Alien Research

CHAPTER 28

GOT THE BY-NOW-PREREQUISITE WTF looks from most of my team. “You mind explaining that?” Jeff asked.

“Really? I mean all of us need to very obviously go away. So they see us going away and know that their clever plan has fooled us yet again. So that we can sneak back in. Loaded for bear. To catch them unawares. And all that.”

“We don’t know if we can get in,” Christopher said, patience clearly forced. “What’s our plan if we can’t use the drainage pipe? Blasting in? Coming up through the tunnel system?”

“They’ll expect that,” Dad said. “At least based on what Charles and Kitty are saying, which makes sense to me. They’ve told Mahin that they’re in the tunnels and that she’s to stall and stop us here and not give up their location at any cost, I’m sure. So while we may fool them into thinking we’ve left, they’ll have guards on any tunnel access points, just in case we decide to try to access the Science Center that way.”

“We use a gate.” Now I got the WTF looks from everyone, other than Buchanan and Adriana, but presumably only because they were too far away to hear me. “Look, the agents were bounced back by whatever when they tried to use a standard gate that was in a base. However, I don’t think there’s a way to flip a switch and turn off all floater gate activity.”

“No, there’s really not. It could be done from the Dome, but nowhere else,” Jeff confirmed. “The trouble we had getting here was more of a security issue—making sure that no one could track the floater’s signature.”

“Great. And I know there’s a way to use the gates when the shields are activated, because we do it all the time.”

Jeff nodded. “Yes and no, but I’m willing to discuss intricacies later.”

“Then let’s obviously leave, taking Mahin with us, and use a floater gate to get inside.”

“What if someone can read our emotions?” Tito asked. “Or if they have the imageers watching us?”

“The beauty of the emotional blockers and overlays is if they’re active, they can’t feel us any more than I can feel them,” Jeff confirmed.

“No way to tell on the imageers,” Christopher said. “But if we stand around long enough, I’m sure someone will come up with the idea.”

“I agree we need to move, but I want Mahin searched for bugs,” Chuckie said.

Knew without asking that this task was going to fall to me. Always the way. But we couldn’t trust the princesses with it, mostly because they could miss something that just didn’t seem suspicious to them. We shouldn’t have one of the men do the search, because it was going to have to be a strip search. Probably a cavity search.

“Tito and I will do it.” He was a doctor, he was used to searching cavities.

“Bugs or trackers could be internal, and that means a strip and cavity search,” Chuckie said.

Tito heaved a sigh. “What’s wrong with all of you? I have an OVS with me. It looks for anything suspicious, both organic and inorganic. She doesn’t have to be stripped, or have her cavities searched. While I’m verifying if she’s an android or not I’ll verify if she’s carrying something we don’t want as well.”

“The emotional blockers and overlays are cloaked with a substance our equipment doesn’t pick up,” I reminded him.

“If Jeff can read her, those aren’t on her person,” Tito reminded right back.

“Works for me, I just wanted to point it out.”

“Good. I’m going to go either put our minds at ease or have Malcolm and Adriana deactivate an android with extreme prejudice.” Tito trotted over to our other little group and started wanding.

“Uh, one question.” Rahmi sounded hesitant, which usually indicated she was about to counter something I or, more likely, Tito might have said. “Why are we taking this Mahin with us?”

“She’s a prisoner of war.” Figured I’d put it in terms the princesses would understand immediately.

“Yes, I understand that. But, we have determined she is being used.”

“That’s right,” Jeff said. “At least we believe she’s being used. She might see the light and join our side, but she might not, and we don’t want to let her go back to rejoin our other enemies.”

“Do you normally take your prisoners of war with you?”

“Yeah, we do . . . oh. Wow. Good call, Rahmi.”

“You’ve lost me,” Jeff said with a sigh.

“The princess makes a good point,” Chuckie said.

“What point is that?” Christopher asked. “That we don’t kill our enemies immediately or just let them wander off to attack us again?”

“No,” Chuckie replied. “What Rahmi means is that we take our prisoners along all the time, it’s something we do regularly, meaning it’s something that can be anticipated. Kitty tends to grab whoever she comes across and drag them into her wake. Tito’s a great example, but he’s not the only one.”

“The Planetary Council, for another example,” White said. “And since we know Ronaldo and LaRue attended the Martinis’ wedding reception in secret, it would seem a safe bet that he is anticipating our once again attempting to turn an enemy into a friend.”

Tito returned. “She’s human. So are Malcolm and Adriana, in case anyone was feeling paranoid. Mahin has no bugs or implants or anything else dangerous like that on her. She did have a few weapons hidden, but Adriana searched her and found them all.”

“So, what do we do with her, then?” Christopher asked. “And before we suggest that someone takes her off somewhere, I need to point out that we have no idea what the extent of her talents is. She could be a lot more powerful than we’ve seen.”

“And that could mean they’re also expecting us to take her somewhere and then she becomes an infiltrator.” This was really like the poison scene from The Princess Bride. What a pity I hadn’t spent years taking the poison antidote so that the choice didn’t matter. Decided I was still technically the one in charge, so made the Executive Decision. “We take her. No one can read her any more than they can read the rest of us. If she’s going to try something, better with us, where we can stop her, than somewhere else where she might get the drop on whoever’s guarding her and thereby actually infiltrate.”

“So, where are we going?” Gower asked. “Exactly?”

“First to the wreckage of the plane and tank. Then via floater gate to Home Base. Then back to the drainage pipe.”

“Why the bouncing around?” Jeff asked.

“No, that’s wise,” Chuckie countered. “It should at least give us a hope of confusing our enemies if they’re actually in the Science Center and watching us. Gladys may have given them everything and guessed what we’re going to do, but it’s worth a shot.”

“Then let’s get this show on the road. It’s now at least a couple hours after my last meal and I’m starving.”

Jeff heaved a sigh as he took my hand. “Only my girl.”