Alien in the House

what just happened, the explosion, I mean. I’m clear you’re not happy with our lack of distrust and stealth.”
    She was quiet for a bit. “As explosions went, it wasn’t a very big one,” Camilla said finally. “But it was powerful enough. I think it would have taken Ravi’s hands, and possibly his head. So that means it was a contained explosion, and that takes skill.” She turned to me. “How did you know it was going to blow?”
    “No idea. I just did. And I know that sounds totally lame, but it’s all I’ve got, sorry.” I wondered where the Poofs or Peregrines had been. This seemed like a time when they should have intervened.
    Then again, I hadn’t been in danger, and maybe they didn’t consider the hackers to be part of our Embassy. Except I knew that Jennifer and Ravi had Poofs. We had so many Poofs, the rest of the hackers probably had them, too. And the Peregrines loved Omega Red for whatever reason and they were warming up to Big George, too. Couldn’t speak for the Poofs or Peregrines, but my cats thought Henry was da bomb for whatever reason, and that meant the Poofs would think he was okay, too. And my dogs loved Stryker, presumably because he always smelled like food and was a crumb smorgasbord. So, the animals certainly considered the hackers part of that which made up “us.”
    Maybe it was a simple reason—this wasn’t something that keen animal senses could have picked up. When someone’s about to shoot they give off physical and mental clues, small and many times almost imperceptible, but not if you’re an animal trained for thousands of years to protect. Even a highly trained assassin would give off some smell or vibrations that were different.
    But the disc had just been a piece of equipment. It wouldn’t have told an animal it was going to go boom.
    So why had it told me?
    “Kitty’s reason is fine with me,” Ravi said as he joined Camilla. “I’m happy to still have my hands and head.”
    “Is there anything left?” Raj asked as Ravi examined where the disc had been.
    “Nothing.” Jennifer brought his Bluetooth over from wherever it had gone when Ravi and I had hit the ground. He put it back on. “You still there? Yes, sorry, had no idea it was going to explode, either. No, the ambassador saved me. Kitty. Yes.” He turned to me. “Serene says that next time you need to bring anything like this you find to her.”
    “Serene’s your contact at Dulce?” Managed to stop myself from asking how she’d gotten there. She’d taken the gate in the bathroom and gone to work, was the obvious answer.
    “Yes.” He listened again. “Got it. Yes. Absolutely.” He laughed. “I’ll tell them.” Ravi turned back to me. “They got a little before the disc blew. Serene said that she’s going to look for explosive signatures and she’ll let you know what she finds. She agrees with Camilla’s assessment that it was a contained explosion, and she’s got some ideas. She also said to tell you, Kitty, that she expects you to check in with her the moment you find another one of these discs.”
    “How did they get anything? That explosion was instantaneous.”
    Raj coughed. “Not for us.”
    “Oh, right.” If you can move at hyperspeed, some things do indeed seem slower. I still wasn’t seeing things in slow motion. Chose not to wonder if the A-Cs felt they were walking through gelatin every moment of their lives. Jeff had never indicated such, and when I could see people moving at hyperspeed it didn’t make me feel like everything else was moving slowly, so maybe it was all in the perspective.
    “Serene’s an explosives expert,” Camilla added. “If anyone could get something from what little we had, it’ll be her.”
    “True enough. I wish I had brought it to her, because now we have nothing.”
    “I’m sorry, Kitty,” Ravi said. “There were no outward signs of a bomb or a trigger. And I definitely looked.”
    “Well, this just goes under the ‘our luck holds firm’ heading. It wasn’t really your fault, Ravi.” It was mine, for not going straight to Alpha Team. And I knew I was going to hear about it from the rest of Alpha Team as soon as they found out, too. “I have a related question for you, anyway.”
    “Go ahead.”
    “If someone can make a device like what just blew up, that can stop the most powerful empath from feeling anyone within at least a football field radius, could that same person make a device that could put an emotional