Alien Proliferation

Addict, as you so charmingly call it, because she was part of the team working to determine how the drug could be removed from DNA. It can’t be, so far as we can tell,” he added softly.
    I turned off the iPod and pulled out my phone. “No service. Bet you don’t have any, either.” No phone service meant no way to call Mom or Serene and see what Jamie might know, let alone to verify how Paul and ACE were doing. This was typical for our luck, of course, so I chose not to be surprised.
    White looked as he handed me back the earpiece he’d been using. “True enough. So, are they in here somewhere or is it just that there’s so much steel and concrete here?”
    “No idea.” Think, think. “Why did Chuckie send Fluffy to me? Same question with Michael and Christopher. They’re in grave danger, why not see if the Poofs can do some damage?”
    “Because your danger is greater.”
    I stared at the music mix. “Our danger. If we’re back to our usual, you’re the target. You’re always the target. The Diplomatic Corps is helping Gaultier, or, rather, the C.I.A. operative who they think is Ronaldo Al Dejahl. He’s supposed to take over as Pontifex after they get rid of you. And me, Mom, and Chuckie. Because we’re the three humans who can stop that.”
    “We seem remarkably unmolested.”
    “Yeah.” I laughed. “Because of you.”
    “Pardon?”
    “Dude, I’m not kidding. You’re better than Jeff. Who stopped us from running into a trap?”
    “Gladys.”
    “Well, yeah, but you, too. You were smart enough to ask for a gate somewhere far enough away to keep us safe, you were willing to do the disguise, you kept me from running across the square and alerting whoever’s watching that another Centaurion agent was blundering around. And no one knows how you’ll act in a danger situation because this is the first one in what I’d guess was a long time that you haven’t had Jeff, Christopher, and Paul running interference for you.”
    “Possibly.” He didn’t sound convinced.
    “Who, besides me, knows you plan for Paul to be your successor, not Christopher?” Dropped my iPod back into my purse while trying not to stress.
    “No one. Christopher does not have the right make up to be Pontifex. I know he dreads it, as well. Paul has the right mind-set, and I thought so even before you put ACE into him.”
    “Right. But everyone else thinks it’s going to be Christopher—you succeeded your father, after all. So, when the A-Cs split again over who should be Pontifex, those who were loyal to you would support Christopher. Whom the Diplomatic Corps and C.I.A. had drugged out of his mind and therefore believed they could control.”
    “How will Gaultier make money this way?”
    “Seriously, we are going to team up from now on. How? By being the exclusive provider to the U.S. government, via the C.I.A., of the superdrug. Take over this world, and all of the Alpha Centaurion worlds, become wealthy beyond imagining.”
    “You really think that’s the ultimate goal?”
    “Christopher can see Jareen, on one of the farthest inhabited planets from us in that system. The gate is open between Earth and Alpha Four. Yeah, I’m freaking certain. I’m Megalomaniac Girl, remember?”
    “So, where are they and how do we foil this plan and save everyone, including those innocents in the cathedral?”
    “Damn, I knew you were going to ask the hard question next.”
    “Do you have the hard answer?”
    “No, I have another question, one I asked before but which we haven’t answered. Is Camilla merely a mole, or is she a double agent?”
    “Why do you even assume double agent?”
    “Because Amy was triggered to warn us. Chuckie would be dead for sure if she hadn’t told me what she’d discovered. Mom might be, too.”
    “I thought our original assumption was they wanted us herded into one place. Meaning Amy was triggered by those who mean us harm.”
    “Yeah . . . but why give her information that would pull the two humans you want dead into safety?”
    “It wouldn’t have mattered if you’d died during delivery. Did Camilla have something to do with that?”
    “No. But, I wonder . . . .”
    “Wonder what?”
    “Tito said babies come when they want to. I wonder if Jamie came early on purpose?”
    “To what end?” White wasn’t arguing with me.
    “Saving her parents, saving the world, that sort of thing.” I looked back at the Poofs. “Where is everybody? Protecting me and Richard’s