Alien Tango

great shots. The men with him might have tried to do something to stop me, but Jerry and Joe had guns trained on them. Which was fine with me, because I wanted to kill this guy.
    “Stop! Who the hell are you? Stop hitting me!” He was trying to grab my wrists, but I had his body under control, and my adrenaline was pumped so high I could move faster and hit hard.
    Someone’s arm went around my waist, and I was lifted into the air. “Stop, baby,” Martini said softly. The man started to get up, but Martini slammed him back down with his foot. “I feel like crap, and I’m getting seriously pissed. Who the hell are you, and why don’t you tell us what’s going on?”
    “He’s Fred Turco,” Martini, Sr., answered. “He’s in charge of Security.”
    “He sucks at it.” I’d given up on making a good impression a bomb ago. Martini flipped me around and put me down carefully, keeping a firm hold on me so I couldn’t lunge at Turco again.
    Turco got to his feet. “Who the hell are you? I’d like to know so I get your name right on the police report.”
    “She’s Katherine Katt.” Kevin was with us. “Her mother’s name is Angela Katt. You might have heard of her . . . she’s the head of the P.T.C.U. And I’m her second-in-command, Kevin Lewis. Let me say that we’re all really unimpressed over at the P.T.C.U. Apparently, any kind of terrorist can get into Kennedy, home grown or from outer space.” He looked around. “You can shut off the goddamned water now!” He thundered well. Not up to Martini’s standards, but no one could bellow like my man.
    The water slowed and stopped. Turco was fuming. “She had no right to attack me.”
    I tried to get out of Martini’s hold. “Let’s go, you little jerk!”
    “She’s a bit upset,” Kevin said. “And is reflecting our entire team’s feelings about this matter. You’re the one who should be worried, Mr. Turco. Because unless you have a great explanation for how this attack on Centaurion personnel happened, I’m going to have you taken to Guantanamo for questioning.”
    “You can’t do that,” Turco said, but he sounded unsure.
    “Try me.” Kevin was almost as intimidating as my mother. If I hadn’t been impressed before, I would have been now.
    “We don’t know,” Turco said sullenly. “No alarms went off. One of the workers alerted us to trouble.”
    “The system must have been tampered with,” I told Kevin. “The room was filled with smoke and flames when I got in, and there were no alarms or sprinklers going off. They started after James and I had gotten some of the fire under control. Also, there had to be something else in the bomb—everyone was out too fast for smoke inhalation.”
    He nodded. “I want this place in lockdown, and I want it locked down as of thirty minutes ago, if you get my drift.”
    “Then I want a personnel check.”
    “Your mother may be important, little girl, but you’re not. I don’t take orders from you,” Turco snarled.
    Before I could try to leap out of Martini’s arms to tackle this guy again, Christopher was there and punched him in the face. Turco went down on his butt, holding his nose. “You talk to her with respect, or I just break your neck.” Christopher looked at me. “I told you to run away.”
    “Jeff already complained about being alive. You too?”
    “Let’s get this place locked down,” Kevin said. “Then I’ll be happy to let Centaurion Division do the interrogations.”
    Turco looked nervous. “No. My people will be interrogated by a human.”
    Martini let me go. “Great.” I walked over to Turco. “I’ll be glad to play the role of bad cop. And I have seven men with me who will be happy to play the roles of badder to baddest to oh-my-freaking-lord cop. They’re all military and A-C trained, and unlike our brothers from another planet, humans know about and love to torture.”
    Turco swallowed. “You have no authority to do that.”
    I pulled out the badge Mom had given me. “Wanna bet?”
    I looked at the men who’d come with Turco. “This place, locked down, all personnel and visitor records in my hands within fifteen minutes, or I promise you’ll be spending the rest of your miserable lives somewhere in Siberia. We have a lovely exchange program, and they’re always thrilled when we send some Americans over instead of asking for them back.”
    The men took a look at the badge, and then they raced off. I turned back to Turco. “You’ll get the fun