Alien Proliferation

Crawford out and get my ass reamed, or I can just calibrate the freaking gate to where my superior officer says he wants to go. Why do I have to explain this?”
    “They don’t break the rules like you do, girlfriend.”
    “Ha! Jeff breaks them all the time. All of Alpha and Airborne do. That’s why no one questioned Tim’s leaving or alerted any of us that he’d done so. For us, this is routine.” Another thought occurred. “Gladys, is there a way to check on the status of the house where Mister and Missus Young live? Like, are there people in it?”
    “What are you thinking?” Jeff asked quietly.
    “Depends on who’s home at the Youngs’.”
    Gladys came back. “Have dispatched a team from East Base.”
    I didn’t like the time we were wasting, but I still didn’t have a clear idea of where Tim was, or whom he was with. Needed to know where your guy was in order to perform even the lousiest rescue.
    “Commander, no one home at the Young home. Place was ransacked. Agents were briefed to check the fridge. There was a CD in it— Madman Across the Water by Elton John. CD inside was Traffic and Weather by Fountains of Wayne. Is that a real band?”
    “Yeah, they’re great. Okay, geez, he’s good. Gladys, please contact Martini Manor for me and see if the Young family has been checked in recently, like between the time you checked and now. Oh, and tell me what the weather is in New York, D.C., and Florida right now.”
    “Normally Security doesn’t do the weather, Commander.”
    “I know. Isn’t it cool to branch out?”
    “I’m thrilled with the opportunity. Snowing in New York, raining in D.C., weather is fine in Florida.” There was a pause. “Confirmation from the Martini compound—a family of three humans was delivered by two of our missing agent teams five minutes ago.” Gladys sounded somewhat relieved. “Team assigned to Saguaro International and one of the teams assigned to D.C.”
    “Great.”
    “Do you want to talk to any of them?”
    “Not right now.”
    Kevin Lewis came in. He was tall, dark, and totally handsome, dark skin like Gower’s, great smile and teeth like his wife, bags and bags of charisma. “What’s up?”
    “We’re not sure. Kitty seems to know something but hates to get to the point.” Chuckie was rubbing his forehead.
    “I know where Tim and the other agents are.”

 
    CHAPTER 33
     
    “Y OU GOING TO SHARE?” Jeff snapped. “Or will we just find his dead body later?”
    Reader pulled Kevin aside and started talking in a low voice. I assumed he was doing the fast catch-up work. I would have been envious for the close proximity to Kevin, but I was willing to share. Besides, Jeff got so jealous when I drooled in Kevin’s direction. No idea of why—wasn’t like Kevin had eyes for anyone but Denise, and having seen her, who the hell could blame him?
    “Okay, so the first musical clue was to get me to cover for him in a way you, Jeff, wouldn’t figure out. I note also that Gladys had to tell the A-C agents to search the fridge, but Chuckie didn’t have to tell his human guys to do it. I have a variety of guesses as to why, but it boils down to the fact that for the A-Cs, a fridge is where you go to get what you want, not store or hide things the way it is for humans. So Tim is being followed by A-Cs, not humans.”
    “Huh? How do you get that?” Jeff asked.
    “No, makes sense. Go on.” I could see Chuckie’s conspiracy wheels starting to turn again. Hopefully they’d knock out the migraine.
    “My guess is that he went to the closest gate to Alicia’s apartment. From where I remember she lives, that’s my parents’ house. No worries, my family and pets are here. But between leaving his room and getting there, something occurred to him. I’m guessing it’s something he heard or saw while he was still here. My CD collection is at my parents’ house, and every CD we’ve seen so far is one I own—other than the two left with the Poofs, which I know are Tim’s.”
    “You don’t have them?” Jeff sounded shocked.
    “No, I do. But I recognize this case; it’s his, not mine, and the Beastie Boys CD is newer than mine—he bought it after Operation Fugly.”
    “Amazing attention to detail. We are where in the Science Center?”
    “Oh, hush, Jeff. Tim tried to call me, but we were already here doing blood tests, and my phone was nowhere near me. He’s broken the rules; he wants to talk to me, because as the head of Airborne, I can