Alien vs. Alien

He’s divorced and I don’t share the female need to fix every single friend of mine up with anyone. Besides, he’s more of a colleague than a friend, per se.”
    “Define the difference.”
    Armstrong shot me a glare almost worthy of Christopher. “Friends are people you choose to spend time with. Colleagues are people you work with and with whom you form alliances.”
    “Nice distancing.”
    Armstrong snorted. “Look, I’ll say this to you again—politics makes strange bedfellows. Esteban and I are both hoping to . . . achieve higher offices than we have. We help each other whenever we can, but that doesn’t make us friends. He’d say the same thing.” He appealed to White. “You, sir, as the former Pontifex, certainly understand what I’m saying.”
    “Oh, I do. I’m sure Missus Martini does, as well. Whether or not we believe you is the question of the moment, Senator.”
    “Well, he’s not lying about his wife,” Christopher said, looking at his phone. “She was held overnight due to a bad case of food poisoning.” He looked at Armstrong. “It says you were sick, as well.”
    “Yes, but I recovered faster. And while I could excuse my poor wife, for me to miss the President’s Ball would have been career suicide.”
    “Where did you eat? That gave you the food poisoning, I mean.”
    Everyone looked at me like I was crazy. Everyone but Olga. She looked quietly pleased. Nice to know I was on the right track.
    “We had dinner with . . .” Armstrong’s voice trailed off.
    “With whom?”
    “With Madeline Cartwright and Antony Marling. And Esteban and the others who we brought to your Embassy to meet you.”
    Or, as I called them, the Cabal of Evil. “Were you at a restaurant?”
    “No. Antony’s home.”
    “Interesting. So, she wanted you alive and out of it.”
    “She?” Armstrong sounded surprised.
    “Madeline was the brains of the Titan team.” I looked at his expression. “Seriously? You didn’t know?”
    “No.”
    I considered. Decided I needed to be really sure. Dug out the phone again. “Be right back.”
    Left the room and dialed. He answered on the first ring. “Hey, baby, what’s going on?”
    “Hi, Jeff. Intrigue and all the rest of the usual crap. Listen, can you do a long-distance reading on Senator Armstrong?”

    “Uh, sure. I have to find him, though.”
    “He’s not with you right now, he’s with me. So, um, track on me and Christopher and Richard and you should find him.”
    “I’m not even going to ask.”
    “Because you’re reading my mind?”
    “No. Because I’m listening to the tone of your voice. Hang on.” Jeff was quiet for a little bit. “Okay, got him. He’s upset, feels incredibly betrayed, suspicious, and . . . frightened. He’s very frightened.”
    “Of whom?”
    “Of you.”
    “Me?”
    Jeff chuckled. “You’ve apparently impressed him. I can feel him comparing you to Reynolds and not liking what he’s coming up with.”
    “He thinks I’m as smart as Chuckie?” Maybe I’d consider liking Armstrong somewhere down the road.
    “Something along those lines, yeah. He’s also really angry with some people right now. So angry I can feel it directly focused.”
    “Can you tell who?”
    “Yeah. The late Madeline Cartwright and Antony Marling, and Esteban Cantu.”
    “You’re reading his mind, aren’t you?”
    “Not really.” He sounded evasive.
    “Explain the not really portion.”
    Jeff sighed. “You and Christopher aren’t the only ones who’ve been working on managing your stronger powers, you know. I want to be ready for whatever Jamie’s going to need and whatever new, frightening talents you’re going to come up with. So I’ve been working on emotional refinement, by which, before you ask, I mean filtering the emotional threads into clearer images. It’s like what I can do when I read your mind, but you’re still the only one I can really do that with.”
    “Good.”
    “You don’t want me reading someone else’s mind?”
    “No. You’re not the only one with jealousy issues. I like that I’m the only one you can read that way. Not that I’d tell you not to try, since it could save our lives somewhere down the line, I’m sure. But still.”
    He chuckled. “Not to worry. You’re still the only one for me, baby, heart, mind, and soul.”
    “I wish you were here, right now.”
    “Me too. But it doesn’t sound like we could be alone.”
    “Sadly, no. So, can you tell if Armstrong is lying about