Alien Proliferation

that meant they weren’t marked for death.
    Chuckie nodded. “So you think they targeted Amy because she’s one of your oldest friends, not because she’s the bright thing they needed?”
    “I think they saw it as a double win. But twenty guys after her? I know why you find that fishy. She should have been dead before Jeff and Christopher could get to her. Of course, I’ve beaten those odds, and I’m sure you have, too, so maybe our high school just trained well. Anyway, we need to identify the man who gave her the emergency covert ops number. If we believe her, she had no idea who she was calling.”
    “Why did she ask for you?”
    “Jeff and I gave her some lame Homeland Security lie about what we did. She could call strangers or ask for her friend who she knew worked in some sort of antiterrorism thing. Gee, which would I do?”
    “Can’t imagine. Okay, we find out who the mystery agent is.”
    “According to Amy, he’s dead. They slit his throat in front of her. Whether that’s true or not may depend upon who he is and whether they had great special effects.”
    Chuckie took a deep breath. “You want to be with me when I question her?”
    “Yes, because I know she’s pissing you off.”
    “I wasn’t that awful in high school, at least not like she’s acting.”
    “Not to me, no.”
    Chuckie gave me a wistful smile. “Yeah, I know.”
    Reader coughed “Jeff’s going to hate the way this conversation’s starting to head.”
    Jamie opened her eyes again, yawned, and went back to sleep. “You know, what day is it? I have no idea what day she was born on.”
    “Christmas,” Chuckie answered. “I wasn’t doing anything, conveniently.”
    “Oh, man, that’s really crappy timing.”
    “For you to have the baby? No. For them to start their plan rolling, whatever it is and whoever they are? Great timing.”
    “Where are your parents?”
    He sighed. “Hanging out on the transient floor with the rest of the families. Your grandparents got moved in, too. Be prepared—we’ve kept them out claiming a lot of important reasons, but they’re going to descend on you soon.”
    “Is Dad here yet?”
    Mom was still on the phone, but she nodded. “You’re sure the family’s okay?” I didn’t like how that sounded. Chuckie, Reader, and I all focused on Mom’s call. “Good work. Get them here. Scan them first, just in case. Oh? Well done. I’m sure. Yes, good, see you soon. Thanks, Kevin.” She hung up.
    “What was Kevin doing going after Sheila?”
    Mom rolled her eyes. “He’s my best operative. His family’s safe. He’s back to work, so to speak. He went with a team of A-Cs, thank God.” She shook her head. “Got to Sheila’s family just in time. They were being kidnapped.”
    “Merry Christmas, hope we make it to the New Year.”
    “Pretty much.” Mom’s phone rang. “Yes. Are they safe? Oh, really? You’re certain? Fine, well, keep the team with them. Right. If he has an issue, he can call me directly.” She hung up, eyes narrowed.
    “What was that about? Is Caroline okay?”
    Mom nodded slowly. “Yes. She and the senator and his wife are in Paraguay, as part of a fact-finding mission. They’re not the only politicians there. There is absolutely nothing out of the ordinary happening, and the senator refused to allow any of them to be taken into protective custody.”
    “And you allowed that?”
    She shrugged. “My team sees nothing amiss. And there’s a tremendous amount of security already in place. There are three A-C teams from Sao Paulo Base with them, one each assigned to Caroline, the senator, and his wife. I don’t think there’s anything we can or should do. It’s politically unhealthy to force an entire Congressional fact-finding team to go into isolation unless you can give them a pertinent reason why.”
    I considered this. Paraguay kept on coming up, and no one ever told me why it mattered. My meeting from the day before, and who it was with, combined with the suspicious superbeing event, suggested a potentially large conspiracy. Or maybe more than one. I resolved to find out, but that had to go onto the back burner, since, clearly, the action wasn’t happening in South America. “So they’re all safe, and nothing’s going on other than Christmas without snow?”
    “As far as our teams there can tell, yes.” Mom sounded tired and pissed off. Couldn’t blame her.
    “That’s sort of weird, isn’t it? I mean, if they’re targeting my oldest