Alien Collective (52 page)

P
ROVING THAT RONNIE’S KIDS
—in addition to Mahin and the dead earthbender, and our airbender in custody—had another bender in their ranks, this chick waved her hands and water came out of nowhere. And splashed all over me.

The water tasted salty, meaning she’d probably pulled it in from the harbor. Considering that was a couple blocks away, she had impressive range, power, and control. Lucky us.

I’d jumped back so I was at less risk of being electrocuted, but the microphone for sure shorted out. Not that it mattered. My speech was, essentially, over. The less said about the state of my clothing the better, but then again, looking like a bedraggled cat was one of my Action Go-To Moves, so I had that going for me.

Because action was definitely needed.

Apparently her drenching me was a go sign for whoever was working with her. Team Yates went into action.

In addition to our waterbender, we had a group who were shoving delegates away while also attacking them, others who were moving kind of at hyperspeed, and a group who must have been manning the main doors, because a variety of Club 51 and Church of Intolerance protestors were inside now. These weren’t the real problems.

The people with the guns were the real problems.

Those people weren’t ours, because our team didn’t shoot over people’s heads and yell that they had to get down or die. But I was suddenly really glad that we’d been able to bring in our guns.

Heard Jeff bellow for our team to get Armstrong and others to safety, meaning that most of the A-Cs were now racing off to do just that. Security forces moved toward the various trouble points as well, but there were a lot of those points, and most of security were humans.

All this happened as if it was in slow motion, possibly because I was seeing it via hyperspeed vision, since this chick drenching me ensured that I flipped from nervous to enraged in less than a second. But this was good. I was able to spot trouble areas and, because of where I was, point them out to the good guys and have them actually see me do it.

Raj had found a microphone and was relaying information as well. But even though security was involved, there were a hell of a lot of people, and anyone not fighting was panicking.

Some rushed the stage—there were clearly some of Ronnie’s Kids in this group, but also regular delegates who were trying to get to the stage to get away.

Jeff came onstage to get me off. And then the people with the guns changed where they were shooting, and started shooting at us. At him, really.

As Prince and I tackled Jeff to the ground and Len and Kyle tackled Raj so that the bullets flew over all of us, and I then rolled us out of easy range, what Algar had said the night before clicked. It was all going to happen here. This was the place where I had to defend our king. With all the cameras rolling. Well, no problem. As Dad had reminded me, I was my mother’s daughter.

“Stay down, they’re after you.” I scrambled to my feet, shoved my earbuds back in, and hit play. My jacket was a hindrance. Took it off and tossed it to the side. As the sounds of Garbage’s “I Think I’m Paranoid” started, I opened my purse to get my Glock. There were a lot of Poofs in there. Got out my gun and gave the signal. “Poofs assemble!”

They poured out of my purse. “Poofies, Kitty needs you to help out. Get people to safety, help the good guys, stop the bad guys. Sadly, no eating anyone right now. Only go big if you have to. Got it?”

Poofs purred at me, then disappeared, other than Harlie, who jumped over to Jeff, and Poofikins and Mous-Mous, who stayed with me. “Ready, boy?” I asked Prince.

He barked that he was born ready.

“Then let’s show these mutated, vengeful assholes how we do things downtown.”

This would have probably been a lot more impressive if, right after I said it, I hadn’t been hit with another wave of salt water.

Happily, my iPod was still running. Hoped that meant Algar had it under some kind of protection. Probably. He liked to communicate with me this way. The song changed to “Right Between The Eyes”, also by Garbage. Wasn’t sure if this meant I was on my Garbage playlist or Algar was trying to tell me something. Decided I’d freaking find out.

We got back to our feet and Prince and I charged the waterbender. She was our main nemesis and it’s always good to take out the front line.

She appeared to need time to recharge, or to grab more water from the harbor, so we were able to get to her. I hit her high with an arm to her throat and Prince hit her low, knocking her to the ground. I spun and grabbed her head, intending to slam it into the ground.

But I was knocked away by someone who, as I bounced off some innocent bystanders and got to my feet, looked familiar. Stephanie helped the waterbender to her feet and then smirked at me. “Hope you enjoy watching Uncle Jeff die.”

That did it. I headed straight for her. She in turn grabbed the waterbender and took off as well, at hyperspeed.

No worries, I had hyperspeed, too. However, there were a lot of people willing to block me and not as many blocking Stephanie. Always the way.

Prince cleared the area by shaking himself off. Amazingly enough, even people in a panic don’t want a soaking wet dog to shake himself on them. “Good boy!” I slammed my fist into the face of a guy pointing a gun toward Reader, who was nearby. Took the time to ensure the creep was knocked out, took his gun away, and moved on.

Raj was still onstage and was using his talent to try to calm people down as well as point out trouble areas. And it might have worked if we hadn’t heard a very loud, unpleasant sound—like an airplane engine starting up, only louder and less friendly. As it did so, “Gear Jammer” by George Thorogood came on. Yeah, this was a tip from Algar. Good. I needed the help.

Hoisted Prince up under one arm and flipped the hyperspeed up to eleven. At this rate it was fairly easy to get around people, as well as hit bad guys in the face, stomach, or back of the head as we zoomed by.

Despite being told to stay down, my husband was up, tossing bad guys off of delegates and into protestors who were really filling the place up even more than it had been, which seemed impossible.

The others were all fighting as well, some doing better than others. But I couldn’t spot Stephanie and the waterbender anywhere. The sound was still going, and I had to figure that I needed to find it and stop it.

Worked my way to the outer part of the room, where I could see out. It was chaos on the streets, with the rest of the protestors basically attacking the National Guard, meaning said Guard couldn’t come in to help, and other help was going to have a hard time getting through as well.

“Time Bomb” by Godsmack came on, and I figured it was time to really find that sound and make it stop.

Looked up and around. The sound seemed to be everywhere, so that either indicated it was coming through the sound system or it was above us. Most of the press corps was higher up, on the mezzanine level, which allowed them to look down on the exhibit area and therefore keep cameras stationary. So the whatever it was might be up there.

Raced off, found a set of stairs, and went up them. To see a tank, a literal tank, sitting there. Only this was a special tank, loaded with bells and whistles and what appeared to be a lot of maneuverability. It reminded me of a shorter, wider, less random-limbed supersoldier, while at the same time clearly being a tank. I’d worry about how it had gotten in here later, though someone using the Z’porrah cube was my most likely answer. I’d also worry about who’d created it later, since this kind of tech pretty much screamed Titan Security.

No, I needed to pay attention to the tank itself. The tank that had its very maneuverable gun aimed down, toward the stage below. Where, naturally, my husband was. And of course, he wasn’t alone. Reader, Chuckie, Tim, and Serene had him surrounded, trying to protect him. And Raj was still onstage, trying to calm things down and direct the good guys to the bad guys.

So, naturally, this very loud, very nasty looking tank was primed to wipe out all of these people I loved, and probably take a good number of the random people I didn’t know but still didn’t want to die, too.

And who was protecting the tank but dear little Stephanie and her pal the waterbender.

Always the way.

P
UT PRINCE DOWN
as more water hit us. I really hated this chick. Happily, my iPod was still working. The music changed to “Hi-Fi Killer” by American Hi-Fi.

Had no idea if my Glock was still going to work, but gave it a shot anyway and aimed right between her eyes. Naturally, the gun was waterlogged and nothing happened. However, I had another gun in my other hand. Tried that one. Nope.

Dropped my Glock into my purse and advanced. Just because the hunk of iron in my hand wasn’t going to shoot didn’t mean it wasn’t still useful.

Stephanie jumped out in front of the waterbender. “You should run away now.”

“Nah. You may not be sure, but it wasn’t Jeff, or Christopher, who actually finally killed Clarence for real. It was me. And I’m not remotely sorry.”

That did it. She charged, as I’d known she would.

There are a lot of rules of fighting, most of which I’d ignored at one time or another. Don’t fight angry was a biggie I tended to not pay attention to. However, there was a reason it was an important rule. Angry people normally didn’t think clearly. Because I was enhanced and rage was my friend, I was the exception to this particular rule.

But Stephanie wasn’t really a trained fighter, though I was sure she’d had some training by now. And she was mad.

She flailed at me and I sidestepped her, spun around, planted my foot against her back, and kicked, hard. She went flying. I spun back and headed for the waterbender. Who’d had time to get more water.

However, I’d shoved my way through a water entity not too many days ago, and I just told myself the wave of water was Sandy when he was Sloshy and shoved on through.

The waterbender hadn’t been expecting this. Either that or she was auditioning for a role that required her to look shocked out of her mind. Slammed the extra gun I had into her face. I enjoyed the hit probably a little more than I should have, but oh well.

Jumped up onto the tank as the music changed to “All Kinds of Time” by Fountains of Wayne. Based on the song’s lyrics, this meant I only had a few seconds. Ripped the hatch off to see a very surprised guy in there. Reached down, pulled him out, and tossed him over the side and onto the main floor below. If he lived, someone else could enjoy killing him.

Realized I had no idea how to stop this tank and if I went inside I was far too easily trapped. “Poofies, can you get this tank to Home Base or somewhere else safe for Kitty? And if possible, ensure it can’t go off?”

Poofikins jumped out of my purse and onto the tank, then mewed at me. Moving it, yes. Stopping it, no.

Heaved a sigh. “Gear Jammer” had certainly been a clue. There was a space in the gun turret where I could shove something in. Took the useless gun that wasn’t mine and so shoved. The horrible noise I’d been hearing increased.

Jumped down. “Time to go, Poofikins.” The Poof mewled again and several other Poofs appeared. Then they and the tank disappeared. Awesome. Poof powers rocked. Hopefully they were taking it somewhere where, if it exploded, things wouldn’t be hurt. Assumed Groom Lake was going to enjoy another gift from our team.

Looked around to see Stephanie up and holding the waterbender up. Said bender spoke. “You killed my father, and my brothers.”

“Maybe. Not sure who your brothers are.”

“You murdered them! In their sleep!”

“Um, no, no I didn’t. I haven’t killed anyone in their sleep, ever.”

“Yes you did. All this week. We’ve lost so many.”

“Um, how many?” Good to get confirmation of what Team Assassin was up to. Not a surprise Buchanan hadn’t wanted to share what was going on. But it made sense—Siler had written these people off, he knew they were dangerous, and presumably Stephanie had led him to a lot of them. Truly hoped Buchanan and the others had been sure that who they’d killed were bad guys. “And were these brothers people you grew up with or dudes you’ve met in the last year or so?”

“It doesn’t matter how long you’ve known someone. If they’re your blood, they’re your blood.”

Okay, that felt like proof that these brothers of hers were more Yates Kids found in the last year. “I didn’t kill any of them. Neither did anyone here.”

“Yes, you did.” Her eyes were wide—crazy eyes for sure. “You, all of you, are murdering bastards and we’re going to wipe you off the face of the Earth.”

“Technically, you and your siblings would be the murdering bastards. But whatever makes you happy. I’m not going to allow you to kill anyone, especially not all those innocent people down there you seem hell-bent on hurting. They’ve done less than nothing to you. There’s no reason to attack them, other than the fact that you know we’ll do everything we can to protect them.”

Stephanie was backing the two of them away from me. Wasn’t sure why. Neither one of them could be hurt that badly, because I hadn’t actually done any kind of real beat down on them. So she was either trying to get away from me, or trying to get me to move somewhere.

Risked a look around. In addition to some press who were still here, there was a guy trying to sneak up on me. Pity for him that Prince was here. The dog tackled this guy silently, took him down, and stood on his chest, growling, fangs right against the guy’s throat.

“Good dog!” Turned back. Stephanie and the waterbender had disappeared. Cursed, ran over and did a side blade kick against the guy’s head so he was fully out, and then took off running at human speeds, just to be sure I didn’t miss anything, Prince bounding along at my side.

Reached the stairs again. “You stay here,” I said to Prince. “I’ll be right back.” Raced upstairs. There were two more levels, one loaded with meeting rooms, one with the ballroom. As I reached the third floor, someone grabbed me.

“It’s me,” Christopher said quickly, as I spun to hit him. “I already checked everything. It’s clear.”

“You saw the tank and didn’t do anything?”

He shrugged. “You were handling it.”

“Gee, thanks. Stephanie and the waterbender have escaped, no idea where they are.”

“Not upstairs.”

“Well, that’s good. There’s a bomb somewhere, though, I’m sure of it.”

“Bombs work best when they’re low, to bring a building down. And there were none on these top floors, or the roof, which I also checked.” He took my hand and we raced back downstairs, Christopher grabbing Prince on the way.

A fast check of the outer lower level showed no bombs. My music went to “Mobscene” by Marilyn Manson. This combined with what we hadn’t found meant the bombs were in with all the people, for maximum damage. And, based on what had gone on before, they were ricin bombs.

Rejoined the mob of panicked, fighting people. “You search,” I shouted to Christopher. “You’re the fastest.” He nodded, put Prince down, and took off.

Prince heaved all over someone waving an anti-alien sign. I grabbed the sign and hit them with it. Hit a few others holding nasty signs, too. The benefits of hyperspeed and superstrength meant that I knocked these people out on the first try.

I needed to get the room cleared and get to Jeff, not necessarily in that order. “The Angry Mob” by the Kaiser Chiefs came on. Decided this meant I needed to bang some more heads.

Did so—they were really easy to spot what with all their signs and such. As I broke one 2x4 over someone’s skull, I just took their sign and kept on going. I was so enraged that I was fairly sure no one knew what hit them, because I was pretty sure I was going far too fast to be seen by anyone except maybe Christopher.

As I finished taking out about a hundred people there was a shout and collective gasp. Looked to the stage. Everyone else was down, and Stephanie had Jeff on his knees, with a gun to his head. The waterbender was with them, and she had a tube of water spinning around them. It was deflecting bullets, at least as near as I could tell.

Two women came to me as “Come Hell or High Water” by Poison hit my personal airwaves. Had that right. “What would you have us do?” one asked, and I realized they were Rahmi and Rhee.

“We need to take those two women down before they can kill Jeff.”

As I said this, I spotted someone I wasn’t expecting—Cameron Maurer. He trotted right by us and through people, knocking them out of his way. Tried to get a bead on where he was headed. “Lift me up please,” I said to Rahmi, who obliged. I followed his trajectory—which, despite the chaos, was simple due to people being knocked aside—and realized he was going to end up near to the stage. Where Christopher was, with Chuckie, working feverishly on something.

Rahmi put me down. “Follow our android,” I told them. His route would put us close enough to the stage and we’d get there quickly because he was clearing a path. Picked Prince up again, and we all took off.

Got onto the stage in a matter of seconds. Stephanie was enjoying her moment in the spotlight, and hadn’t shot Jeff in the head yet. But it was only a matter of time.

The people who’d been around Jeff were alive, I could see all of them breathing. As I grabbed Tim’s gun, which was, happily, a Glock, something I’d really been hoping wouldn’t happen did.

The air around us swirled, as if there were a variety of dust devils forming without dust. Looked around. Spotted Mahin—she was fighting with a couple of people I was pretty sure were half-siblings—so it wasn’t her doing this.

The air devils formed into shapes. Eight shapes. Eight humanoid shapes. One of which was far more defined than the others. “I am sorry,” Sandy said. “But the time for judgment is here.”