Alien Tango

of interrogation first. Jerry, Joe, pick this creep up.”
    “Where do you want him, Commander?” Jerry asked.
    “Let’s take him somewhere very private.”
    “That won’t be necessary,” Turco said, trying to regain some authority. “I have an office here.”
    “You lost your chance to play nicely several minutes ago. In the space of a few hours there have been two murderous attacks on my team. That makes me really irritable.” I moved right into his face. “And you know how we women get when we’re irritable.”
    He had some gumption. Either that or he was suicidal. “That time of the month?”
    The elbow is the hardest bone in the human body, and I’d taken kung fu for many years and, as I’d told Chuckie, I was seriously training again. I did an elbow slam right under his chin. His head went back, and he went out.
    “Can we?” Joe asked.
    “Be my guest.”
    They dropped him on the floor.
    Jerry grinned. “I love working for you.”

CHAPTER 25
    I TOOK A DEEP BREATH, did a quick check to make sure my breasts were still in my top and my top was still in my jacket. Intact but pretty much wrecked. Although the Dulce Science Center seemed to have the best dry cleaners on the planet hidden in there somewhere. Of course, it looked as though it was going to be a long time before I got back home.
    Unfortunately, I hadn’t put my hair in a ponytail. That should mean I resembled a drowned cat right about now. Oh, well, nothing for it. I put my shoulders back and turned around.
    Martini was watching me, arms crossed over his chest, a small smile on his face. He looked close to normal if I could avoid staring at the spot in his chest where the needle had gone in—that was red and already bruising. Christopher was next to him, hands on his hips, surveying the scene. He looked okay, too. The others were there as well now. Gower had his arm around Reader’s shoulders, but they both looked fine, Tim as well.
    “Okay, so all of Alpha Team’s accounted for and alive.” I looked to Martini, Sr. He was standing near his son, but not as close as Christopher was. Not a surprise from what I’d picked up, but a disappointment. He was a little shorter than his son, but only by an inch or so. I put my hand out. “I’m Katherine Katt, Mr. Martini. Pleased to meet you.”
    He looked at my hand but didn’t offer his. I could see out of the corner of my eye, and his whole body had gone tense; Christopher had on Martini’s shoulder. Martini, Sr., looked at my face. “We don’t shake hands with people we care about . . . or who care about us.” He walked over and hugged me.
    I thought I was going to faint, but I managed to recover and just hug him back. Martini looked beyond relieved.
    We pulled apart. “May I call you Kitty?”
    “Sure, Mr. Martini, I’d like that.”
    He smiled, and I saw Martini’s grin. Frankly, I saw Martini’s everything—hair, eyes, chin, face, body structure—just a few decades older. Genetics, you had to love it. Martini was going to age incredibly well. “I’d be pleased if you’d call me Alfred. Mr. Martini seems a bit formal.”
    Well, I didn’t call anyone but the Sovereign Pontifex “Mr.,” and most of the time White asked me to call him Richard. “Okay, Alfred. Thank you.” I knew I’d passed some sort of test, but I wasn’t sure if it was the final or merely a pop quiz.
    “Thank you for saving us. Again, from what I’ve heard.”
    No time like the present. “Jeff saved you, I didn’t. If he hadn’t blocked you, you’d be dead.”
    Lorraine nodded and then went behind Martini to check on her main patient.
    Alfred, as I now forced myself to think of him, gave me a long, penetrating look. “But you saved Jeffrey. And that matters more to me.” I could see Martini—he looked shocked, but he put a bland look on his face as his father turned to him. Alfred reached for him, then stopped. “Lorraine, is he—?”
    She nodded again. “I’m so good at this. Yeah, he’s fine, or pretty much so.”
    Alfred hugged his son, tightly. I saw Martini’s face and got the impression this didn’t happen all that often. Christopher’s expression confirmed this as a rarity. Alfred pulled him into the embrace now.
    “Well done,” Gower whispered in my ear. “And thank you, for more than just saving our lives.”
    I needed someone to hold me all of a sudden, and I didn’t want to break up the Martini family reunion. I turned to Gower, and he put his arm around me and