Текст книги "Alien in the Family"

Автор книги: Gini Koch

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Текущая страница: 8 (всего у книги 32 страниц)

CHAPTER 18

IWENT INTO THE DRESSING ROOM as suggested. There had been plenty of times during the past year when I’d thanked God Reader was around, but none more than right now.

I took a deep breath, then undressed. This was a no-bra outfit, but we’d managed to find an almost-as-sheer spaghetti tank to go under the main top. I was still basically naked with fabric, but it was a tad more subtle. The skirt was tight, short, and silky. I would need the right pair of hooker-heels, but I had to admit I looked hot in this outfit.

I wandered out of the dressing room to find Reader, since I wasn’t buying a thing without his okay, but I didn’t have to go far. He was waiting for me, about three steps away. “James, what do you think?”

He grinned, grabbed me, shoved me back into the dressing room, and kissed me. With tongue.

The mind can move fast, and while this was happening, mine was whirring at its version of hyperspeed. Two things screamed at me—Reader was gay, and he had to kiss better than this. He was really strong. I couldn’t get away, so I slammed my knee into his groin. He pulled away, laughed, and kissed me again.

Kung fu time. I’d studied the art in my younger years and had taken it up again in earnest once I realized my life was going to involve a lot of scary things trying to kill me on a regular basis.

I dropped into a horse-stance, did an arrow point with one hand and slammed that into his throat and another arrow point into his side into a pressure point. He released a bit, and I grabbed his inner thigh and gave it a vicious pinch, while I did a palm-heel strike to his chin. Knocked him against the wall, and, happily, his head hit, hard.

I forced myself to focus on terror and Martini. I knew I needed backup.

Reader shook his head, and as he did, the image shifted. It wasn’t Reader, but then I’d already figured that. It also wasn’t a guy.

I’d also figured that, but it was still kind of icky. I had no issue with lesbians, but I didn’t swing the bat that way, and I kind of resented getting molested. Willing experimentation was one thing, but attempted rape I had an issue with regardless of the sex of the attacker. “Listen, space bitch, keep your mitts and your lips off.” I was in a squat on the ground and sent up a rising kick to her stomach, just in case she wasn’t clear.

She took it like a champ, grinned again, and lunged at me.

And slammed back into the wall. Her nose looked broken, and she was out. I looked up to see Martini standing there, fist still out. “Good emotional signal. Potentially your best yet.”

“Thanks, I’ve been practicing.”

He put his hand down, I grabbed it, and he pulled me into his arms. “Did she hurt you?”

“She kissed me. I feel like I just went on stage with Madonna.” I gagged a little but kept it together.

“How’d she get to you?”

“Oh, hell.” I pulled out of his arms. “Stay here and keep her out. Call for backup. Pay them for whatever it is I’m wearing. She impersonated James.” I grabbed my purse and took off.

“Kitty!” Martini was calling after me, but I didn’t stop. Reader was nowhere in the shop.

“My boyfriend’ll pay for this!” I shouted to the clerk.

“But he left,” she said.

I stopped. “No, the guy in the dressing room is my boyfriend. The other guy is my friend. Where did he go?”

She gave me a look that said this wasn’t the first time someone had said something as odd as this to her. It was Vegas, after all. “Some black guy came in and he left with him.”

“Big, bald, and totally hot?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, God. Look, the guy in the dressing room is my boyfriend. I was just attacked by some lunatic. Help him, and he’ll pay for whatever it is I’m wearing.” I ran out of the door. The store alarms went off immediately. Oh, yeah, I was wearing the antitheft tags. Well, hopefully I’d get them off legally later.

I didn’t see anyone who looked like Reader or Gower. So I had to think, not just run. I assumed my attacker was here alone, because the other one was off causing havoc elsewhere. She was an A-C, based on strength and imageering ability. She was also rare, because I knew females didn’t normally get empathic, imageering, or troubadour skills. So she was strong and fast and really well trained. But she’d had to get back in time for me to walk out of the dressing room and see her impersonating Reader there.

I started praying Reader was still alive and only knocked out somewhere. So if I were disposing of a body, please, God, an unconscious body, where would I stash it?

I looked around for the refuse. Saw a young, pretty cute, Hispanic maintenance guy pushing a trash cart and ran to him. “You got a body in there?”

“Um, no?” He looked at me like I was from another planet. If he only knew.

I looked in, no, no body. “Where are the big cans?”

He started to point, and I dug into my purse. My mother had given me a P.T.C.U. badge. I wasn’t an agent, but as Reader and Christopher both said, if the head of the agency gives you one to have and to hold, feel free to use it. I opened it in front of him. “Federal officer. My partner’s been kidnapped. I think they took him out and dumped him somewhere, and it has to be close. Take me to the closest dumpsters to that store,” I pointed to where I’d just come from. “And make it fast, because if he’s dead when we get there I’ve got the potential to take it out on you.”

The maintenance guy nodded, and we took off at a dead run. Fortunately, he was in decent shape. “Why’re you in those clothes if you’re an officer?” he asked as we raced along.

“Undercover.”

“Not really.”

He had a point. “Look, can we just try to save my partner’s life?”

“Sure, sure.” We were behind the stores. Once you were away from the glitter, the backside of any mall was the same, apparently. He led me to a set of double doors, and we smashed through them. To see a lot of garbage cans and a big garbage truck.

“Oh, great.” The truck had a can on its forklift. I knew how our team’s luck ran. “STOP!” They didn’t.

“They can’t hear you!” the maintenance guy called. He ran toward the can and leaped. It was amazing—he was about my height but damn if he didn’t catch the can and get up there. The drivers saw him and stopped.

I ran around to the side. “Federal officer! Stop and put that can down!”

The driver looked at me. “Are you kidding?”

I waved the badge. “Can down now! I’ve got an officer missing.”

“He’s in here!” the maintenance guy shouted.

“Put the damn thing down now, or I’ll shoot you in the head!” I pulled out the Glock and aimed. I never remembered to set the safety, so that saved a step.

The driver lowered the can and put his hands up. “Don’t shoot, lady. I got no money.”

“What part of the term ‘Federal officer’ do you not understand? Get out of the damn truck.” The maintenance guy jumped into the garbage. I saw him struggling. “Get in there and help him. Now!” I pointed the gun at the other guy in the garbage truck. “You, too.” They both got out slowly. I could tell they wanted to run. “You run, I shoot you. It’s that damn simple.”

The maintenance guy started shouting to them in Spanish. They both started moving now and crawled up.

“Holy Jesus!” the driver shouted. “There’s a man in here.”

“No, duh. Get him out!”

They lifted the body up—it was Reader. My chest felt tight, and I was having trouble breathing. The maintenance guy looked at me. “He’s hurt bad, but he’s alive.”

I burst into tears. “Get him out of there.” I dropped the Glock back into my purse and found my cell phone. “Jeff, are you okay?”

“Yeah, baby. We’ve got the agent tied up, literally. Where are you?”

“James is hurt.” I was sobbing.

“Hang on.” He hung up, and I went to help them get Reader’s body down without hurting him more.

The maintenance man took a look. “Head trauma.” Even I could have called that one—there was blood on Reader’s forehead. He opened Reader’s eyes and took his pulse. “I think he’ll be okay.”

“Um, don’t take this the wrong way, but—”

“I’m a med student. This is my third job. I’m a bartender at night and I deal blackjack swing shift. Tito Hernandez, by the way.”

“Kitty Katt. I’m not a stripper.”

“Yeah, can’t tell in that outfit, of course.” Tito was checking Reader’s neck and limbs. “You have a phone. Call an ambulance.”

“How? I’m not from around here.”

Tito rattled something off in Spanish. One of the trash men pulled out a cell phone and dialed.

I realized the trash truck guys were staring at my chest. “Um, I wasn’t planning to wear this out in the day.”

“Don’t plan to wear it out without armed guards.” He looked up at the trash guys and rattled something off in Spanish again. They nodded and backed away.

“What’d you tell them?”

“That you’re a crazy hooker and this guy’s your pimp.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. It’s more believable than you being a Federal officer.” He took my arm and placed me. “Want you blocking the sun from him.” My shadow fell across Reader’s face.

“How’d you do that jump?”

“Training. I also cage fight.”

“Jesus.”

“I like to think of him as my copilot, yeah.” He looked up at me. “You guys have some serious enemies here?”

“I think my boyfriend took out the enemy.”

“He’s not your boyfriend?”

“No . . . but she thought he was. Interesting.”

“You want to explain that?”

I took a good long look at Tito. “Maybe so.” I dug into my purse. “Mister White?”

“Yes, Miss Katt. Christopher called me somewhat hysterically. What’s going on?”

“I want to hire someone.”

CHAPTER 19

“COME AGAIN?” WHITE SOUNDED CONFUSED. “I want to hire someone onto the team. What’s the standard procedure?”

Tito raised his eyebrow at me. Reader groaned, and Tito turned back to his patient. I took Reader’s hand. Groaning meant coming back, I hoped.

“Normally they kill a superbeing.”

“How about if they know how to react in a crisis, don’t argue about things being dire, can leap twice their height to save one of our agents from being smooshed in a trash compactor, and are fluent in Spanish? And if they’re,” I let go of Reader’s hand to feel Tito’s bicep, “pretty damned buff, in med school, holding down three jobs, and also a cage fighter?”

“Who was almost smooshed?”

“James. He’s alive, thanks to Tito much more than me.” I took Reader’s hand again. Tito had a great bicep, I had to admit.

“Tito is our new recruit?”

“If I get to ask him, yeah.” The adrenaline was starting to wear off, and I was starting to shake.

“If Paul and Jeffrey approve.”

“Paul’s not going to be in any condition. James is hurt.” My voice was moving up to the dog-only register.

“Ah. And this Tito is taking care of James?”

“Yes. Look, yes or no?”

“I’ll trust your judgment. Please go ahead. Remember, however, most people don’t believe in aliens without seeing the proof.”

“Chuckie did.”

“Fine. Carry on, and please keep me posted on James’ status.”

“Will do.” I hung up and wondered where Martini was. “Tito, got a proposition for you.”

“Want to be a doctor, thanks. What the hell did they hit him with?”

“Want to train with doctors better than you’re ever going to meet at med school? And, she hit him with, I’m guessing, her fist.”

He looked at me. “There’s a lot more to this, isn’t there?”

“Yeah.” I took a deep breath. “Look, they just tried to kill my best friend. You saved his life. And you did it by doing the things we have to do every day to stay alive.”

“Who’s we?”

“Centaurion Division.” A man’s shadow covered mine. “World government agency, United States based.”

Tito looked up at Martini. “You her boyfriend?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. Give her your jacket before the hombres decide they don’t care if they get deported back across the border.”

Martini did as requested. “We have her locked down. And I do mean down.” His voice was a growl. “If James dies, I’m killing her.”

“Let me.”

“Okay.”

Tito looked back. “Um, not really sure I’m for cold-blooded murder.”

“The person who attacked your patient is an alien from the Alpha Centauri system. She’s here to kill or at least severely bother the Alpha Centaurions who live here peacefully with us and help us protect the Earth.” I heard sirens in the distance. They were getting closer.

“This a Men in Black joke?”

“No. Jeff, they called for an ambulance.”

“Don’t want one, but we’ll take the gurney.” He pulled out his phone. “Alpha Team has a man down. Need a floater, on my mark. Needs to take four and a gurney to human medical. I want that gate active in less than thirty seconds.” He dialed again. “Christopher, you and Tim take the bitch to lockdown. I want her miserable. James is down, and he looks bad. Yeah, I’ll have the girls get Paul. You take Reynolds with you, too, have Melanie and Emily stay with the flyboys and do guard duty. Right.”

Martini looked at me. “You want to bring this guy on why?”

I reiterated Tito’s skills.

“I want to be a doctor. I don’t want to get involved with a bunch of crazies, no insult intended.”

“Oh, none freaking taken. Jeff, call the girls.”

He nodded. “Lorraine, we’re at Code Red, man down from Alpha Team. Yeah. Yeah, she’s a mess. I want you and Claudia to get Paul and get him back to human medical. Keep him calm, don’t let him know how bad it is.” Martini eyed Reader. “It looks really bad from where I stand. Like brain gone bad.”

I started to shake. Tito reached out and grabbed my arm. “He’s not a doctor. I’m not either, but I’m closer. It’s bad, but he’s not brain-dead. There’s optical activity.”

“Is he paralyzed?”

Tito tightened his hold on my arm. “I don’t know.”

The ambulance arrived. Martini was suddenly standing there with the gurney. He bent down and lifted Reader easily. He put him carefully onto the gurney and strapped him in.

Tito stood up and looked at Martini suspiciously. “How’d you do that?”

Martini reached out, grabbed Tito’s hand, and put it onto his chest. “She told you. You want to listen?”

“Holy Mary, mother of God!” Tito yanked his hand away. “You have two hearts!”

“Yeah, I’m an alien.” Martini nodded his head toward a shimmering in the air. “I’m going through. Bring him.” He shoved the gurney through the gate and disappeared.

Tito’s jaw dropped. “Um . . .”

I grabbed his hand and pulled. “Come on.” I didn’t think about the ambulance drivers or trash guys. I didn’t care about them or what they would or wouldn’t tell anyone. I only cared about seeing if Reader was going to be okay.

It was the worst gate transfer of my life, though it felt like they all did. But it seemed like it took forever. My foot finally hit the ground, and Tito came through with me. We were in the med lab at Dulce, and Reader was already hooked up to a lot of scary-looking machines.

Dazzlers I didn’t know were working on him, and they all were moving fast and to a woman looked grim. Martini put his arm around me. “It’ll be okay, baby.” He didn’t sound like he believed it.

Tito looked around. “Wow.”

“Yeah.” I was crying again.

Gower arrived, flanked by Lorraine and Claudia. “What happened?” he asked me softly.

“She must have thought he was Jeff. Or something.” There was more to it, I knew that, but I was too upset to think about it. “Paul, I’m so sorry.”

He pulled me away from Martini and hugged me tightly. “It’s not your fault.” He let go and got closer. One of the Dazzlers gently shoved him back. “Sorry, we can’t have you close. Actually, you all need to get out.”

Tito stepped closer. “Why are you doing that procedure? He’s had double head trauma.”

“Pardon me?” The woman spun on him. “Who are you?”

“Tito Hernandez. It looks like all the trauma’s in the front, but I think he got slammed into a wall. The back of his head’s a mess.”

“Tito didn’t tell me that,” I said softly to Martini.

“Because he’s good.” Martini was watching Tito closely. “Clean him up, let him stay in here.” It was an order.

“Jeff, that’s not a good idea,” the Dazzler who appeared to be in charge said.

“James is a human, he’s a human doctor. Do it.” Martini pulled the rest of us out.

We all stood in the hall, no one looking at anyone else. Martini’s phone rang. He walked away from me to take the call. Gower reached out and pulled me to him. I buried my face in his chest and just let the tears come.

“Leave us alone . . . please,” Gower said quietly. I heard footsteps fade away and could tell the others had given us some space. Gower’s body twitched. “Kitty, ACE is afraid.”

“Me too, ACE.”

“James is going to die.”

CHAPTER 20

ICOULDN’T CRY MORE THAN I WAS. I couldn’t stop, either. “It’s not fair.”

“No, it is not.”

“Why doesn’t God ever come help us?” I didn’t mean to say it out loud. ACE and I had had this conversation before, after all. I knew why—God wanted us to do it on our own. “Why can’t he come and save James? Just this once, actually save the good person who doesn’t deserve to die?”

“Why does Tito feel responsible?”

“What?” This seemed out of left field.

“Tito is in there with James. Tito feels if James dies it will be Tito’s fault. Why? Tito did not harm James, Tito is not the one who caused the injuries.”

“Oh. Tito’s learning to be a doctor. He helped me find James. He tried to take care of him.”

“Why would that make Tito responsible?”

“Doctors and nurses, paramedics, all the people who are trained to save lives—they sort of have to act like God, in that sense. They have to be good enough to save someone’s life, to steal a life back from death, from God, if you will. That’s a lot of pressure and responsibility. I think Tito feels responsible because, well, that’s how most people who try to save someone feel—if they could have done one thing differently or better or faster, then they would have saved the person.” Like me. If I hadn’t wanted to go shopping, if I hadn’t asked Reader to go with me, then he’d be okay.

“It is not Kitty’s fault, either. Kitty is blaming Kitty. Paul is blaming Paul. The same with Jeff. Everyone feels responsible. Everyone but the one who hurt James. She feels happy.” ACE sounded madder than I’d ever heard him.

“I’m going to kill her, ACE. In cold blood. I just want you to know that, so it won’t be a shock to you when I do it.”

“No, Kitty. Kitty must not become what she is.”

“He’s my best friend. I love him. He’s the only person I can talk to sometimes who understands—me, this, everything we do. There’s no justice on Earth that can make her suffer like Paul will suffer, like I’ll suffer, if we lose James. And I’ll be happily damned if that means she can’t hurt someone else I love.”

“Why didn’t Kitty ask God to save Kitty before?”

“You mean when Reid was about to run me down in the desert with an Escalade and I was sure I was going to die?”

“Yes.”

“Because I knew God wouldn’t help me.”

“Kitty did not ask ACE for help. Kitty asked ACE to join Kitty with ACE, but not to save Kitty. Why?”

“I didn’t want to put you into a position where you’d have to say no.”

“James asked ACE to save Kitty then.”

I could cry harder. What a nice way to find out. “But you didn’t.” My brain kicked. He had—ACE had told Martini what to do in order to save me. “ACE, please, please, do something to save James, to bring him back the way he was.”

“ACE cannot do that, Kitty.” But the way he said it, I had a little bit of hope. Gower twitched and tightened his hold on me. “We’re going to lose Jamie, aren’t we?”

“I . . . don’t know.”

I heard a ruckus from the medical bay. Gower and I detached and took a look. There was a lot of running around, and someone was trying to hold Tito away from Reader. “Jeff! Help!”

Martini was right there. “What’s wrong?”

“Tell them to let Tito do whatever he wants.” I ran into the room. “Leave him alone, let him get to James!”

The woman in charge turned to me. “He wants to do something that’s likely to kill the patient.”

“The patient’s dead if I don’t,” Tito said urgently. He looked at me. “I know what I’m supposed to do.”

“Jeff . . . please.”

Martini took my hand. “Let him do what he wants.” It was an order.

The women backed away, unwillingly, but they did it. Tito started doing something that I couldn’t watch. I turned my face into Martini’s chest and I prayed. A lot. I heard Tito asking for things, giving orders, just generally sounding like a brain surgeon, at least from what I could figure out. I couldn’t pay attention—I could only think about Reader being okay.

It took forever; at least that was how it felt. But finally, I could feel the tension in the room go down. I risked a look over my shoulder—everyone was just standing there. Gower was by the bed, and he was crying. “Oh, no. Please, no.”

The Dazzler in charge looked at me. “I call it a miracle.” Martini and I went over to the bed. Reader’s breathing was normal. “Full brain function, all internal organs functioning properly, we’ve tested, no paralysis. He’s going to have a hell of a headache when he comes to, but he should be back in action within a week or so.” She turned to Tito. “I don’t know how you did it, Doctor, but thank you.”

Tito looked at me. “I’ll take the job.”

“Welcome to Alpha Team,” Martini said. “I think I speak for all of us when I say we’re really glad to have you on board.”

I tried to talk in my head, in the way I had with ACE before. Thank you, so much. More than I can really express.

ACE just showed Tito what Tito already knew how to do, ACE said in my head. Tito is a good person. Kitty has chosen well again.

Never better than choosing you, ACE.

ACE is here to protect. She is not. I knew who he meant. They are coming, and they are evil. ACE will have to help Kitty to fight.

Thank you.

This is ACE’s world, too. I felt warm and loved, which was ACE’s way of hugging my mind, then he slipped away.

Gower started to laugh. “Oh, hell.”

“Paul, are you okay?”

“He’s going to be pissed when he wakes up.” Gower was laughing as if there was really something funny going on.

Martini let go of me and put his arm around Gower. “It’ll be fine. Come on, Paul, let’s get you resting.”

“Nah, I’m fine. Now.” Gower looked up at us. “Jamie’s really going to be pissed, though.”

“Um, why? I think being alive is going to make up for a lot.”

Gower grinned, still laughing. “He’s bald.”

I looked. Sure enough, they’d shaved his head. I’d been too upset to notice. “He’s got a great head, I think, anyway. He’ll look fine.” It was Reader. There was pretty much no way he couldn’t look awesome.

“He’ll look hot,” Gower said. “But he thinks two baldies in a relationship is . . .” he started to laugh again, “. . . really gay.”

Tito and I looked at each other, and we both started to laugh, too. “I’m straight, for the record,” Tito gasped out. “But my older brother’s gay, and, you know, he’s got the same opinion.”

“What’s your brother do?”

Tito grinned. “He’s a cop.”

“Protection runs in the family,” Martini said. “Good to know.”

“How long will James be out?” I asked when I finally stopped laughing.

“Less time than if he was in a human hospital,” Martini replied. “We have things we can do that speed up human recovery. Not as fast as an A-C, but faster than normal.”

“Good. We need to brief Tito and bring him up to speed on what’s going on. And I need to go kick some serious ass.”

“Already done.” Chuckie’s voice came from behind us. He looked deadly. “We have the information we need.”

“How?”

Christopher came in. “The C.I.A. has different methods than we do.” He didn’t look upset about it.

Chuckie looked over at Reader. “Is he going to be okay?”

“Yeah. Luckily. Oh, Tito Hernandez, Charles Reynolds. He’s the head of the C.I.A.’s ET Division. Tito helped me and saved James’ life.”

“He on the team now?” Chuckie managed a small smile.

“Yeah, he is.”

“Good. We have a lot of pain heading toward us, and you’ll be particularly gratified to know, Kitty, that, true to form, there’s more than one plan active.”

“Oh, good. Routine.”