Alien in the House

return address. I had the package in my hands when I spotted Clarence and went after him. Malcolm was watching me, but he didn’t see Clarence.”
    “Was it a bomb?” Christopher asked.
    “Did I say I was done? No, I did not. You don’t get to talk yet. I chased Clarence into the Oak Hill Cemetery, where I lost him. Then my phone rang, and an old friend called. And no, it wasn’t Sheila or one of my sorority sisters. It was Peter the Dingo.”
    “We need to put everyone under guard,” Jeff said.
    “Stop it! I am not done!”
    “Jeffrey, you promised,” White said. “And, frankly, since your wife is standing here, alive and well, obviously there’s more to it than we know yet.”
    “Thanks, Richard. Okay, so I think the Dingo is actually sort of thinking of me as his niece, or at least as someone to protect. Surly Vic, too. They’re here because Raul the Other Assassin is out of Guantanamo or wherever he was stashed and is coming after me to avenge the death of his wife, Bernie. Which means he’s also probably after Malcolm, if he realizes Malcolm is the one who killed her. The package we were sent was indeed a bomb, Christopher, presumed to be a bioweapon of some kind, and the Dingo took it from me in order to defuse it. They, ah, also swore me to secrecy. And gave me a burner phone so I could call them if I needed their help.”
    “Wait, the two top assassins are here to protect you? Seriously?” Christopher sounded like he couldn’t believe me. Couldn’t blame him, I could barely believe it, either.
    “And you let them take a bioweapon?” Jeff asked, sounding like he could believe it but was hoping he’d heard wrong.
    “Yes and yes, but we’re still at my telling you all what’s gone on and you shutting the hell up. So, I went back to the Circle, but Malcolm hadn’t seen Clarence and he didn’t remember I had a package. So I didn’t push it, because I didn’t want to have to lie to him.”
    “I believe Mister Buchanan missed Clarence, and much of the ambassador’s exploits, because they were both using hyperspeed more than perhaps the ambassador herself realizes,” Raj said.
    “If you saw Clarence why didn’t you say something?”
    Raj shook his head. “I’m truly expecting a delivery that was guaranteed to come today, so when I spotted the UPS truck making a second round, I kept an eye on it. My office is near the front door; I thought I’d save Pierre a trip. But you answered the door first. So, I watched you. I spotted the man you think was Clarence Valentino about the same time I believe you did.”
    “What do you mean ‘I think’ was Clarence?”
    “I’ve never met him, but I also didn’t have a clear enough view to be able to pick the man out of a lineup let alone a crowd. I know he was an A-C because of how fast he was moving. I chose not to mention it because you returned safely and it was clear from what I overheard you saying to Mister Buchanan that you didn’t want to tell anyone.”
    “So, you think Clarence is the one who actually poisoned Santiago?” Jeff asked.
    “No. I have no idea what Clarence is up to, but I think he’s the one who planted the package in the UPS truck. The Dingo felt the bomb or weapon or whatever it really is was set to go off during the party or when it was opened. But wait, there’s more. Remember that I had a visitor when we were all having mocktails, a person you and I both thought was probably Malcolm.”
    “Yeah, Raj got you, I remember.”
    “The visitor was actually Colonel Marvin Hamlin. Malcolm spotted him and moved him, Len, and Kyle into the basement. Raj can back me up on all of this, as can the boys, but Hamlin says he’s been on the run a lot longer than we’d think—longer than the start of Operation Destruction. Since before Jamie was born.”
    Jeff’s eyes narrowed. “If that’s true, who was impersonating him, an android?”
    “That’s our suspicion, yeah. Anyway, here’s Hamlin’s big reveal—he thinks that everything that’s going on, and I mean
everything
, is the work of one Mastermind. A person who’s been pulling the strings and manipulating all the other bad guys. He has the background in military intelligence to make us believe he knows what he’s talking about, but he also has no guess who it is, but it’s someone well connected and, per Hamlin, brilliant. And also per Hamlin, I’m the only one he can trust because I’m still identified as Enemy Number One by whoever’s in