Alien Research

CHAPTER 12

LET THAT ONE SIT ON THE AIR for a moment. Buchanan was full of fun facts, and we hadn’t even gotten to the relevant one that had brought us to this meeting.

“So Kendrick lied.” Not a shocker, really. “I’d bet the rest of the Axis of Evil are involved as well.”

“Maybe,” Jeff said.

“We don’t know for sure, but it’s a damned safe bet,” Chuckie said.

An additional fact insisted I share its presence. “That’s why Horn asked for the meeting this morning, isn’t it? He knows, and he wants . . . what? Us to be ready? To see if we have a clue? To know how we’re going to counter?”

“All of the above,” Chuckie said. “When did you discover this?” he asked Buchanan, voice tense.

“Last night. And if the F.B.I. knows and you don’t, then we have more problems. Because I truly had no idea until last night, and Angela didn’t, either.”

“That’s why Mom isn’t here.”

“Correct.” Buchanan shrugged. “And there’s more, which is why I actually called Missus Chief. I’m pretty sure I remember something from when I was attacked. I’m sure I left Colonel Hamlin alive.”

“That’s good news,” White said. “Can you tell us what memory has come back to you?”

“Not enough. The memory’s choppy, sort of like things you remember from when you were very young. Images, mostly. But the feelings associated with the images are pretty strong. I can see Hamlin getting out of my car, which means we were in it before I was hit with the drug.”

“That’s incredibly helpful,” Chuckie said. “Because it means we can start putting a timeline to the disappearance. Anything else?”

Buchanan nodded. “I feel that I’d believed him, so that could mean he’d given me the proof necessary to show we had a Mastermind working.”

“Also helpful,” Gower said. “Because we can stop wondering if we don’t. Not,” he added dryly, “that we’ve spent much time worrying about not having one.”

“True enough. I also have an image of a door closing. It’s a door that’s familiar, but I don’t know why.”

“Could it be one of your safe houses?” Chuckie asked.

“Could be, but I think I’d recognize the door more if it was. And I don’t.”

“We checked your safe houses already,” Christopher mentioned.

“And I checked the ones I didn’t tell you about,” Buchanan said with a grin. “He’s not at any of them.”

“Maybe he’s at his.” Everyone in the room stared at me. “Oh, come on! Hamlin was in hiding for over a year when he came to me. He hadn’t left the country, because if he had, why come back to ask me for help? How would he know what was going on, as much as he did, if he was elsewhere? He wants to find and stop the Mastermind, or else he wouldn’t have come to us. So, he’s here, somewhere in or around the D.C. area, hiding out, keeping an eye on things.”

“Why would he take someone else to a safe house?” Gower asked. “That seems dangerous, especially if he’s trying to hide.”

“He didn’t take a ‘someone,’ he took Malcolm. I’d bet because he had the information there and Malcolm would be someone who he’d be likely to trust.” I’d told Hamlin to trust Buchanan, point of fact. “And Malcolm would want to make sure Hamlin was somewhere safe, right?” Buchanan nodded. “So, Hamlin refuses to hide out at one of Malcolm’s safe houses, probably just in case. Hamlin, like Malcolm, has to have more than one safe house or he’d have been killed before we ever met him. So, Malcolm takes Hamlin to one of Hamlin’s safe houses.”

“But that means we have no way of really knowing if Hamlin’s still alive,” Raj said. “Someone was following Mister Buchanan. It seems a safe bet that they followed him to this safe house.”

“Not if it was close.” Closed my eyes and did a timeline. “Let’s say that Hamlin’s hiding out somewhere very close to us. I mean, he walked to our Embassy, didn’t he? No one ever saw a car or a cab, so that means he walked.”

“I’d agree,” Raj said. “I was the one who answered the door, and I saw no vehicle with him or pulling away.”

“Okay. So, he and Malcolm drive off to see the proof.” Opened my eyes. “If they drove, they didn’t leave the Embassy via the front door or the Tunnels of Doom. They left through the parking garage.”

Buchanan nodded. “I definitely parked inside the Embassy on the night of the party.”

Decided not to mention that this insight of mine would have been better had it come to me six months ago. Better late than never, right? Chose to forge on lest someone, Christopher most likely, point this out.

“So, they drive off, and Hamlin’s safe house is close. Malcolm does the ‘be sure we’re not followed’ thing, gets the proof he needs, and leaves Hamlin in safety, probably with the promise to come back to take care of things. Maybe to contact him the next day, even.”

“Then what?” Christopher asked. “Oh, and the whole car thing would have been more helpful six months ago.”

“I hate you sometimes. Just want that on record.” Christopher smirked. Decided I preferred him glaring. Chose not to share this. “So, anyway, then Malcolm does . . . what? Comes back to the party?”

“No,” Buchanan said slowly. “I’d go to prove whatever Hamlin showed me.”

“I found him unconscious in the tunnels under Gaultier Research,” Christopher said. “We assumed this before and I think it’s still a good assumption now—I think you headed there.”

“Maybe.” Buchanan sounded doubtful. “I don’t know that the timeline would have worked out.”

“We’ve never recovered your car, and the P.T.C.U., C.I.A., and several other agencies were quite determined to find it. So maybe you went elsewhere, and that’s where your car is or was, and where Clarence hit you.”

Raj cleared his throat. “Ah, if I may, what if Mister Buchanan headed to Titan?” Everyone in the room’s turn to stare at Raj. He smiled. The full room’s attention didn’t seem to be a bother for a troubadour. “It would make sense from a timeline perspective, and also logic. We all know Titan is rebuilding. Per Mister Buchanan, they’re supporting Club Fifty-One. Colonel Hamlin had identified that Titan had actions running against us. Maybe he’d identified more, and Mister Buchanan went to check those out.”

“So they dumped me under Gaultier to, what, throw the blame onto them?”

“Seems possible to me,” White said. “Precedent exists for actions like that.”

“Or they’re working together and decided the Gaultier tunnel section was easier to hide you in. Or they wanted you found. These companies were in bed with each other before; it’s not a shocker that they’d be in bed again. And based on my morning, the five heads are tight, so I think it’s a good bet it was a joint action.”

“I agree,” Chuckie said. “And it makes logical sense. So, we know what Horn wants, and it’s now coinciding with what we want. So what do we want to tell him when we go back to the main meeting?”

“Nothing about Hamlin or Malcolm. In fact, I’d like to tell him nothing at all about this meeting. Of course, that means that Chuckie and I will tell whatever lie we come up with and the rest of you will smile and nod.”

For the most part, A-Cs couldn’t lie to save their or anyone else’s lives. There were exceptions to the rule. White and Raj were both pretty good in the short term, as were a few others on staff. The best liar in the A-C community I knew of was Camilla, who was undercover at Gaultier right now, under Chuckie’s orders and direction.

Chuckie shook his head slowly. “I’d like to mention the Club Fifty-One activities, if only to see how Horn reacts. However, I realize that would mean we’d have to tell him all about your morning and explain how we got word of the rest of it, and that we want to avoid.”

“Why not say that one of our personnel was ill?” Tito asked.

“Why did I need every guy in the room with me who wasn’t a politician?”

“I’m a politician,” Jeff said morosely.

“You’re special.”

“Yeah, thanks, baby. Why don’t we just say we were called away on official Centaurion business, smile, nod, and go on with our meeting?”

We all looked at him. “Um, will that work?” I asked finally.

Jeff shrugged. “As I’ve had the ‘pleasure’ of learning, it works on Capitol Hill every damn day.”

White and Gower both nodded. “I have no issue with that story,” Gower said. “Especially since it’s true.”

“Then it’s settled. Malcolm gets to hang out with Tito and we get to go back and play mind games with the F.B.I. Today’s just continuing to get better and better every hour, isn’t it?”

Gower chuckled. “Yeah, Kitty. Routine.”