Alien in the House

room.”
    “It’s also likely to explode,” I added. “Since the blocker exploded already. Hopefully it’ll only explode if someone tries to open it, which is what happened to the blocker. Oh, and this needs to get to Serene yesterday, under very reliable guard.”
    Claudia and Lorraine looked at each other. “We’ll take it,” Lorraine said.
    Claudia nodded. “If the boys are home, then we need to go back to the Science Center anyway.” They looked at Reader, who nodded.
    “First, you need to know where Caroline and I got that,” Amy said. “Or rather, from whom. And that’s not going to take five minutes.”
    “There’s more,” White said. “I believe James needs all the details.”
    “I agree,” Jeff said firmly. “And since the likelihood is going to be that what you take to Serene explodes anyway the moment she tries to access it, I’d like the two of you to hear what we’ve got to say.”
    The girls looked to Reader again, who nodded again.
    “Nice to see that our various chains of command are all functioning at least semi-nicely. Can we sit? I may be in my Converse now, but my feet still hurt.”
    Reader looked around, heaved a sigh, and shook his head. “Were you this much trouble when Jeff was the Head of Field?”
    “More,” Jeff said with a grin. “Let’s go to the Embassy. We have a nice living room with lots of things to sit on over there.”



CHAPTER 43
    R EADER WAS SOMEWHAT understanding about why we’d withheld information. Sadly, he wasn’t any less angry with us for anything we’d done, particularly with anything I’d done. Though he kept the lectures to a minimum, he made it clear I was in the Centaurion Division Doghouse.
    Lorraine and Claudia were a lot more relaxed about things, even about our withholding, potentially because they knew we’d cleared them immediately. And they weren’t actually upset with me for anything else, either, so that likely helped as well.
    Everyone agreed with Raj’s assessment—that we could still trust those who’d been trusted team members prior to Washington. Len and Kyle were given their special dispensation based on there being no way in the world anyone could have planned out how they’d met me, which they were obviously pleased about.
    Raj was given special dispensation because he knew everything that was going on anyway. He clearly found this amusing.
    No one was happy that I’d been hanging out with the Dingo and not sharing, but Amy confirmed that the Dingo and Surly Vic had stressed that they were here to protect and serve, at least to protect and serve me, and that anyone who caused them to be distracted the next time they were trying to stop me from being assassinated would be killed with great malice aforethought.
    Everyone also agreed that telling Chuckie or my mom what was going on was both necessary and to be handled delicately. For some reason, I wasn’t the Designated Delicate Delivery Person. Tried not to be offended. Failed.
    No one was happy about Possibly Clarence running around, and everyone was less happy about Possibly Colonel Hamlin running around, either. Especially since I’d given the Dingo what he’d said was a bioweapon. Extra especially since Buchanan was still unresponsive.
    Christopher joined us midway through our confessional meeting to share that Buchanan was still alive, Tito and the rest of the medical team still had no idea what was wrong with him, and that he hadn’t had any kind of disc or other odd foreign object on him that anyone had found.
    Thusly all caught up, Lorraine and Claudia headed back to the Science Center, disc in hand. Serene verified receipt and that she was in contact with Ravi. She also verified that all Dulce-based children who’d been at the Pontifex’s Residence were back at home with their parents. Gladys was also back at Dulce, but was scanning our D.C. buildings every fifteen minutes.
    Gower was back at his local residence along with the four Embassy kids, but he wasn’t alone with just Denise and the children. His sisters and Chuckie were all there, too, as was Kevin, per my mother’s orders. Reader felt that the kids, Jamie especially, were having a great time. Poofs and Peregrines were confirmed on site and on the case, so I managed to stop worrying about Jamie. A little.
    I was able to give the lion’s share of worry to Jeff. Because if Vance was right, then Jeff was in danger. Of course, it seemed like we were always in danger, but Vance’s theory