Alien vs. Alien

asked. “Even if it was legitimate, the results would be thrown out because the test was so clearly biased.”
    “I’m more interested in how the attack was put in place so quickly,” Buchanan said. He was looking at Chuckie again and he didn’t look all that friendly.
    “I sweep for bugs regularly, so my phone wasn’t tapped. Martini’s and White’s weren’t either.”
    “How do you know that?” Jeff asked.
    “I have a mobile sweeper I carry with me.”
    A thought occurred and I decided to share it before the men could start arguing or fighting. “Our phones aren’t bugged. But we have enemies all over. I’ll bet NASA Base’s phones are tapped, big time. Langley’s, too.”
    “All these areas are routinely checked,” Chuckie said patiently.
    “Yes, but let me remind everyone that the last time we went to NASA Base half of the Security team was part of Club Fifty-One and working for Howard Taft and Leventhal Reid and pointedly out to kill us all. Just because they’re long dead doesn’t mean someone else hasn’t picked up those pieces and started rebuilding.”
    “Why would they be tapped for this?” Buchanan asked. “It seems almost . . . random.”
    “It wasn’t.” I thought best running my mouth, sng ms almoo I kept on talking. “Look, it’s no secret I was down in Florida for a month. Whoever’s behind it—and we can be sure they were best buds with Antony Marling and probably Madeline Cartwright—they’re a long-term thinker, right? Because most of our enemies are.”
    “Right.” Jeff looked thoughtful. “You think they were just waiting to see where you’d go to take this test?”
    “Potentially, yeah. I mean, why the hysterical rush to get this test taken care of?”
    “It’s protocol,” Chuckie said. “It’s not a hysterical rush. We’re late in doing in.”
    “Even better. It’s something you have to have us do, so no one questions, right? And you’re late, so you’re in a hurry to get this taken care of so that less people in the C.I.A. lean on you, right?”
    “Go on.” I could see Chuckie’s conspiracy wheels starting to turn again. Good. He was far too upset about everything. We needed him calm and thinking.
    Which meant more yapping from me. Never an issue. “So, they were monitoring for wherever you’d ask to have the last of your A-C flock tested. Maybe the phones aren’t bugged. Maybe it’s just a couple folks at each location where we could take the test who get an extra fifty bucks or something if they share that we’re finally taking this test. They might not even know they were doing wrong. Someone high up saying ‘let me know when this finally gets taken care of’ wouldn’t raise alarms, and a grunt worker would be sure to advise the bigwig, because, well, that’s part of their job.”
    Chuckie nodded slowly. “I can buy all of that. The tests are required to be taken in the type of rooms we were in—extremely secured and impregnable. It’s a perfect place for an ambush.”
    “I buy all that,” Buchanan said. “But why give Kitty a special test? If I’d been handed something like that, I’d have brought it up immediately.”
    “Whoever’s in charge knows Kitty,” Jeff said without missing a beat. “She’s not thrown by weird.”
    “And she’s inquisitive,” Naomi added. “She’ll hunt leads down to see where they go.”
    “Willing to take risks and a little foolhardy,” Abigail added.
    “Geez, guys, I’m in the room. But, yeah, I can buy that whoever set Sandra’s lasers well beyond stun must have had some idea that I wouldn’t question.”
    “Wouldn’t have mattered if the instructor hadn’t hunted you down,” Buchanan added.
    White put his head in the room. “Ah, Mister Reynolds, glad you’re still here. I had a question for you. What happened to our instructor, John? Was he injured?”
    Chuckie opened his mouth, but Walter’s voice came out. “Excuse me Chiefs, but there’s a video upload for Mister Reynolds that’s just come over from NASA Base.”
    “Send it to my office,” Jeff said. “We’ll watch it there.”
    Walter signed off, and we all went to the first floor. As we passed the kitchen, I trotted in. Hey, I’d gotten used to snacking a lot while with my in-laws.
    Pierre was there and he beamed. “So good to have you and our little princess back, Kitty darling.” Jamie giggled and held out her arms to Pierre, who scooped her out of mine. “I see my Jamie missed her Uncle Pierre,”