Alien in the House

apparently only so she could squawk enthusiastic encouragement.
    Oliver up, Lorraine and Claudia went up next. They used hyperspeed and were up in no time. “This is so much more fun than that dinner party was,” Lorraine said with sincerity.
    “Totally,” Claudia agreed. “Not that the party wasn’t nice, Kitty.”
    “If you were into uncomfortable small talk and murder, it was great, yeah. What’s the holdup?” I shouted down to Vance and White, though I had a good guess.
    “I wasn’t an athlete in school,” Vance shot back. “This is giving me horrible flashbacks from the parts of gym I didn’t like, which was all parts of it other than the locker room and showers.”
    “Time’s wasting. Climb the rope or jump to the ladder. Or stay there and we’ll get you later.”
    “You know, I think I want to stop being your friend.”
    “You’re not actually in the Friend Zone yet, Vance.”
    “Something to motivate me.” He started climbing up and either he was the best actor in the world, or he really sucked at this.
    White shook his head. “This is embarrassing. Young man, let’s go for a version of the fireman’s carry, shall we?” He helped Vance down the whole two inches he’d managed to climb. Vance then got on White’s back, and they started up.
    “You’re letting your uncle do the heavy lifting?”
    Jeff shrugged. “He’s enjoying himself.”
    “So are you.”
    Jeff grinned. “Yeah, I am.” As White got nearer to the top, Jeff reached down and grabbed Vance’s shirt and jacket, and hauled him up. White zipped up the rest of the way.
    “This has been, without a doubt, the least fun I’ve ever had breaking and entering,” Vance said. “So, now that we’re here the hard way, what’s next?”
    “You know, I thought the Embassy was shielded. How is it we could climb up and are standing here?” Was so happy this had occurred to me now, as opposed to when we were on top of the walkway.
    “It is,” Jeff said. “The shield means we can’t breach the building, not that we can’t stand on it.”
    “If you say so.” Pulled out my burner phone and dialed again. This time, I could hear the ringing, too. “I think it’s coming from the other side of the roof.”
    We trotted over toward the sound. “There,” Jeff said, as we neared the “room” that made up the roof entrance. There was a burner phone sitting on the ground where you’d see it if you opened the door from inside the Embassy. It was where the ringing was coming from, confirmed when I hung up my burner phone and dropped it back into my purse and the phone on the ground stopped ringing.
    White grabbed us both before we could go to the phone on the ground. “There’s something, or someone, on the other side,” he said quietly.
    Looked. Sure enough. Something was just visible at the “back” of the roof entrance room. Something that looked like it was hiding.



CHAPTER 40
    J EFF SHOVED ME TO WHITE, motioned for all of us to get back, then ran over using hyperspeed. He stopped dead. He didn’t look scared, he looked shocked. “What are you two doing here?”
    The rest of us chose to take that as meaning it was safe and joined him. To see Amy and Caroline, trussed up like Siamese Twin Turkeys, effective gags included. They were sitting back-to-back, arms at their sides, torsos expertly tied together. Their legs were straight out, also well tied. It would be close to impossible to move, unless they were both world-class gymnasts, which they weren’t.
    “These knots are unreal,” Jeff said as he checked their bonds. “Hang on, it’s going to take a few minutes.”
    Vance sighed, dug into his pants pocket, and produced a rather impressive Swiss Army knife. “This should help.”
    “See?” I said to Lorraine and Claudia. “That’s why he’s along.” They still didn’t look convinced, but not as unconvinced as they had earlier. So that was something.
    Jeff sawed the girls free in quick order, while Vance actually assisted with the gags. White picked up the burner phone and handed it to me. “This appears to be a phone. It seems your ‘family’ no longer wants you able to reach them.”
    “I suppose.” Took the phone from him. Had a thought and checked. Sure enough, there was another number programmed in. “No. I think they wanted us to find Amy and Caroline.”
    “They did,” Amy croaked. “Bastards.”
    “They could have killed you. They didn’t. Call them Efficient Friends.”
    Caroline