"But how is it that the others passed?" Armstrong asked. "Those tests wouldn't have gone through the system properly."

"They didn't." Everyone stared at me, other than Olga, who gave me the Proud Teacher look. I was doing great with the finger painting. "The bad guys took the tests John nicely brought out of the room with him."

"Our teacher was clean," White reminded me.

"I'm sure he was. He got me out of the room where I was alone with Sandra, so he forced Plan B. I'm sure if he hadn't carried the tests out, none of us would have 'passed.' But he did, so whoever's in charge sent up dummy tests and had them rushed through, so no one would question."

Armstrong nodded slowly. "That makes sense. It would be easy enough to have prepared tests in advance."

"Paul requested they be rushed," Christopher reminded me. "And Reynolds probably asked for them to be processed quickly, too. He's been getting a lot of heat for the delay."

"Perfect set up, really. So, I get the crazy test. Everyone's focused on that, not on the fact that what our enemies got was answers to whatever they hell they asked the rest of our team."

Len and Kyle exchanged another look. "Our test was focused on questions about how we'd react in emergency situations," Len said. "What were Embassy procedures, how they differed from Centaurion Division procedures."

"What our chain of command was in case different personnel were incapacitated," Kyle added. "And what protective procedures we'd had in place in Florida. And which ones we didn't use, and why."

"My test focused a great deal on the Office of the Pontifex," White said. "But it did also ask a variety of chain of command questions."

Christopher dialed. "James, I need Amy brought to the Romanian Embassy immediately, under guard. Yes, it's about why Kitty called, only more so. No. No. Yes, a floater's fine, but I want her under guard at least until she's through the gate. I can and will come and get her myself if you don't want to help out. Fine, yes, thanks." He hung up and shot Patented Glare #4 at his phone.

"That sounded fun."

"We need a female from American Centaurion in attendance at the One World thing. It was supposed to be you, but without us able to tell you anything, Amy moved into the slot. But I think we need her here more."

"Have Doreen do it."

Christopher shook his head. "Jeff already forbade her to attend. Same with Claudia and Lorraine, only James did the forbidding on that."

"New mothers stay home and safe, right?"

"Right. And Serene's on Alpha Team and confined to Dulce right now on Tito's orders, so she's not an option, either."

I considered our options. Made another call. "Hey, Mimi, are you and Abby free?"

"Yeah, we are. Just hanging out with Denise since she and her kids have nothing to do today because Kevin's working."

"And he forbade them to attend the One World thing at the Mall, didn't he?"

"Yeah." Naomi laughed. "I knew you'd figure out what was going on."

"Oh, there's lots going on. I haven't even figured most of it out yet, but trust me when I say we won't like it when I do."

"I'm sure."

"Look, we need Amy at the Romanian Embassy. We also apparently need female Embassy personnel at the One World event. I'm officially announcing you and Abby as our Cultural Attaches. Go get 'em, tigers."

She laughed again. "I'm all for it. Sis and I are bored with our current jobs, which consist of letting Chuck run tests on us and smiling pretty. Besides, after last night, clearly our King expects us to live at the Embassy. What? Hang on." I heard her bring Abigail up to speed. "Back. Abby's on board, too. We'll go over to the One World thing now."

"Ah, expect your new . . . gifts . . . to want to come with you."

"Really? How will we explain them?"

"I don't think you'll have to." I looked around, and trotted out of the room again as the urge to name once again overcame me. "Your birds are named Posh and Becks."

There was a pause. "Oh, my God, I love those names for them! They're really perfect, too."

"Your birds are with you?"

"Yeah, they're hanging out with the Lewis' birds."

"Ken and Barbie?"

"How did you know that's what Rachel named them?"

"I didn't. Richard thinks this is my talent. Let's discuss my new level of bizarre later though, okay?"

"You got it. We'll take care of things. And I'll keep you posted on what's going on, probably via text."

"Isn't that a security breach?"

"Guess we'll find out. I'm kind of against not telling one of our leaders pertinent information, especially when the lack of that information could cause some or all of us to be killed."

"I like where your head's at." As we hung up, the air near me shimmered and I saw a floater gate appear. Amy stepped through a second later. She was alone. "Hey, Ames."

She blinked. "What's going on?"

"Oh, the usual crap. Only more of it."

"Oh." She shrugged. "So, routine."

"Yep." We joined the others. "Okay, so Amy's here. Naomi and Abigail, as our new Cultural Attaches, will cover whatever she was doing. Christopher, I'm assuming I know what you wanted her here for, but since you asked, you tell."

"You didn't run that appointment by anyone," Christopher pointed out.

"I see I need to remind you that I'm the Co-Head Ambassador. As such, I can assign anyone to do anything in our Embassy. If Jeff has a problem, he can whine to me about it. You, however, even though you're Monsieur Charge d'Affaires, cannot."

He rolled his eyes, then gave Amy a quick peck. "Okay, I want Amy, Len, Kyle, and my father all writing down as many of the questions from yesterday's HSAC test as they can remember. Write down the answers you gave, too."

While Adriana went to get pads of paper and pens, we caught Amy up on what was going on. She looked slightly ill when it was done. "Kitty, I remember most of the questions."

"What were they about?"

Amy looked at Olga. No-she looked at Jamie. "About security in the Embassy and other Bases. And how well protected the hybrid children are."

CHAPTER 39.

I WANTED TO GET MAD. But I knew I was going to need the rage somewhere down the line, and my bet was always for sooner as opposed to later.

"So, it's the old 'steal my baby' ploy." I looked at Armstrong. "What's your part in that?"

"I want nothing to do with it." He looked around and heaved a sigh. "You can all stop giving me your versions of the Evil Eye. Yes, there are people who want to get and control your children, particularly the hybrids. But I want, and therefore have, nothing to do with them."

"Any more."

"Ever. Look, I'm willing to do many things. But harming innocent children isn't one of them. I know you don't like me. I can understand why, in part because I realize none of you, except possibly your current and former Pontifexes, actually understand politics and diplomacy and how it all really works."

Amy's eyes narrowed. "I understand how it all works. I also understand that my father was a genius. And a lunatic. Are you insinuating you don't know anything about his various experiments?"

"Or Marling's? Or, frankly, any supersoldier program currently in existence?"

Armstrong looked trapped. Something my father had said to me chose to surface at this moment-a trapped animal will do or say anything to escape. You couldn't trust what someone who was trapped or defensive said most times.

I took a look at Olga. She was cuddling Jamie. And pointedly not looking at Armstrong.

I took a deep breath and let it out. "Let's all stop for a minute. Senator, despite how we all appear right now, we know we need to work with you. And we know you need to work with us. Let's declare a truce."

He looked at me suspiciously. "How do you mean?"

"I mean we tell you things, you tell us things, and neither side uses them against the other."

"Kitty, you're crazy," Christopher said. "You know we can't trust him."

I hit my speed dial. He answered on the first ring. That was happening a lot today. Had some guesses as to why, but none of them were concrete enough to share. Yet. "You're on the high priority line. This had better actually be high priority, Kitty."

"Hey, sorry I'm using the Bat Phone, but I needed to be sure you'd answer."

"When, in our entire lives, have I not answered a call from you?" Chuckie asked.

"Never, but you're in the middle of something with the One World stuff and I wanted to be sure I got you."

"You have me. What's going on? And where did White and Amy go? And," he sounded angry, "what the hell are they doing here?"

It didn't take genius to guess the Gower girls had just arrived. "They're our new Cultural Attaches. And Christopher and Amy are with me, because we're at DEFCON Bad and heading to DEFCON Worse at warp speed."

"What's going on?"

"Not sure I can explain it quickly."

"Try." He didn't sound like he was asking.

I gave it my best shot. While I did so, Christopher had the gang writing like fiends to get as much of what they could remember down as quickly as possible.

"Now that you know the latest bad news, let's get back to why I called. Do you trust Senator Armstrong? If yes, how much? If no, why not?"

Chuckie was quiet for a few moments. "I don't really trust anybody, Kitty, you know that."

"You trust me."

"You're different."

"You trust other people. I'd name them, but I'm not alone."

"I don't trust most people fully, let's agree on that."

"Fine. Back to the senator."

"I haven't found anything that proves he was involved in any of the various actions against us."

"Have you not found this because he's not involved or because he's just really good at hiding his tracks?"

"I'm honestly not sure. I realize you want a better answer than that. I can't give it to you."

"Fine. Esteban Cantu. Same questions."

"I guarantee that if Cantu could slit all our throats and not have it reflect badly on him, we'd all be dead. I can't say the same of Armstrong."

"When Operation Confusion started, Armstrong was one of the four having us do an unnecessary conference call." I watched Armstrong out of the corner of my eye, hoping he wouldn't really notice that I was doing so.

"Yes. Per what we found out then and you said Madeline Cartwright confirmed before she died, Cooper was in charge of that."

"Yeah, but she also said Cantu and Armstrong were involved." I watched Armstrong. He looked stressed and annoyed, but not overly worried. Had no idea what that meant. Found myself wishing Jeff and Chuckie were both here. "I wish you and Jeff were here, right now."

"We can't leave."

"I guessed. The President's about to kick the thing off, right?"

"Right. And we have no idea if there's going to be trouble or not."

"Trouble is a given."

"Why do you say that?"

"You have Alpha and Airborne involved. Before anything's happened. Meaning that everyone expects something to happen." Just like for the President's Ball. "So, someone got the head's up that something was going down at this thing, and you're all there trying to stop it."

"Right. And I can't really do my job while I'm on the phone with you."

"Oh, I have faith in you. I know you're not only the Conspiracy King, you're also the Emperor of the Multitaskers."

"Thanks. So, why are you asking me if we can trust Armstrong?"

"Because . . ." My voice trailed off because my brain was nudging me. "Who did you get the trouble tip from for this? Can you tell me?"