Alien Proliferation

hell did they get warned, that’s what I want to know,” Cooper snarled. “I’d still like to know who fucked that up.” White and I looked at each other. He raised his eyebrow, and I shrugged.
    “I wouldn’t know,” Camilla snapped. “She went into labor early, not like I could pay attention to anything else and not have my cover blown.”
    I looked at the cell where the women were. It was hard to see from where we’d moved to, but I got the impression someone had her hand over Amy’s mouth.
    “My part worked as planned,” Gaultier said.
    “Really?” Cooper had a sarcasm knob, it seemed. “So it was part of your plan for your daughter to discover who we were actually targeting? And for her to alert every damned alien that it was time to go into lockdown?”
    Gaultier shrugged. “You wanted them herded. We herded.”
    “We didn’t want Reynolds or Katt alive when the herding started, you idiot.”
    “Your people left the clues for Amy to find. I just made the arrangements for her to go where it would be simple for her to make her discovery.” I could hear Amy crying. Apparently her father could, too. “Oh, stop blubbering. What did any of these people mean to you? You haven’t seen your supposed best friend for years. The rest of these are alien scum that don’t belong here anyway. Don’t worry . . . you’ll enjoy being princess of a new world.”
    “They’re good people, the humans and the aliens you’re torturing both. They saved me, and they didn’t have to. How can you do this?”
    Gaultier walked over to Chuckie. “As I recall, Amy, you always hated this one.”
    “Leave him alone!” Amy flung herself at the bars. “He was right, he was always right! He told me you were a greedy son of a bitch when we were in tenth grade. He knew what you were when we were children!”
    Interesting. I’d had no idea. Explained a lot of their mutual animosity.
    Gaultier laughed and leaned into Chuckie’s face. “Every businessman is a greedy son of a bitch. You’re one of us now, you know that.” He leaned closer. “You’re greedier than me, Reynolds. Coveting another man’s wife. It was so easy to center things around her—she’s the belle of the alien ball, isn’t she? She was a slut when she was in school, and she’s a slut now.”
    Chuckie lunged toward Gaultier and slammed his forehead into Gaultier’s nose. Blood spurted as Gaultier staggered back. “Kill that bastard!”
    I got ready to run, but Cooper shook his head. “Need him until we get the slut and the spawn.”
    White leaned down. “Good control. Proud of you.”
    “I was not that much of a slut! I mean, it’s not like I was the only girl who did the deed before I was married.”
    “They’re baiting men who love you. No man wants to hear the name of the woman he loves or cares about dragged through the mud.”
    “Why?” Coleman asked. “We could kill all the humans right now.”
    “You’re all morons.” Al Dejahl sounded disgusted. “Kill them and we have no leverage.”
    “You let us kill the others.” Barbara sounded like she’d enjoyed that.
    “For scientific purposes, yes.” Cooper sounded as if he were explaining something to a five year old. “We’ve studied all the hybrids other than the five, excuse me, six now in existence. It’ll help to compare standard empathic and imageer brains and bodies to the others. But until we have what we want, Mister Al Dejahl is right, the rest of these are too useful.”
    “She’ll come for just one of them,” Barbara said. “Kill the others, let Jeffrey hang on until she arrives.” Nice to know they were expecting me.
    “She won’t come. She’s not that stupid.” Jeff could barely talk.
    Barbara laughed. “Your little feminist throwback? Of course she’ll come. She’s on her way. Baby in tow, I’m sure. After all, there’s no baby formula in the Science Center, is there? We made sure of that. So it’s mother’s milk, or the baby starves. Though she might be a poor enough mother to allow that, I’m sure her own mother won’t. So, I’d expect the whole little family to arrive.”
    I could see how this would have made sense, and I might have even suggested it if Sheila hadn’t been there with the breast pump. Got a huge love for La Leche League all of a sudden. But these people didn’t seem to know us at all. So whoever was feeding them their information was doing a great job—of helping us.
    Camilla nodded. “I’m sure Missus