Alien vs. Alien

likely die.”
    “She’s right,” Mom said. “Well done, kitten. So, what’s your next move?”
    “Well, what were you guys doing to find Jeff and Chuckie, since Christopher was out?”
    “We were with Naomi and Abigail,” Paul said. “Now that most of the major political players are gone from the Festival we can have them use their talents to search.”
    Reader stared at me. I stared at him. “Oh,
snap
.” We said it in unison. I’d worry about the unison thing later.
    “Where are they now, right now?” I asked as Reader dropped my hand and got onto his phone. So did the others.
    “No answer from Abby,” Jerry said, looking worried. The other flyboys were texting. “Trying Naomi now.” He shook his head. “No answer.”
    “I’ve checked with the main field team contacts I had assigned under me for this,” Hughes said. “None of them have eyes on either of the girls.” The rest of the flyboys confirmed that their field contacts were also without Gower girls visual, audio or physical.
    Reader cursed. “We have a problem. Superbeing formation in rural France. Because of this event we’re short-staffed, Dulce had to send support to Euro Base, and Gladys can’t spare the focus to find the girls.”
<”p width="2em"> “And the girls don’t have trackers installed,” Tim said.
    “What? Why the hell not?”
    “They’re not Field agents,” Reader said. “And they’re not supposed to act in Field capacities. Reynolds has never pushed for it, either.”
    Meaning Chuckie hadn’t wanted anyone to know where he did a lot of tests with the girls. Not a surprise, really, though it was proving to be a really bad idea overall. I chose to refrain from mentioning that the Gower girls had acted like Field agents a lot, including today. It wouldn’t change things.
    Time to go for the crazy. I opened my purse. Harlie and Poofikins were still there and still looked alert and ready to go. “Harlie, did you send the other Poofies to help Naomi and Abigail?”
    Both Poofs purred at me.
    “Can you take Kitty to them to help keep them safe?”
    More purrs ensued. Good enough for me.
    I looked down. “Bruno, my bird, I need whatever part of the flock that’s free and able to get to Naomi and Abigail.” Bruno gave me a look that said it was about time I was focusing on the big picture.
    “Richard, hand Bellie off to someone she won’t try to kill. James, do you trust me?”
    “Yes.”
    “Then trust me right now and don’t ask questions, don’t argue, just do what I tell you. We need to get all of the people here out of range and to safety. Paul
has
to go to the Dome, and once in he’s not coming out. ACE is guarding it, and only it, from what I’ve gathered. Get Paul safely into the Dome, get everyone else to Andrews and get Andrews onto some form of high alert, and tell Gladys that we need all we can get on Diversion Superbeing, because I think those are actually supersoldiers out for a playdate. Oh, and tell her to watch Paraguay, all of it, but the Chaco in particular, for the same activity.”
    “What are you going to be doing?” Reader asked.
    “Getting to the Gower girls. Jeremy, Jennifer, you’re with me and Richard. Malcolm, I need you to make sure they do what I just said. Mom, see you shortly.”
    I grabbed White’s hand as Harlie and Poofikins jumped out of my purse and onto Bruno’s back. I decided to accept that politics and danger both made strange bedfellows for all of us, Peregrines and Poofs included, and just go with it.
    Bruno took flight, and we followed.
    Bruno was flying at hyperspeed. I could tell based on how fast the four of us on the ground were moving. He led us on an erratic path, not straight the way you always hear the crow flies.
    Of course, Bruno wasn’t a crow. He also wasn’t stupid. He was spotting the best path for us to take to avoid running into people, booths, and buildings and leading uson it accordingly.
    We ran past the Washington Monument, around the World War II Monument, and alongside the Reflecting Pool. Either we were headed for the Lincoln Memorial or we were headed for the Potomac.
    cting“Please, not the Potomac again.”
    White chuckled as we ran on. It was less crowded by the Lincoln Memorial, but that merely meant everyone who wasn’t attending the International One World Festival was here instead. Or maybe it just seemed that there were hundreds of people around.
    The Lincoln Memorial wasn’t secluded. In addition to all the