Alien Proliferation

an older man. However, Mister Reynolds felt I wasn’t meeting with the, as you put it, Head Fugly, but one of his associates.”
    I watched Clarence carefully. “So he was a young man, around, oh, twenty-five?” Clarence twitched and looked away.
    “Beg pardon? I said he was older. About my age.”
    “And he gave you a feeling of familiarity?” Clarence’s whole body was tensed, I could see it and Chuckie nodded to me.
    “Missus Martini, perhaps I’m not coming through?”
    “Perfectly, Mister White. Perfectly. I’ll fill you in later. I have some traitors to deal with first, however.”
    “I see our luck holds firm.”
    “You know it.” I handed the phone back to Jeff. “Ronaldo’s not a hybrid, is he?”
    “He’s not?” Jeff sounded confused.
    Chuckie gave me a long look. “He’s Serene’s older brother, isn’t he?”

 
    CHAPTER 35
     
    “G OT IT IN ONE! Not that I doubted you for a second,
    Chuckie.” Clarence’s reaction had been pretty much textbook A-C trying to lie, and it said very clearly that we had a bigger problem than we’d thought. Par for our course.
    “Yeah.” Chuckie looked toward Amy. “Still say you’re too trusting.”
    “Possibly. But I doubt it. Take my relative by marriage down to a nasty cell and do the C.I.A. thing, will you? Be sure to stay available by phone.”
    “Happily. I’d like some company.”
    “I want to keep you or Kevin with us, and you interrogate better, so . . .”
    “Tito, go with him.” Jeff looked to Reader. “James—”
    “Staying here.” He pulled out his phone. “I need two teams, transient floor, ASAP.” Waited a couple of seconds, four guys in the Armani fatigues appeared. “Help Reynolds and Tito. Do what they say.”
    They nodded, and the pack of them went off, down to the fifteenth floor, I was fairly sure.
    Sylvia was sobbing quietly. “He’s not a bad man.” Jeff had his arm around her. It was the closest I’d ever seen them.
    “Most traitors aren’t. They just convince themselves that doing the wrong thing makes sense.”
    Doreen came out of their room. “What have my parents done?”
    “You know what I love most about you, Doreen? Your ability to know exactly who’s behind this crap every time.”
    She sighed. “I grew up with them.” She shuddered. “I hope our baby’s nothing like either one of them.”
    “Your baby will be like you and Irving.” I sincerely hoped. I had another thought. “Did Tim call you?”
    “Yeah, hours ago, though. He wanted to know what the security was on the Embassy. Said he wanted to verify it was working. I told him. Was that wrong?” She looked worried.
    “No, it’s great.” I hugged her. “Look, do me a favor. I have to talk to Jeff. Can you two get Sylvia calmed down and, I don’t know, take her somewhere else?”
    “We were going to go down to the library. That’s where your grandparents said they were going. And it sounded like they were kind of having a party.”
    “Great! They’ll love having the three of you. Sylvia, be sure to spend some time with my Nona Maria. She’ll be happy to tell you about my Aunt Carla’s ex-husbands, all of whom will make Clarence sound good.” I actually felt for any man stupid enough to marry my Aunt Carla, but my Nona had a different take on it.
    Jeff hugged Sylvia tightly, then Doreen and Irving took her and went off. I looked around. “Amy, have to ask you something.”
    She was staring at me. “I think I should be asking you. How did you hold that man off the ground? Like it was nothing?”
    “Long story. Look, I wasn’t kidding, we’re at our usual crisis. I need you helping us, because I think we’re going to hear a lot of French, and no one’s fluent other than you.”
    “You’re kidding. You want to bring her along?” Jeff sounded incredulous.
    “Yeah, I do.”
    “Keeping in mind that you, and our baby, are not going anywhere.”
    “Sure we are. We’re going to go visit Uncle Christopher while you guys act like the cavalry and go help Tim.”
    “Help Tim do what?” Jeff sounded confused and frustrated. I had to remind myself that I’d been the one who’d spent the years with the Conspiracy King. “And I hate it when you think about him like that.”
    “Chuckie’s the best at what he does, Jeff. Just like you.”
    “I can’t believe Chuck asked you to marry him and you might have considered it for, like, a second.” Amy sounded repulsed.
    Jeff gave her a very friendly look. “I like how