Alien in the House

disk. I need to be able to function.”
    “I don’t want it lost or stolen,” Christopher said, while sharing Patented Glare #2.
    “We need some leaded casing to keep Superman’s Kryptonite from draining his powers. But the person we’d ask for this stuff is one of the people we’re no longer supposed to trust.” I was really hating this, in no small part because my mother and oldest friend were supposedly on the untrustworthy side of the house.
    “Let’s determine who we
can
trust,” White said. “Before Christopher goes in search of Mister Buchanan and Colonel Hamlin. Then Jeffrey can read Rajnish and we can continue on with the unraveling of the latest attempts to ruin our lives.”
    “Succinctly put. What Richard said. Let’s start with the obvious—there’s no way Paul or any of the Gowers are against us.”
    “Gladys could be,” Raj said.
    “Why so?” Jeff asked a tad belligerently.
    “Because she’s only Former Pontifex White’s half sister. Her loyalties could lie with her late father.”
    “Rajnish is correct to bring it up,” White said quickly, before Jeff could get angry. “But I can assure all of you that Gladys, like every other Gower, is definitely not on the side of my late father, the Purity of the Race Contingent, nor the War Division group.”
    “Richard, I’m so proud. You used all my Bad Guy Group names.”
    “I’ve decided the battle against them is fruitless.”
    “Wise man takes the path of least resistance. Okay, so Claudia and Lorraine, and their parents, I know they’re trustworthy. James for sure. Tim proved himself way back when, so he’s in. Same with the flyboys. And Tito.”
    “So, you think the core team when Jeff, you, and I were the heads of Centaurion Division are all cleared?”
    “Yes, because we all went through too much. Honestly, I realize that Hamlin suspects Chuckie, but I go back to what Amy said during Operation Destruction—no one, no matter how brilliant, would allow themselves to be that close to real death. There was no way Chuckie could have guessed Christopher’s Surcenthumain boosted talent level, or known that Richard, the Poofs, and I would arrive in time or be able to do anything.”
    “I agree, especially because I was there. And I think the idea that your mother is trying to do anything to hurt you is insane, baby. No matter what Hamlin may have said.”
    “I would see most of our key personnel as being cleared,” White agreed. “Kevin and Mister Buchanan as well. I agree wholeheartedly with Jeffrey, and I include your father in that as well. It’s impossible to believe that your mother would have allowed anyone even remotely suspect to be this close to her only daughter and grandchild.”
    “Mom’s been fooled before. Chuckie, too.”
    “But only because of governmental protections,” White countered.
    Raj cocked his head. “Washington.”
    “Excuse me?” Jeff asked.
    But I got it. “The people we probably can’t trust are those we’ve come to know since changing jobs and moving here. The former Diplomatic Corps may have been friends with them, but they were one with both the Purity of the Race and the War Division plots, so for all we know, they’d know exactly who was behind this.” Only the Poofs had eaten them.
    “Doreen is suspect, however,” White said, apparently on my wavelength. “While I don’t for one moment doubt her loyalty to us, the fact that we did kill her parents could easily make her a double agent.”
    “It was self-defense and she hated them. But yeah, you’re right. It’s a stretch to see her as the Mastermind, though. Not because she’s not brilliant enough—both she and Irving are certainly smart enough to make that cut—but because she’s too young.”
    “Camilla is a spy,” Jeff said. “And she’s worked as at least a double agent for us already.”
    “Triple, really. And yeah, your dad hired her, but I agree, we probably can’t trust her implicitly. And she’d also be smart enough, and she’s older than Doreen, so she also has Mastermind potential. Though she’s the only reason we’re all still alive.”
    “Who else?” Jeff asked. “Of our closer personnel, I mean.”
    “Pierre, Len, and Kyle. I think they’re all clear, honestly. Especially if we accept the fact that there’s no way Chuckie’s the Mastermind.”
    “Magdalena,” White said. “We’re intimate, but that could be her getting close.”
    Christopher shot his father Patented Glare #1.