Alien Proliferation

secret.”
    “Near as I can tell, Mom didn’t know there were aliens or that Dad worked in NASA’s ET division, and Dad didn’t know how frequently Mom was doing active fieldwork. I, of course, was clueless about all of it until I met Jeff.”
    “Killing a superbeing was the wake-up call for the majority of our human agents. At least, until you started hiring, Missus Martini.”
    “Not my fault I pick well. So, Yates and the C.I.A., best friends forever?”
    “Probably. I’d figured out what your parents did.” Chuckie smiled at the betrayed look I knew I was giving him. “In high school.”
    “Dude, sometimes I hate you.”
    He shrugged. “Couldn’t tell you. I promised Angela I wouldn’t. Besides, it was for your own protection.”
    “That why you waited until I was fully hooked into Centaurion to share?”
    He got a sad look on his face, but he wiped it away quickly. “Somewhat.” I squeezed his hand while I felt like a complete clueless jerk. Guilt waved merrily at me. “I was appointed head of the ETD division about a year or so before you joined up. But I’d been working with Centaurion for my entire ETD career. There are factions within the organization that have the same views Angela and I do about how best to utilize our A-Cs. Thankfully, some of them are much higher up than me.”
    “But the rest of them want the War Division, right?” I wondered how much higher you could get than the guy in charge of the entire division and then decided I could table that question for another, less creepy time.
    Chuckie nodded. “Or the Power Division, if you want. Everyone wants to control the X-Men, remember.”
    “Good point. Everything I ever needed to know I learned from comic books and my Conspiracy King.” Chuckie grinned and squeezed my hand back. Okay, good, we were back to normal for us, which meant Jeff was probably growling again, but oh, well.
    “I do remain thankful every day that Mister Reynolds, you, and your mother are ever vigilant.” White looked around. “I’m also very glad the Poofs ate our former Diplomatic Corps, though right now having someone to question might be helpful.”
    “Oh, that’s what we’re here for. So, back to Chuckie’s question. It looks like they’re monitoring all the launch areas and main living quarters. The launch areas I can get, but why are they watching the bedrooms? I mean, unless they’re just too cheap to buy their own porn over the Internet like everyone else.”
    Chuckie looked thoughtful. “Let’s see what this does.” He pulled out the chair and sat down.
    The console leaped to life. Images started shifting rapidly, lights were blinking, and a modulated female voice spoke. “Hello, Doctor Gaultier. What would you like VARIS to show you?”
    “Varis?” I whispered to White. He pointed. Voice Activated Recovery Information System was in official lettering on the console. In big, obvious letters. Oh, well, that’s why I had a partner, right?
    “VARIS, show me the most recent activity.”
    “Yes, Doctor.” We all let out the breath we’d been holding. Not using voice recognition software. Images started to come up. Apparently they’d filmed the murder and vivisection of our four agents. I had to turn away. I didn’t want to see that, and I wanted to be able to remember Wayne the way I’d met him—alive and smiling.
    “Tell me when it’s over.”
    It took a few minutes during which I wandered around some more. The room was a big rectangle, but after the hidden elevator, I looked for the supersecret portion of the secret lab. Rewarded by looking behind things. “I found what looks like a humongous freezer. Ten bucks says they’re in here.”
    “Let it wait for a minute. The gruesome part’s over. Need you to pay attention.” Chuckie sounded tense, so I trotted. “Note whose bedrooms we’re now visiting.”
    “Well, gosh. That’s the Lair, and that’s Christopher’s room . . . everyone’s on Alpha and Airborne. And yours, too.”
    “Yeah.”
    “Doctor Gaultier, would you like status on the subjects?”
    “Yes, VARIS, thank you.”
    We all stared at the screen, but the images didn’t change. I heard a printer and looked over to my right. Sure enough, there were papers coming out. I picked them up and stared at the title. “Operation Alteration. Why do I doubt this is going to relate to buying suits at wholesale and having them tailored to fit?”
    White took the pages out of my hands and did a quick scan.