Alien Tango

the person I want to know about. If they’re close enough to me, I can see them.”
    “What’s your range?”
    “About fifty miles.” She gave a shuddering sigh. “I’m in real trouble, aren’t I?”
    “You think? You’re using a heretofore unknown and hidden talent to cause destruction and mayhem. I don’t think that goes over well with A-Cs or humans.”
    “What am I going to do?” Why was she asking me? Did I have savior printed on my forehead or something?
    Martini cleared his throat. “Serene, if you come in now, we can work to get charges reduced.”
    “I can’t. I just can’t.” She sounded panicked.
    “That’s okay,” I said quickly. “I understand. Listen . . . this will sound out of left field, but can you find a dead body?”

CHAPTER 53
    “WHAT?” Serene sounded shocked.As if,somehow, spying on people with her second sight talents and trying to kill them was normal, but searching for a dead body wasn’t?
    “Someone murdered Karl Smith today while he was at Kennedy. But we can’t find his body. There’s a huge anti-alien plot going on, people are trying to kill every A-C and those of us who work with them, and they almost succeeded multiple times today. Smith was trying to warn me when he was shot.”
    “Sorry, but I can’t. If he were alive and in range, I could. But I can’t see anyone once they’re dead. I’ve tried before.”
    “Worth asking.” Dammit.
    “You’re sure he’s dead?” she asked slowly.
    “Positive. I heard it happen, and Alfred and a team found his body. It was stolen from where they’d left it.”
    “Well, there are ways around here to get rid of a body.” Serene sounded a bit ill. “I’m looking at some right now.”
    I figured she was at the Lighthouse. Where else? She’d suggested it, and I had to figure it was because she was there. Maybe the height gave her talents a boost. So, what would she be seeing from the vantage point? Oh, duh. “You think they fed his body to the alligators?”
    “Yeah, I do.” Amazing. We sounded like we were working together.
    Martini nodded and mouthed, “Makes sense.” I hated the people who were responsible even more now.
    “So, sorry, but this is just an idle curiosity question. How can you see us? I mean, how does it work?”
    “I’ve never talked about it to anyone.”
    “I can understand why, but you’re going to have to, sooner or later. Practice on me. Oh, and how did you send the bomb at me and Brian? I mean, I know you weren’t in the Space Center.” I hated to admit it, but I was honestly interested in the answer, for a variety of reasons. I heard the phrase “next step in our evolution” ringing in my head. This was what I was expecting out of a lot of A-C/human pairings, but discovering that the first real protomutant was dangerously unhinged was sort of taking the wind out of the high side.
    “I need to have met the person, or at least have seen them before. I . . . know who they are from looking at them.”
    “Imageering talent,” Martini said. He rolled out of bed. “Serene, I’m going to get Christopher White in here with us, okay?”
    “Why?”
    “Because he’s the best imageer you have, and he’s Jeff’s cousin.”
    Martini pulled out a clean pair of pants and looked at me. “Get dressed.”
    I sighed and did as he told me. Martini left the room. “So, while we wait, why Brian?”
    “He’s sweet. And smart.” Ah, the old smart thing . . . apparently it was the Dazzler weakness.
    Another thought occurred. “Serene, have you ever seen a picture of either Howard Taft, the father of Frank Taft from Security, or Leventhal Reid, who I think is a senator or representative from this state?”
    “I think I have . . . yes. I’ve been in Frank’s cubby a couple of times. He’s a big man, kind of looks like a walrus?”
    “That’d be him.”
    She was quiet. “He’s not in range.”
    “Do me a favor, and this is between us. Check for him periodically, and when you can spot him and where he is, call me immediately.”
    “Okay.” She sounded confused. “Are you not mad at me?”
    “Um, how can I put this? For trying to kill me, Jeff, Brian, and everyone we were standing near earlier today? Yeah, I’m pretty pissed. But you seem to be on the normal side of the seesaw right now, and your talent is pretty damned awesome. The best thing you could do for yourself is be helpful, because anything you can do to help us stop the anti-alien conspiracy is going to go a long