Alien vs. Alien

facility when you were made the Head of Airborne.”
    “Oh. Right. Those.” The huge binders full of boring blah, blah, blah that I’d pretty much ignored this entire time. Well, we were all still alive and kicking, for the most part, so I decided the Binders of Boredom could wait a little while longer.
    I took Jamie back and hugged her. “You be good for Uncle Christopher, Jamie-Kat. Mommy’s got to go for a while, but she’ll be back very soon.”
    Jamie looked up at me and gurgled. During Operation Confusion she’d been able to shot. Mommyw us where all our kidnapped team members were, which was why they were still alive. I wasn’t sure how much of that was Jamie and how much was ACE, but all I saw were her pretty blue eyes looking at me trustingly. I wasn’t going to do anything to betray that trust.
    Lorraine and Claudia came over, babies in their arms. Lorraine was a buxom blonde and Claudia willowy with brown hair a shade the hair dye industry would kill for. They were the perfect example of what Dazzlers were—gorgeous, brilliant, and really nice.
    “You’re leaving us and racing off?” Lorraine asked after we’d all hugged and exchanged baby kisses.
    “Yeah, I am. I need you all here, safe and on guard.”
    “On guard for what?” Claudia asked.
    “I don’t actually know. But I think it’s gonna be big.”
    The girls exchanged a look. “You’ve talked to ACE?” Claudia asked.
    “Yes. I didn’t get much. I mean, I got some, but not much.” Not much I really understood yet, anyway.
    Lorraine nodded. “For what it’s worth, yesterday Paul said ACE felt more . . . absent than he ever has before.”
    “Yeah,” Claudia chimed in. “He said it was as if ACE was really distracted by something.”
    “Did he say if ACE felt uneasy?”
    They both shook their heads. “Paul’s had a lot going on with—” Claudia slammed her mouth shut.
    “With the high security stuff I’m not supposed to know right now, yeah, I figured.”
    Lorraine looked pointedly at Christopher. “Don’t you need to help your wife or something?”
    “You’re so subtle. No, actually, I probably need to stay here and make sure Kitty doesn’t hear anything she’s not supposed to.”
    “What would it really matter?” Claudia asked. “I mean, it’s never been bad for us to have Kitty in the loop.”
    “Half the time, she’s the one who discovers the loops,” Lorraine added.
    Christopher shrugged. “To me? I don’t really care at this point. I can’t imagine how it would affect our diplomatic mission and she’s already guessed half of it or more. However, if you all want to keep Reynolds in place, then Kitty can’t hear it from any of us, because if she knows or, worse, we tell her, then his job’s at risk.”
    “Fine,” Lorraine said with a sigh. “We don’t want Chuck out of the picture.”
    Claudia nodded. “He does too much for us.”
    This was the first time I’d heard either one of them use Chuckie’s first name. “When did you two decide to get off Jeff and Christopher’s Let’s Hate Chuckie bandwagon?”
    “We were never on it,” Claudia said. “We just didn’t want to get into an argument with Jeff, Christopher, or the other guys about him.”
    “You never said.” At least, not to me. I hoped thstophat someone had told Chuckie.
    “We weren’t Captains before,” Lorraine said with a wink. “And after working with him, it’s hard to understand why they’re still acting like Chuck’s anything but our friend.”
    “But then again, Jeff and Christopher tend to be a little slow sometimes.” Claudia laughed, and I knew she was thinking about Operation Fugly.
    “True enough.” Lorraine grinned.
    “I’m right here,” Christopher said while reverting to form and offering Patented Glare #5 to all of us.
    “Hey, I didn’t call you slow. Right now.”
    “What restraint. Look, are you heading off or staying here?”
    “Malcolm and I are leaving. You’re staying. Pull in my dad and Jeff’s parents if you’re able to.”
    “I have a list,” Claudia said. “We’ll go through it and analyze who we can move in here when.”
    “I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to have a lot of people coming in with none going out,” Christopher told her.
    I opened my mouth, but Buchanan took my arm. “Let them figure it out. We need to go, Missus Chief.”
    “You’re right.” I looked around. I didn’t see the Peregrines or Poofs. Oh, well, better they were here with Jamie