Alien vs. Alien

do the same for Senator Armstrong’s places?”
    I thought about it. “No. I’m sure they took his head from any number of sources. He’s a public figure, plenty of pictures to use.”
    “Gotcha. And that makes sense. How soon will the pictures hit the street?”
    “No idea. There was no note in the senator’s Express Porn Package.”
    “Okay. I have no idea what our next move is or should be.We’re very tied up here.”
    “At the International One World Festival?”
    “Could be.”
    “Super. I’m going to figure out what’s going on, you know. One way or another.”
    Reader dropped his voice. “Good. And do it sooner rather than later.”
    “Doing my best, James.”
    “Yeah? Do what you really do best, girlfriend. Ask a lot of questions, whatever pops into your mind, and don’t stop asking.”
    “Why?”
    “That’s exactly what I mean. Love you, babe.” And with that, he hung up.

    Yi

CHAPTER 34

    I CONTEMPLATED MY MANY OPTIONS and chose to look at the pictures again. Reader wanted me asking questions, and my bet was he specifically wanted me asking one question. “Why?”
    “Why what?” Olga asked.
    There were a lot of why’s that what could be about. I tried to boil them all down to their most basic level. “Why is this happening?”
    “Someone wants to blackmail me,” Armstrong said.
    “Yeah? Then why were the first pictures sent to you of me and Chuckie?”
    “They wanted to blackmail Mister Reynolds,” Len suggested, though he didn’t sound convinced.
    “Then why send them to the senator, not to Chuckie?” I missed being able to do this with Reader, Tim, the flyboys, Lorraine and Claudia, Chuckie. I was used to going through all the weird with them. I couldn’t call Mom, Dad, or Jeff, either. I only had the people in this room and possibly Buchanan, who was who knew where and likely only able to drop hints the way Reader had.
    “Is that the proper question?” Olga asked. Perfect. This meant she probably knew. I’d be annoyed about it later. If Olga knew, or had a really good guess, then we could hit onto the right idea, and she’d let us know it
was
the right idea.
    A thought occurred. “Could Adriana come up and help with this?”
    Olga looked pleased. “Why, yes. She is not aware of . . . everything.”
    “Good. I guess.”
    Adriana walked in the door. “You needed me, Ambassadress?”
    “How in the world did you know?” Everyone looked at me. I thought about it. “Oh. Duh. Olga’s confined to a wheelchair for the most part. You have an I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up button, don’t you?”
    Adriana laughed. “Of course she does.”
    Eyed Olga’s wheelchair. It looked both sturdy and maneuverable. It also looked different from the one she’d had when we first met her; more like the sports-type chairs para-athletes used. There might indeed be a small keypad or similar in the armrests. Figured now waƀsn’t the time to ask if Olga had joined a wheelchair basketball team and chose to get back to the situation at hand.
    “Great, we’re now all here. So, why send an android to kill me?”
    “WHAT?” Armstrong looked freaked out.
    “The ‘trouble’ at NASA Base was an android trying to kill me.”
    He looked shaken. “I heard there was a problem, but I had no idea . . .”
    “Who did you hear it from?” White asked.
    Armstrong rolled his eyes. “I’m a senator for the great state of Florida. Things that happen at NASA Base affect me and my constituents. I’m always informed when we have security issues.” He shook his head. “But I was only told there was some structural damage.”
    “There was.” I brought Armstrong and, technically, Adriana up to speed on all the goings on from the day before, again leaving out anything that could let them guess I’d become Wolverine with Boobs and that we now possessed the Peregrines, all of whom appeared to be snoozing. So much for that Alert Avian Guardian hype. “So, that sort of brings me to what I’d consider the ultimate question right now.”
    “Which is?” Armstrong asked, rather testily. Oh well, it’d been a long weekend so far for everyone.
    “Why me?”
    “Why not you?” Kyle said.
    “No. We need to think and think hard.” Reader had said why was the question. “Why is this going on? Why now, why me, why Sandra the Android? Why give me the crazy HSAC test instead of the real one? Why send dirty pictures of me and Chuckie to someone in politics who is not actually our friend?”
    Len