Alien Tango

“How well do you shoot?”
    “Better than you.”
    “Hardly.” I’d been practicing a lot.
    “Well, we’re probably going to find out.” He looked at Gower. “Do you have a weapon, Paul?”
    Gower opened his jacket—he had on a shoulder holster.
    “Since when do you pack heat like that, Paul?”
    He laughed. “Since your mother insisted on it.”
    “She didn’t make Jeff or Christopher wear a holster.”
    “No, they told her they were wearing them and then didn’t.”
    Figured. “So, is James carrying concealed?”
    “Yes, so’s Tim, but I’m sure they were searched already.”
    I took another look. Couldn’t tell if the guns the creeps were holding were ours or theirs. But there weren’t any extra guns lying about. “I wish we could hear what’s going on.”
    Gower twitched. “ACE says we can.” He reached out and touched the backs of my and Brian’s necks.
    It was like watching a movie. “You’re going to learn why working with these . . . things . . . was a bad idea.” This was Turco.
    “My father knows what to do with things like you,” another man said to the A-C side of the room. He was big and looked like a stupid thug.
    “Frank Taft,” Brian said.
    “Not a surprise. Bri, are the guys with guns the entire Security force here?”
    “No, just about half of them.”
    “Where are the others, then?”
    He scanned the room. “Not in there.”
    “Hope they’re not dead like Karl Smith and the cleaning lady.”
    “Why are you doing this?” Alfred asked. His voice was calm. I noted all the humans had an AC next to them. It occurred to me that Security was, as always in my short experience here, lax.
    “Brian, before today, did you know an A-C could run at hyperspeed?”
    “Not really. I knew they were faster than us, just like they’re stronger, but not what all they could really do.”
    “You think they don’t know our abilities, Kitty?” Gower asked me.
    “I’m confident. The loons in Arizona thought we could read minds, but hyperspeed was never discussed, and they don’t know about empathic abilities since they didn’t guard against it.”
    “Turco was with us when we were in quarantine.” Brian sounded worried. “Did we say anything that would give us away?”
    “No idea. The three of us were rather deeply involved with ACE, and so was Michael.”
    “I promise you Jeff and Christopher were paying more attention to what was going on with Kitty than anything else,” Gower added.
    “So was James, not that we can talk to him.” My brain kicked. I dug my phone out from my purse.
    I could hear Reader’s phone ringing. “You wanna let me answer that?” he asked. He was so cool, he didn’t sound worried at all.
    “Why should we?” Taft asked.
    “There are some of them missing,” Turco replied. “Let’s round them up.” He reached into Reader’s inner jacket pocket and pulled out his phone, opening it just in time. He put it to Reader’s mouth, and a gun to Reader’s head. The way the phone was held I knew Turco and Taft were able to hear whatever was going to be said.
    “Hello?”
    “Jamie, baby, how goes it, lover?” Reader jerked, grinned, then pulled it together, all in the space of about two seconds.
    “Hey, um, pretty great. I miss you a lot, babe.” Turco nudged him. “Can’t wait to get together. Have you ditched the jerk yet?”
    “Working on it, hon, working on it. Trying to get him distracted, but you know how he never lets me do anything. I had to sneak into the bathroom to call you. So, where’re you at, babycakes?”
    “Tell your girlfriend we want them to meet you at Security,” Turco whispered.
    “I’m at Security, honey. Very secured and all.”
    “Oooh, alone?”
    “No, I wish.”
    “Bummer. I was hoping to tie you up, in a chair, with your hands behind your back and then do terrible things to you.” This wasn’t so much true as an exact description of what I was seeing.
    Taft made a gagging sound. Reader grinned. “Look, great as that sounds, and, believe me, it sounds like something I could get used to immediately, I think I need you, Jack, Peter, and Carlton to come here. Need some help with some, uh, prisoners.”
    “Where’s Security?” I watched to see if anyone was moving toward us, but they all seemed stationary.
    Reader looked up at Turco and shrugged. “Tell them you’ll have someone meet them wherever they’re at,” Turco whispered.
    “I don’t really know, kind of lost and confused. You know