Alien vs. Alien

dead zones. Some are just dense rock. But others are clearly structures or constructs of some kind, because their shapes are too regular.”
    “Because of the tunnel under the American Centaurion Embassy, we were able to begin exploration, which also allowed us a way to determine how to spot either a tunnel or what we’re choosing to assume is a room,” Stryker added.
    “So, the dead zones you’ve mapped—have you entered any of them?”
    “We haven’t been able to determine how to breach any dead zones yet,” Henry admitted. “Only the tunnels. They’re easier. They’re hidden from us, but not to the same degree as the rooms.” He paused, a little too obviously.
    “Okay, fine. Explain how they’re not hidden in the same degree as the presumed rooms.”
    Henry looked like I’d just offered to have sex with him. Had to give Hacker International this—it was easy to make these guys happy. “The tunnels don’t have the same level of blocking. It’s more like what’s around certain areas Chuck doesn’t want us probing.”
    “Areas in, say, New Mexico and Arizona?”
    “Among others.”
    “Okay, super.” I’d ask about all the similar locations another time. “So the tunnels are cloaked in some way, but not like the dead zone areas. Fine, I guess that makes sense.” In the Bizarro World I now lived in, of course this made sense.
    “We haven’t finished a full mapping of all the tunnels worldwide, either,” Big George said. “And until we map, we can’t send in agents to physically examine the system.”
    “Chuck’s pissed about it, too,” Ravi added. “He doesn’t like the delay.”
    We’d only discovered the Embassy’s secret lab four and a half months ago, so it wasn’t as though they’d been working on this for years. Figured I’d better check. “When did Chuckie start you on this particular project?”
    “January, like I said already,” Stryker replied. I loved being right. “Four and a half months ago,” he added, sarcasm knob positioned around six on my scale. “We were working on some high-level transmissions prior to that.”
    “How high level?” Franklin asked.
    “Out of this world,” Big George replied.
    Stryker nodded. “From systems past Alpha Centauri.”

    Yi

CHAPTER 70

    I LOOKED AT WHITE. “If we’ve heard them, then the folks on Alpha Four have heard them.”
    White nodded. “Which means our enemies in that spaceship which left the range of our two solar systems undoubtedly know there are other inhabited planets and headed to one of them.”
    “And found one, made friends, and are heading back for a really bitchin’ homecoming party.” I wanted to say we were screwed. I refused to accept it, though. “So, we prepare for another game of Interplanetary Risk. But all of this was set up well before LaRue and Ronaldo took to the stars.”
    “You think Jeff and Chuck are in one of those dead-zone rooms, don’t you?” Naomi asked.
    “I do indeed. Because I think one of the goals of all of the crap that’s been going on was to get us all out of the Embassy so Clarence could get in easily.” I looked at William. “Walter refused to leave. He’s not alone, he’s got plenty of Security A-Cs and Peregrines with him, and they’re in full lockdown.”
    William smiled. “He’s a good kid.”
    “Peregrines?” Stryker asked.
    “Tell you later, Eddy.”
    “But which dead zone?” Khalid asked. “There are six available, at least.”
    “My bet is the last one, that the guys here haven’t finished with.”
    “Feminine intuition?” White asked.
    “Betting on how our luck usually runs is more like it.”
    “There’s more than one pathway to that room,” Mona said. “At least if the schematic on the screen is accurate.”
    “Yes, the tunnels are interconnected, at least the ones in D.C. and on the Eastern Seaboard are,” Big George said. “The others appear to be interconnected as well, but we haven’t been able to confirm fully yet. We’ve put security within every tunnel we’ve explored so far, with extra around where we’d say an entrance to a ‘room’ is. With even more security in the tunnel that leads to your Embassy. Per Chuck’s orders.” Walter had confirmed as much when the Peregrines had arrived.
    “If the tunnels are also dead zones, how does the security work?”
    “Well, as Henry said, they’re not as dead. So to speak. Once we found them, it was fairly simple to put high-frequency equipment in them. NASA was