asked. “Some of us have spouses who are elsewhere and we’re a little bitter.”
    “Happy to,” Jeff said, a little too eagerly.
    Mom rolled her eyes again. “Kevin, Charles, you’re assigned to Representative Martini. I’d assign Christopher as well, but he tends to be as much of a problem.”
    Michael, Abigail, and Naomi Gower came in. “You wanted us, Amy?” Michael asked.
    “Yeah. Kitty’s about to do her usual, and Jeff and Christopher are confined to the Embassy. Chuck and Kevin are on guard duty, but I think it’ll be a good idea to have some A-Cs along who can keep them in line.” She looked at Mom. “If that’s okay with you, Angela.”
    “Works for me,” Mom said tiredly. “As long as Lorraine and Claudia are at Dulce.”
    “All of Airborne is at the Science Center,” Tim confirmed.
    “Bummer,” Vance said quietly.
    “Do you want them brought out?” Tim asked Mom.
    “No, but have them stay ready.”
    “Kitty’s a bad influence on you,” Christopher said to Amy, who just laughed.
    “We’re happy to help,” Abigail said. Michael nodded.
    “What can we do?” Naomi asked with more than a little disinterest in her tone. “I mean, me and Abby. Any more.”
    “Can you help keep Jeff and Christopher in the Embassy Complex?” Amy asked. “If yes, then we need you to help. Because we can’t trust them to behave like adults right now.”
    “
Fine,
” Jeff said. “I’ll be a good little boy and let my wife run headlong into danger. Again.”
    Reader shrugged. “It’s her specialty, Jeff, and you know it.”
    “You can come with me to tell Tito about the fun orders he gets to hand out to Rahmi and Rhee.”
    “So, that would be me, Christopher, Reynolds, Kevin, Michael, Naomi, and Abigail included in this field trip?”
    “Yeah. It’s a party. Vance can come, too, so he can see Nathalie, if she’s conscious.”
    “We have hours to kill before you leave,” Reader said as we headed for the elevator. “So make sure the ‘party’ focuses on what little solid intelligence we have. If we can figure out who’s behind what’s going on, Kitty and her team won’t need to go on their group date.”



CHAPTER 83
    T ITO HAD NO ISSUE giving Rahmi and Rhee their special orders. As expected, the princesses were beside themselves with the excitement of being sent on this top secret and vital mission. They raced off to work out and prepare in our exercise room, which was where they spent most of their free time anyway.
    That took far less than an hour. Nathalie was still sleeping, so we all went up to the kitchen to look one more time at what Jeff and I had brought back from Rayburn House. One by one and in small groups, the rest of the team other than Hacker International wandered into the kitchen to join us.
    We hadn’t had the findings from the Cannon or Longworth Houses before. Reader brought those and we added them in.
    Unfortunately, extra trash, planners, calendars, scraps of paper, and brainpower or not, we weren’t getting much more than we’d had, and that included Chuckie. “I’m not seeing anything other than the letter L connection, and while it might mean something, it might not as well.”
    “It’s on at least a third of the calendars or planners we found,” Raj pointed out. “I think it has significance.”
    “It might.” Chuckie shook his head. “But if it does, one letter, with nothing else added in, isn’t enough to go on.”
    “My Conspiracy King is letting me down? I’m crushed.” I looked around. “Hey, where’s Mister Joel Oliver? I thought he slept here last night.”
    “He did,” Reader said. “I have no idea where he is, though. He was supposed to tell me if he left.”
    Looked around. Oliver wasn’t the only one missing. “Com on! Walter, are Mister Joel Oliver, Len, or Kyle within the Embassy complex?”
    “No, Chief. Len asked me to tell you, when you noticed that they