Alien Proliferation

that, please.”
    Jeff sighed. “It looked like normal clustered activity, only there were no emotional warnings whatsoever. There were a dozen of them. We were barely able to contain them, but they destroyed no significant property, and, as far as we can tell, no one was killed.”
    “That’s not normal at all.” Every superbeing was a destruction machine, and their overriding desire was to kill any humanity in their vicinity.
    “Right, baby, it’s not. We herded them to the Seine—we were going to use self-contained nukes to destroy them. Right before I could give the order, they all blew up. At the same time.”
    “I monitor for supersoldier projects all the time,” Chuckie said. “So does your mother. Nothing like this has come up on either of our radars.”
    “If the lie is good enough, and the support is high enough . . .”
    “Yeah, that’s what’s really worrying me.”
    “How trustworthy are your superiors?”
    He chuckled. “They’re top in the C.I.A. How trustworthy do you think that would make them?”
    Jeff snorted. “Not at all.” Chuckie shrugged and managed a grin.
    “I meant for you, for us, for the safety of the U.S. and the world. That kind of thing?”
    “They seem reliable. Your mother doesn’t trust them overly much, but she trusts them more than some.” He looked thoughtful. “There was a shake-up right before I became head of the ET division.”
    “Any of our four friends involved in that?”
    He nodded. “Cooper and Cantu for certain. Cooper wasn’t promoted, Cantu was.” He shook his head. “I’ll need to discuss this with your mother.”
    “She’s on alert, just waiting for the baby. You should be able to get a hold of her easily enough. But I’m kind of curious why and how the people we met with today, who shouldn’t have known anything about this, knew all about the attack when none of us did.”
    Jeff’s eyes narrowed. “Who shouldn’t have known?”
    “A senator, a Pentagon liaison, the head of one of our terrorist units, and John Cooper,” Chuckie replied. “Cooper’s angling for my job.”
    “He’s a prick,” I added. “Not that I liked any of them much.”
    Chuckie nodded. “I’d really hoped to have both of you at this meeting, and White, too, if possible. I need these people read.”
    “Sorry, busy trying to stop an international incident. Christopher’s still there—the imageering alterations necessary are unreal.”
    “Why are you back already?” I asked. “Normally you’d be taking care of the cleanup portions.”
    Jeff shot me a “duh” look. “I knew who you were with.”
    Chuckie rolled his eyes. “Just the two of us and four people we can’t trust at all.”
    “Am I right that all four hate you and want Centaurion turned into the War Division?” It was such a safe bet—most people were intimidated by Chuckie’s brains, drive, and success and channeled that into hating him. And there was a much longer list of those who wanted us to be the War Division than those who didn’t. Every day it seemed as though the ones who didn’t got fewer and fewer.
    “In a nutshell.” Chuckie sounded like he always did when talking about people who didn’t like him—resigned. I knew there was hurt under there, too, but he hid it well.
    Jeff looked like he was going to say something nasty to Chuckie, but I glared at him, and he stopped himself. Possibly he’d picked up the hurt, too, but I wasn’t sure if he cared about it. “But are they in any position to be in on whatever the hell is going on?” he asked instead.
    Chuckie nodded slowly. “It’s possible. I wouldn’t put anything past Cooper. He wants my job and every job above mine, too. Cantu’s a slippery bastard. And Armstrong’s your typical politician on the rise. Cartwright I’m not sure of, but she works closely with the three of them.”
    There was a knock at the door, and Wayne and William came in. “We have what you wanted, Mister Reynolds,” William said, handing him a file. Wayne handed one to Jeff.
    “That was fast.”
    The brothers grinned at me as Jeff and Chuckie both sighed and shook their heads. “Hyperspeed,” Wayne said.
    “Oh.” Okay, had to give Jeff and Chuckie the “duh” on that one. I chalked it up to another space cadet moment and called the Poofs over to make myself feel better. I petted the cuteness bundles while Chuckie and Jeff both read through the files.
    “Good work,” Chuckie said finally. “I wish I could get field