Alien Tango

guy out of his chair. Thompson flew five feet and landed, but Martini grabbed him by the neck and started to squeeze. “Maybe you could, you know, tell us what we want to know before I break your neck.”
    I looked at Maureen. “You want to give us something better than Howard?” She looked sullen again. “Babe, let’s be real. All three of your boys here want to do me. My men get a little jealous, but they answer to me. And ruining your little boys here for any other woman sounds like a lot of fun. Now, you can protect some other man who we both know would want to do me if he were here, or you can help yourself by being the one to cooperate. Your choice.”
    I avoided looking at Martini. Because in my view, he’d again done something manly, protective, and possessive, and he was the only person I wanted to interrogate with my clothes off. Right now. I wondered if there was a private room somewhere in the airport we could find.
    “Don’t kill me,” Thompson gasped out. “We’ll talk.”
    “She can talk, and then I can kill you,” Martini growled. Oh, man, he needed to stop. I was ready to have my way with him here in front of everyone. We probably should have ignored Gladys back at the Lair. It wasn’t as if we’d have missed any of this.
    I sighed and dragged myself away from my fantasies of joining the Mile High Club with Martini and forced my mind back to the matter at hand. “So, Maureen? What’s it going to be?”
    “Howard Taft is our Supreme Leader.”
    “You’re joking, right?”
    Maureen shook her head. “No, he’s really named after the late President.”
    I almost asked who would name their kid after Taft but then realized the answer was a crackpot and needed no further clarification. “Put her on her feet,” I said to Gower. “But don’t let go.”
    Once she was standing, Maureen shared some more. “We have a large organization. They won’t let you get away with this.”
    “Maureen, you’re all part of Club 51, which means you have a large organization of loons. While loons can be dangerous, I think your current predicament proves your organization’s planning skills leave something to be desired. Now, give me the full details or watch me do your men here with a lot of skill and nastiness.”
    Shannon moaned quietly. Martini, still holding Thompson off the ground by his neck, moved and grabbed Shannon’s neck with his free hand. Now both of them were off the ground. I wondered if Martini was doing this just to turn me into a puddle. It was working, intentional or not.
    “Oh,” I added. “Let’s also remember that you’re going to need a fabulous lawyer to have a hope of staying out of jail for a goodly portion of your remaining life span. You’re part of a terrorist conspiracy, and believe me, we’ve got the proof.” As I said this, Kevin brought in both stewardesses who’d been identified by the bomb dogs and a couple of businessmen. “The only chance you’ve got is cooperation.”
    Maureen heaved a sigh. “Fine.”
    Before she could say anything else, the brunette stewardess spoke. “What’s this all about?”
    “Oh, please. Club 51. Now, shut up or spill. Period. These are the only options. I’m getting seriously bored.” And beyond horny. Martini was pretty much doing barbell lifts with Thompson and Shannon. I knew he was doing it to get me, but I was well past caring. The part of me that was concerned about him losing emotional control was being overruled by the part of me that just wanted to rip his clothes off.
    Our four new arrivals all contrived to look innocent, but I’d spent a lot of time in the last few months with people who really couldn’t lie, and my internal lie detector was working on all cylinders. We had eight, two of whom were crew, and that should mean Kevin and the Bomb Squad could make a complete bomb out of what these folks had brought aboard.
    Maureen spoke quickly now. I assumed she didn’t want anyone else to get the lighter sentence. “There are a lot of Club 51 chapters. Howard Taft is the head of all of Club 51. He’s based out of Florida.” Oh? Interesting. “He knows all about you aliens, and he has powerful friends in the government.”
    “One named Leventhal?”
    Maureen, Thompson, Shannon, and Lee looked blank. So did the two businessmen and the blonde stewardess. The brunette one, however, wiped her face of emotion. I pointed to her. “Take her away into solitary. That’s our group leader.”
    Maureen turned