Touched by an Alien

there.
    Emily and Melanie wanted to come with us, but I wanted people I knew I could trust to pull the trigger up on this level. Their daughters were in danger—they’d shoot to kill without question.
    “Who else is in on this with Beverly?”
    Emily shook her head. “We don’t know.”
    “I’m with you that she couldn’t have pulled this off by herself,” Melanie added. “But she hasn’t indicated any accomplices.”
    “Figure out who’s missing or might have been acting funny the last couple of days, last few hours in particular, but after you fix the gates. No one can get in here from Home Base. Just be sure that my mother and father are with whoever comes through. If they’re not, then that side’s been infiltrated, too.”
    “Got it. Kitty, please get them back safely.” Melanie’s voice broke.
    “I’ll do my best. Make sure Yates doesn’t get away.”
    “He won’t,” Emily said.
    I left Duchess with the Dazzlers. I didn’t want her at risk, and, besides, she was getting so much attention and praise for her part in the chomping of the head terrorist that it seemed a shame to drag her off.
    We went back, just our crew of five. All the guys had big guns now, though Hughes still had the baseball bat and Christopher still had the ball. I got the feeling they were both finding comfort in holding them, and who was I to argue? I wasn’t going to give up my purse, either.
    We slunk downstairs to see the same four terrorists guarding the doors. Thankfully, we hadn’t made much noise upstairs, and the Che wanna-be’s screams must not have traveled.
    “How do we get them out of action and us inside that room?” Christopher whispered in my ear. “I can’t move fast yet.”
    I thought about it. “Leave that to me.” I dropped the Glock into my purse, crawled on the floor a little way, then stood up and sauntered over. “Hey, what’s going on?”
    Four big guns pointed at me. “Who the hell are you?”
    “Gosh, I was going to ask you the same thing. I was napping. Where is everybody? Are we having some sort of a drill?” I did my best to look and sound as inane as possible.
    The terrorists exchanged glances. “Why don’t we take you inside?” one suggested.
    “Sure, is that where we go for this drill?”
    “Yeah, babe, that’s right.” He put his arm around my waist. I managed not to recoil or hit him, but it required a lot of self-control.
    One of the others opened the door. It was a large medical bay, and there were several people in the room. As my personal escort shoved me through the doorway, I saw Lorraine and Claudia huddled next to their pilots. The men had been beaten up but were conscious, and they looked angry. Tim and Reader were near them, also looking worse for wear. There were six other terrorists in the room, four of them with guns trained on the six against the wall; two of them were flanking Beverly. But my eyes were drawn to the center of the room.
    Martini was on his knees, hands tied behind his back. He looked worse than when I’d last seen him, and I could tell he’d been beaten up like the others. Beverly was standing over him, and her expression of triumph and viciousness made my blood cold.
    She was doing something to Martini—his body was reacting as if she were kicking him, but she wasn’t moving. He was trying not to make noise, but grunts of pain escaped. Even like this he was gorgeous. But I couldn’t stand to see the pain etched into his face and body.
    I looked back at her face, and I realized she was sending an emotional onslaught at him. The fear and anger from the others in the room would be bad enough, especially considering the state he’d been in when they’d kidnapped everyone, but she was adding on more. And it was killing him.
    I’d thought I hated the terrorist who’d hit Emily. I knew I hated Yates for trying to kill my family and Mephistopheles for killing Cox. But I’d never, ever, known what it was to see someone and know, without a shadow of a doubt, that I’d do anything and everything I had to do in order to kill her or him for what they were doing to someone I loved.
    “Well, well, if it’s not our little Miss Katt.” Beverly’s eyes shot daggers at me. “Come to help make Jeff’s last minutes truly horrific?”
    “You seem to be all over it.”
    Martini looked over at me. “Baby, get out of here.” It sounded like every syllable cost him.
    “Oh, she can’t do that,” Beverly purred as she sent another