Текст книги "Alien in the Family"

Автор книги: Gini Koch

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Текущая страница: 10 (всего у книги 32 страниц)

CHAPTER 24

WE GOT UPSTAIRS TO THE MEDICAL BAY. Tito and Gower were in the room with Reader, and there were Security guards all over the place. “Figure James is too vulnerable to leave without guard,” Martini said. I agreed and was glad he’d thought of it already. Of course, that was pretty much his life’s work, protecting people.

He put me down, and we went into the room. Tito stepped aside so I could get near Reader’s head. He looked like he was in a lot of pain, but his eyes looked the way they always had.

“Hey,” he said.

I grabbed his free hand; Gower had the other. “Hey yourself. How’re you feeling?”

He managed a weak chuckle. “Like I was hit by a Mac truck. Love that outfit on you. Try to not wreck it.”

“Probably too late for that.”

“Yeah.” Reader looked at Gower.

“Be right back, Jamie,” Gower said quietly. Reader nodded, just a tiny bit. Gower gave me a small smile, then he and Tito left. I realized Martini wasn’t in the room, either.

“James, I’m so sorry.” I felt like I was going to start bawling.

“For what, girlfriend? Saving my life?”

“I’m the reason you got hurt.”

“Hardly. That crazy chick was the reason.” He closed his eyes.

“I’m sorry.” I bent and kissed his cheek. “I’ll get Paul back in here.”

Reader tightened his hold on my hand. “No. Just you right now. I . . . need to tell you something.”

My throat got tight. “Okay.”

He opened his eyes and managed about half of his standard cover-boy grin. It was still great. “I was dead, you know.”

“No, you were close.”

“No. I was dead. I saw the light, I heard . . . voices. And I heard you, you and ACE. Then I heard ACE tell Tito what to do to bring me back.” He swallowed. “I know you think, and ACE thinks, that it was what ACE told Tito to do that saved me. It helped, of course, but . . . I was already dead.”

“I don’t understand.”

He reached his other hand up to my face. “God decided you needed to have someone around you could talk to.”

The tears rolled down my face. “He chose well.”

Reader tugged at my hand. “Come here, you need to rest.”

I figured the medical team would throw a fit, but I’d handle that when they came in screaming at me. I crawled onto the bed next to him. It was an A-C facility so the bed, like everything else, was top of the line, and it was large for a hospital bed, easily fitting two on it.

Reader put his arm around me and gently put my head onto his chest. “Relax. Nothing hurts but my head.”

I managed a laugh, though I was still crying. “Jeff and Paul are going to wonder about this.”

“They wonder about us already.” He stroked my arm. “I wouldn’t have wanted you to kill her.”

“I know. But I would have anyway.”

“Yeah, I know. I shouldn’t complain, I think it’s why I’m back, so to speak.”

“Why?” I closed my eyes. I wasn’t used to leaning on a chest with a single heartbeat in it anymore, but it always felt good when Reader held me.

“One act can change someone. If you’d killed her, or any of the others had done it, it would have made you what she is, just like ACE was afraid of.” He hugged me. “We’re here for a reason. It’s not always a clear reason, and we’re never going to win every time, but our reason is to stop evil, not become just like it.”

“She’s still alive and wants to kill every man in the universe. And she’s not alone.”

“Not saying evil’s got a pass, girlfriend. Just saying I don’t want you to go to that side of the house.”

“Good thing you’re still alive and functioning then.”

“Like I said.” He hugged me again. “You know, it was interesting.”

“Being dead, or almost dead?”

“Yeah. I saw a lot of things.”

“Like what?”

“Can’t remember them all—they’re fading more the longer I’m conscious. I think I’ll forget this, what I’ve been telling you, soon. Maybe not the light, but most of the rest. You might forget it, too. Consciously. But I think it’ll always be inside us.”

“Okay. Do you remember anything else?”

“Yeah.” He laughed softly. “I saw a lot of universes . . . I saw myself reflected in a lot of them.”

“What were you like?”

“Pretty much me.” He hugged me tighter. “You were in all of them. We were always together, in some way.”

“Good.”

“We were married in about half of them.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Happily, too.”

“I don’t think we want to share that with Jeff or Paul.”

“Nope. I just want you to know, though . . . if something happens to me here, and I’m not with you, I’ll be with you in all those other universes.”

“I love you, James.”

“I love you, too, Kitty.”

We lay there together, and I let the hatred for Moira and what she’d done subside and ebb away. It was hard to hold onto the hatred, lying here, next to Reader, knowing he was alive and going to be okay. I started to get sleepy. “James?”

“Yeah, babe?” He sounded as drowsy as I felt.

“I’m not buying my wedding dress without you.”

He chuckled. “Good. I want you looking like the hottest thing on two legs. No one I trust with that job besides myself, other than Jeff, and he’s not supposed to see the dress beforehand. A-Cs have the custom just like we do.”

“You really think mermaid style would look okay?”

“I think you’ll look beyond beautiful. Just like always.”

“Coming from the best-looking human in the world, that means a lot.”

“Good. Go to sleep now, you need the rest.”

“You too, but . . . I don’t want to. I don’t want to forget.”

“Me either. But, it won’t change anything between us, even if we do.”

“You sure?”

“I’m positive.” He hugged me. “I saw it. Always together, one way or another.”

“That’s all right, then.”

“Yeah, that’s my opinion, too.” He yawned. “Go to sleep, Kitty. Big days coming. We need to be ready.”

“They’ll differ from our other days how?”

“The prosecution rests.”

CHAPTER 25

IFELT SOMEONE LIFT ME UP. “What’s going on?”

Martini cradled me in his arms. “You were asleep on the bed with James. I’ll discuss how cozy you two looked later. You okay?”

“Yeah.” My mind felt fuzzy. “We were . . . talking about important stuff.”

“Well, he’s asleep, which is good, and you obviously need a longer nap.”

I wanted to remember something. “James is alive.”

“Yes, he is. Miraculously.”

There was something about that word I wanted to remember, or comment on, or something. But I couldn’t grasp it.

“Where’re we going?”

“Well, Paul’s going to stay with James tonight. Tito’s going to stay with them. Paul will use the time when James is asleep and they’re awake to bring Tito up to speed on what being an agent is like.”

“He already has a good idea.”

“Yeah, he’s bright. I think he’s as smart as you and James.”

“Good. What about everyone else?”

“Reynolds and Christopher are back in Vegas with the rest of the team. Reachable via phone if we need them, the usual.”

“Where are we going?”

“To the Lair. If you can handle being on the same floor as whatshername.”

“Moira. And, yeah, as long as we have a lot of security and we’re both sleeping with an eye open.”

“Check and check.” We were in an elevator. I didn’t feel amorous; I just wanted Martini to hold me. He shifted me so I could wrap my arms and legs around him. “Just hold on, baby,” he said softly. “We’ll be in bed soon.”

“Mmm hmmm.” His arms were around me, one supporting my bottom, the other my neck and upper back. It reminded me of when I was little and my father would carry me to bed. “You’re going to be such a good daddy.”

“I hope so. And soon.” He hugged me. “As soon as you’re ready.”

“Not tonight.”

He laughed. “No. I don’t even think we’re practicing tonight.”

I thought about that. “Maybe later.” I yawned against his neck. “Sleepy.”

“I know, baby.”

We were in the bedroom, or at least I assumed we were, because Martini laid me down on a bed. He didn’t undress either me or himself, just lay down and pulled me next to him. I draped over his body, held onto his shoulder, and went back to sleep.

I woke up, all senses alert. I could feel Martini was awake, too. He slid his hand over my mouth, and I nodded. It was dark in the room, just a tiny nightlight glow, meaning we were in the middle of the night.

I listened hard. I could hear Martini’s breathing, shallow, to stay quiet. I was doing the same. But it was there, at the edge of my hearing—breathing that wasn’t ours. I had no clear idea where my purse was, so no way to get to a weapon.

Martini still had his arm around me, and he tightened his hold. I relaxed as much as possible—it was easier for him to move me that way.

The advantage we’d have, the only one, was that we lived here and our intruder didn’t. I wasn’t confident this would be enough.

Something was different—the breathing was closer. Martini rolled me over him and us both off the bed, and he hit the intercom button while he shoved me behind him. This took less time than I needed to blink.

“Yes, Commander?” Gladys’ voice came through the com.

We looked around the room. We were alone in it as far as we could see. “Intruder, somewhere on level fifteen,” Martini said.

“Are you endangered, Commander?”

“Potentially.” The lights came on like it was midday.

“Security on the way.”

I looked around during this exchange. Where would someone be able to go in such a short time? I didn’t doubt someone was in here with us—I might be wrong, Martini might be wrong, but we were rarely wrong at the same time. Plus, there were too many intruder possibilities for me to assume we were just jumpy.

The closet could work, but the door was open, it wasn’t all that big, and we were on the same side of the bed as it was, so we should have felt the intruder go by. I looked back at the bed. It seemed so obvious . . . but we weren’t looking there, were we?

I nudged Martini and pointed to the bed. He gave me a look that said I was crazy. I shrugged—probably, but it was worth a shot.

He didn’t want me near the bed, and he didn’t want to let go of me. I could tell by the way he was moving, or not moving. Oh, well, impetuous was apparently my middle name. I pulled out of Martini’s hand, jumped on the bed, and started bouncing. Impetuous, yes. Stupid? Not so much.

It didn’t take long, I heard someone make an “oomphing” sound. “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”

Martini rolled his eyes. “Only my girl.” He grabbed a pair of my stilettos from the closet and sent them under the bed, hard and fast.

“OUCH! Stop!”

“Crawl out and maybe we won’t kill you,” Martini growled. I didn’t stop bouncing. It was kind of fun.

“Make her stop.”

“Not just no, but hell no. You’re the one who’s in here trying to kill us,” Martini added. “Why should we make it easy for you?”

“I’m not here to kill you, Your Majesty.”

I didn’t stop bouncing, but Martini and I exchange the classic WTF look. “His majesty would like to have that proven,” I shared between bounces. “We start, on this world, by showing our faces. Actually, we start by knocking and being admitted, not doing some alien form of B and E, but you know, whatever works.”

Someone crawled out from under the bed, opposite from the side Martini was on. I leaped onto his back, wrapped my arms around his neck, and, as he started to flip, my legs around his waist. Tucked my head and held on.

I’d held Martini like this, many times, when his reaction to the adrenaline harpoon was too violent and he was a danger to himself and me. Whoever I had in a full body lock tried to get me off, but he wasn’t as strong as Martini by a long shot. I tightened my hold, particularly the hold on the neck, and started to choke off his air.

Martini was right there. “You okay, baby?”

“Yes. Get a gun and shoot him. Or her. Whatever it is I’m holding.”

Whatever it was flipped so it was on hands and knees and I was in the air, so to speak.

“Male, unless it’s a shapeshifter.”

“Stop . . . her . . . emissary . . . friend . . .”

“Our friends knock, you creep. Our enemies, on the other hand, love to pull this kind of crap. Jeff, a little help?”

“You’re doing so well. And you look great doing it, too. Love that outfit. If it gets wrecked, I’m buying you another one.”

My opponent stopped struggling. “Not an enemy. An emissary.” He sounded pained, as though I’d insulted him.

“Heard you the first time, dude. Didn’t care then, don’t care now. You snuck in. That makes you an enemy, means someone out to harm us. We have a lot of them.”

“I’m not one.”

“Right. Jeff, really, I have to kill him, or you have to help.”

“Oh, kill him.”

“Your Majesty, that would not be wise.”

“You keep on calling me that. Wouldn’t know why.”

“Your name is Jeffrey Stuart Martini . . . on this world. However, you have a name on another world, and you are the next ruler there.”

Martini sighed. “Thanks for stopping by. Give my loathing and complete lack of interest to the folks back home. We’d love to invite you to our wedding, but, gosh, we’ve already booked the room, and we’re full up. Now, I’m going to knock you out, so I don’t have to worry about you hurting someone I care about. No hard feelings.”

“No, wait!” Too late. Martini clobbered him, and we went down onto the floor.

“Um, Jeff? Dead weight on my arms and legs.”

He lifted us both up, I detached, and he dumped the body on the floor. Security chose this moment to arrive. “Commanders, are you all right?”

“Yeah, thanks for the speedy arrival.” Martini had the sarcasm knob up to eleven.

“Sorry, sir. We had some other issues.”

“What?” We asked in unison.

“Variety of small issues.”

“Describe them. In detail.” Martini shifted me to his hip and I wrapped my legs around his waist.

Gladys came on the intercom. “We have a variety of unknown A-C personnel in custody, Commander Martini. All claiming to be emissaries from the home world.”

“How many?”

“With the one in your room, Commander Katt, an even dozen.”

“How did they land without our noticing?”

“Cloaking, I assume, Commander Martini. We have confirmed NASA picked up nothing, but we have done some molecular scans. We have three cloaked ships perched on the tops of Animas, Hatchet, and Chiricahua Peaks.”

“Fabulous,” Martini snarled. “Take him to a holding cell. We’ll be up in a minute.” Security did as requested. “Gladys, please make sure they’re all together—I don’t want to have to wander around too much.”

“Yes, Commander. I’ve alerted the Pontifex and Commander White as well.”

“Thanks.” The com went dead, and Martini sank onto the bed. “Great, they’re here. Perfect timing, too.”

“And, boy, do they want you.”

He shifted me so that I was in his lap with my legs around his back. “I don’t want them. Only want you.”

I leaned up and kissed him. “You have me, Jeff. I promise.”

He held me tightly. “I won’t let them take you away from me.”

I hugged him back. “I won’t let them take you, either. We’ll be fine. I’ll bring along my hairspray and some Everclear.”

Martini managed to laugh. “I do love how you think.”

CHAPTER 26

MARTINI SIGHED. “GUESS WE’D better get moving.”

“I want to change.”

“Why? You look beyond hot.”

“I look naked with some fabric hanging off my shoulders.”

He gave me a wide grin. “Yeah. Like I said . . .”

“Jeff, they’re going to test me. I know I’m going to fail, but I should at least try to represent.”

He shook his head. “Good luck, but okay. However, I want you to wear that again. A lot.”

“You didn’t mind everyone staring at me?”

“Nah. As long as you’re coming home with me.”

I felt his forehead. “You okay?”

Martini kissed me, long, deep, and hard. Couldn’t help it—I started grinding against him. He pulled me closer in to him. “Yeah,” he said as he ended the kiss, slowly. “I just felt everything you went through when you thought we’d lost James. Life’s too short and uncertain. I’m trying to give up the jealousy. It’s hard, but I’d rather put the effort into making you feel safe and happy.”

“I don’t mind that you’re jealous. All that much. I just don’t want you to think I want anyone more than you. Because I don’t.” And after my talk with Reader in the clothing store, I could say that confidently again. I felt the worry about making the wrong lifetime decision slip away. I ignored all the other wedding-related worries—we had bigger problems right now.

He kissed me again. “Mmmm, I’d love to tell you to prove that, but duty calls.” He said the last two words like we were going to clean out a pigsty. Of course, I shared his opinion.

He lifted me off his lap and put me on the ground. “Armani fatigues or my own clothes?”

“Do we care what they think?”

“No, I was asking what you wanted.”

Martini grinned at me. “Have I mentioned how much I love you recently?”

“Yeah, but it never gets old.” I took my clothes off in the closet. Hoped the A-C Elves would get this outfit cleaned fast.

“Oh, go for the fatigues. You look so hot in them.”

“And they’re not sheer. Tito might not recognize me.” Martini laughed. “Jeff, do you think these dozen are going to be it?”

“No, and you don’t either.” He had that right. “I think, no matter what, we have a world of hurt coming toward us.”

“Yeah. At least the emissary wasn’t Moira’s mate. I want to be heavily armed when we cross paths with that chick.”

“Me too. Speaking of which, your purse is in the living area.” I came out of the closet as he got up and went to get it. Martini put it down on the bed. “I want to make sure it’s okay. It was out of your control for a while there.”

“I need my heels. You dump, I’m going to scoot under the bed.”

He did as requested while I dropped to the floor. “Wow. I can’t believe what you manage to stuff in here.” He sounded awed.

“I told you. It’s big and made of cheap leather, so it’s strong and sturdy. I can fit anything in there.”

“Hmmm . . . including something alien.”

I almost bumped my head on the bed frame. “What?” I reached for my shoes and stopped. “Jeff?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m not alone down here.”

The bed disappeared. Martini lifted it, and, I was sure, in deference to all my stuff on it, put it aside as opposed to throwing it across the room. Now that I could see clearly, I for sure wasn’t alone. There was a small thing in front of me. Quivering.

“What is this?” It wasn’t something from Earth. I hoped it wasn’t an interstellar snake. Or bomb. Or worse.

“What the hell?” Martini bent down and put his hand out. The quivering thing sniffed, then crawled into his palm. He pulled me to my feet with his other hand.

“What is it?”

“I think . . .” He dug his phone out. “Christopher, sorry, where are you? Oh, good. Look, do you remember that pet thing your mom used to tell us about? Yeah, that. What did it look like, and how big? Amazing. Yeah, I think I’m holding one. Get down here, will you?”

“So that’s a Tribble?”

“Huh?”

Oh, right. They weren’t into science fiction, humorous or otherwise. Guess all the shows and movies were too much like documentaries. I decided not to try to explain. “It’s not dangerous?” It didn’t look dangerous, but I’d seen enough movies. The probability it could go killer or instantly reproduce into the thousands seemed high.

Of course, it looked a lot like a tiny kitten with really, really fluffy fur, only no ears and the eyes looked more like black buttons than cat’s eyes. And it had no tail. But otherwise, just like a fluffy kitten. Or a fluffy ball with tiny legs and paws. If it were a plush toy, it would be the hottest thing for Christmas with little girls. I wondered if Martini would get upset if I suggested we talk to Chuckie about starting a plush line and decided he would.

“No, not dangerous that we were told.” Unlike Security, Christopher had used the real hyperspeed to get to us. “Wow, Kitty, you’re dressed. I was getting used to the negligee look.”

“It’s an outfit. For wearing out to clubs.”

“You’re okay with her wandering around naked?” he asked Martini.

Martini shrugged. “I look at it as her using all the weapons at her disposal.”

“One flash and he’s a changed man.” Christopher laughed. “Fine, no argument from me. So, how’d we get the pet?”

“What’s it called?” I wanted an answer, since Tribble seemed out.

“My mother called it a Poof.”

I looked at them. “You’re kidding.”

“No.” Christopher had the grace to look embarrassed. “It’s a stupid name, at least by Earth standards, I know.”

Martini put the Poof into my hand. “Must be a girl’s pet.” He looked like someone had just tried to put hair bows and a tutu on him.

“I tackled a guy, remember?”

“What?” Christopher yelled. The Poof trembled.

“Uh, I think you’re scaring it.”

“Oh, great. Let’s get this thing back to its owner, shall we?” Martini turned to go, and the Poof leaped out of my hand.

“Jeff!”

The Poof landed on Martini’s shoulder as he was spinning back toward me. It looked happy there.

“Why is this thing on me? Is it attacking and I just can’t tell?”

“Um . . . no.” I got a funny feeling. “Wow. Your mom had one, Christopher?”

“When she was little, yeah. I think it died or something. She didn’t bring it here.”

The Poof looked at me and closed its eyes. I listened. Yep. “It’s purring.”

“What?” Martini tried to look at the Poof by twisting his head, but it was so small, he really couldn’t see it. “Why is it purring?”

“Um . . . I think it thinks it’s yours.”

Christopher started to laugh.

“Christopher? Just guessing, but I’ll wager there’s one of these waiting for you, too. Paul and Michael and their sisters might have one, too. One each.”

Christopher stopped laughing. “What are you talking about?”

“Corgis.”

“What?” They both shouted. The Poof whimpered and tried to crawl under Martini’s collar.

“Get this thing off me!” He was doing the there’s-something-crawling-on-me dance. I tried not to laugh. Failed.

“Jeff, stop. It’s scared. Calm down, and it’ll calm down.” He did as requested and the Poof stopped trying to hide.

“What did you mean by corgis?” Christopher asked.

“The Queen of England has her corgis. I’m betting the A-C royal family has their Poofs.” Reader and I were going to have a field day with this when he was back up and running. “You know, the Royal Pet.”

“Oh, my God. Kill me now, right now.” Martini sounded like he meant it.

“Let’s get upstairs and see if I’m right.” I tried to sound soothing. The snickers probably didn’t help.

“I’m remembering this for later,” Martini said darkly as I put the stuff back into my purse.

“Jeff . . . wait. You said there was something alien in my purse.”

“Oh, hell, right. This thing distracted me.” He grabbed my hand before I could touch the alien thing. “I think it’s a tracking device, but it’s not anything familiar to me.” He pulled out Chuckie’s alien-detector—the piece turned red.

It resembled a small feather or leaf, only it was thicker and seemed made out of a mass of fibers. They glowed, just a bit.

Realization dawned. “That’s why she kissed me.”

“Come again?”

“She kissed me to distract me and slip this into my purse. She said I wasn’t the target. But they knew they would find the target through me. That means Moira’s mate knows exactly where I am. Which also means she’s somewhere around here.”

Martini pulled out his phone and made some calls, with the Poof happily settled back on his shoulder. Christopher shook his head. “I can’t believe this. Any of this. Jeff can’t wander around with that thing on him—he looks like an idiot. I’m not wearing one, either. We’re the damned heads of Field and Imageering.”

“Not the Lords of the Dance? Are you sure?”

“I love you, but I may kill you.” Martini hung up, grabbed a washcloth, put it around Moira’s tracker, and put it in his pocket. “Let’s get upstairs and start the next round of torture.”