Alien vs. Alien

isn’t being done to hurt American Centaurion. It’s being done to destroy Chuckie and everything he stands for.” I looked at Jamie. “And stands in front of.”
    “Mind explaining that?”
    “Sure. They’re after our baby, and all the other hybrid babies.” Jeff growled. “Look, belay that for now. Chuckie has a lot of enemies, in no small part because he spends much of his time protecting Centaurion Division, our hybrids in particular. Senator Armstrong said it himself—brilliant, driven men cause problems, and many times they take over. We have a lot of enemies and the person who protects us from them is Chuckie. Take him out, what the hell happens to us?”
    “You get Esteban Cantu running the Extra-Terrestrial Division of the C.I.A.,” Armstrong answered. “It’s considered a straight line to the top position. Antiterrorism used to be, but not since Reynolds took over as the head of the ETD.”
    “I heard him,” Jeff said, voice tight. “I don’t have eyes on Reynolds, but I’ll get to him.” He cursed quietly. “This event is a perfect place for an assassination.”
    “That’s what you’re all doing there, right? Ensuring that the International One World Festival isn’t the President’s Ball, Part Two.”
    “Yes. I need to get off the phone. There are too many people here—I need to focus to find Reynolds. So, on the plus side, he’s not emotionally upset.”
    I refrained from mentioning that this could be because he was already dead.
    Jeff sighed. “I’d feel it, if he died.”
    Good to know he was reading my mind. I reminded myself that I’d told him how much I liked that only a short while ago. “Why?”
    “Because he’s so tightly tied to you emotionally. It’s an empathic thing, but if Reynolds dies, I’ll know. And he’s not dead.”
    “Good. Jeff, you be careful, too. Just because Chuckie’s the goal, it doesn’t mean they won’t go for a double and try to get rid of you, too.”
    “Always nice to know you care, baby. I love you. I’ll let you know as soon as I find him.”
    “I love you, too. Be safe.”
    I hung up and tried not to worry. Failed. I took Jamie from Olga and cuddled her. Made me feel a little bit better.
    “So, the expectation was that Jeffrey would go into a jealous rage and kill Mister Reynolds,” White said.
    “Makes sense,” Christopher said. “I was kind of impressed with how well he handled it.”
    “He was cut off from me and Jamie emotionally. I’m sure that had a lot to do with it. So he could tell how upset Chuckie was and read him correctly, without a lot of jealousy filtering required.” I looked at Armstrong. “If you’d brought him those photos, though, I think it would have gone differently.”
    “So, why were you such a good friend to Kitty all of a sudden?” Amy asked.
    “The truth,” I added. “Not the political spin.”
    “They’re the same answer—why upset your husband? That wouldn’t do me any good politically. But if I could help you keep these out of the press, or at least help you prep for how to handle it when they hit the streets, well, I’d be your friend, wouldn’t I?”
    “And friends do favors for each other. Yeah. Same with Guy and Vance. And they told no one?”
    “No. If we told someone, then we wouldn’t be your friends, would we?”
    “Since when did you want to become Kitty’s friend?” Christopher asked.
    Armstrong shrugged.
    “No, it’s a really good question, and you need to answer it. Because you haven’t done anything the person who’s sending the pictures expected you to. Meaning he or she knows you, and you’ve changed your game plan somewhere along the way. And they
don’t
know that.”
    “They know,” White said quietly. “That’s why Senator Armstrong has new photos today. Because they know he’s not doing what they expected and is, for whatever reason, choosing to align himself with us.”
    Armstrong sighed. “Yes, you’re right. Look, Madeline Cartwright and Antony Marling are dead. I tied my horse to t/fontheir cart, and it’s only because I legitimately had no idea what they were doing that I’m still in office, let alone not in jail.”
    “How many supersoldier projects are active right now?”
    He stared at me. I stared right back. He wasn’t Mom or Chuckie—I had no worries that I’d win.
    It took a while, but sure enough, he dropped his eyes. “Two.”
    “Based out of Paris and Paraguay?”
    “Yes. You want to know the exact moment I decided