Alien Proliferation

“I’ve had it for three months, just waiting for a baby shower. But since the baby came first, the heck with waiting, right? What’s a little rule break in the greater scheme of things?”
    I stared at her. “I love you.”

 
    CHAPTER 32
     
    D ENISE LOOKED SHOCKED. “Um, love you, too.”
    “Can you ask Kevin to race over here? I think we need him.”
    “Sure.” Denise looked around. “I guess the high-level meetings take place in the hospital wing when you’ve just delivered. You want Angela, too?”
    “No, just Kevin. My mom can continue to do whatever they’re doing in the library.”
    “Gotcha. Okay, see you later.” She flashed everyone a killer smile and trotted off.
    “Are you playing for the other side and didn’t want to tell me?” Jeff sounded only mildly worried. “I mean, it’s great, and lord knows having hands free will be nice, but I was worried you were going to kiss her with tongue there for a minute, baby.”
    I shook my head. “So sweet, really. No, she just explained what the hell’s going on.”
    “And that would be?” Chuckie asked, with only a lot of impatience.
    I moved around a bit. Just felt good to be walking normally, and I could tell it was nice for Jamie. “Here’s the deal. Where’s Alicia’s luggage?”
    “What?” Jeff and Chuckie asked that in unison. Oh, not the unison thing again. I’d had enough of that around our wedding.
    “Her luggage is at Saguaro International. Waiting to be claimed.” I looked around. No reactions, listened for the freaking crickets again. I heaved a sigh. “Okay, Tim was being a naughty boy.”
    “Crawford is the mole?” Chuckie sounded like he was ready to retire.
    “No. Geez, you guys, think about it. His girl’s in Long Island with her parents. All her stuff is in Arizona. Nothing is happening here. What would you do?” They all looked at me blankly. “Oh, for God’s sake, Jeff. You did something similar with me within the first three hours we’d known each other.”
    The light dawned for Jeff, finally. “He snuck out to get her stuff. Do we hire idiots?”
    I rolled my eyes. “No. We hire mavericks. At least, every human agent is someone who’s incredibly capable, right, or we wouldn’t be agents.”
    “So what was he warning you about, then, with the message on your Poof tree thing?” Chuckie didn’t sound convinced of anything but the impending migraine.
    “He wasn’t warning me at all. He was asking me to cover for him.” Blank looks all around. “He was asking for my ‘help’ and telling me he was going to New York.” More blank looks. “As in, ‘Kitty, I’m being bad, please help me, no sleep ’til Brooklyn, I’ll be in New York, with my girl and her family, look for me at East Base. You gotta fight for your right to party, and I want to ring in the New Year with my woman.’ Geez, why is this a shocker?”
    “We’re under lockdown.” Jeff said it as if it were the definitive answer.
    “Yeah, we are. And nothing’s happening . We’ve been locked down for days. Tim’s girl is not in lockdown, everyone else’s girl or guy is, and he’s kind of not happy about that. Plus, he was there when I did the extra special labor move. I’m sure he wanted to be with her after that. All the excitement happened on Christmas day, when he couldn’t get to his girl anyway. The next days have been deathly dull. So he snuck out.”
    “Why the elaborate musical clue?” Reader didn’t sound as if he were buying this theory, either.
    “Because it’s easier to leave a CD than a baseball program.” Crickets abounded. “Tim and I freaking bonded over the witty banter about baseball and music. It’s our ‘thing.’ He wasn’t scared when he left the Science Center, he was being a bad boy breaking curfew, and he let his boss know it in a fun way.”
    “Okay,” Chuckie said slowly. “So then what? How’d he get out?”
    “How the hell did Kevin get out when he went to save Sheila and her family? He freaking went to the launch area, said, ‘I need a gate to this bathroom stall,’ and walked through. Tim’s on Alpha, for God’s sake. And, let’s see . . . Commander White is in isolation and we are all afraid for him, Commander Katt-Martini just had a scary delivery and we’re all trying not to stress her out, Commander Martini almost lost his wife, has a new baby, and now has his cousin in solitary. I could be a good little A-C and call Captain Reader to verify if I can let Captain