Alien Tango

willing to buy that Martini had no idea of what giving you that thing would do.”
    I felt myself relax a bit. “He wouldn’t do something to put me in danger, let alone the entire world. He’s spent his whole life protecting it.”
    Chuckie patted my hand. “I know. But I had to be sure.”
    “You don’t think he’s faking it?”
    “I see his sarcastic ways are rubbing off on you.” Chuckie leaned next to me and spoke softly in my ear, so no one else could hear. “I know they can’t lie. I’ve seen him angry before, more than you, probably. I’ve also seen him scared. And he’s both.”
    I gave him a dirty look, and whispered into his ear. “You make it sound like Jeff wets himself or something. He’s not scared often, if at all.”
    Chuckie laughed, then did the ear thing again. “I love this, but you’re going to get in trouble when he’s off the phone. And, I didn’t mean it as an insult. Like most of us, he gets scared. But he shows it like, well, I show it, or White shows it—by getting angry, going into an authority mode, and so on.” He laughed softly again. “I’m not insinuating your man’s a wimp, Kitty. If he was, I’d be running Centaurion already.”
    I was going to ask him what that meant when Richard White entered the room. He’d used hyperspeed to get dressed and over here, which was sort of a relief. He took a look around. “What’s going on?”
    Martini looked at me over his shoulder. “Tell him.” Then he went back to his phone call.
    I took a deep breath. “We have unexpected company coming.”
    White looked at the necklace. “Oh, my God.”

    When the head of an entire religious organization says that, any calm left in the room goes running to hide under the covers.
    White sat down in the only open chair, which happened to be the one Martini had vacated. It didn’t appear to be an issue—Martini was still on the phone with his father, and I got the impression it was going from bad to worse.
    “You want to explain this? Keeping in mind we have both the C.I.A. and the P.T.C.U. represented in the room?” White looked shaken enough I felt it necessary to remind him he wasn’t with family, only.
    He shook his head. “I can’t believe it.”
    “Neither can we. Not that we know what ‘it’ is, but we’re willing to bet we won’t believe it, either.”
    White looked at Chuckie. “Were there lights somewhere?”
    “Funny you should ask.” Chuckie explained the light pattern, both physical and time-wise, and where they were located. “What about those mountain ranges is significant?”
    “Nothing, they’re just close and in the right formation.” White had his head leaning in one hand. I was prepared for every A-C to do this shortly.
    “So that message could have been sent in to any region?” Chuckie was being polite, but I could tell he was getting tired of one-sentence answers.
    “No. It went to the nearest formation by the active piece.” White indicated the necklace. “How did you realize what it was?”
    Chuckie shrugged. “I’m more observant than most people.” This I knew to be true. “I’ve seen that thing around Kitty’s neck any time I’ve seen her for the last six months. It was easy to recognize. Six months ago, the second time I saw it,” he added.
    “Why didn’t you bring this to our attention sooner?” White sounded angry.
    Chuckie let the knife show, just a bit. “Because we had to make sure this wasn’t some kind of dangerous power play being made by Centaurion personnel.” He pointedly looked over at Martini.
    “Jeffrey has nothing to do with this,” White said, eyes narrowed.
    “Bullshit. He has everything to do with it. However, I’m willing to accept that he had no idea what giving that necklace to Kitty was going to trigger.”
    “Richard, it’s sort of creepier than that. The first light manifestation appeared during Operation Fugly.” On cue, White winced. “Um, I mean, during the Big Take-down. Or whatever you call it.” I never paid attention to their names for offensives—they were always official and boring.
    “When Jeff knew he wanted to marry her,” Christopher added quietly. “As near as Reynolds has told us, pretty much the same night.”
    White nodded. “They are tuned to the family, and Jeffrey’s the last in Alfred’s line.” He closed his eyes. “This will happen with you, too, son.”
    “What?” Christopher looked shocked. “I’m not getting married. And, I’m part of your