Alien Research

CHAPTER 59

ALGAR WAS SITTING CROSS-LEGGED in the fridge, holding a frosty Cherry Coke, a straw, and an ironic expression.

“Wow, that’s some service.” Took the soda and the straw.

He rolled his eyes but didn’t say anything. Resisted the urge to be overly sarcastic, hard as it was. “I don’t think anyone can hear us. I realize you want to tell me something. I have no clue as to what that is, though.”

He gave me a look that could only be described as derisive and snapped his fingers.

Took a quick look around. Everyone seemed frozen. “Oh. So, I guess that was a summoning hint, wasn’t it?”

“You think?”

“Wow, trying to remember why it’s an honor that, out of all the naked apes out there, you’ve picked me as your new favorite.”

“Trying to remember why myself.”

“Okay, as fun as this bantering is, why did you summon me, oh Master of the Cupboard?”

“I like your plan.”

Waited. That appeared to be it.

“Um, thanks. I think. I’m finding it hard to believe you wanted to see me to give me an ‘atta girl’ in person, especially since you don’t really strike me as the ‘atta girl’ type.”

“Your enemies are planning, too, of course.”

“Ah, now there’s the Algar I’ve recently come to know and pretend to love. So, the bad guys aren’t sleeping, either. I figured, and I promise you, everyone else over there on the floor has figured as well. It’s just that we, unlike you, aren’t privy to what’s going on elsewhere.”

“Really?” He stared at me.

“Really. I get that you’re trying to give me a clue here. The happy news is that I’ve got no ego attached to saying these three little words: I don’t know. I don’t know what you’re trying to make me realize, other than that Gladys needs to be kept from sleeping, God alone knows how we’re going to do that.”

“I’m sure Gladys would agree with you.”

“Awesome. No-Doze for Gladys, please and thank you.”

This earned me a dirty look. “Just because someone agrees with you doesn’t mean they’re right.”

“Good to know. I’ll ponder that.”

Algar heaved a sigh. “The First King of Alpha Four wasn’t this willfully dim.”

“And yet you like me better. We can both contemplate all that says about both of us later. But, you know, before you go, I do have a question that’s been bugging me since I moved into the Embassy.”

“Yes, there’s a hidden gate and it would be the best thing in the world if you found it, sooner as opposed to later.”

“Wow. That was, honestly, rather impressive. Any shot of you giving me a clue to its whereabouts, since everyone’s been over the entire facility with many fine-toothed combs and all we’ve found is a pamphlet saying Kitty’s A Paranoid?”

“No one’s looked correctly.”

“Really? That’s your answer? Obviously no one’s looked in the correct place, since we haven’t found it.”

“I didn’t say that. I said that no one’s looked correctly.” With that he handed me a box, snapped his fingers and disappeared.

Resisted the urge to say either “goodbye” or “good riddance” but it took effort. Closed the fridge door and looked at the box in my hand. It wasn’t No-Doze. It was a box of Unisom.

Stared at the box as I walked slowly back to the group. “I have a question.” Didn’t wait for the go-ahead; I’d already interrupted the conversation. “Has anyone actually discussed her powers and how they work with Gladys?”

“I have,” White said. “Somewhat at least. And of course Paul has.”

“Of course, because he’s got a similar talent. Jeff, Naomi, Abigail?”

“No,” Jeff said. “But that was because of Aunt Terry.”

“Right, the glowing cube she programmed that we now know was a Z’porrah construct.” Realized Algar worked in sneaky and, once you saw the pattern, not all that mysterious ways. But they were effective ways. One day I might even admit that to the little jerk’s face, too.

I needed to ask the Poofs if they’d let me have a cube, or, better yet, tell me if there was one they hadn’t confiscated. But didn’t say so out loud because I didn’t want to derail this line of thought by having everyone tell me I was crazy to still think there was a hidden gate hanging around.

Forged on with the other line of reasoning Algar clearly wanted me on. I’d figure out why the being who’d spent a lot of time protesting that he wasn’t picking sides was clearly helping one side quite a lot. Had some suspicions, but Algar’s long game wasn’t of prime concern at the moment.

“Mimi, Abby? What about you two?”

“Well, no one knew about our powers until just a few years ago,” Naomi said. “But yes, after that, Aunt Gladys worked with me a little.”

“Uh huh. She does most of her work while she’s asleep, right?”

“Right. Which is why we want to keep her awake for, I guess, over a week.”

“Actually, we want her snoozing.”

“What the hell changed your mind on that in the less than a minute it took for you to get a Coke and come back?” Chuckie asked.

Could feel myself not being allowed to articulate the real source of my inspiration. Which was okay because I didn’t want to try to explain Algar to anyone—I was sure I’d get a migraine if I even tried. Besides, the source wasn’t as important as the actual idea.

“We think Ronaldo’s reaching Gladys through her dreams. But doors go both ways. Meaning perhaps she can reach him through his dreams as well.”

“Why would we want her to reach Al Dejahl?” Christopher asked. “To give away even more of what we’re doing? So we can all be killed? One wasn’t enough?”

“What is wrong with you?” Amy asked him. “Why are you acting like Kitty’s your enemy?”

“I’m not,” he mumbled.

I was still looking at the Unisom box while working through how I wanted to phrase what I thought we needed Gladys to do. So I didn’t pay a lot of attention to my mouth. “He’s just lashing out at the only safe person he can, Ames. It’s tough for men when they’re having what they perceive as performance issues.”

Played that back as the last word left my mouth and winced. Decided to look up from the box, in case I had to run really fast.

Christopher wasn’t glaring at me. His expression was more like betrayed shock. “Thanks a lot,” he said finally.

“Oh for God’s sake,” Amy said. “Is this about your extra powers disappearing? That’s ancient news. I figured it out weeks ago, and we all heard the confirmation from Kitty when you were at Dulce yesterday. And really, who cares? So you’re slightly less amazing than you were before. I didn’t marry you because you’d shot up with Surcenthumain, you know.”

“But . . .” Christopher started. “I . . .”

Amy rolled her eyes. “So all the extra angst and brooding was because of that? I don’t know whether to be relieved or seriously angry. I thought you were unhappy being married to me.”

“No!” Christopher now looked panicked. “I love being married to you.”

“You haven’t acted like it recently.”

Decided to just go for it. “He also feels like he’s been shunted aside and has no real role any more. Jeff’s a congressman, you’re trying to run a huge conglomerate, even his dad kicks more butt than Christopher does. His position would be important if we didn’t have an ambassador on site. But we do, and it’s me, not him. Kevin’s the Defense Attaché. And we have a troubadour in a much more important face position than Christopher has, which is pretty much the textbook definition of rubbing salt in the wound. There’s more to it, of course, but that’s the gist.”

Everyone, not just Christopher, gaped at me. “Really?” Amy asked finally.

“Yeah. And no, Christopher didn’t tell me. I’m just not as totally dim and unobservant as my nearest and dearest apparently think I am, and I can figure out when I’m the focus of someone’s impotent railing, and then I can also figure out why.” Looked at Chuckie. “I did have a really good teacher that way.” Chuckie grinned.

“Gosh, glad that’s all straightened out,” Jeff said quickly, as Christopher looked worried and upset and Amy looked pissed and confused. “You two please fight and make up once we’re sure of what Kitty’s talking about.”

“I need your help, you know,” Amy said to Christopher in a low voice.

“Not now,” Chuckie said, with a lot of authority. “Later, and in private, and that’s an order. Right now you can both have me as the mutual focus of hatred, I’m used to it. So, Kitty, why are you suddenly the pitchwoman for Unisom?”

“Oh, this, right. I think maybe we’re looking at the situation the wrong way, or at least some of it. We have a great offensive plan for later, but we have nothing but defense planned until then. But we know what our enemy doesn’t, which is that they don’t have what they really want, and we know who our enemy is and they don’t necessarily know that we do. That means we have the advantage. I think we need to press it.”

“It’s risky,” Buchanan said.

“Not if we all actually believe that Gladys is on our side and doesn’t like being used by our enemies. If we have anyone who thinks otherwise, now is truly the time to share those concerns.”

The room was quiet for a few long moments, then one hand raised.