Alien Tango

with Caroline. I didn’t want to talk to her because I didn’t know how much she might know, and I didn’t want to have to play verbal gymnastics, but I wanted to see if she had any info on Reid and related issues. So I had to really word my texts well, and that took some work.
    All I got for my efforts was that the situation in Paraguay had quieted down and the government was taking a wait-and-see attitude. She was able to confirm that her senator didn’t like Reid, but she was slim on the whys and where-fores. She promised to let me know if she heard anything new about Paraguay or Reid, and that was pretty much all I could hope for from my lone Washington “insider.”
    Most of the time was spent discussing Caliente Base’s status. My parents ostensibly came to help, though they spent most of their time just hanging out. My mother had assigned Kevin to Caliente Base, so he was around a lot.
    I was thankful he was, because he was the only person besides me who was still on edge. Even my parents felt it was over, at least for a good while.
    Kevin and I were having coffee in the commissary. Caliente’s commissary wasn’t as good as Dulce’s, but it was still better than most five-star restaurants. “I don’t like it,” he said for the fifth time in fifteen minutes.
    “I don’t either. And everyone else thinks we’re crazy.”
    “Yeah. Even Angela thinks we’re spooked or overreacting.” He sighed. “Maybe we are.”
    “We’re not. I know it in my gut, and so do you.” I took a deep breath and tried to articulate what was bothering me. “Something’s missing. Like in Star Wars , when the Millennium Falcon gets away from the Death Star, and Princess Leia says the bad guys let them go, because their escape was too easy?”
    “And she’s right, yeah.” He cocked his head at me. “I don’t know that I’d call our escape easy.”
    “You sound like you’re auditioning to be Han Solo.” I had to admit Kevin could do it, but Martini would carry the role off better. “It’s the jet.”
    “What about it? No bomb was attached. It was scanned before we left and once we were back, too.”
    “It was also sitting at Kennedy, unguarded, for two days.”
    “But there’s nothing wrong with it.”
    I closed my eyes. It was there, the answer, just tickling me at the back of my brain. I wondered if ACE had left that little bit of Terry inside me if I’d know what it was, be able to see what was wrong. Maybe, since I couldn’t get it.
    I felt a hand on the back of my neck and jumped. “Hey, why are you so nervous?” Martini asked.
    “You startled me. I was trying to think.” I tried to arch into his hand, but he took it away.
    “Sorry, I’ll let you two be alone.” He stalked off.
    Kevin raised his eyebrow. “Something going on with you and Jeff?”
    “I don’t know. He’s been . . . different since we got back from Florida.”
    Kevin’s eyes narrowed. “Different how?”
    “Moody, suspicious, overtired. He’s taking anything I say to mean I don’t want to be with him.” My stomach was in knots.
    “Maybe you two should get away for a few days.”
    “We go to my ten-year high school reunion tonight.” I wasn’t packed, but that was because I was stalling.
    “That should be fun.”
    “I’m dreading it. But Jeff really wants to go.” I looked around. He wasn’t in the commissary anywhere.
    “Go after him. I’ll handle the worrying about what we’re missing for both of us for a while.” He grinned and his smile made me feel a little better.
    As I headed to our room, I realized that part of why Kevin’s smile was comforting was because I hadn’t seen Martini’s too often since we’d been back. Riding in an elevator without him tended to make me horny. Today it made me want to cry. My real fear about our relationship—that I was attractive to him because I was forbidden fruit—stampeded up and waved at me. He’d started acting differently as soon as we’d gotten back and White had confirmed that sanctified and approved interspecies marriages were on the horizon.
    By the time I reached our room, I was almost in tears. Martini was in there, sitting on the couch, looking upset. “So, you and Kevin having a thing?”
    I closed the door and forced myself not to cry. If he was going to do this to me, I wasn’t going to let him know how much it hurt. “Jeff, what’s wrong? Are you sick or just out of it?”
    “You seemed into it with him.”
    “He’s happily