Alien Collective by Gini Koch

living right now.”
    “No one’s going into the American Centaurion Embassy for, most likely, at least another twenty-four to forty-eight hours.” Chuckie grimaced. “Buchanan and William have Field teams searching the tunnel systems around every Centaurion base or stronghold worldwide, and that’s going to take some time, hyperspeed or no hyperspeed. Crawford and the rest of Airborne are overseeing the cleanup and everyone’s triple-checking everything, so again, taking a while.”
    “No argument from me. I don’t want anyone dying from this, any of us especially. But where are we all going to go? Dulce? The Pontifex’s Residence? Or was that attacked as well?”
    Chuckie and Mom stared at each other. “No,” Chuckie said slowly, “there was no activity at all around the Pontifex’s Residence.”
    “Are we sure it’s safe? Or, let me put this another way. Are we sure there’s not some horrible thing—bomb, assassins, intolerant religious assholes—lying in wait for Paul and James to go home?”



CHAPTER 12
     
    C HUCKIE AND MOM both pulled out their phones and started making calls. Olga smiled at me. “We are going to be staying with the Czech diplomatic mission. Andrei and the rest of our mission are there already. I’m sure you could house with Bahrain and Israel.”
    “I’m sure we could. I’m just worried about us bringing down trouble onto our friends. More trouble, I mean, since all of our neighborhood’s been evacuated. Because of us.”
    “No,” Olga said sternly. “Because of a variety of evil people. Not because of you.”
    Examined her expression, because that had sounded like an Olga Clue and I didn’t want to miss it if it was. She looked just slightly expectant. Always the way.
    “You think it’s the usual two, three, or four plans going at once, don’t you?”
    She shrugged. “If you examine the events from a distance, they don’t seem overly . . . coherent.” She looked at the TV, then back at me.
    Decided to take the leap. “Gotcha. They’re being triggered by the same thing, though, aren’t they? Jeff’s sort of announcement as Armstrong’s VP.”
    She nodded. “Your husband would be my choice out of all the options.”
    “You’ve mastered the art of making every sentence have at least a double meaning, haven’t you? I’m, as always, impressed.”
    Olga laughed. “It is, as you say, a skill I’m proud of.”
    Mom got off her phone. “I’m going to send Kevin and a team over to the Pontifex’s Residence.” She strode off, Chuckie following her, though he was still on his call.
    Adriana rejoined us. “Grandfather wants to know when we will be joining him.”
    “Not just yet,” Olga said. “I would like to be sure that things are . . . quiet.”
    Adriana nodded. “I believe it would be helpful if you could reassure Representative Martini that his accepting the nomination would be in everyone’s best interests.” It was clear she was talking to Olga, not me.
    “Are you coming with us?” Olga asked as Adriana took hold of her wheelchair.
    Had an overwhelming urge to talk to someone who wasn’t going to make it hard on me or stress me out. “Ahhh . . .” Now I just had to figure out how to say that I wanted alone time more than I wanted to reassure my husband, somehow without earning major Bad Wife Points.
    Prince had been snoozing with the other K-9 dogs. However, as I tried to come up with a smooth exit strategy, he got up, trotted over, and wuffed quietly.
    Prince loved me and Jeff as much as he loved Officer Melville. I knew this because since those drugs had altered Jeff, they’d also altered Jamie, and, due to my giving birth to her, altered me. I’d gotten some of the nifty A-C abilities, like hyperspeed and faster healing. And I’d also gotten my own special talent. I could talk to animals. Sort of. If they wanted to communicate with me, that was.
    Prince usually wanted to share the wonder that was Our Special Bond, so I was quite