Alien Proliferation

My mother’s sarcasm knob went well past eleven. Then again, she wasn’t crying. I was good with the sarcasm.
    “Alpha Team, with the addition of Kevin, Melanie, Emily, Amy, and Michael, are pretty much in life-threatening danger they aren’t prepared for.”
    “So,” Jerry said. “Routine. By the way, looking great, Kitty. Love the way you’re filling out that top.” I really felt Jerry and Jeff had somehow been separated at birth.
    “The usual elaborate plans intersecting on top of us?” Lorraine asked.
    Claudia gave a mirthless chuckle. “I’m putting money on it.”
    Did a very fast recap of everything that had happened. “So Alpha Team’s working under the assumption we have our standard megalomaniac trying to take over the world while at the same time we have everyone’s favorite Purity of the Race proponents doing their thing in support of said megalomaniac. But, sadly, the actual elaborate ruse is different.”
    “How so?” Lorraine asked. “Seems pretty clear they wanted guinea pigs.”
    “Yeah. So why Alpha Team as said piggies? I mean, no one will notice that Jeff and Christopher are dead, right? No human would notice Chuckie’s disappearance? No biggie, grab the top dudes and go to town.”
    “You think it’s like Florida?” Hughes asked. “You think a human’s in charge?”
    “In charge of what?” Randy asked. He was absently stroking the back of Claudia’s neck. I missed Jeff. “The elaborate ruse or something else?”
    “Amy is the ruse.”
    “You think she’s the mole after all?” Mom sounded sad.
    “No, I think she’s been an unwitting pawn. See, it’s too freaking convenient. Amy’s sent off to do some weird work thing and finds a connection to a known but supposedly defunct terrorist organization as well as information that says the heads of the P.T.C.U. and ETD are targets. Then she’s allowed to escape with this information, is given a number to call by a guy you and Chuckie cannot find, alive or dead, is pursued by double digits, manages to get rescued just in time.”
    “Sounds like she’s the mole.” Mom, like Chuckie, really was into the mole idea.
    “No, it sounds like she’s a patsy. And she’s been set up by someone who knew exactly what she’d do, every step of the way.”

 
    CHAPTER 47
     
    S HEILA SAT UP STRAIGHT. Her eyes were wide. Interesting—then again, she’d been in the bathroom with me and, clearly, she was still Miss Insightful. “Kitty . . . is this going where I think it’s going?”
    “Probably.”
    Everyone looked at Sheila. She shrugged. “I have four kids, but that doesn’t make me a moron.”
    “I think they’re waiting for you to share, Sheila.”
    “Oh.” She blushed, then swallowed and looked at me. “You think it’s someone in Amy’s dad’s company, don’t you?”
    “Not someone.”
    Mom dug her phone out. “Where is your target? What? Why wasn’t I informed? Fine.” She covered the phone. “Herbert Gaultier is in D.C.”
    “No, he’s not. He’s in Paris. He went into the Centaurion Embassy, didn’t he? Which means he’s gone to wherever they took Amy and Michael.” Mom went back to the phone.
    “Amy’s own father? Kitty, how could that be?” Sheila sounded horrified.
    “He doesn’t plan to hurt Amy, at least I’m sure that’s what he’s told himself. He doesn’t care about the rest of us. Maybe he would if his first wife, the one who knew me and you, was still alive. But she’s not. We haven’t seen him since her funeral. We’re not important to him at all. Plus, whoever’s behind this knew my closest friends from high school but has left my closest girlfriend from college completely alone, and said girlfriend is a senator’s Girl Friday. So whoever’s behind it only knows me from the high school years, which is why your family was targeted, Sheila. You’re a weakness for me and for Amy. And, let’s face it, there’s nothing wrong with capitalism. Until you find the most amazing drug in the world.”
    “But what’s he going to do with it?” Randy asked. “Having it’s useless unless you have some use for it.”
    Mom hung up. “Good lord. Yes, Gaultier went to the Embassy. No idea of why my team thought that wasn’t something to warn me about.”
    “You told them to guard him, he wasn’t in danger.”
    “Kitty, we need more info.” Hughes had his eyes closed. “I know you usually do this with James, but I’ll do my best, because I think I see where you’re