Alien Tango

well, but duty called. Besides, I wasn’t sure if Gladys could intercom us in there or not and had no desire to find out that she could.
    We reached the top level of the Science Center and saw Reader and Tim there already. Gower was nowhere around, which shocked me to my core. We’d never left on a mission without Gower coming to say good-bye to Reader.
    While Martini handled some issues, I grabbed Reader and pulled him aside. “Is everything okay?”
    He grimaced. “No idea, girlfriend. We weren’t fighting or anything before this. But Paul’s really upset. I’m not sure if he’s not here because he wants to go or doesn’t want the rest of us to go.”
    I hugged him. “I’m sorry.”
    He laughed and kept his arm around my shoulders. “No problem. If he’s still acting funny when we get back, I’ll just tell him I’ve decided to go straight and take you away from all this.”
    It was our joke that wasn’t all that much of a joke. Being together would make our lives so much simpler, and Reader was easily as gorgeous as Martini, one of the few humans who could pass as an A-C. I never said the wrong thing to him, either. Plus his parents would be thrilled if he turned straight. So, winner all the way around. Of course, he was gay and in love with Gower, and I was a lot more in love with Martini than I liked to admit even to myself, but still, we joked about it all the time. Martini never found it funny, though.
    I heard a familiar throat clear behind us. “Mine, thanks.” Martini grabbed my hand and pulled me away from Reader.
    “You worry too much, Jeff,” Reader said, shooting us both his cover-boy grin.
    Martini grunted. “Right. We’re ready to go.” Christopher had joined us while I was talking to Reader. Like the rest of us, he had a small rolling bag.
    “Go where?” I didn’t see a plane.
    “Gate to Saguaro International, we’re catching a plane there.” The way he said it you’d have thought we were going to have our vital organs removed at the same time.
    Since we were carting luggage, we had to go through single-file. Martini went first, then me, followed by Christopher and Reader, with Tim bringing up the rear. I stepped through, and the whooshing race through time and space started, as did my nausea, right on cue. I exited the gate as per normal—wanting to barf my guts out.
    Sadly, I didn’t get that luxury. I had to move out of the toilet stall to see just how many men were already in the restroom waiting to gape at me in horror. Oh, good. A lot of them. Including, lucky me, a policeman. And being the wrong sex in the bathroom was a big deal in Arizona.

CHAPTER 10
    THE COP LOOKED AT ME, and I reached into my purse. He went for his gun. Martini moved so fast I couldn’t see it, but the cop was on the floor, knocked cold.
    “Jeff, what the hell?” Christopher asked, as he pulled me to the side.
    “Oh, that’s not going to be easy to explain,” Reader said as he exited the stall of wonder.
    “Yeah,” Tim echoed as he joined us. “Why’d you knock him out?”
    There were a lot of other men in the bathroom, all frozen in what looked like terror and all wanting, clearly, to know the same answer.
    A-Cs really couldn’t lie, even when they’d worked at it for years, as Martini had. It was, as was always the case in our bathroom escapades, up to me.
    “Federal officer,” I barked. “Nobody move.” The men complied; most of them hadn’t been moving anyway. I jerked my head toward the cop. “Let’s get him out of here.” Martini nodded and hefted the cop over his shoulder. A-Cs were strong as well as fast. I managed to keep myself from drooling—every time Martini did something I considered overwhelmingly manly I wanted to have my way with him immediately, regardless of the situation.
    I looked around and gave the men an icy stare. At least, I hoped it was icy. I’d been practicing, and in the mirror it was intimidating. Reader and Martini had, so far, only laughed at it. “Gentlemen, you’re lucky. I’d suggest you all do your best to forget this little incident ever happened.” I stalked out, with the rest of my guys following. My icy glare worked on strangers, at least.
    We got out of the bathroom, and I turned so we were at a waiting area that, happily, had no plane leaving or arriving for a while, so it was fairly empty. Martini dropped the cop onto a seat.
    “You could be a bit nicer to him,” Reader said.
    “He was going to shoot Kitty,” Martini