Alien vs. Alien

street?”
    Looked over at Olga, who was still holding and cuddling Jamie. “Oh. Double crap. Why do terrorists hit civilian targets? Because it makes the people they want to hurt feel even more awful, and it allows the terrorists to blame the murders they commit on their enemies.” My parents had really trained me well. I hoped I’d be able to get us out of this unscathed so I could thank them yet again for their prescience.
    “I believe it’s catsuit time, Missus Martini.”
    “Right as always, Mister White. Len, Kyle, get the stroller, get it up here and activate its special features. Everyone else stay here and protect everyone.” I ensured I made eye contact with the Peregrines, who’d deigned to wake up and pay attention, as well as any Poofs on Duty. All the animals seemed clear about my desires. “Christopher, let’s move.”
    “What if they’re trying to flush you out?” Armstrong asked.
    “Then they get to feel successful.” I grabbed White’s and Christopher’s hands, and we took off. Thankfully, we weren’t going too far, because Christopher’s Flash Level was hard on me and White.
    We reached the street in about a second, and that included closing the Embassy door behind us. Even so, we were slow—Buchanan was already on the scene, and he wasn’t alone.
    There were three police officers accompanied by the same number of impressive German ShepherӀerman Shds. One dog in particular I recognized. He wuffed in a friendly manner as he raced past us and after one of the Club 51 goons.
    “Heya, Prince.” Nice to see that Buchanan had called in reinforcements in the form of Officers Moe, Curly, and Larry. They were better than the Three Stooges, but I was still partial to their nicknames. I’d wanted to talk to our personal K-9 cops, but under the circumstances, now didn’t seem like a good time.
    The street was chaos personified. There were many more Club 51 people than there were cops, dogs, and Buchanan. Some were running away from the dogs, some were running away from the cops. Buchanan grabbed a driver and pulled him out of his car, slammed him against the vehicle, flung him down, and cuffed him, all in about fifteen seconds. I was officially impressed.
    “Focus on anyone around the buildings,” White said. Christopher nodded and zipped off. “Missus Martini, I believe Mister Buchanan has the correct plan at the moment.”
    “Go for it, Mister White. I have a date with a former stewardess.”
    We separated, and I looked for Casey. She wasn’t around. Ran around the Romanian Embassy. Lots of activity, much of it being caused by Christopher knocking people out, but Casey wasn’t among them.
    Did a tour of all the buildings on the street at hyperspeed. Was hugely impressed with my ability to run fast and corner without slamming into anything I didn’t intend to. Was less impressed with my ability to find one chick, because Casey was nowhere around.
    Rejoined Buchanan and White. They had all the drivers down. Christopher had rounded up a lot of the general goons. So far, nothing had gone boom, and Buchanan and the cops seemed to be taking care of defusing whatever these people were wearing.
    Got a bad feeling. Maybe Casey wasn’t herself anymore and was, instead, an android. That would mean she was probably fast, and that also meant she might have slipped inside either our Embassy or the Romanians’. Neither idea was appealing, but my daughter was on Romanian soil.
    Was about to run into the Embassy when something flashed out of the corner of my eye. Turned and looked to see Casey. I’d missed her because I hadn’t looked up. She was on the roof of the building next to the Romanian Embassy, but on the other side from the Irish Embassy.
    As near as I could tell, she had a rifle. And it was aimed at me.

    Yi

CHAPTER 36

    D ECIDED I HAD HYPERSPEED FOR A REASON. I took off, running in a serpentine manner that probably didn’t matter because someone I didn’t like in the first place pointing a rifle at me had the ability to rev me over to rage without even trying.
    As I had at NASA Base, I ran up the side of the building—I was becoming rather fond of this move—breached the top, and slammed into Casey. Confirmed she wasn’t an android, which was kind of nice, all things considered.
    The rifle flew out of her hands, and, thankfully, we both went down. Down on the roof versus down onto the ground three stories below. The fact that I’d inherited the A-C ability for fast