Alien vs. Alien

it was time to change teams? When I found out that Cooper and Gaultier had been trying to use children as test subjects for the superdrug.”
    “So you did know about it.”
    “After the fact. Cooper didn’t tell me because he was clear on where my line was. I had to read Reynolds’ report to know the truth of what had happened.”
    “But you were still friendly with Cartwright and Marling.”
    “You don’t discard people like that because someone they know did something insane and illegal. And if you want to know the moment I realized I wanted nothing more to do with any of the rest of the supersoldier programs, it was the President’s Ball. Once it was all over, several of us who have the security clearances to know everything about Centaurion Division insisted on seeing what was going on down in that basement. I saw the ‘perfect weapons’ Marling had created. I saw things I’d thought of as people shown to be robots. I saw madness.”
    “You’d bought in before then.”
    “Yes. It sounds wonderful on paper—create an army out of the things from space that can destroy us without even trying hard. In reality, it was horrifying.” He shook his head. “I’ve thanked God every day that my wife was too ill to attend. And now I realize they wanted both of us too ill to attend. I’d almost say they were my friends for that . . . only I know they didn’t try to keep me away to keep me safe, but so that I wouldn’t see what they were really doing. Until it was too late.”
    “Well, better late than never to the side of right.”
    He gave a bitter laugh. “My career will be over if these pictures of you and what everyone in the world will believe is me hit the newsstands. They’re no longer after just Reynolds. I’m in their sights now. Whoever the hell ‘they’ are. The people I’d suspect are all dead.”
    “Other than Cantu.”
    “There is no way he’s doing this alone. And I have no idea who he could go to who would have this kind of pull that I wouldn’t know about already.”
    “And they picked a hell of a day for this, too,” Amy said, still industriously writing, just as Len and Kyle were. White appeared done, so I assumed he’d once again used hyperspeed. He was the wise man. But Amy was my go-to girl right now.
    “Ames, seriously, you’re totally golden today. Why? James wanted me asking that. Why did the senator get the first set of pictures the day we left town?”
    “My guess is that they truly expected him to take them straight to Jeffrures they, which would have been simple because you were nowhere around to either intercept the pictures or protect Mister Reynolds from Jeffrey’s wrath.”
    “Mister White wins the first round. So, the next question is, why did the senator get the next set of pictures today of all days? When the One World Festival is launching?”
    “That,” Olga said, looking straight at me, “is the proper question.”
    I knew my answer to this was going to mean I either flunked or got to join Oliver and Buchanan at the head of the class. I ran it all through my mind and it all added up. For once.
    “Because it’s not about the pictures. Everything that’s going on—from the dirty pictures, to the mysterious-nothing-taken break-in at the Bahraini Embassy, to Sandra the Android, to Club Fifty-One’s little show—is a diversion.”

    Yi

CHAPTER 42

    O LGA BEAMED. “EXACTLY.”
    I didn’t congratulate myself—we were too far away from any kind of positive outcome to get cocky.
    “They may be diversions,” Christopher said, “but people can still die from them.”
    “Oh, I’m positive they want people dying.” Chuckie in particular. “But they’re doing all this to distract us from what they really want—Chuckie out of the way and clear access to Jamie and all the other hybrid children.”
    As I said this, Amy finished up and handed her stuff to Christopher. He already had White’s completed test recap. Len finished as Christopher glared at Amy’s pages, with Kyle following shortly thereafter.
    While Christopher perused their work and got more and more pissed off, based on the fact that he was running through Patented Glares #1-5 as if he were practicing for the Glaring Olympics and wanted to ensure the Gold in at least four out of five events, I went back to one of the diversions at hand.
    “So, we still need to know how they got pictures of me and Jeff from last night.”
    White cocked his head at me. “Do we feel our current