Alien Proliferation
Other Wonderful. You know, Jeff’s been carrying Christopher for years. Takes his eyes off him for one minute, and Christopher shows how weak he is.”
I started to get pissed off. More than I already was.
“He made a mistake! You couldn’t handle the pressure either one of them have for a week, let alone for the past dozen years!” Sylvia sounded furious and ready to cry. What she didn’t sound was surprised. This was an old, old argument.
“So it’s the pressure thing again. Jeff’s under pressure. Christopher’s under pressure. You never care that I’m under pressure!”
“What pressure? You work for a diplomat! You take notes at meetings and run a calendar. How is that comparable to protecting our entire race and this planet on an hourly basis?”
I noted that Jeff seemed shocked by Sylvia’s comments. I sidled closer to him. “I’ll explain later, but trust me when I tell you that your sisters think you walk on water, Christopher, too, even though they’ve really hidden that from the two of you.”
He nodded. “Can I kill Clarence, do you think?”
“I think it would upset Sylvia. Let me handle this, okay?”
Jeff looked at me as if I were crazy. “No.”
“You have no idea what kind of pressures I have! You just sit around all day, making demands and worshiping your father, brother, and cousin!”
“I take care of our children. And I work, and you know it!”
“What does Sylvia do?” I kept my voice low, not that there was any need.
“Handles minor science stuff out of D.C. She’s got five kids, it’s not as though she has a lot of time to do much else, even though most of them are older. None of them are out of the house yet.”
“Are any of the kids here?”
“No, they’d be in a different section if there were more of them, toward where your parents stay, the larger rooms.” I could tell Jeff was controlling himself from breaking down the door. I was very impressed.
I looked down. Jamie was fast asleep. I had to figure ACE was blocking this from her, because there was no way she could miss hearing this, and her baby animal senses couldn’t miss picking up the levels of stress that were raging through this area.
“Wonderful. And we’re here, away from where we both work, why? Oh, wait, I forgot. So you could fawn over that human bitch your idiot brother married and their spawn. And, God forbid, we miss visiting your pathetic cousin. How many times are you going to go down there to see what you can do? All he wants is another shot of Surcenthumain.”
“Which should concern you! Someone addicted my cousin, and all you can do is belittle him for it.”
“He addicted himself, and willingly.”
I put my hand on Jeff’s arm. “Stay. I mean it. Chuckie, I just found our dealer.”
“Yep. What do you recommend?”
I considered. Jamie was still asleep. What a good baby. I considered my options and decided it was too early for Jamie to get in on the action with me. Maybe when she was more than a week old.
I unhooked the carrier and handed Jamie to Emily, who gave me a look that said she was fully aware of what I was about to do and that she approved. Melanie stepped in front of them and gave me the “go girl” look.
“What I always recommend. Don’t piss off the comics geek-girl.” I went to the door and kicked it in. Hey, I was impressed with Jeff’s restraint. Didn’t mean I had any to spare. Wood splintered and flew everywhere. Very cool. Happily, it missed the room’s occupants. Well, happily that it missed Sylvia. I was okay with it impaling Clarence, but no such luck. I walked in. They were both staring at me openmouthed.
“Clarence, never a pleasure. Hey, Sylvia. I’d like you to, you know, leave the room for a minute.”
“Kitty, we were just . . . arguing.” It was clear Sylvia knew how lame that sounded.
“Yeah. See, I know why the cops avoid domestic disputes. Married couples shrieking and yelling at each other bothers everyone else a lot. Cops show up, married couple now have a mutual target.” I looked at her. “But I’m not a cop.”
I moved, and I knew it was fast, and kicked Clarence right in the gut with one of my best side-blade kicks ever. He flew back and doubled over. “My spawn and I would like to introduce you to Kevin Lewis of the Presidential Terrorism Control Unit and Charles Reynolds, head of the C.I.A.’s Extraterrestrial Division. Chuckie and Kevin have interesting views on how to extract information. But
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