Alien Proliferation

nodded. “I’m sure it was obscure.” He took my hand. “Hold onto the former Pontifex, if you would.” I grabbed White’s hand and Chuckie kicked the circle. We lowered again, but this time, I could see an opening immediately. “He murdered his wife. Either from using her as a guinea pig, or because he didn’t want the restraint any more.”
    I knew he wasn’t talking about White. “Oh. How long have you known?”
    “Figured that’s what it was the moment she died. I haven’t had a lot of time or ability to research it. But he remarried pretty quickly, and I do know he married his mistress.”
    My throat felt tight again. “You never said a thing to Amy, did you?”
    “No. Couldn’t stand her, but saw no reason to be vicious. Still can barely stand her, by the way, in case you were wondering if White was going to have to do the jealousy bit your husband’s so fond of.”
    “Dude, really, I know. But remain civil.”
    “Oh, I will. I appreciated her trying to defend me.” The floor stopped again. Another long corridor. This one was lit, however. “You two ready?”
    “Not so much,” White said, as he kept me from moving forward. He looked around. “I see no traps or trip wires, Mister Reynolds.”
    “Me either. Have to admit it’s a relief to know you’re not as willing to die as Kitty seems to be.”
    White laughed. “Opposites attract.”

 
    CHAPTER 79
     
    W E RAN DOWN THE CORRIDOR. It went on for a long way, but we reached a door in about five minutes of the slow hyperspeed, which meant we were probably far away from the Embassy. The tunnel continued on, but we stopped here. The dread hit me, hard, while Chuckie got his stomach under control. “They’re in there.”
    White and Chuckie examined the door. “I think it’s safe,” White said. Chuckie nodded and opened it. It wasn’t locked.
    We walked in to see a textbook mad scientist medical lab. There were the usual vats of fluids of all sizes, tubes and wires, steel tables, usual implements, and plenty of things I couldn’t identify.
    The room was big, well lit, and temperature controlled, and it had what looked like a full communications area. I examined the console—full phone and intercom set up, similar to what I’d seen at Area 51, though not all that much like the Command Centers in the Science Center and Caliente Base. There were twelve video screens, each showing something different. “They have feeds into what looks like every main Centaurion base.”
    Chuckie and White joined me. “Yes, Missus Martini, you’re correct.”
    Chuckie pointed to two of the screens. “That’s Langley. And that’s ETD headquarters. Jesus. What areas are they monitoring? And how did they tap into your system and ours without us knowing?” I could hear Chuckie’s wheels turning.
    I looked around, at the phone in particular. “They did it right after Terry died. That phone’s easily twenty years old. Richard was grieving, the boys were with Alfred and Lucinda, the Embassy was being taken over by Yates loyalists.”
    “The tunnel would have had to have existed before then,” Chuckie said. “No way you could get this low and long in a few weeks.”
    I looked at White. “Bet you could if you were using hyperspeed, superhuman strength, and a lot of alien technology. Chuckie, you said yourself they could have put in the elevator after Terry died. Why not the entire Underground Complex of Doom?”
    White nodded. “We built the Science Center in a matter of months. We only have to move slowly when humans need to see us do so. We stay in practice by moving slowly under most circumstances. Building secret tunnels and labs would not be most circumstances.”
    “So, was the C.I.A. always working with Yates?” What Jeff called my feminine intuition said yes.
    “Probably.” White shook his head. “Mister Reynolds is our only ally there.”
    “Angela’s the reason I joined the C.I.A. in the first place,” Chuckie said. “She helped me get the appointment into the ETD, too.”
    I thought about this, while trying not to be offended again that my mother had felt Chuckie was total superspy material but that I wasn’t even up to being told the truth about much of anything. “Mom didn’t know there were aliens on Earth, and even though Dad’s Mister NASA ET Cryptology Guru, he said he didn’t know, either.”
    “Your mother really didn’t know?” Chuckie sounded shocked. “I thought she was just testing my ability to keep the