Alien vs. Alien

soon.”
    “My entire job now consists of not being far away from you. Trust me, I’ll be nearby.”
    We hung up. “Okay, Amy’s test was twenty-five pages. Malcolm’s test was thirty-six, which he said was standard.”
    Armstrong nodded. “It is. Every test should have been thirty-six pages.”
    I looked at White. “You thinking what I’m thinking?”
    He nodded. “I believe I am, Missus Martini.”
    “What’s that?” Christopher asked.
    “My test was indeed Plan B. If Sandra the Android could have taken me out where the others didn’t know about it, that would have been better. They’d have gotten what they wanted anyway. But with me in the room, that meant that the others would know about her attack. And, since she wasn’t trying to kill most of them, would survive.”
    “So?” Christopher asked. “I mean, glad everyone survived, my wife in particular. But I don’t see where you’re going with this, Kitty.”
    “No, you probably don’t. At least, you haven’t had to for a while. Think back to fugly fighting. When you were dealing with an in-control superbeing, what would you do to stop it? I mean before the tanks and artillery showed up?”
    “We’d try to distract it away from any civilians and also try to limit the damage it would do. We did that with the newly formed ones, too, when needed. You know that. Why are you asking?”
    I looked at Olga. She nodded. Nice to know I was right, at least about one thing. Looked at Armstrong. He nodded as well. “Your test was meaningless, in that sense.”
    “Yeah, I think whoever created it—and my money’s on your ‘associate’ Cantu, by the way—was having fun.” I looked at Christopher’s expression and decided to be kind. “My test was the distraction. What they wanted, and have, were the answers the rest of the team gave.”

    Yi

CHAPTER 38

    C HRISTOPHER’S EYES NARROWED. “You sure?”
    “Malcolm’s test was thirty-six pages, which Senator Armstrong verifies as the right length. Malcolm was also the only person taking the test who had ever taken it before. Therefore, he got a real test.”
    White nodded. “The rest of us were given different tests, I presume, anyway, based on length.”
    “Why were Len and Kyle’s tests the same length?” Christopher asked.
    “Because they’re friends, went to college together, were on the same football team, are now doing the same job, basically, and they’ll talk to each other. Boys, am I right that, if this had怅n’t gone completely haywire, you’d have compared notes?”
    Kyle looked sheepish. Len shrugged. “We already did.”
    “But my father’s test and Amy’s test were different.”
    “Amy would compare with me. Your father wouldn’t compare with anyone.”
    White nodded. “Very true.”
    “But how is it that the others passed?” Armstrong asked. “Those tests wouldn’t have gone through the system properly.”
    “They didn’t.” Everyone stared at me, other than Olga, who gave me the Proud Teacher look. I was doing
great
with the finger painting. “The bad guys took the tests John nicely brought out of the room with him.”
    “Our teacher was clean,” White reminded me.
    “I’m sure he was. He got me out of the room where I was alone with Sandra, so he forced Plan B. I’m sure if he hadn’t carried the tests out, none of us would have ‘passed.’ But he did, so whoever’s in charge sent up dummy tests and had them rushed through, so no one would question.”
    Armstrong nodded slowly. “That makes sense. It would be easy enough to have prepared tests in advance.”
    “Paul requested they be rushed,” Christopher reminded me. “And Reynolds probably asked for them to be processed quickly, too. He’s been getting a lot of heat for the delay.”
    “Perfect set up, really. So, I get the crazy test. Everyone’s focused on that, not on the fact that what our enemies got was answers to whatever they hell they asked the rest of our team.”
    Len and Kyle exchanged another look. “Our test was focused on questions about how we’d react in emergency situations,” Len said. “What were Embassy procedures, how they differed from Centaurion Division procedures.”
    “What our chain of command was in case different personnel were incapacitated,” Kyle added. “And what protective procedures we’d had in place in Florida. And which ones we didn’t use, and why.”
    “My test focused a great deal on the Office of the Pontifex,” White said. “But