Alien Research

CHAPTER 45

OUR PEOPLE WERE IN CONTROL of Home Base and the Science Center again. The P.T.C.U. was overseeing a complete, inch-by-inch scan and search of both facilities and all equipment. Meaning Kevin had stayed in Dulce. Alpha and Airborne, though, had come back with us to the Embassy.

Everyone else was back in their usual places, though all the hostages, Gladys included, were at the Embassy, too. Michael’s body was in one of the rooms in the infirmary, Fuzzball’s little body still with him, and all the Gowers, Reader, White, Chuckie, and Caroline were there. The less said about their emotional states the better, but Jeff had had to hug them all and then leave the room under Tito and Nurse Carter’s watchful eyes.

Dad and Buchanan were still in Guantanamo and Mom was with Kevin, but she’d called to tell me she was coming by soon and, as with Buchanan, not to roll any plan until she’d heard and approved it. Figured Buchanan had already told her he was worried. He was right to be.

We checked on the kids—they and the pets all seemed anxious, but relieved when we all got home. Tim gave me the “something’s up and off” look. Had to agree. But I was too heartsick to figure out what right now. I just hugged Jamie tightly and told her what a good girl she’d been. That she didn’t ask why we were all crying was proof to me that she, and the other kids, already knew why, and it wasn’t because Denise had told them.

We left the kids with Denise, Len and Kyle still on guard. The rest of us, spouses and the rest of the Embassy staff and any guests like Mr. Joel Oliver included, went upstairs to our apartment. Jeff felt we all needed to be in an environment that didn’t seem work-like or threatening. I figured we needed to be near our in-room isolation chamber so that when he collapsed from all the extreme emotions going on around him, it’d be that much quicker for Tito and Nurse Carter to get him safely taken care of.

The sheer number of people in it actually made our living room look like it was an ordinary size. Would have preferred a happier reason for the impromptu gathering, but what I wanted hadn’t been happening, so why change things now?

Serene and Brian had their reunion. Once she was feeling semi-normal he handed her the cage that had trapped Fuzzball. “Here’s a souvenir I picked up for you from the most horrible trip I’ve ever taken. The Marines didn’t try to take this away from me; not sure if they didn’t realize it was alien in nature, wanted us to research it, or were just too distracted with everything else to notice.”

“We need to know what that’s made of,” Jeff said. “I know we’re all emotionally drained and the real anguish hasn’t hit everyone yet. But we have to keep going.”

I’d had Hacker International join us, some because Jennifer and Ravi deserved their reunion, too, and some because I didn’t want to look at anyone on a video screen right now. I wanted everyone where I could touch them.

Serene examined the cage, then handed it off to Ravi, who examined it as well. “It’s going to take some time, Kitty,” Ravi said finally.

“If we don’t get answers, the terrorists win.”

“The Marines are taking them to Guantanamo,” Tim said. “We should know something soon.”

“I’d like to know how Walter, Jennifer, and Jeremy arrived in time to save the day.” In part because I wanted to talk about something, anything positive.

“We were too late,” Walter said quietly. The Barones looked like they agreed.

“No, you weren’t,” Jeff said. “They were going to torture and kill everyone in that room. You arrived in time to save the people Michael died trying to protect. That’s not failure, that’s commendable.”

“Jeff’s right. And I’d like to know how you all avoided the mind control. The last we knew, you were calling me on a non-Embassy phone and were cut off mid-word.”

Walter perked up a little. “Well, I’d held out against the mind control before, but since I’d succumbed eventually, I did some research on how to avoid and overcome brainwashing, mind control, and things like that.”

“He flipped a couple flags on our systems while doing it,” Stryker said. “So, when we looked into it, we all did the training.”

“So, everyone other than the actual media-facing Embassy personnel are trained?” Christopher snapped. “Why leave us out?”

Walter and Stryker exchanged a look. I sighed. “Because they figured we already could, Christopher.”

Stryker nodded. “You can’t focus on one thing for too long, Kitty. That makes you hard to mentally control.”

“So I’ve heard and keep on hearing. Jeff, Christopher, just assume that everyone thinks you’re both awesome and let it go. So, Walter, you held out. How did they not catch you?”

“I pretended to be under the influence. I hung up the phone and did the whole ‘yes, master’ thing that everyone else was doing.”

Jennifer grinned. “Jeremy and I did the same thing. None of us were near each other when this started, though.”

“We had to let them separate the teams,” Walter went on. “But I followed Al Dejahl. I was able to because he kept a full complement of us nearby, to assign tasks to.”

“We were sent to ‘guard’ the top level,” Jeremy said. “When Walter came in with Al Dejahl and the hostages, I knew he was faking.”

“How?” Jeff asked. “I couldn’t feel anything.”

Jeremy, Jennifer, and Walter all shot each other guilty looks. “Well, Jennifer and I have used signs since we were kids to tell each other things so no one else would know. Walter caught on; so the three of us have been sending signals to each other for, ah, months now. So, we just did it again here.”

They all still looked guilty, like somehow this was them being bad. “Great initiative,” I said quickly. “So then what?”

Got relieved looks and Jeremy continued. “They used a gate to leave, and then we signaled each other, and got out of range of the others so we could make a plan.”

“Who was running the gate for them?” Christopher asked.

Jeremy grimaced. “Gladys. She was fully controlled. We’re lucky she was, though, because if she hadn’t been fully under she might have noticed that we weren’t complying like everyone else.”

“So her talents weren’t really working when she was under control?” Jeff asked.

“As far as we know, no,” Walter said. “Once Al Dejahl and the hostages left we decided the three of us weren’t enough to fight everyone else, and we didn’t have any idea where Alpha or Airborne were. So we decided it was wisest to follow Al Dejahl.”

“That was the easy part,” Jennifer added. “The gate was calibrated for Home Base, so we waited a few minutes and followed.”

“They weren’t there, of course,” Walter said.

“No, but you figured out where they’d gone.”

“It wasn’t easy, because they’d taken a floater gate,” Jennifer said. “But Walter figured it out. It was pretty amazing.”

“I ran gates at Dulce before I was assigned to the Embassy. All the gates at Home Base were calibrated for the Science Center, meaning they hadn’t used any of them.”

“I get how you’d tell they used a floater, but not how to follow it.” Clearly Walter was being underutilized here at the Embassy. Considered giving him over to Alpha. Decided I was going to be selfish and keep him with me.

He looked a little bashful. “There’s a way to determine trace patterns and cross-reference against prior transfers and I did it, that’s all. It’s a good skill, but I’m not the only one who knows how to apply it.”

“We’d have never found them without Walter,” Jeremy said. “Because Al Dejahl wasn’t anywhere close by.”

“We figured he wasn’t within fifty miles of the Science Center because Serene couldn’t find any of the hostages.”

“They weren’t,” Walter confirmed. “They came back here, to Washington. Right outside the Lincoln Memorial.”

“How interesting. Al Dejahl really likes his own version of the classics, doesn’t he? I assume they weren’t in or around the Memorial, though.”

“No. The gate let them out in some foliage on the side. We found the tunnel entrance and followed it down. We found some recent tire tracks and followed them,” Walter said. “Determining where the floater had been set for took a long time. Too long,” he added, looking down.

“Stop blaming yourself,” Jeff said gently. “You did more than anyone on Alpha or Airborne could have, and you did it under extreme duress.”

“We could have contacted the Dome,” Jeremy said, “but we really weren’t sure how far the infiltration went and if we’d called and they’d taken the Dome already, any hope we’d have of rescuing anyone would be gone.”

“That was, absolutely, the right thing to do,” Jeff said firmly. “And I’m saying that as the former Head of Field. The three of you did everything we could have hoped for and more. I realize everyone wants to blame themselves, but the three of you, more than anyone else, are completely blameless of anything other than saving six lives.”

Our little Gang of Three looked a little bit perkier than they had before. Jeff was really such a good, natural leader.

He turned to Brian. “Did you see anything?”

Brian shook his head. “We were blindfolded at Home Base. So I have no idea what anything looked like before we were chained up. We definitely went through all at once when we did the next gate transfer, though. And we traveled the last part in what felt like a Jeep, so that corroborates what Walter and the others have said.”

“Were they in one of the dead zone rooms?” Jeff asked Walter. Walter and the Barones all shook their head.

“But they were in a room,” Christopher said. “We all saw the room on camera.”

Jennifer nodded. “They were. It’s new, built since the last time we were down there. I’m guessing it was constructed very recently.”

“Within the last few days recently,” Jeremy added. “Maybe less.”

“More good news. So, where were they?” I asked.

“In the same general area where Mister Buchanan’s body was found when he was hit with that suspended animation drug,” Walter replied. “In the tunnels, underneath Gaultier Enterprises.”