Alien Tango

was on his knees. I dropped and held him. Reader did the same and held us both. We all cringed as the cars headed right toward us. I looked back to see the others in the same kind of crouch, Martini shielding Lorraine while Christopher shielded Serene. Martini looked up at me, mouthed, “I love you,” then winced. I knew the cars were about to hit.
    But before they reached the shield, the cars exploded. I looked forward to see flaming parts flying through the air. The wreckage sailed toward us, hit the shield, and blew over. There was another explosion, and the monster truck blew up.
    I looked through the flames to see Claudia standing in the middle of the road, holding a rocket launcher. There were headlights in the distance behind her. I hoped it was our ride, but I figured she was ready in case it wasn’t.
    The car parts stopped flying, and the shield went down. “Stay with Paul,” I told Reader as I extracted myself and ran to Claudia. She was shaking. “You were awesome.”
    “No one kills my team while I’m around,” she said. “You know what? I like fieldwork. I don’t want to stay in the lab all day, I want to do this, all the time.” Another adrenaline junkie added to the corps.
    “Did anyone get out of the truck, that you saw?”
    She shook her head. “No idea. I got here just in time.”
    “Totally in the nick of time, which is perfect hero stuff.” I took the opportunity to put a fresh clip into my Glock. “Those our boys in the distance?”
    “Yeah, I didn’t pass anyone else on the way here.” We started walking back to the others, but stopped dead.
    There was a big man who resembled a walrus standing there, next to Martini who was on his knees with his hands behind his head. Martini’s shirt was still open, and this scene was far too reminiscent for comfort. The man was holding a gun to Martini’s temple with one hand and Serene’s throat with the other. She wasn’t struggling, but I could see she was conscious. The rest of the team were facedown on the ground.
    “Move and I kill him.”

CHAPTER 59
    CLAUDIA AND I DIDN’T MOVE.
    “Put the weapons down,” Taft said.
    Claudia slowly put the rocket launcher down. I didn’t move.
    “You want me to kill this alien piece of shit? Happy to,” Taft snarled. “I said to drop the gun, bitch.”
    My mother had spent some time with me at the shooting range since I’d discovered she was the Annie Oakley of antiterrorism. She’d had a lot of advice for situations like this. Drop your weapon was not one of them.
    I was in a good enough stance for shooting because of how I’d stopped, legs about shoulder length apart, well balanced. Distance wasn’t an issue, plenty close enough. The issue was, could I aim, fire, and hit Taft before he pulled the trigger and blew Martini’s brains out?
    I made eye contact with Martini and did my best to send some sort of emotional signal that I wasn’t backing down and he should do something to help me. He closed and opened his eyes slowly—I had no idea if he’d gotten my clue or was saying good-bye.
    “So, Howard Taft, right?”
    “That’s right. Drop your gun.”
    “Why? So you can slaughter all of us more easily?” Keep ’em talking, that was my modus operandi, and it tended to work in my favor.
    “I’ll let you all live if you cooperate. I have what I want.” He shook Serene. I heard her whimper.
    “Yeah, you’ve done a nice piece of work on her. So, before you go, how’d you get the crazy juice into her?”
    He gave me an evil smile. “You figured it out? You’re smarter than you look.”
    I resisted the urge to give a sarcastic reply. “Wow, thanks. So? How? I’m not smart enough to figure it out.” I heard a car stop behind us, but no doors opened. I hoped this was our guys and they were clear on what was going on.
    “These aliens are so trusting. Especially if they have abandonment issues and just want another mommy.”
    I got a sick feeling in my stomach. “Helen is one of you?”
    “Oh, yeah.” Serene sobbed and he grinned. “We identified this one as the right stuff for what we wanted. Give her home-baked goodies laced with drugs that make her a little bit psychotic. Focus her onto a jerk who happens to be enamored of someone we know is connected to Centaurion Division. Encourage, drug, encourage. Have to say, her bombs were an added plus. She’s a keeper, and we’ll be keeping her nice and safe.”
    “You people really are the scum of the Earth, aren’t