Alien Proliferation

care.”
    “Truly, death by suffocation might be preferable. What is your thought about the Poofs?”
    I considered them. “They like me best?”
    “That I have always taken as a given.”
    “No guess beyond that. But, you know, have Poofs, will travel.” I finished my coffee. “Ready to go visit the King of Gothic Architecture, Rick?”
    “No.” He stood up, took our cups and napkins and threw them away. Came back, helped me out of my chair. Carried his jacket in one hand over his back, put his other arm around my shoulders. I put mine around his waist. “How’s this?”
    “Honestly? You look like Timothy Dalton, only younger and hotter. Believe me, no woman’s going to question why I’m with a guy old enough to be my father.”
    “No wonder Jeffrey was willing to do anything to marry you. My ego hasn’t been this inflated since we first met you and you insinuated I was a male model.”
    I laughed and leaned up and kissed his cheek. “Hey, it’s true.” We strolled to the cathedral. It was hard to not just run like a crazy person, since I had no idea of what they were doing to whom but could pretty much bet that Jeff, Christopher, and Chuckie were going to be taking the brunt of it. However, we weren’t captured yet, so maybe our plan was working, or at least not failing miserably.
    Sauntered up to the ticket counter. No issues, White paid for the tickets, we got in line to go in. Because it was the end of December, there weren’t too many tourists here, not like there would have been in summer. There were just tons and tons of kids. I didn’t know how French schools worked, but in America, they would have all been on vacation.
    I spotted what looked like a teacher and did my best. “Pardon, um . . . je suis Americaine, et . . . um . . .” It had been a lot easier to order the food.
    She was younger, dark, and pretty, and she laughed. “I speak English, Madame.”
    “Oh, great. My husband and I were wondering, don’t you have a holiday break for schools like we do?”
    She nodded. “We do, but this was a special treat from one of our philanthropists. The children are getting a special tour, sweets, and other gifts. Because of his schedule, we had to agree to have everyone come today. The cathedral wouldn’t close to the general public, but there aren’t many tourists here at this time of year.”
    White and I exchanged a glance. “What a wonderful benefactor. Who is it?”
    “Monsieur Ronaldo Al Dejahl. He runs several local and international companies.”
    “Ah, well, thanks for the info.”
    She nodded, then her class was called in. White and I were asked to wait in the nonexistent queue for the next free slots.
    “I see you continue to be able to think like the megalomaniacs, Kathy.”
    “It’s my gift, Rick. I wonder if they’ve spotted us yet.”
    The door girl came back. “Entré vous. You may go in.”
    We stepped through. Right behind the kids. A few other tourists raced up and were let in as well. I checked—they didn’t look like anything but tourists.
    I’d never been to Notre Dame, but I’d seen a lot of pictures, and Amy had sent a ton of shots of every single Paris landmark when she’d first gotten the job overseas. So I had a familiarity with where we were. I knew something was wrong, because we weren’t going up the steps, which was what the brochure we’d gotten when we bought our tickets said we’d be doing. The idea was to get up to the top, look at the city and the gargoyles, then go back down. We weren’t doing that.
    We were instead going right into the main chamber of the cathedral. I scanned the room. Tons of children, adults scattered here and there, no one I recognized. “We paid to go up, right?”
    “Right. Per the brochure, cathedral entrance is free.”
    “Then why are we in here?” I looked at the brochure. “There’s an underground crypt,” I murmured to White.
    “That will be where everyone is.” He looked around. “But do we go down there or evacuate here?”
    “No idea. I don’t think you and I can evacuate. We’d have to be able to do the thing with the gases, and even if I were somehow capable of it, I have no idea of how to do it.”
    “And I have no implant.” He moved us casually to the side. “How do we get to the crypt?”
    I studied the brochure. “Great. I think we have to go outside again. It seems that the entrance is across the plaza.”
    “That may be, but there should be a way in there from here,