Alien vs. Alien

eager and all that.”
    Reader had once said that Naomi and Abigail could probably move solar systems if they took Surcenthumain. It was a joke that was likely more true than funny. Chuckie hadn’t liked this, and the incident was what had allowed Christopher to get fooled into becoming a Surcenthumain junkie.
    I wasn’t sure that I wanted to toss drugs at anyone, but I was sure that the Gower girls had a tonnage of untapped power and potential. Chuckie wouldn’t have spent as much time working with them if that weren’t the case.
    “I’m almost afraid to ask,” Abigail said.
    “Good, because I need you to call Tim while I call James. We need them corralling, not destroying, all the supersoldiers and superbeings and whatever else they may be fighting. And then, once the evil monsters are corralled, we need to find where they call home. Pronto.”
    “Gotcha.” Abigail pulled out her phone while I pulled out mine. We both stepped away from the others, the better to have fun conversations without interruption.
    The phone went to voicemail three times before Reader picked up. “Girlfriend, this had better be life or death important.”
    “It is. Beyond that, really. Are you okay?” I was watching the screens, and no one on our side looked okay, but I figured it was better I didn’t let Reader know that.
    “I’d be better if I wasn’t talking to you while trying to get what appears to be an in-control superbeing down. Not that I don’t have a lot of options, because we’re not dealing with just one. Of course.”
    They were dealing with twenty, easily, and that was if I was counting correctly, which was hard to do, what with all the explosions.
    “Of course. But you can’t kill them. We don’t want them destroyed or even damaged.”
    “What?”
    “Pay close attention. We’re about to be invaded by a huge alien armada that’s driving an unreal number of parasites in front of it. Chuckie figured out the controls on the supersoldiers we confiscated at the end of Operation Assassination. We need to do the same with these.”
    “Wow, is that all?”
    “No. We also need to figure out where they came from.”
    “First a daddy and a mommy parasite fall in love and then—”
    “Nice to see you’re keeping firm hold of your sense of humor. I’m serious.”
    “Seriously crazy.”
    “Which is right in line with Chuckie’s orders.”
    “You’ve found Reynolds and Jeff?” He sounded relieved.
    “No. We’ve found Chuckie’s failsafe. And, apparently, that failsafe is me.”
    Reader was quiet for a long moment. “Okay. Jeff always listened to you when he was the Head of Field. I’m willing to do the same. If we can.”
    “Pull every agent away from the International One World Festival. What the bad guys wanted to have happen already has. Split them—send half to Paraguay, half to you in France. I don’t care what you have to do, but we need to keep these things alive and get them under our control somehow. And we don’t have a lot of time to do it in. So use every international favor we have to make it happen.”
    “Why did they attack now if we’re supposed to capture them?”
    This should have been a hard question for me to answer. It wasn’t. Clarity crackled through my brain like lighting. Marling had essentially told us what was coming, after all.
Compared to what else is out there, these are your friends.
I’d thought he’d meant the androids were a worse threat than the supersoldiers. Clearly, he’d meant what was on our solar horizon.
    “They want us to destroy the only things that have a fighting chance against the invaders.”
    Reader sighed. “Let’s say you’re right. Let’s say we can capture, contain, and control all the superbeings and supersoldiers. They’re not enough to fight an armada.”
    “We’ll find the androids, too.”
    “How, Kitty? I mean, seriously, how? Your mother and Reynolds have been searching for these things for months or more. They have nothing.”
    “They have nothing they’ve told us about. Because they have to be really careful. If they accuse the wrong person without a ton of proof, their careers are destroyed.”
    He was quiet again. “You have a career you’re willing to destroy.”
    “Got it in one.”
    “If this goes wrong, Kitty, all the A-Cs will have to go back to Alpha Four.”
    “James, if this goes wrong, we’re all dead or worse. I’ll risk that the worst thing that can happen will be an extended visit with the