Alien in the House

could probably wait for the full explanation. I dropped my phone back into my purse.
    Hamlin noted this and relaxed a bit. “I believe I’ve found the trail that will lead to the highest-level government conspiracy.”
    “There are a lot of those.” So far in my experience, there was a high-level government conspiracy being hatched every week.
    Hamlin nodded. “Yes, there are. But I believe they all stem from a single source.”
    “You mean one group’s pulling all the strings?”
    “I believe it’s a single individual, with the right connections. And the brainpower to think well ahead of the rest of us.”
    “If that’s true, then how is it you’re still alive?” Len asked.
    “Training, experience, and not a small amount of luck. I’ve been in hiding for well over a year.”
    “Wait a minute. You disappeared from Andrews the Friday before Operation Destruction started. That was less than a year ago.”
    “Excuse me?” Hamlin looked confused.
    “She means the alien invasion that was stopped by the very aliens you don’t like,” Buchanan said.
    “Ah. I don’t know who was pretending to be me, but I actually disappeared last year, in November. Right after I’d discovered some discrepancies with a variety of Titan Security contracts.”
    “That was just before Jamie was born.” None of the men in the room with me had been on our team at that time. Meant I was either on my own or needed to bring someone down from the party.
    Hamlin nodded. “Your child was indicated as being an important factor.”
    Decided to forge on, based on the fact that, blocks or not, Jeff might be able to pick up the fact that my anger had spiked. People trying to steal, hurt, use, and terrify my daughter did that to me for some reason.
    “What else?”
    “I almost don’t know where to start.” Our expressions must have told Hamlin to pick a spot and start running his yap. “There are a variety of underhanded actions going on, or there were. Supersoldier projects in Paraguay and France. A super-drug to be tested on schoolchildren, also in France. Bioweapons. Assassinations. A variety of world domination schemes. Coordinated anti-alien activities designed to wipe the Alpha Centaurions off the face of the Earth. Just as many plans to force them to act as U.S. or world military.”
    “We know about, as in have stopped, most of those, though probably not all. What about an alien invasion from a planetary system other than Alpha Centauri?”
    Hamlin nodded. “And more besides. Some of the schemes were clearly set up to fail. Some seemed to exist as either a smokescreen or as a backup plan. I’d only begun to scratch the surface when I realized I had to run for my life.”
    “How did you know to disappear?”
    “There was an assassination squad waiting for me at my home. I know how to spot them. It didn’t take much for me to realize I’d been set up for assassination because I’d discovered the start of the real trail toward the Mastermind.”
    Wondered if said squad was made up of Peter the Dingo Dog and Surly Vic. They were right in the fact that I wouldn’t care about Hamlin. At least, five minutes ago I wouldn’t have cared. Now, I wasn’t so sure.
    “And no one noticed you were missing?” Raj asked.
    Hamlin shrugged. “I have no idea how they could have had someone impersonate me for so long. For a short time, yes. But not for months.”
    Len looked at me. “They could have if they put an android in his place.”
    “I agree, but why have that android leave right before Operation Destruction?”
    “To discredit me,” Hamlin said before anyone else could answer. “To make me the fall guy.”
    “He has a point,” Buchanan said.
    “I knew I’d truly found the start of the trail to the Mastermind the moment no one started looking for me once I’d disappeared. So, why not have whoever, or whatever, was impersonating me disappear at a crucial time? It would be the last nail in my coffin.”
    Buchanan nodded slowly. “Colonel Hamlin has been discredited. And at least half the powers that be feel he was the other ‘captain’ involved in the invasion.”
    True enough. We’d spent time wondering if Hamlin, who was described by one and all as anti-alien but a good man nevertheless, was also the “good man” the late Antony Marling’s beloved parrot, Bellie, had been talking about. Bellie now lived with Mister Joel Oliver, our personal paparazzo. Oliver wasn’t invited to tonight’s event