Touched by an Alien

were associated with us. But with this …” He shrugged again. “I think you’re right.”
    Another reason to faint, but I let it pass. “So, you think the superbeing I took out was part of Yates’ plan?”
    “No, I think it saved your life,” Martini said. He looked to Christopher, who nodded, and then looked back at me. He was trying to hide it, but I could see a lot of worry, and fear, in his eyes. “If it hadn’t formed, you’d have gone to get your car and been murdered. We don’t monitor those. I mean, I feel them, all our empaths do, but we’ve managed to learn how to ignore them, because we’ve had no choice. You learn to block and filter emotions or you go insane. So you’d have been killed. They’d have replaced you with whatever that is, and no one would have noticed.”
    “I’d have noticed,” Mom said dryly. “It might look like my daughter, but a couple of words in and it would have been clear.”
    “It’s a robot, Mom. A couple of words in, once it was in the house, and then it goes boom, and you and Dad are dead. They aren’t trying to stop you. They’re trying to kill you.” I looked back to Christopher and Martini. “That’s why Yates attacked Mom at the airport. Because his first plan got wrecked and everyone saw me on national television, alive and well. You screwing that up was probably a really good thing.”
    “Thanks, I think,” Christopher said with a grimace that, if I chose to be charitable, was probably more of a smile.
    “Yates owns a lot of media,” Reader added. “But he’s also got his fingers in other industries, and robotics is one of them.”
    “So he raced back to New York, because he’d know early that the airports were being shut down due to fear of more terrorist attacks. Speaking of which, how was he allowed to land, and what the hell were you doing on a commercial flight?”
    “Money and power have their privileges,” Mom said.
    Reader nodded. “You’d be amazed at how the rules don’t apply to the truly wealthy, influential people of the world.”
    “And I was on a commercial flight because this trip wasn’t a job for the government. I was doing some consulting for a large international conglomerate whose name you don’t need to know. They made the travel arrangements. First class,” Mom added. “Not as good as the private jet, but, you know, better for their bottom line.”
    My mother’s life was so much more interesting than I’d ever guessed. I wanted to review every year of my life and figure out which of my memories and beliefs were based on reality and which were not, but now wasn’t the time. “I think we can assume Yates knew your travel plans. You couldn’t come home, so he went to you.”
    Mom nodded slowly. “It makes sense. We’re close to proving he’s the head of Al Dejahl.”
    “And you’re in charge of that operation, aren’t you?”
    “Yes. But I’m not the only one involved.” She looked at Gower. “We need the rest of my terrorism unit under protection, too.”
    “Come with me. We’ll get that taken care of right now.”
    Mom and Gower raced out of the room. Everyone else looked around at each other. Finally one of the Dazzlers spoke up. I thought she resembled a young Sophia Loren.
    “So, is this a superbeing issue or an American government issue?”
    “Does it matter?” I wondered if they were going to consider just letting my family be slaughtered.
    “Yes and no,” White answered. “Superbeings are involved, so it’s us. But the threat is to American counterterrorism. We have certain responsibilities in that case.”
    “You have to let those agencies know it’s time to work together?”
    “We have to let them know to stay the hell out of our way,” Christopher replied. His father didn’t argue.
    Reader pushed off his glass wall. “I’ll take care of it.” Sophia’s look-alike and the one who really looked like Raquel Welch when she was in that fur bikini went with him. I hated myself for not being sorry to see them go. I also felt bad I had no interest in getting to know any of the females. I had been a lot happier surrounded by all the males. I wondered if Reader preferred hanging with the Dazzlers or if, by now, he was comfortable merely being one of the boys. It might be different for him, since he was gay and drop-dead gorgeous, but I had a feeling it wasn’t.
    Turned out, the other females wanted to get to know me, however. “Maybe now’s a good time for those