Alien in the House

us and whined. I figured that didn’t bode well for Reyes.
    The paramedics’ conversation with Tito wasn’t boding well, either. I heard phrases like “massive amount of arsenic for these reactions” and “you’ve done all the right things.” If we’d done all the right things, then why didn’t Reyes look better?
    The paramedics joined the Dazzlers, but didn’t have most of them move off. More medical things were perpetrated on Reyes. He still looked awful.
    “Kitty,” Reyes gasped. “Promise me . . .”
    “Yes?” I leaned closer to him. “What do you need, Santiago? Whatever it is, I’ll handle it.”
    “Promise . . . my desk . . . you’ll clean . . . it out. You . . . not . . . someone else.”
    “I promise.” Wondered just what kind of porn Reyes had hidden he didn’t want the press or other politicians getting their hands on. “Do you need anything else?”
    “Like to . . . see tomorrow.” Reyes managed a twisted grin. “Dinner and . . . a show. What a way to . . . go.”
    “You’re not going anywhere, Santiago. Other than to the Georgetown Medical Center.”
    He squeezed my hand again. “Tell James . . .”
    “Yes?”
    “I hope . . . he’s . . . right and . . . ready.”
    “Right about what? Ready for what?”
    Reyes didn’t answer.



CHAPTER 20
    R EYES WASN’T LOOKING at me any more, and his hand felt limp in mine when he’d been holding tightly only a moment before.
    Someone put their hands on my upper arms and moved me gently away as the paramedics started slamming the pads onto Reyes’ chest and doing the electroshock thing to make someone’s heart start beating again.
    A few minutes of this dragged on. Then Prince threw back his head and howled. The rest of the dogs in the K-9 squad took up the cry. I’d heard this before, during Operation Assassination, when Prince had determined one of the squad and his dog had been killed.
    While Prince and the other dogs were howling, the head paramedic and Tito had a brief, quiet conversation. The head paramedic shook his head. Tito slid his hand over Reyes’ eyes, closing them. The paramedic covered Reyes with the sheet. The dogs quieted.
    “He can’t die. He can’t be dead. He’s a good guy.”
    “Even the good guys die, baby,” Jeff said softly. I realized he was who was holding me. “I’d like American Centaurion personnel accompanying the body,” he said to the paramedic in charge.
    “We can’t allow anyone to leave,” Melville countered. Prince strained against his lead, but Melville kept him under control.
    “We’ve locked off this floor from the walkway and the Embassy,” Jeff said. “Security personnel aren’t allowing anyone to come or go, other than authorized police and paramedics, who are already inside. However, we don’t have a morgue here, so we need to have the . . . body removed for examination.”
    “That’s what the paramedics are for,” Melville said.
    “No offense to them, but I want someone I know I can trust protecting Representative Reyes’ body.” Jeff said this calmly, but his tone insinuated he wasn’t going to take no for an answer.
    “We can have agents from another base come over,” I suggested. “Our people, but who weren’t here at any time.”
    “I want people we can trust witnessing the autopsy,” Tito added. He looked grim and upset. Lorraine and Claudia looked ready to cry. The rest of the Dazzlers looked no better, including Camilla, who looked more upset than Tito. Had a feeling she felt she’d just failed at her job.
    “It’s irregular,” Melville said.
    “We’re on American Centaurion soil.” The positive about being angry was that it stopped me from crying. I pulled out of Jeff’s hold and turned on Melville. “Someone murdered Santiago in our home, and they did it in a way where he suffered horribly. And that someone probably wants to frame American Centaurion for this, too. I called you for help. You either help or you get out.”
    “You can stop snarling at me,” Melville said calmly. “Irregular doesn’t mean ‘no.’ It means we need to make arrangements, that’s all.”
    “And you’ll make them quickly, and quietly, without advising the press,” Chuckie said, voice set at his deadly level, as he joined us.
    Melville didn’t even bother with trying to stare Chuckie down—he’d already lost that battle during Operation Assassination. “Fine. I assume we’re giving the C.I.A. jurisdiction