Текст книги "Alien in the Family"

Автор книги: Gini Koch

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Текущая страница: 31 (всего у книги 32 страниц)

CHAPTER 74

SOMEWHERE ALONG IN THE NIGHT the dance floor got crowded enough that no one was paying attention to us any more, and Martini took my hand and led me off to the side.

Reader joined us, carrying my veil. “I have the gate scheduled for noon tomorrow.”

Martini nodded. “Sounds good.”

“Girlfriend, unless you want to take it with you, I’ll get your bouquet preserved.”

“Anything you’re not taking care of for me?”

He grinned. “Only the wedding night and honeymoon. You two are on your own for those.”

“I think we can handle it.” Martini hugged Reader. “Thanks, James. For everything.” They patted each other’s backs in that man way, then Martini put his arm around my waist.

“James . . .” I moved away from Martini and hugged Reader tightly. “I don’t have any gift for you.” That wasn’t everything I wanted to say to him, but all the things I wanted to say I didn’t want to share with anyone else, not even Martini.

He hugged me back. “It’s okay. This working out is the best present.” He kissed the side of my head and whispered in my ear, “Now Paul and I can get married, too, you know. I do have some skin in this game.”

“You’d have done it if you hadn’t.”

“Sure, but I’m not completely altruistic. Bring me back something nice from Cabo. It’ll give you two a reason to get out of the bedroom—shop for your wedding party while you’re on your honeymoon.”

I laughed. “Will do.” I kissed his cheek and whispered in his ear. “I love you, James. Thank you for always being there for me.”

We finally broke apart, Martini put his arm back around my waist, and Reader hustled us off in the middle of a particularly popular song, “Pennsylvania 6-5000” by Glenn Miller. Why this song had brought all the guests to their feet I couldn’t say, but they all, young and old, seemed to be loving it.

We got out into the foyer, and Martini cocked his head at me. “So, you want to hit the tables before we hit the room?”

I was kind of surprised at the offer. “Erm . . . well . . .”

He grinned. “That’s a yes, isn’t it?”

“You don’t mind? You’re not hurt?”

“Nope. You’ve wanted to gamble since we got here. And dressed like this, you should be Lady Luck personified.” He scooped me up and carried me off. We got a lot of looks, lots of comments, all of them funny or nice. We continued on into the casino, where we got more looks, several rounds of applause, and a lot of positive catcalls.

Martini spotted a somewhat empty craps table and set me down there.

“Lady shooter!” the stickman called. “Just married lady shooter!” He slid the dice to me, as the table started to fill up. Martini tossed some cash down, but he stood behind me.

Did the thing my Nana had taught me, moved the dice to show seven, tapped them against the table three times, and rolled.

“Seven! Winner!” A lot of chips were shoved toward me. Whoops. I’d had all of Martini’s money on the pass line. Thank God I’d rolled decently.

“Jeff, can you handle the betting? As in, get most of that money off the table?”

He laughed and reached down and put a more reasonable number of chips on the pass line.

Did the dice thing again, got another seven. Table started to get excited and loud, more people shoved over and in. Rolled another five sevens in a row. Started to wonder if Martini was using hyperspeed on the dice but decided not to care. I was winning back a small portion of the vast sums he’d spent on our wedding and felt pretty darned good about it.

“Go shooter!” The voice was familiar. I looked at the other end of the table. My grandparents, all four of them, were there. Nana Sadie laughed at my expression. “Taught her everything she knows about the dice, folks. Roll ’em, kitten!”

Shrugged, did the dice thing, got an eleven this time. “Winner! Lady Luck at the table tonight,” the stickman called out.

Rolled again, finally rolled a number. “Eight, the number is eight. Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen.”

I avoided looking at the money on the table, particularly the money Martini was putting on and around. I wanted to stay in the zone. Dice slid over to me, the stickman turned them to double fours for me. Did the tap, tossed the dice. Got the hard eight. The table went nuts.

I ended up rolling for over forty-five minutes. Finally crapped out and apologized. Had chips tossed to me from most of the table. Nana Sadie got the dice next, held onto them for fifteen minutes. The gambling force was strong in my family. Interestingly, Martini had pulled most of our money off the table both for my last roll and Nana’s. “Table’s cold,” he said in my ear.

I didn’t argue, just gathered up our chips, gave the dealers each a nice tip, then we left the table. My grandparents followed our lead. “Where to next?” Nono Dom asked.

I looked around. We were near a roulette table. I never played roulette unless I wanted to sit down. “Go ahead,” Martini said.

I shrugged and put some chips down on double zero. It was the longest shot around, but I didn’t care. Nana Sadie and Nona Maria followed suit.

I watched the wheel spin with no expectations of winning. I realized I’d dropped more money down than I’d planned. Martini stroked my neck. The ball stopped. Double zero. The screaming was loud, especially from my grandmothers. I stood there in shock. Martini nudged me. “Get your chips, baby.”

I did, and they had to exchange them for the pretty black chips because I couldn’t carry what I had. I looked up at Martini. “I want to cash out now.”

He grinned. “You sure?”

“I’m all over the stopping while we’re ahead thing.”

My grandparents were all for keeping us around, as were several other folks. But I’d had a great time for a little over an hour, made the most money gambling in my life, and wanted to get up to the room and rip Martini’s clothes off. I kissed and hugged the grandparents good-bye, and then we cashed out. I’d won several thousand dollars. Tried not to squeal and jump up and down. Failed.

I handed the money to Martini. He pushed it back. We did this for a bit. “Jeff, I have nowhere to put it unless I stuff it in my chest.”

He got the jungle cat smile. “I’ll put it there for you.”

I snuggled up to him. “Later. In about five minutes later. Put the money away in your wallet. Please?”

He did as asked. “Well, it’s all yours now anyway.” He took my hand, and we walked through the casino back to our elevator.

“Jeff? Did you . . . do anything . . . to help me win?”

He laughed. “No, baby, I didn’t use hyperspeed or anything else. Gambling is luck, but at the tables, craps in particular, much of it’s how the person with the dice feels. Too scared, nervous, or overconfident usually means they’ll crap out. I could tell when you and your grandmother felt the stress, and that meant you’d crap out the next roll. Everyone else at the table was worried they’d break the streak, meaning they would.”

“What about the roulette wheel?

He grinned. “Again, I didn’t do a thing. Nerves have nothing to do with roulette, either. You just picked wisely for that spin of the wheel.” He nuzzled my ear. “I told you—you’re personifying Lady Luck right now.”

We got into the elevator and made out the whole way up. Martini kissed me tenderly and stroked my bare skin with his fingertips until I was a puddle. We walked hand-in-hand to the room. He opened our door, then picked me up and carried me inside.

I gasped when I saw the room. It was loaded with flowers.

“You like them?”

“Oh my God, Jeff. Are these all from you?”

“Yeah. Just wanted to make our wedding night special.”

I grabbed his face and kissed him. “Just being with you makes it special, Jeff.”

He nuzzled my neck. “Always like to be sure.” His tongue traced my skin, right where my shoulder met my neck, and I started to moan. He smiled against my skin. “How long is it going to take to get you unbuttoned?”

“Probably longer than we want,” I managed to gasp out.

He set me down. “Guess I can’t chase you, then.”

“Maybe later. You’ll like what’s under the dress, anyway.”

“Mmmm, I love what’s under the dress.” He turned me around and started unbuttoning. “Wow, called this one right. Good thing I’m doing this now.” He slid his thumbs down my spine and I gasped. It took him a little while, but he got the dress unbuttoned to about the middle of my bottom. Then he slid his hands around my waist, up my stomach, and cupped my breasts. I leaned back against him, my breathing heavy. He toyed with me for a bit. Once I was a puddle again, he picked me up and carried me into the bedroom.

He took his wallet out of the tuxedo jacket. I took off his boutonnière. “Don’t take the tux off yet.” He started the low growl that always sounded like a purr. I backed away and shimmied out of my dress. His purr got louder.

I turned around and hung my dress up. Turned back and he was right there, jungle cat look on his face. He picked me up by my waist and slammed our pelvises together. I wrapped my legs around his waist, and his mouth ravaged mine.

I was already moaning by the time we fell on the bed. He grabbed my wrists and held my hands captive up over my head. Then he proceeded to do one of the many things he did best—bring me to screaming orgasm at second base.

Martini let go of my wrists and slid my thong and shoes off. He left the garter belt and hose on. His hands slid up my legs. By the time he was at the middle of my thighs I was moaning and when his tongue followed I was back to my typical cat-inheat yowl.

Lost count of the number of climaxes, couldn’t think much or form coherent words to beg him to make love to me. He finally moved back up my body, and I managed to get his pants undone and him in my hands while he made sure my breasts didn’t feel unloved or slighted in any way.

I was moaning and writhing under him. “What do you want, baby?” he whispered in my ear.

I’d been practicing for this moment. Had to get a whole sentence out, when one word was difficult because I was so far gone over the edge. “I want . . . my husband to make love to me.”

He smiled and kissed me. “Can’t refuse my wife’s first official request.” He slid into me—my head went back, my back arched, and I clutched at him. It was intense—wild and tender at the same time, and I was gone in a matter of moments. “That’s what I want,” he purred against my neck. “Over and over again.”

I obliged. I had no choice—everything he did made me want him more, and I was screaming and sobbing and begging him to stop and keep going all at the same time. We were slamming into each other, fast and furious, then he threw his head back and roared as he erupted inside me, and I flipped so far over the edge I almost passed out.

The feelings lasted for a long time, but finally our bodies quieted. Once my body stopped shuddering enough so I could walk, I undressed him and hung his clothes up. Then he took the garter belt and hose off me, so we were both fully naked. He slid us under the covers and made love to me again, for hours.

Just before dawn we wrapped around each other. “I never got time to buy you a wedding present,” I murmured against his chest.

He kissed the top of my head. “You are my present. I got to unwrap you, too.”

“Cabo tomorrow?”

“In a few hours.”

“Goody.”

Martini laughed softly. “Can’t wait for it, myself. Go to sleep, baby. Tomorrow’s the first day of our married life, and I want you rested so I can exhaust you.”

I heaved a happy sigh. “I love being married to the alien sex god.”

CHAPTER 75

“IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL HERE.”

“Yeah. Glad we could get the same cabana as our first time, especially since we were six weeks earlier than I’d reserved.”

“You passing the desk clerk an extra hundred probably didn’t hurt.”

Jeff laughed. I was managing to think of him as Jeff about fifty percent of the time on our honeymoon and was immensely proud of myself for it, too. “You weren’t supposed to see that.” I shrugged, and he purred. “Do that again.” He buried his face in my breasts for a bit.

Finished that round of lovemaking. I was on my back and he was on his side, head leaning on his hand, while he stroked my skin lightly with his fingers. He had a funny look on his face.

“Jeff, are you okay?”

“Yeah. Just thinking.”

“About what?”

“You. When we’re going to have kids. That sort of stuff.”

“You want them right away, don’t you?”

He nodded. “Always have. Once I met you . . . I’ve always known I wanted you to be the mother of my children.”

My throat felt tight. “Same here.” I thought about it. Everything I’d done since I’d met him a year ago had been a step into the scary unknown. And, scary or not, everything had worked out all right in the end. “We can start trying right away if you want.”

He didn’t get the excited expression I expected. He still looked kind of funny. “I don’t want you to feel rushed or frightened.”

“I’m twenty-eight and you’re thirty-one. We have to start sometime. Might as well have them while we’re young enough to handle them. Besides, you’re going to be the best daddy in the universe, so I’m not as afraid as I could be.”

Mar– . . . Jeff smiled at me. “I hope so. You’ll be a wonderful mother.”

“Hope so.” I wondered if he was worried about how the drugs that had enhanced his powers could affect our getting pregnant. “I’m sure we won’t have any trouble.”

“No. We won’t.” He sounded both sure and unconcerned, not breezy, but definite. He also seemed to be struggling with something.

“Jeff . . . is there something you need to tell me?” I tried not to get worried, and failed, as always.

He kissed me tenderly. “Yes. But it’s not bad. At least, I don’t think it’s bad.”

“Okay, so tell me.” He took a deep breath. Opened his mouth, shut it, tried again, didn’t work again. “Jeff, we’re not making any progress here on the telling.”

“I don’t know how to tell you.” He looked nervous and worried all of the sudden.

“Just blurt it out. Before I start freaking out.”

“Yeah, don’t want you getting upset.” His fingers were running over my stomach. Normally he drew circles around my navel, but this time I could feel he was drawing the infinity sign. “Getting upset’s not good for you. Especially . . .”

“Especially . . . what? Do I have some dread disease you’re trying to tell me about?”

“No, not a disease.” He kissed my forehead. “I just . . . I need to take care of you, baby, that’s all.”

“Why? Not that I’m arguing, but you always sort of take care of me. I take care of you, too. That’s why we got married, remember?”

“Yeah. I’m glad we had to speed it up.”

“Well, it might have been nice to have had a few more weeks to adjust, but it was all great, so I’m glad, too.”

He shook his head. “No, I think we’ll be happy for the extra adjustment time now.”

“Back to totally cryptic. Would another girl get what’s going on and I’m just dense, or is it that you’re not telling me anything that resembles a fact?”

He shrugged. “If I hadn’t been drugged and had my powers altered, you’d probably be telling me, so maybe that’s why it’s confusing.”

He was still tracing infinity on my stomach, and a stray bit of conversation I’d had with Reader months previously floated through my mind—something about me saying that Jeff would probably know I was pregnant before I would.

“Oh, uh, wow. When?” I wasn’t excited or upset, I was in shock.

“Sometime when we were in Vegas, but before our wedding night.”

“How do you know?”

“Since being drugged . . . I can sense the changes in your body. It’s a big change.”

I thought about it. We hadn’t made love between him giving up the Alpha Four throne and our wedding night. Which meant . . . “You knew when we were fighting the invasion?”

“Yeah. I wasn’t thrilled with how you got into the middle of the fight, I have to mention.”

My throat felt tight again. “Is that why you gave up the throne?”

He snorted. “I gave it up because I love you, and there is no way in the world I’m living anywhere without you. You being pregnant with my child was added incentive.” He kissed my forehead. “You know, I was sort of surprised you didn’t realize it when the late and unlamented Adolphus said you’d failed the tests.”

“I did fail.”

He snorted again. “Uh, how, exactly, do you think conquering all the warriors sent to destroy us would be failure? The tests were to prove ability to lead and rule. You passed those better than I did.”

“So what test did I fail?”

Jeff grinned at me. “Chastity.”

“Oh.” Duh.

“Believe me, I don’t object at all. I knew whose baby you were carrying, though Adolphus might not have.”

“I’m like a week and a half pregnant, does that count as carrying?”

“Does to me.”

“Is that why you were and have been carrying me everywhere?”

“I love carrying you, but yeah.”

“You’re so sneaky with the taking care of.”

“It’s a gift.” He kissed me, and we made love again. He was gentle and tender and loving. He murmured how he was going to take care of me and keep me safe against my skin, while I clung to him and let him carry me along to a mutual climax that was both soft and special, just for being when it was in our lives.

“You want to swim before dinner?” Jeff asked as he kissed my forehead.

“I’m still allowed to exercise?”

He laughed. “Yes. You already do all the good mommy-to-be things, other than your soda addiction, but we’ll work on that slowly.” I dreaded that but figured now wasn’t the time to whine about how I didn’t want to do without Coca-Cola products in my system.

“Okay, then, a swim sounds great.” He pulled his trunks on, helped me into my bikini, then slathered the sunscreen on me. “Guess I shouldn’t suggest racing you to the water this time.”

Jeff stood up and lifted me into his arms. I wrapped my legs around him just like always. “No. Like everything else for the rest of our lives, we go together.”

He kissed me, and I forgot about everything else . . . everything other than what we’d created together. We didn’t make it to the water. We had other things to do, and I loved every moment of them.

Nothing in my life ever goes according to plan but, as my husband says, things always work out perfectly in the end.

Coming in December 2011

The fourth novel in the Alien series

from Gini Koch

ALIEN PROLIFERATION

Read on for a sneak preview

JEFF GLARED AT CHUCKIE AS HE WALKED IN. “Why are you still here?”

“Because we have a problem,” Chuckie said. He wasn’t looking at Jeff, or me, and he was still pacing.

Jeff somehow reined in the jealousy all on his own. Either he wanted to impress me or Chuckie’s stress levels were particularly high. I figured on the latter. He shot a worried glance at Chuckie then looked at me. “With the C.I.A.?”

“In a way. More with what you were doing in Paris.”

Jeff nodded. “Whatever we were fighting, they weren’t superbeings.”

I felt all proud. “See, Chuckie? Someone other than us was monitoring the weird.”

Chuckie heaved a sigh. “And that makes it better how?”

“Pardon me, Mister Glass Half Empty.”

“It doesn’t,” Jeff agreed. “We have nothing left to study.”

“You weren’t able to contain them any other way?” Chuckie asked.

“No. We weren’t the ones who destroyed them.”

Chuckie spun so fast I was worried he’d fall over. “Explain that, please.”

Jeff sighed. “It looked like normal clustered activity, only there were no emotional warnings whatsoever. There were a dozen of them. We were barely able to contain them, but they destroyed no significant property and, as far as we can tell, no one was killed.”

“That’s not normal at all.” Every superbeing was a destruction machine and their overriding desire was to kill any humanity in their vicinity.

“Right, baby, it’s not. We herded them to the Seine—we were going to use self-contained nukes to destroy them. Right before I could give the order, they all blew up. At the same time.”

“I monitor for super-soldier projects all the time,” Chuckie said. “So does your mother. Nothing like this has come up on either of our radars.”

“If the lie is good enough, and the support is high enough…”

“Yeah, that’s what’s really worrying me.”

“How trustworthy are your superiors?”

He chuckled. “They’re top in the C.I.A. How trustworthy do you think that would make them?”

Jeff snorted. “Not at all.” Chuckie shrugged and managed a grin.

“I meant for you, for us, for the safety of the U.S. and the world. That kind of thing?”

“They seem reliable. Your mother doesn’t trust them overly much, but she trusts them more than some.” He looked thoughtful. “There was a shake-up right before I became head of the ET division.”

“Any of our four friends involved in that?”

He nodded. “Cooper and Cantu for certain. Cooper wasn’t promoted, Cantu was.” He shook his head. “I’ll need to discuss this with your mother.”

“She’s on alert, just waiting for the baby. You should be able to get a hold of her easily enough. But I’m kind of curious why and how the people we met with today, who shouldn’t have known anything about this, knew all about the attack, when none of us did.”

Jeff’s eyes narrowed. “Who shouldn’t have known?”

“A senator, a Pentagon liaison, the head of one of our terrorist units, and John Cooper,” Chuckie replied. “Cooper’s angling for my job.”

“He’s a prick,” I added. “Not that I liked any of them much.”

Chuckie nodded. “I’d really hoped to have both of you at this meeting, and White, too, if possible. I need these people read.”

“Sorry, busy trying to stop an international incident. Christopher’s still there—the imageering alterations necessary are unreal.”

“Why are you back already?” I asked. “Normally you’d be taking care of the cleanup portions.

Jeff shot me a “duh” look. “I knew who you were with.”

Chuckie rolled his eyes. “Just the two of us and four people we can’t trust at all.”

“Am I right that all four hate you and want Centaurion turned into the War Division?” It was such a safe bet—most people were intimidated by Chuckie’s brains, drive, and success and channeled that into hating on him. And there was a much longer list of those who wanted us to be the War Division than those who didn’t. Every day it seemed like the ones who didn’t got fewer and fewer.

“In a nutshell.” Chuckie sounded like he always did when talking about people who didn’t like him—resigned. I knew there was hurt under there, too, but he hid it well.

Jeff looked like he was going to say something nasty to Chuckie, but I glared at him and he stopped himself. Possibly he’d picked up the hurt, too, but I wasn’t sure if he cared about it. “But are they in any position to be in on whatever the hell is going on?” he asked instead.

Chuckie nodded slowly. “It’s possible. I wouldn’t put anything past Cooper. He wants my job, and every job above mine, too. Cantu’s a slippery bastard. And Anderson’s your typical politician on the rise. Cartwright I’m not sure of, but she works closely with the three of them.”

There was a knock at the door and Wayne and William came in. “We have what you wanted, Mister Reynolds,” William said, handing him a file. Wayne handed one to Jeff.

“That was fast.”

The brothers grinned at me as Jeff and Chuckie both sighed at me and shook their heads. “Hyperspeed,” Wayne said.

“Oh.” Okay, had to give Jeff and Chuckie the “duh” on that one. I chalked it up to another Space Cadet moment and called the Poofs over to make myself feel better. I petted the cuteness bundles while Chuckie and Jeff both read through the files.

“Good work,” Chuckie said finally. “I wish I could get field reports from my operatives this well-detailed.”

Wayne and William looked pleased, but then they both looked at Jeff. He nodded. “Lots of good information here, thank you.” Both brothers visibly relaxed. “I appreciate the notes from the C.I.A. meeting, too.”

“We recorded it as well, Commander,” William said, “per Mister Reynolds’ request.”

Jeff raised his eyebrow at Chuckie. “You tape everyone?”

“Just everyone I don’t trust. I’d like a copy of the recording.” Jeff nodded and William pulled out his phone.

“Coming down to you now, sir,” he said, hanging up.

Chuckie heaved a sigh. “I don’t think we have enough to go on definitively yet, but I’ll work on it.”

“It’s the holidays. You’re allowed time off. The rest of your agency’s taking their two weeks, why not you?”

Chuckie shook his head. “You know the saying—evil never sleeps.”

“Yeah, too true.” I yawned. Wow. Nap time already. In addition to the other joys, I got tired out much more quickly these days.

Jeff opened his mouth but Chuckie beat him to it. “I’m going to get back to my office. I’ll be in touch on this, and I expect the same from you if you hit on anything. You get some rest, Kitty. Gentlemen, Martini,” he said with a nod. He whistled softly and Fluffy jumped up onto my shoulder, purred, rubbed, and then leaped onto Chuckie’s shoulder, did the purr and rub thing, then snuggled into his pocket. I managed to refrain from saying how adorable this was, but it took real effort.

Before Chuckie could leave, William’s phone rang. He put up his hand. “Yes, got it.” He hung up. “Commander Martini, we have an issue with the recorded copy Mister Reynolds requested.”

“And that is?” Jeff asked.

William looked grim. “All the recordings have been destroyed.”

That sat on the air for a moment. “How?” I asked finally.

He shook his head. “We don’t know. All recordings for the past week have been corrupted, the ones from today are completely gone.”

“Internal sabotage,” Chuckie said, and from his tone, he was certain. “Not good. Any clues as to who did it?”

“No, sir,” William said. “Commander White’s ordered a full investigation.”

“It’ll have to do.” Chuckie didn’t look happy, and I couldn’t blame him. I also couldn’t control another yawn. “I’ll add this to the pile of things we need to know about. Please guard those reports—you two are the only proof we have now that something was wrong with those superbeings.”

“Yes, sir,” Wayne said with a small smile. “We’ll guard them with our lives.”

Chuckie managed a short laugh. “Good job.”

Jeff seemed to be struggling with something. “I’ll walk you out,” he said finally. “You two, take down the equipment.”

They left while William and Wayne did as instructed. “You didn’t give me a file,” I mentioned.

Wayne laughed. “We’re already clear you wouldn’t read it.” He grinned and put a folder into my nightstand. “Here’s a copy for later, though. You know, when you get around to it. In about a year.”

“Wow, you are good. So, what’s the CliffsNotes version?”

They both looked at me blankly for a moment. A-Cs were capable of reading at hyperspeed, too, so why read an abbreviated version? William recovered first. “You want the highlights, Commander?”

“Please and thank you.”

“We think they’re genetically engineered,” Wayne said. “But there’s no human in there.”

“That we can tell,” William added. “Didn’t feel like there’s parasite in there, either.”

“That we can tell,” Wayne said. “They didn’t feel…right.”

“Robotic?”

“Could be,” Wayne allowed. “But if so, it’s a more natural robot.”

“Like an android?”

William shrugged. “Could be. We don’t really work with this side of things. Kill ‘em, get the folks to safety, that’s our normal assignment.”

“Why are you doing live at the exciting scene of my bedroom, then?”

They exchanged a quick glance. “Ah, special assignment,” William said.

That meant either they were being punished or they were hand-selected. “Assigned by whom?”

“Commander White,” William answered.

So, handpicked. Unless Christopher was really interested in seeing how my space cadet ways messed with their minds. I voted for the former. “Why you two?”

Wayne’s turn to shrug. “We’re really good. Commander White doesn’t trust the C.I.A. any more than any of the rest of us do.”

“So, what did he have you read on Chuckie?”

They both busied themselves with the screens. I doubted these two were going to fall into the “able to lie to us” category.

“Dudes, don’t make me pull rank. What were you monitoring Chuckie for?”

“Whatever he might be hiding,” Wayne said.

“Chuckie’s not hiding something from us.”

“Everybody’s hiding something, Commander,” Wayne said as Jeff came back in, accompanied by several other A-Cs who were clearly along to help with clearing out the video stuff. “Everybody. But not always for the same reasons.”