Alien Proliferation

from their expressions that they’d been catching up on all the horror. I didn’t know what to say. “Sorry we weren’t in time to save your brother” just didn’t seem anything like enough.
    William gave us a weak smile. “Good to see you again, Commanders.”
    “Good to see you, too.” I had a lump in my throat.
    Jeff shook William’s hand. “Glad to have you back. Good work.”
    William swallowed. “Wayne did more on this than I did.” He looked down. “A lot more.”
    “He and the others gave the ultimate sacrifice,” Jeff said quietly. “But surviving doesn’t mean you didn’t do your job well.”
    “It should have been me,” William said. “Captain Crawford only sent me to Florida because—”
    “Because he made a command decision,” Jeff said sternly. “Are you questioning our chain of command?”
    William looked up. “No, sir, Commander.” He looked and sounded shocked. A-Cs really didn’t question authority. Unless they were Jeff.
    “Good. Choices are made every day that have ramifications we’re not happy about. But you don’t get to take the blame for someone else’s decision.”
    Christopher cleared his throat. “I’d like you to ensure that the people Captain Crawford assigned you to protect are still protected and are dealing with their indoctrination well. Advise me if there’s anything out of the ordinary going on.”
    “Yes, sir, Commander,” William said. He sounded more normal. He nodded to all of us, hugged Walter tightly, then zipped off, presumably to find Alicia and her family.
    I hoped Tim wasn’t beating himself up over the loss of the agents with him, but reality said that he was. Our team didn’t like to lose—it cost us a lot more than we wanted to part with. Every battle was a chess game, but we hated to lose a pawn as much as we did a power piece. A fact our enemies enjoyed using against us.
    Jamie fussed again, and I shoved Commander-level worries aside for a moment. “You clear on what’s going on?” I asked Walter.
    “Yes, Commanders. Gladys told me I was assigned to Security duty for the duration of your stay at the Embassy.” He was practically vibrating with what looked to be a combination of pride and shock.
    “Welcome aboard, Walt. Let’s do the spatio-time warp to the Embassy now, shall we?”
    Amy put her hand over Christopher’s mouth when he attempted another explanation.
    “Yes, ma’am.” Walter did the spin the dial thing, and then we walked through. Landed in the basement again. It was still a nauseating experience and, sadly, it was also still dark and creepy down there. I found myself wondering about A-C mentalities for a bit while my stomach settled.
    I insisted on checking in on the third floor first, just in case there was something lurking there, waiting to attack Walter or Tito. Walter hypersped through and pronounced it monster-free. Third floor rooms were a lot like the ones at the Science Center—nicely done hotel suite style.
    We all went up to the seventh floor, and Walter did a check there. Amazingly, no monsters. He explained that, as the Acting Head of Security, he would be the one on the com, should we need to contact him at any hour of the day or night. Walter was clearly determined to do a great job. I resisted patting him on the head, but it took effort.
    We went into what I figured I’d better start thinking of as our home and loaded everything into the nursery, other than the bassinet, which went by my side of the bed, per earlier instructions from Tito.
    I checked the closet—our clothes were in it. Same with the drawers—A-C nightwear, underwear, and the like were there. I explained how it worked to Amy, told her to get used to wearing a white Armani Oxford and a black Armani slim skirt for the rest of her life, and then gave an example of how to drive the Elves crazy by requesting different sodas every three seconds. She was as awed with this as I was, Christopher’s attempts to explain away the magic with even more incomprehensible magic notwithstanding.
    Amazingly enough, now that we were over here, the four of us were not anxious to separate. Christopher and Amy unwillingly went to their half of the floor, changed into the A-C nightclothes, and came right back. Jeff and I didn’t object.
    “Okay, let’s all admit it. It’s freaking creepy here for some reason.” I was feeding Jamie while sitting on the bed, awesome new receiving blanket decorated with fluffy lambs and pink clouds