Touched by an Alien

mean, really think about it.” She spoke in a louder tone. “But the big question is, why?”
    Everyone was silent. I decided to do some thinking right then, but not about Christopher. “What about the man with whatever is supposed to be me? Is that really Yates?”
    “Good question,” Christopher said. I almost fainted. He and Martini did their hand thing again. But this time it was fast. “Oh, yeah, that’s him,” Christopher said, as they snatched their hands away. He sounded repulsed.
    “He’s gross?”
    “All the superbeings are … unpleasant for us,” Gower answered, as I watched women near both Christopher and Martini hand them some sort of hand wipes, which the two of them used as if they were germaphobes who’d just shaken hands with a leper.
    “How’d he get from Arizona to New York in time to attack my mother?”
    “Private jet would do it,” Reader said. “He wouldn’t even have to use any powers, just get in the Yates private SST and you’re there. He had several hours between the two attacks, after all.”
    “SST?” Oh, good, something else I didn’t know.
    “Supersonic transport,” Mom translated. “Okay, no argument, he’s got more than one. But again, why?”
    Silence. It was nice to think with the aliens—they seemed to think with their minds, not their mouths. Of course, I was a human. But the two other humans in the room were keeping their traps shut, and I decided to follow suit.
    Which worked for a while. Problem was, sitting in silence for me means I am no longer thinking about whatever it is I’m supposed to. My mind wandered before the first half a minute, thinking about the entire day, kissing Martini, how I’d discovered my mother was not who I’d thought she was, kissing Martini, how it was sort of shocking the person I had the most relatability to right now was a former top male fashion model, kissing Martini, wondering if Reader and Gower went to clubs or just stayed in, kissing Martini, and wondering if Dad was going to show up soon. None of this got me any closer to anything other than possibly falling into bed with Martini.
    I forced myself to think some more. Why me? Really, why me? I wasn’t anything special. Oh, sure, I had a mother who was apparently the queen of antiterrorism, but I wasn’t involved with any of that.
    Something inside my brain kicked, very hard. What had Mom said, the first thing she’d said, about Yates? Not that he was a monster, not that he was a tycoon, not that he was disgusting. She’d said he was the head of a terrorist organization I’d never heard of. But Mom had heard of it.
    So maybe that meant Yates had heard of Mom.

CHAPTER 18
    “UM, WHEN IS MY FATHER GETTING HERE?”
    I got a lot of “looks” from around the table, but Gower recovered the quickest. “He’ll be here shortly. He’s with four agents, and they’ve reported in regularly.”
    “They’re not taking a gate?”
    “No, why?” Gower gave me a penetrating stare. “You want to share what you’re worried about?”
    “My family, the safety of the nation and the free world, stuff like that. I’ll explain it all, but we need our entire extended family under a heavier watch than you’ve done so far. And make sure it is our family, when you go to take them away to whatever hollow mountain in their general neighborhoods you feel is safe.”
    “No argument,” Gower said slowly. “But why?”
    “Because this isn’t about me.” I looked over at Mom, who had a suspicious but confused look on her face. “It’s about you. You’re outed, Mom, in whatever ways that means in your line of work. Yates isn’t after me for me; he’s after me to stop you and whatever it is you’re doing to his terrorist operation.”
    I looked back to Christopher and Martini for some sort of confirmation. “You both felt it—that’s not a real person next to Yates. But it’s something that looks just like me, down to the choice of suit. I was released from jury duty early, but I’d been on the ninth floor. Either their timing didn’t work out or—”
    “Or the men who tried to stop us from getting your car were sent to kill you,” Christopher finished.
    “Say what?” Mom and I shouted in unison.
    He sighed. “I didn’t mention it because I thought they were there because of us. There are Earth agencies trying to stop us, you know. It’s why we didn’t take your car to your apartment—we didn’t want someone following it and attacking you because you