Alien vs. Alien

page. That’s what triggered Sandra, I think.”
    “Why did the android attack with witnesses present?” Armstrong was asking some good questions.
    “Well, maybe she had to. I was supposed to be in a separate room, but the instructor found me and insisted I join the others.”
    Len jerked. “The weird test you got—that was Plan B. They wanted you separated from the rest of us to kill or capture you. But in case you were in the room with everyone else, they had Plan B in place.”
    “But why give her some bizarre test?” Armstrong asked. “Why not just give her the real one?”
    “Because she’d have finished it along around the same time as the rest of us,” Kyle suggested.
    “That seems like a kind of . . . weak idea, really,” Christopher said. “And hard to base your entire plan on what Kitty would do with a weird test.”
    I thought about it. “Maybe Plan B was only to delay things?”
    “How do you mean?” White asked.
    “An attack squad was sent to take out Chuckie, remember? Maybe they just wanted to be sure he’d be dead before I finished.”
    “Why?” Armstrong asked. “What would that do?”
    “Piss me off more than you can possibly imagine.” And the bad guys wouldn’t want that. Any of them who’d gone up against me pissed off these days were no longer around to talk about it.
    “That can’t have been the goal.” Armstrong shook his head. “To me, that test seems key.”
    “Maybe they really wanted her answers,” Adriana suggested.
    “Why?”
    She looked thoughtful. “You said it was a psychological test.”
    “Yes, but it wasn’t a normal one. Seriously, no one taking this test could answer in any way that would avoid sounding like a serious security risk and likely serial killer.” Come to think of it, maybe they’d given me the entrance exam for Club 51.
    “There’s no way results from a test that biased would be allowed,” Christopher said.
    “True enough,” Armstrong agreed.
    “The last page was the weirdest the wei, and that’s saying a lot.”
    “That was the one asking you about Esteban and Reynolds, right?” Armstrong asked.
    “Right. I didn’t actually do most of the test and I didn’t answer anything on the last page, so I don’t see what anyone would get from it, other than a delaying tactic.”
    “No one goes to that much trouble to create something so specific without a related specific goal in mind,” Armstrong said firmly. “It would have been easy enough to delay you. An official phone call, a requested high-level meeting, any number of other options. Why have a bizarre test that no one in their right mind would believe was the real thing?”
    “Um, I believed. Sort of.”
    He gave me a rather derisive look. “For how long?”
    “A few pages.”
    “And then?”
    I sighed. “Yeah, and then I started reading ahead. Especially when everyone else was done so quickly.”
    Armstrong cocked his head. “What do you mean the others were done quickly?”
    I looked at White. “Well, Richard was done fast. I figured you used hyperspeed.”
    “I did. And I rechecked my work three times. The test was very brief.”
    Armstrong sat up straight. “How many pages?”
    “Twenty.”
    White considered twenty pages brief? Maybe so. Mine had had at least a hundred pages, after all.
    Len and Kyle looked at each other. “Mine was thirty pages,” Len said.
    “Mine, too,” Kyle added.
    I dug out my phone and dialed. “Ames, have a second?”
    “Yes, but I can’t tell you anything about what I’m doing.”
    “No worries. How many pages was your HSAC test?”
    “Excuse me?”
    “Work with me here. How many, do you remember?”
    “Yeah, around twenty-five pages or something. Why?”
    “Usual crap. Talk to you in a few.” I hung up and dialed again. “Malcolm, how many pages was your HSAC test?”
    “Hi, Missus Chief. Great to hear from you. It’s been so long and all.”
    “Dude, seriously, as if our skirmish from only a few minutes ago wasn’t enough, we’ve got the standard DEFCON Bad stuff going on. Pleasantries later, after I choose to forget your crack about my weight. Just answer the question.”
    “I was only teasing, you’re still a thing of beauty and a joy forever. Thirty-six pages, which is standard. Why?”
    “Tell you later. I think. You okay?”
    “I’m supposed to ask you that, but it’s always nice to know that yo know thu care.”
    “I do. Don’t be too far away, I think we’re going to need you