Alien in the House

else to encourage more Kitty-isms.”
    “Raj, this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Christopher, I’m ignoring you.”
    “Our enemies have certainly used electronic bugging on us before,” White said possibly in an attempt to get us back on topic. “I’d say we all need to be searched.” He began patting himself down.
    Raj and Christopher did the same, while Jeff and I did each other. It didn’t take long—I found a small disk in his outer suit pocket. Dumped my purse out—nothing I hadn’t put in it.
    “Okay, let’s see what this thing I found on Jeff does when I smash it.”
    “Wait!” Raj grabbed my hand. “If it’s what we think it is, it needs to be reverse engineered so we can determine how to guard against it.”
    “Good point, and nice save.” Clearly Jeff wasn’t the only one upset and not necessarily thinking straight. I was normally smarter than this. Wondered if I’d missed some Electronic Brain Slower disk in my purse somehow. Decided I was still understandably upset over Reyes dying in front of me while I was holding his hand and cut myself a break.
    Jeff stared at Raj for a long moment. “You’re hired. Full time. Have the Operations Team send the rest of your stuff, you’re staying with us.”
    “Wow, this emotional blocker thing seems to do wonders for your ability to reason logically.”
    “Hilarious. I’d like to know if whatever you’re holding is actually what’s blocking me, though.”
    Christopher took the disk from my hand and disappeared.
    “Still feel nothing,” Jeff said. He jerked. “Oh. No, everything’s back.” He blinked. “Hang on, I need to put my blocks back up, fast.”
    My phone rang. Dug it out. “Jeff feeling things again?”
    “Yes. You can come back now, Christopher.”
    “Why don’t you come to me?”
    “Why? And where are you?”
    “Why? Because, unlike you, I don’t want to hang out with four other people in a bathroom any longer. For where, I went to the farthest point from Jeff I could get. I’m in the basement. And yes, I’m alone.”
    “Gotcha. Are we sure it’s safe to have the walkway opened up for everyone?”
    “I told Walter to put the shield up over the buildings. He said he’d done that as soon as all the guests were inside.”
    “He’s so good.”
    “Yes, but why are we still talking? Oh, wait, it’s you. You really like it in the bathroom, don’t you?”
    “Blah, blah, blah. See you shortly.” Hung up and gave everyone a bright smile. “Christopher’s in the basement. He suggests we join him.”
    “I’m fine with that,” Jeff said. “I’ll monitor myself to see when I stop feeling anything. But what about everyone upstairs?”
    “Let’s get all my news dealt with first, okay? Because until we do, I don’t know what to do about anybody upstairs.”
    Jeff nodded and took my hand. Raj opened the door for us, and we all hypersped out and down the walkway, which was indeed no longer blocked. Reached the basement quickly. Sadly, Christopher was indeed alone.
    “I stopped feeling people the moment we got into the Embassy,” Jeff shared.
    Christopher nodded. “I monitored your mind when I left. I needed to be a good hundred yards away before I could tell you started to pick up emotions again.”
    “That’s a football field. It would have covered everyone at the party and part of the Embassy, too. So why didn’t you notice?”
    Jeff shook his head. “I don’t know. I could pick up some emotions, but they were faint and none of them alerted me to anything going on. But I suppose because I could pick up some emotions, I wasn’t alerted to the fact I wasn’t getting any nearby.”
    “So, you might have noticed, only you had your blocks up high.”
    “Which anyone who knows Jeffrey would know he’d have to do at an event such as we had tonight.”
    White had a point. “Which means whoever slipped this into your pocket was here tonight and knows us well.”
    “No,” Raj said. “The person who planted this doesn’t have to know any of you well or even at all. He or she just had to plant a bug. Whoever created this is the person who knows you well enough to know how to block the most powerful empath we have.”
    “My money’s on the Cabal of Evil doing the planting, it’s one of their go-to moves. Hell, could have been Eugene, if he was really taking orders from someone.”
    “If he was,” White said slowly, “then that person could easily be in the Zoo right