Alien vs. Alien

it did also ask a variety of chain of command questions.”
    Christopher dialed. “James, I need Amy brought to the Romanian Embassy immediately, under guard. Yes, it’s about why Kitty called, only more so. No. No. Yes, a floater’s fine, but I want her under guard at least until she’s through the gate. I can and will come and get her myself if you don’t want to help out. Fine, yes, thanks.” He hung up and shot Patented Glare #4 at his phone.
    “That sounded fun.”
    “We need a female from American Centaurion in attendance at the One World thing. It was supposed to be you, but without us able to tell you anything, Amy moved into the slot. But I think we need her here more.”
    “Have Doreen do it.”
    Christopher shook his head. “Jeff already forbade her to attend. Same with Claudia and Lorraine, only James did the forbidding on that.”
    “New mothers stay home and safe, right?”
    “Right. And Serene’s on Alpha Team and confined to Dulce right now on Tito’s orders, so she’s not an option, either.”
    I considered our options. Made another call. “Hey, Mimi, are you and Abby free?”
    “Yeah, we are. Just hanging out with Denise since she and her kids have nothing to do today because Kevin’s working.”
    “And he forbade them to attend the One World thing at the Mall, didn’t he?”
    “Yeah.” Naomi laughed. “I knew you’d figure out what was going on.”
    “Oh, there’s lots going on. I haven’t even figured most of it out yet, but trust me when I say we won’t like it when I do.”
    “I’m sure.”
    “Look, we need Amy at the Romanian Embassy. We also apparently need female Embassy personnel at the One World event. I’m officially announcing you and Abby as our Cultural Attachés. Go get ’em, tigers.”
    She laughed again. “I’m all for it. Sis and I are bored with our current jobs, which consist of letting Chuck run tests on us and smiling pretty. Besides, after last night, clearly our King expects us to live at the Embassy. What? Hang on.” I heard her bring Abigail up to speed. “Back. Abby’s on board, too. We’ll go over to the One World thing now.”
    “Ah, expect your new . . . gifts . . . to want to come with you.”
    “Really? How will we explain them?”
    “I don’t think you’ll have to.” I looked around, and trotted out of the room again as the urge to name once again overcame me. “Your birds are named Posh and Becks.”
    There was a pause. “Oh, my God, I love those names for them! They’re really perfect, too.”
    “Your birds are with you?”
    “Yeah, they’re hanging out with the Lewis’ birds.”
    “Ken and Barbie?”
    “How did you know that’s what Rachel named them?”
    “I didn’t. Richard thinks this is my talent. Let’s discuss my new level of bizarre later though, okay?”
    “You got it. We’ll take care of things. And I’ll keep you posted on what’s going on, probably via text.”
    “Isn’t that a security breach?”
    “Guess we’ll find out. I’m kind of against not telling one of our leaders pertinent information, especially when the lack of that information could cause some or all of us to be killed.”
    “I like where your head’s at.” As we hung up, the air near me shimmered and I saw a floater gate appear. Amy stepped through a second later. She was alone. “Hey, Ames.”
    She blinked. “What’s going on?”
    “Oh, the usual crap. Only more of it.”
    width=" “Oh.” She shrugged. “So, routine.”
    “Yep.” We joined the others. “Okay, so Amy’s here. Naomi and Abigail, as our new Cultural Attachés, will cover whatever she was doing. Christopher, I’m assuming I know what you wanted her here for, but since you asked, you tell.”
    “You didn’t run that appointment by anyone,” Christopher pointed out.
    “I see I need to remind you that I’m the Co-Head Ambassador. As such, I can assign anyone to do anything in our Embassy. If Jeff has a problem, he can whine to me about it. You, however, even though you’re Monsieur Chargé d’Affaires, cannot.”
    He rolled his eyes, then gave Amy a quick peck. “Okay, I want Amy, Len, Kyle, and my father all writing down as many of the questions from yesterday’s HSAC test as they can remember. Write down the answers you gave, too.”
    While Adriana went to get pads of paper and pens, we caught Amy up on what was going on. She looked slightly ill when it was done. “Kitty, I remember most of the questions.”
    “What were they