Alien Tango

might. “Taft told us all about your psychic and telekinetic abilities.”
    “Come again?” What did these people think we were, the X-Men?
    “We were going to blow up the plane to prove you were here on Earth. Everyone knows you’re invulnerable. We also know you can hold things together with your minds. If several of you were on the plane and part of it blew up, you’d all do your psychic thing and save the plane. Then we’d have the proof, and you couldn’t deny it.”
    I let go of Shannon’s jaw. “And, at no time did you ask yourself if this was, say, true?” They did think we were the X-Men. Wow.
    “Well, aliens exist. I mean, you’re here.” He had a point, but I was going to take it away from him.
    “No, they don’t. We’re human undercover operatives for an antiterrorism branch of the federal government. We’ve targeted your little Club 51 because it’s encouraging terrorist behavior.”
    Shannon shook his head. “I don’t believe you. No one in Club 51 will ever believe that. We know you’re here, and we know you’re evil and need to be wiped off the face of the Earth.”

CHAPTER 16
    I WOULD HAVE LOVED TO have spent more time with Shannon learning about what else the scary people in Club 51 thought aliens could do, but we still had to get to Florida. Sometime. But not, as it turned out, any time soon.
    Kevin had called in a whole bunch of federal agents. They seemed to take direction from him willingly. My mother wasn’t pretending—she did outrank everyone.
    The conspirators were taken away, handcuffed and heavily guarded. Their belongings went with them. The rest of the passengers had been triple-searched—no more bomb elements, no additional Club 51 cards.
    True to my word, I made sure Alicia got a tremendous amount of credit. Kevin was prepping her for what to say and not to say when the reporters were allowed in, which would be as soon as the innocent passengers were released. She was dazed, to the point where Tim was holding her up. I got the impression Tim was being chivalrous because he thought she was cute. Alicia wasn’t protesting about his arm around her waist.
    Reader noticed, too. “Not every day we stop a huge terrorism plot and one of our team gets to make a love connection. Last time was when you joined up, girlfriend.”
    “We could rename ourselves the Love Team.”
    “Gag.” Martini rubbed the back of my neck. “When can we get out of here?”
    “We have to wait at least three hours for our jet to get here and get prepped,” Reader replied. “I want only our own guys doing it, and it has to fly here, not use the Dome or a floater.”
    The Crash Site Dome was essentially the main gate hub. It was located where the original aliens, the Ancients, had first crash-landed in the U.S., so it had a lot of residual power. Larger equipment either went to the Dome and then to their final destination, or a floater gate was created. I still had no idea how that worked, and Christopher insisted I wouldn’t want to know.
    “Can we arrive at the Space Center at night?” Martini’s fingers felt great. I was having to control myself from arching into his hand.
    Martini shook his head. “No one will be there. It would make sense for us to gate over right now, while we could still deal with something today.”
    Reader sighed. “I’m with you, Jeff.”
    “Anyone know why Richard’s still dead set against it?” I waited to hear, “It’s political.”
    “No idea,” Reader said. Well, maybe I was the only one making the political connection. “Paul doesn’t know, but he’s insisted on coming with us now.” Gower had gone to pack but was expected back with us shortly.
    “You sure Richard won’t keep him there?” Martini asked.
    “Positive. Paul’s really pissed.”
    “Whatever’s going on, the pressure on him has to be incredible. I mean, his son and nephew were just targeted for death, and he’s still insisting we have to fly via jet.” A thought occurred. “Hang on.” I dug through my purse, pulled out my phone, and dialed. “Hey, Mom.”
    “How’s it going? Were you right?”
    “Dead on right. Kevin’s awesome, by the way.”
    “Yeah. Hope you and James didn’t embarrass yourselves.” Geez, Mom was never fooled by anything.
    “Um, sort of.”
    “I’ll bet. So, what’s the plan now?”
    “We’re still heading for Florida. Richard’s insisting we have to arrive by jet, not gate.”
    “Don’t take a commercial flight.”
    “Ahead