Alien vs. Alien

coming back, though, I don’t think. It feels like . . . he has something . . . more important to do.”
    The rest of us got to our feet. Jeremy helped his sister and Gower up, while White helped me. I looked around for the Poofs. Didn’t see any. Checked my purse. Harlie and Poofikins were in it, looking cute and also alert. Very alert. But none of the other unnamed Poofs were around.
    Bruno strutted over. “You were my big, brave bird, weren’t you?” I gave him a nice scritchy-scratch between his wings, while I checked him for injuries. Bruno warbled at me, sharing that he liked the scratching, and the only injured party was Clarence.
    “What are you petting?” Reader asked.
    “Um, they’re invisible. Sort of.”
    “Not any more,” Gower said. “Thank the big bird for me, will you?”
    “Bruno can hear. Quite well. So, you can see him?”
    Reader coughed. “Did you hit your head when Richard got tossed onto you? It’s a huge peacock, girlfriend. We can all see him.”
    “You couldn’t before. I’ll explain Bruno and his flock later.” Besides, Bruno seemed agitated, as if he wanted to fly off but couldn’t. I checked on Bellie. She was perched on White’s shoulder, getting treats, and seemed calm. “We need to check on the Bahraini Ambassadress and the guys with her.”
    “I’m fine, thanks to all of you,” she said as she and the others joined us. “My name is Mona Nejem. This is my driver, Khalid.” No last name given. Not a surprise, really. The younger man who looked like he was also Bahraini nodded.
    “You’re with the Bahraini Royal Army, right?”
    Khalid looked impressed. “Yes.”
    “Dude, you’re in uniform. It wasn’t that hard to guess.” I looked at the other two with them. “You two, however, aren’t Bahraini. You’re Israeli, right?”
    They nodded. “I’m Oren,” the smaller one said. “And this is Jakob,” he indicated the guy with glasses. No last names here, either. Again, not a shocker. Despite the bruising they were both starting to show from being used as two-thirds of Clarence’s punching bag set, an aura of readiness and competence radiated from　es. both of them. They didn’t look distressed—they looked quietly pissed off, and like they were both plotting how to rectify what had just happened.
    “They were trying to help us,” Mona said. “When they saw me being dragged away from Khalid.”
    “Mossad isn’t always working against you, in other words.” All four of them, not just Oren and Jakob, jerked, and all four of them looked a little panicky and a lot guilty. “You’re all pals, aren’t you?”
    “In a sense,” Mona allowed. “While our countries rarely get along, as I’m sure you’re learning, being here is different from being at home. There are many times when we who do these kinds of jobs have more in common with our counterparts from other countries than we do our own countrymen.”
    “Not that the Ambassadress is in any way giving Israel even the tiniest bit of classified information,” Oren said quickly. “Or vice versa.”
    “Our relationship is more friendly than antagonistic,” Jakob added. “Though not friendly in an inappropriate sense.”
    “Do either the Israeli or the Bahraini Ambassadors know about this friendship?” White asked.
    Oren, Jakob, and Khalid all put poker faces on. Mona smiled. “I don’t have to share every minute of my day with my husband.”
    “In other words, Bahrain likely doesn’t know, and Israel might, but if either one does know, they’re pretending they don’t because it never hurts to have friends among your enemies.”
    “Well put,” Khalid said.
    While we’d been talking, Tito had done quick inspections on those who’d gotten manhandled, including me. “Everyone seems okay, but I really think we should have the Ambassadress and her guardians checked out a little more fully, due to who was hitting them and where. Internal injuries are possible, and I don’t have the equipment here to be able to confirm one way or the other.”
    “I don’t think it’s a good idea to go back to our Embassy,” White said.
    “Or any other Base.”
    “Andrews,” Armstrong suggested.
    “I agree,” Buchanan said. “It’s secure and has more than one gate, if necessary.”
    “Really?”
    I got a lot of sighs and “when will you read the briefing books” looks. Buchanan just grinned. “Yes, really. Every U.S. military facility has at least one gate, some have more. Most