Alien Proliferation

him. Right now, it’s just the three of us, and I think it needs to stay that way. This information in the wrong hands could be incredibly dangerous. Fortunately, we have a large team working on understanding and countering the drug itself, so we have that knowledge. But as for having them work on this with us?” She shrugged. “We’re talking about the Heads of Field and Imageering and their families. Discoveries about Jamie’s development, your mutation, the outcome of Christopher’s addiction—all that information needs to remain highly classified, for your protection if nothing else.”
    “Can’t argue with the logic.”
    “No, but that means that while the three of us are good, we’re not going to get the answers as quickly as if we could assign a whole team.” Melanie shook her head. “I just hope we figure it all out before anything terrible happens.”

 
    CHAPTER 37
     
    “U M, EXCUSE ME? I THOUGHT you said no bad was happening? When did the situation status change?”
    Melanie managed a chuckle. “It hasn’t. We’re trained to look for all possibilities.”
    “And the possibility of things going badly always exists,” Emily added. “Right now, though, everything seems fine, and we have a lot of other issues going on.”
    “Can’t argue with the logic or the accurate summation of our business as usual.” I hit the Stop Elevator button again and we continued on. A thought occurred. “What’s your estimate of my being able to drive or fly now?”
    Melanie shrugged. “No idea. We’ll find out whenever you next try to drive or fly.”
    “Can’t wait.” I made the decision that I’d try driving first, and it wouldn’t be in my car. I loved my IS300, and I didn’t want to discover I was now too freaky-fast to handle human machinery by dropping the transmission. Lexus repairs weren’t cheap.
    We got out of the elevator and headed for the isolation area. It was big—it housed well over a hundred isolation chambers—because we had a lot of empaths, and they all needed to use these chambers to regenerate. None as often as Jeff, though. I couldn’t help it; every time I was in this area I worried about him. Possibly because it was the creepiest place in any A-C facility—like being in a cross between Frankenstein’s lab and a haunted Egyptian tomb, with a lot of extra tubes and needles added in just for fun.
    It occurred to me that Jeff had run off on a mission and no one had adrenaline with them. What if he needed it and no one was there to stab the adrenaline harpoon? All our medical people were here, I was here, and Jeff was out there, surrounded by hostiles.
    Jamie woke up crying. I took her out of the sack with Emily’s help and cuddled her. Diaper seemed fine, no interest in a torpedo, which made sense because they weren’t fully inflated yet. Figured I’d stressed her out worrying about Jeff. Did my best to calm down while doing the Mommy Dance and wondering if either ACE or the blocks were doing a damn thing.
    We reached the chamber where Christopher was. I was surprised to see Naomi and Abigail Gower there. They had the same ebony skin as their mother and older brothers, but now that I knew their father, I could see Stanley in them. Naomi saw us and grinned. I could see a trace of Jeff in her smile—genetics always impressed me. They were typical Dazzler gorgeous and also typical Dazzler nice.
    “Glad you’re here, Kitty. I think Christopher needs someone to talk to.” Naomi reached for the baby. “And I’ll take your little Jamie-Kat.” I handed her over, and Naomi cuddled her. “Precious girl,” Naomi cooed.
    “Awww, she loves her Auntie Naomi,” Abigail said with a giggle. “And her Mommy, too. And her Aunties Melanie and Emily and Abigail.” She winked at me. “I can feel it. She’s a happy baby.”
    There were gases naturally in Earth’s air that could be manipulated to cause humans to “see” or “remember” events differently. The male A-C agents, including Jeff and Christopher, had implants in their brains that allowed them to manipulate the gases to prevent panic when superbeings formed, or for other crowd control and safety measures. Abigail was able to manipulate these gases without outside assistance. She was also a sort of reverse-empath; unlike Jeff, who picked up what someone was feeling and why, Abigail’s emotions were affected by the people around her. If you were angry, it made her angry, and so forth.
    Naomi’s talents were