Alien in the House

because he tended to make politicians very nervous. But I wondered if I needed to give him a call.
    “Based on the word of a parrot. The accurate word, but still.”
    “A parrot?” Hamlin asked weakly.
    “It’s a long story. But Malcolm’s right—you certainly stood out as the likely ‘captain’ in place to cover the Parisian part of the supersoldier offensive or lack thereof for Operation Destruction.”
    “Well, I wasn’t the ‘captain,’ but I agree that my ‘disappearing’ when you thought I did would make anyone believe I was involved.”
    “What happened to his android, then?” Kyle asked. “Mister Reynolds got a full listing from King Alexander of all the androids involved in the battle—Colonel Hamlin wasn’t one of them.”
    Unpleasant thought occurred. “How do we know Hammy here isn’t an android?”
    “Short of killing him?” Buchanan asked. “Not too sure. Emotional readings won’t matter. Perhaps one of the imageers could read a picture of him.”
    “No imageers. No empaths.” Hamlin sounded emphatic. “I don’t trust them.”
    “We don’t trust you, so that makes us even. Right now, we can’t be sure you’re really a human being.”
    “By that token, how can I know you’re human beings?” Hamlin asked. He looked at Raj. “Some of you aren’t.”
    “That’s it, I’m done acting like an ambassador. You get the real me, lucky you. Stop insulting the people with me or I’m going to kick you so hard in the balls we’ll know for sure if you’re an android or a real person.”
    Hamlin tried the stare-down. Always hilarious, since the only people who could win this against me were Mom and Chuckie. “Agreed. And . . . I apologize.”
    “Smart man. Accepted. For now. Look, we didn’t invite you in here to insult any of us or just to hang out and shoot the breeze. You don’t like us, you don’t trust us, and you’re on the run. So why are you here?”
    “I came to talk to you, Missus Martini.”
    Chose to ignore him not using my official title. I’d kind of told him not to, after all. “Why so?”
    Hamlin looked straight at me. “Because you were identified as Enemy Number One by whoever’s behind everything. And that means you’re the only person I can trust.”



CHAPTER 16
    L ET THAT SIT on the air for a bit. Due to Operation Confusion, we all knew I was considered Enemy First Class by the League of Evil Super-Geniuses and Crazed Megalomaniacs. But if Hamlin knew this, too, that might mean he was telling the truth.
    “Okay, Hammy. May I call you Hammy?”
    “If I say no will that stop you?”
    “Wow, no, it won’t.”
    He shrugged. “Then by all means. What should I call you?”
    “Kitty will do. So, let’s belay the human or android worry. We have a variety of excellent doctors on staff who can probably determine your status in a fast and safe way. Let’s go back to your disappearance. You were sniffing around. Why?”
    “There were discrepancies with some of the Titan Security contracts, as I said. I pulled their records, and then started looking into any business even tenuously connected to Titan.”
    “And you found what?”
    “Strong ties to a variety of companies. Gaultier Enterprises and their subsidiaries, the philanthropist Ronaldo Al Dejahl and his many businesses and subsidiaries, a host of other, less influential businesses. They have ties to a variety of organizations, including Club Fifty-One, which, due to your, ah, fine work, we know to be a widespread anti-alien organization. But there were plenty of others, including organizations thought to be benign.”
    “The Al Dejahl terrorist organization?”
    “Yes, absolutely.”
    “Fabulous. So, Titan pretty much has or had less than Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with, what, everything and everyone?”
    “Pretty much, yes. Obviously, some of those connections were legitimate and not underhanded. But not all. At first I thought everything stemmed from Titan. But further digging showed that Titan was taking direction from someone else.”
    “Name who you think was in charge.”
    “I have no idea.” Hamlin sighed. “Antony Marling and Madeline Cartwright were both influential. I believe Madeline was the brains of their operation, however. John Cooper was definitely involved with the Al Dejahl Corporation, as was Esteban Cantu. Herbert Gaultier was in bed with all these people and many more, including the late Leventhal Reid whom I know you knew.”
    Repressed the shudder