Alien Proliferation

Jeff.
    “You three all right?” he asked as I felt us moving.
    “In a way,” Chuckie answered. “How much did you see?”
    Jeff sighed. “All of it.”
    “You weren’t supposed to,” I said against his neck.
    “Yeah? You weren’t supposed to jump into the room with the bombs, either.” I started to shudder, and he held me tighter. “I’m still the head of Field, baby,” he said quietly. “And I’m never letting you race into danger without at least keeping an emotional eye on you.”
    “Are you all right yourself, Jeffrey?” I felt us start to move upward as White asked and figured we were in the elevator.
    Jeff heaved a sigh. “Yeah. You did the right thing. They all . . . wanted to die. I could feel them once you were in proximity.” He gave a bitter chuckle. “They did a good job, all things considered.”
    “Where’s Jamie?” My head jerked out of Jeff’s neck. “You were supposed to keep this from her and stay with her!”
    He kissed my forehead. “I did. She’s blocked from it, by me and by Christopher. And everyone else is guarding her. Including the Poofs.”
    “Only three of them.”
    He coughed. “Actually, several more.”
    “Come again?” I checked my purse. I still had three Poofs in it, snoozing away.
    Jeff managed a grin. “Royal wedding’s imminent, baby. Thankfully we don’t know how, but we have many new Poofs.”
    “Poof breeding for fun and profit.” Nice to know Christopher and Amy were, apparently, going to work out. Tried to focus on the positive that, from what I’d just learned, he’d keep her very happy in bed. Didn’t help much.
    “Fun. Not selling them.” Jeff kissed me. “They aren’t something to be sold.”
    “Okay, whatever you say.” Not selling them meant more Poofs for me.
    Elevator stopped, and we got out and into our room. Christopher was holding Jamie, and she seemed to be sleeping. People were milling about, and I couldn’t feel any more dread, just an ache in my heart. Everyone looked at me expectantly, and Jeff gave me a little squeeze. “We’ll debrief everyone tomorrow or the next day. Right now, I think we’re okay to be in here, just the few of us who were planning to stay tonight. But the rest of you are welcome to stay if you want. I just recommend spreading out into the other rooms.”
    “Third floor has plenty of rooms, and they’re all ready,” Tito offered. “Walter and I sort of got our pick.”
    Tim shrugged. “I’m going back over to the Science Center. One of us should probably be there, no matter what, and Alicia’s there.” Michael, Jerry, Hughes, and Walker indicated they were heading that way as well.
    Reader and Gower exchanged a look. “We need to get back over, girlfriend. Pontifex duties for Paul and all that.” He gave me a long look. “We’ll talk about it later, okay?” I nodded.
    Chuckie looked at Naomi and Abigail. “Up to you two where you want to go. I think Kitty’s right, it’s over for right now.”
    Abigail shrugged. “Where’re you going to stay?”
    He shook his head. “No idea.”
    “Then we’ll sleep here on the third floor,” Naomi said. “That way, we’re around to help out, and you get into bed that much faster.”
    Chuckie managed a laugh. “What are you, my mother?”
    Naomi grinned. “No. Just worried about how you run yourself ragged.”
    “Mister White?”
    “Staying here, Missus Martini. Third floor with the rest of the singles.” He chuckled. “Just shout if you need us.” With that he ushered everyone else out of the room.
    Jeff put me down, and Christopher handed Jamie to me. “She won’t be able to access it, any of it, unless her life depends on it.”
    “Why so?”
    “We’re big on the fail-safes.” He bent and kissed my cheek. “You did the right thing, Kitty, the hard thing. The right thing for the right reason. Don’t forget that.” He clapped Jeff on the shoulder, took Amy’s hand, and they left for their rooms.
    Jeff and I went into the bedroom, and I put Jamie back into her bassinet. I noted we had a new, deluxe, extra levels Poof Condo in there. “When did that arrive?”
    “I had Gladys send it over once we realized we were having a Poof explosion. You’re not allowed to name any of them, by the way. Amy, Naomi, and Abigail already named one each before we could stop them.”
    “Do I want to know?”
    “No worse than the name you came up with. No better, either.”
    “How many more are there?”
    “Not sure. The