Alien vs. Alien

coming up with a lot. The other problem, of course, was what to do if Clarence was still tagged and traceable.
    “Wonderful. Please continue to monitor, paying special attention to whenever and wherever you lose the signal. Should the signal be lost, continue to monitor, I believe it will come back, at least periodically. No, please don’t advise Sylvia, but do put her and the rest of Alfred’s family under a high and efficient level of protection. Oh? Interesting. Tell them we’ll be there shortly.”
    White hung up. “Much is going on. The good news is that Clarence does indeed have a tracker. It’s quite old, from when he first started working for Centaurion Division in an active role. When he transferred to the Diplomatic Corps, the tracker was kept on in case of international incidents, so to speak.”
    “Think he remembers he’s got it?”
    White shrugged. “I have no idea. However, it’s not just you—most of us don’t think about it on a regular basis. As with your wild boar analogy, once the initial shock of the tagging has passed, why think about it if it’s not bothering you?”
    “Okay, we’ll vote for the side of things actually going our way for once. I’m sure we’re due for one lucky break.” It was kind of nice to know it wasn’t just me and that others forgot about the trackers, too.
    “So, are we going to run away like Chuck wants, then?” Abigail asked.
    “Yes, but we have a problem.”
    “Only one?” Naomi asked dryly. She sounded more like her normal self. Good.
    “If we just leave, won’t he wonder what’s going on?” Jeremy asked.
    “And if he wonders, then he might remember the tracker,” Jennifer added.
    “I love you two! Mister White, another note—we not only are keeping the Barones, I want them on staff at the Embassy.”
    “Duly noted, Missus Martini. So, do you have a plan for how we extract the animals and make Clarence run away without alerting him to the fact that we actually want him to run off?”
    I heaved a sigh. I’d come up with something no one was going to like, me least of all. “A plan? No, not really. I’ve only got the crazy right now, Mister White.”
    “Ah. So, routine.”

    Yi

CHAPTER 58

    I PULLED MY GLOCK OUT OF MY PURSE. “Okay, you’ll know when to run away, I promise. Jeremy and Jennifer, once it’s obvious that it’s time to run like hell, get Naomi and Abigail . . . somewhere.”
    “Take them to Andrews Air Force Base,” White said. “Per Gladys, we apparently have a situation there.”
    “Works for me. And do that regardless of what I say once I roll my offensive plan here, such as it is.”
    “What about you and Uncle Richard?” Abigail asked.
    “Oh, Mister White and I will catch up. We’re good at that.”
    I took the safety off. No need for caution at the moment. Then I trotted toward the fight while I focused as much as I could. Got myself to Laser Beams From My Eyes level again and was able to make out where the Poofs and Peregrines were. They were slowing Clarence a bit, which was helpful.
    “Yo! Clarence! Get away from my pets!” I aimed and fired, high, toward one of the trees near him, but above where any of the Peregrines were. “Poofies, Peregrines, get away from him so Kitty can shoot him!”
    Interestingly enough the Poofs instantly went small and bounded over to leap into my purse. The Peregrines all went to the ground; they were between me and Clarence in a semicircle, blocking him from me. However, he did have an escape route, heading toward the Potomac. I aimed for another tree closest to where I thought Clarence was and fired again.
    I turned my head so I could still see where Clarence was, so to speak, but project my voice to those behind me. “Get out of here and get them back to the Embassy!” I shouted. “Send some Field teams. I’ll take care of him until they get here.”
    Clarence gave it a shot to run toward me. I could tell because two Peregrines flew up and slammed themselves into his legs, beaks and claws first. He stopped running, because he was shouting in pain as the birds disengaged.
    I aimed for his head. Happily, there were a lot of trees behind him, so if he dodged the bullet as I expected, it would again hit a tree. “Where’s my husband?”
    He gave me a dirty look. “You’ll never see him again.” And if Clarence didn’t dodge the bullet, I was reminded that this would still be a big one in the win column.
    “Then you’re going to die.” I pulled the