Alien Tango

seemed freaked. The brunette tried to move past, but Reader grabbed her. Both of them were moved to the holding area.
    I looked over my shoulder; Martini was talking to one of our spare A-Cs who then went and talked to the bomb guys.
    And so it went. A few more suspects, then the plane was supposedly empty. Christopher took three A-Cs inside to do the cabin search. And came out with a little guy who looked like a weasel. “He was in the bathroom,” Christopher said, as he dragged him to Martini.
    “I had to go!” The guy was shorter than me, and I really figured I could take him easy, best two out of three. He was slight, poorly dressed, and looked like a smoker, if his teeth were any indication.
    Martini shrugged. “We’ll find out.” He looked over to the security guards. “Someone gets the unenviable task of looking to see what he got rid of in the toilet.”
    “Urine!” He sounded panicked. “I’m not kidding, I couldn’t hold it anymore, we sat there for hours waiting for you guys.”
    Martini looked at me and we both smiled. “What’s your name, sir?” I asked him.
    “Shannon.”
    “Isn’t that a girl’s name?” Tim asked.
    “It’s traditionally male,” Shannon huffed.
    “True. So, Shannon, let me put it this way . . . you can tell us what part in this you played, or we can use you as the example for your cronies of what we’re going to do if they don’t spill.”
    “What’re you talking about?” he gasped. “I don’t know what’s going on.”
    “Then . . . how did you know the plane was waiting for us ?” I let that one sink in while watching Shannon’s eyes dart around frantically.
    Martini chuckled. “He knew because he’s absolutely in on it.” He pulled me to him. “Use him as the litmus test for who his pals are?” he whispered in my ear.
    “Mmmm . . . yeah.” I had to control myself from rubbing up against him. There was something about being in these high-stress, dangerous situations that made me want to jump Martini’s bones more than normal.
    “You’re an adrenaline junkie,” he whispered. “But that’s okay. I think it’s sexy.”
    I managed to keep it together, mostly because Shannon’s pitiful excuses wrenched me back to the reality of our situation. I went back to the rest of our team. “Let’s start figuring out who has what. Oh, and Shannon? You’ll talk, or we’ll each take turns seeing how hard we can hit your face.”
    “Not in the face,” he gasped. I didn’t know why, a broken nose might be an improvement for him.
    Kevin knew. He wrenched Shannon’s jaws open—and pulled out his teeth.

CHAPTER 13
    “PLASTICS,” Kevin said as he handed the dentures to the Bomb Squad guy who’d raced over.
    Reader pulled out a couple of wipes from his inner suit pocket. “Here you go, that has to be gross.”
    “Thanks,” Kevin gave Reader a friendly smile. Reader grinned back, and I saw Gower’s eyes narrow. Reader and I were going to be in trouble with our respective mates when we were alone, that was clear. Because even if Martini was okay with my drooling over Kevin, I knew he’d find a way to make me pay for it. Of course, it would be a way I’d enjoy to the point of wanting to self-destruct from pleasure. I hoped Reader’s punishment would be similar. It wasn’t like we could help it—Kevin really had bags and bags of charisma.
    Shannon was dragged off to our main suspects area, still protesting that he just needed dentures.
    “How stupid is that guy? I mean, who would get dentures that look like crap?”
    “He seems pretty stupid, but that could just be an act.” Kevin sighed. “We don’t have enough with his teeth and the iPod. We’re missing the trigger, at least. I’d guess we have at least five others involved, maybe more. And we also need to identify what group managed to find this many willing suicidals.”
    I thought about this as we walked to the main suspects holding area. “The old folks. There’s something really wrong about them.”
    “Well, that’s going to be tough, they’re really creating a scene.” Kevin didn’t look happy.
    As we reached them, the old lady started up again. “This is just like what they did in Uganda! They separated the Jews and then tried to kill them!”
    My mother was an Italian-American former Catholic who had somehow been the only non-Israeli, non-Jew to ever join the Mossad. She’d met my very Jewish-American father in Tel Aviv. I had my father’s fair coloring but I