Alien in the House

included.
    After the horrible discovery Chuckie had confirmed with me this morning, I now wondered if we’d been able to “see” the tunnel system because ACE knew we’d need to map it and also knew he wouldn’t be around to help ensure we could continue to “see” the system whenever we might want.
    Christopher pulled me back to the present situation. “Okay. So what’s our next move?”
    “I need you to see if Representative Reyes is sick or okay.”
    “Okay.” There was a pause. “Oh my God!” Christopher hung up.
    Decided that meant Reyes was really sick. Tabled the issue of where Buchanan and Hamlin were and ran like hell for the Zoo.
    Christopher had beaten me and was slamming against the bathroom door.
    “What’s going on?” I asked as I joined him. Camilla was nowhere in sight.
    “Reyes isn’t sick. He’s dying. I sent Camilla for Tito, Lorraine, and Claudia. Why the hell are these doors so damn tough to break down?”
    “Pierre had them reinforced for the soundproofing. And they’ve got a lot of metal in them.” I slammed into the door with Christopher.
    Did the trick and the door flew open. Reyes was on the floor, vomit and other horrible bodily fluids all around him. He was convulsing and if I’d thought he’d looked bad before, it was nothing compared to now.
    There were footsteps behind us and Tito and the three women ran up. Camilla was holding Tito’s hand. He gagged when they stopped, the usual human reaction to hyperspeed. Reyes started to vomit up blood.
    “You didn’t take your special Hyperspeed Dramamine?”
    “I did, I take it every day now. But this is horrible. I’m a doctor but I wasn’t prepared for this.” Tito motioned to me to step out. “Christopher, can you help me with diagnosis?”
    Christopher grabbed Tito’s hand and touched Reyes. Because of Christopher’s expanded talent, he could see inside someone. This particular aspect of his expanded talents had helped save a lot of us over the past year.
    “Where’s Nurse Carter?” I asked Camilla.
    “Left her upstairs in case someone else was affected.”
    Tito shook his head. “I don’t know what’s going on with him. It’s as if all his internal organs are trying to shut down.” He looked over his shoulder at me and Camilla. “You two were the closest to him. What happened and when?”
    We described Reyes’ symptoms. “I thought it might be botulism,” Camilla said.
    “It’s not, and it’s not the flu, though the initial symptoms sound similar for both. Think. Give me everything, even if it seems stupid or unrelated.”
    My memory nudged. “Oh. Well, I smelled garlic on Santiago’s breath. I don’t remember us having garlic in any of the food, though.”
    “Oh my God. Arsenic poisoning.” Tito started barking orders to Lorraine and Claudia, who were both working at hyperspeed.
    Christopher and I looked at each other. “There’s no way that’s an accident,” he said.
    “We have to lock down the upstairs, and this floor. Everyone’s food and dishes have to be searched. And no one can be allowed to leave.” I’d seen enough cop shows to know the basics.
    Christopher pulled out his phone and made a call. I couldn’t focus on what he was saying—I was too focused on Reyes. Christopher hung up. “James is on it.”
    As A-C agents poured out of the bathroom stall on this floor that contained the gate and spread out, presumably through the Zoo and potentially the Embassy, a thought occurred. “Why isn’t Jeff down here? There’s no way he’s missing this level of anxiety.”
    “He knows. I told him to stay and keep things calm upstairs. Kitty, what the hell are we going to do?”
    “We need to get him to Dulce, STAT,” Tito snapped.
    “We can’t,” Camilla replied before I could say anything. “He’s too high profile. This has to go through proper channels. Proper human channels.”
    “Then call nine-one-one,” Tito said. “Because this needs more medical than we have here.”
    “Already handled,” Camilla said. “But we’re going to need police, too, I think. Because arsenic means a murder attempt.”
    “I know who to call.” Pulled out my phone. Looked at the burner phone in my purse for a moment. Poison wasn’t the Dingo’s style. And he’d said no one they were after would matter to me. He wasn’t stupid; he’d have to know Reyes would matter to me. So either the Dingo was lying to me—always a possibility—or he wasn’t the assassin in charge of