"Thanks, Kitty. Always nice to be appreciated. I've sent the information to everyone here, as well as to Dulce. They're tracking as well." He cleared his throat. "When this is over, I'd like to visit. If it's okay."

"I'll show you around," Jennifer said quickly.

"Let's survive to see next week before anyone plans any tours," Franklin said. "Gentlemen, let's get to work. Everyone's depending on you."

As Hacker International focused on their new information, William came over to me. "I've checked in with Walter. He says they're all clear at the Embassy. He's activated the shields, so if we head there, we need to let him know, because the shield can cause an issue with the gate."

"Wait, what? Our Embassy has a shield on it? Seriously?"

William laughed. "It's not standard. It was discovered while you were in Florida. The assumption is that the former Diplomatic Corps installed it as part of their overall plan to destroy us. It's been checked out and tested. Perfectly safe, very effective. Which we should be happy about, because also according to Walter someone's been trying to get in. Moving too fast to see."

"Clarence wants into the tunnels."

"I'll call Walter and tell him you're pretty sure it's Valentino. What do you want him to do?"

"Sit tight and not let him in. I don't know that we can catch him, but the only ones who'll have a shot are Jeff and Christopher."

William nodded and stepped away to make his next call. It occurred to me that if telecommunications went down, not only would we not have anything to work with here in Hacker Central, but I wouldn't be able to call the person I was fairly sure could point us in the right direction.

I followed William's suit, stepped away from the group, and dialed. Got the "all circuits are busy" message. Tried several more times. Same thing. Sent a text. It bounced back. Several times. I felt cut off and more than a little stressed.

Armstrong joined me. "You look upset."

"Senator, I thought they could get calls in and out of the President's bunker."

"Only with special phones." He gave me a rather fatherly look. "Trying to reach your mother?"

I nodded. "She'd know what to do. She undoubtedly knows who's behind this or at least has suspects."

"I'm one, I promise you."

"Yeah, I know." I sighed. "But at this point, better the enemy you know. Not that I'm calling you our enemy. At the moment. I mean, you've been helpful. And all that."

He chuckled and patted my shoulder. "No offense taken. And chin up. Your mother's counting on you to figure things out without her. And I must be honest-if anyone can make sense of what's going on, it's going to be you."

"I suppose."

"I'll do my best to help. You mentioned a name I haven't heard in a while. I believe we should have them looking for connections with Reid as well."

"He's been dead a long time."

"Yes, but as you well know, influence can continue long after someone's death."

"True enough, and considering our visit from the Club Fifty-One contingent, it's a good bet his influence and some cronies are still around."

"Yes, and likely still following his game plan. I knew Reid, and a more anti-alien politician you'll be hard-pressed to find."

"No argument there. He must have funded or been funded by the Club of Crazed Evil Geniuses in some way, too, because Gaultier is the one who created Surcenthumain, but Reid and Taft were the ones who did the testing on Serene and Jeff."

"I agree. And who knows how many others. I'm glad you see my point."

"Did you like him?"

"Reid?" Armstrong shook his head. "Happily I'm a senator and he was a representative, and we were in different parties, so I didn't have to socialize as much as might have been required otherwise."

"You hang with Cantu."

"I'll take anything Esteban wants to do, including what I'm sure he's doing right now, over Leventhal Reid and his ideas of a good time."

I remembered how Reid had wanted to kill me, what he'd wanted to do to me, and how he planned to ensure I'd be conscious all the way through it. I shuddered involuntarily. Armstrong was right-no one had been more sick and twisted than Reid.

I took a deep breath and got myself back to the here and now. "Yo, Eddy! Add in searches for Leventhal Reid, Howard Taft who was not the late president, and Club Fifty-One. Oh, and special attention should be paid to France, particularly Paris, and Paraguay, particularly in the Chaco. In addition to the special attention Big George is supposedly already giving those areas."

"You sure you don't want a five-course meal and some entertainment while you're at it?"

No sooner were the words out of Stryker's mouth than I heard something. It was faint, and sounded far away. "Did anyone else hear that?"

Franklin's phone rang before anyone replied. A quiet beeping noise started from somewhere inside the room. Stryker went to the sound and moved a variety of papers, pizza boxes and other things I chose not to identify.

"I heard it," Buchanan said. "But I can't place what it is."

"I can," Oren said. "It's the sound of an explosion." I looked around. The Middle Eastern Contingent had that "ready for fight or flight" look going.

Franklin hung up. He looked worried and a little sick to his stomach. "It's a good thing you wanted everyone with us."

"Why's that?"

"Headquarters was just blown up. We've lost some airmen for certain. Base is going into full lockdown." So Reader had been proven right within a few minutes-we were already taking casualties.

Everyone was quiet for a few seconds. The shock of an unprovoked attack will do that to you. "I'm so sorry," I said finally.

Franklin shook his head. "We're at war. They knew it. The rest of the population might not yet, but unless we keep on, our enemies win and my men died for nothing."

Had to clear my throat, mostly because it was that or cry, and we didn't have time for crying. "Do they know how the bomb was detonated?"

"No. One moment everything was fine. The next, the building went up. It wasn't an airborne bomb."

"We're secure here," Stryker said.

"For now." White looked pensive.

"What is it, Mister White?"

"Why did anyone blow up Commander Franklin's office? And why now?"

"Because we were there, it's the only logical reason."

"So either they thought we were still there, or they're trying to figure out where we are and blow us up," Buchanan said.

"Or it's where the main gate is for this air base." As I said it I knew I was right. "They don't want us able to get out of here quickly."

"But that doesn't mean that they aren't trying to figure out where we've gone and blow that up, too," White said. "I lean toward both you and Mister Buchanan being correct in this situation."

"Who's 'they'?" Mona asked.

"My bet is that Andrews has some Club Fifty-One Faithful working here. They're really good at covering all the pawn moves, and this kind of destruction is their go-to move. I'd bet the order was to start blowing things up once Mister White and I arrived."

"You're sure this is about you?" Franklin asked.

"I'm certain," Oliver answered for me. "Whoever's behind this has been anticipating what Missus Martini would do. That she would come here was a given, if you recall our earlier discussion."

I heard another sound. This one was closer. I felt a small tremor. Bruno woke up, looked around, and came over to me, squawking quietly.

"We need to get out of here, pronto. Eddy, do you have everything backed up?"

"Yes, but we need this equipment, not to mention the network, to do whatever you want us to do."

"Will, tell Walter we're going to be coming, hopefully through Chuckie's secret gate, and we need to get everything in this room into the Ballroom at the Embassy, and we need to do it fast." William pulled out his phone and started talking. "And tell him we're going to need the top folks who handle the Imageering set up onsite, too."

Harlie, Poofikins, and a number of other Poofs appeared out of nowhere. They were large, in charge, and growling. I was clear on what they were trying to tell us, even without Bruno screaming at the top of his bird lungs. We were out of time.

Abigail grabbed Naomi's hand. "Incoming!"

CHAPTER 79.

A PROTECTIVE BUBBLE WENT AROUND ALL OF US, around the entire contents of the room, really. It was similar to the ones I'd seen ACE create when we were in the middle of Operation Drug Addict in Florida. Similar also to the one I'd created with ACE's help during Operation Confusion to dissipate the gaseous form of Surcenthumain. Only much bigger.

The room shook, and the electrical went haywire. The room started to shake as if we were in California during a major quake. Most of us started to lose our balance. Like so many events of my life, it had the potential to be a funny memory in about fifty years.

"Everyone out!" Franklin shouted.

We turned, but the wall with the door sort of collapsed and in a way that indicated it was going to take more than a couple of shoves to get through. We were a long way underground, and I had a feeling someone was going for the idea of burying all of us alive. And there was no time to calibrate-let alone get everyone through -the gate.

Naomi grabbed me, and I felt an electric surge. "Kitty, get us out of here!"

Me? I wasn't a Wonder Twin. Then again, getting out of here sounded fabulous. I considered all of our options. Went with the sane idea for once. "American Centaurion Embassy, second floor, ballroom."

I'd done this time warp before, during Operation Invasion, when ACE had sent us to Alpha Four and back. But no one else with me had.

The bubble surrounding us shifted, taking all its contents along. It felt like I always imagined a time warp would. First the airbase, then the parts of D.C. between Andrews and our Embassy flashed by as we went past or through them, depending.

I saw a lot of freaked out looking expressions. Even Omega Red looked freaked, and I knew he couldn't see us all fly through everything like the fastest form of hyperspeed available. Even White looked freaked, and that had to be some kind of red-letter moment.

Thankfully, since we weren't changing solar systems, the trip was brief. There we were, safe and sound in the ballroom. "Everyone okay?" I asked as I checked Bruno and the Poofs, who were back to small.

Everyone proclaimed themselves to be in once piece, even Ravi, who was a little freaked seeing as he hadn't been sure if his head was going to explode or not. Senator Armstrong had his arm around Mona, who clearly was wondering why she'd gotten out of bed this morning, but otherwise, our folks looked a damned sight better than we would have if the Gower girls weren't amazing. And if Chuckie hadn't spent a lot of time training them.

The Poofs bounced up and down, mewled at me, and disappeared. Their work here was, apparently, done for the time being, and they were back on the hunt for other evil to thwart. At least, that was my take on it.

"Girls, that was, I must say, amazing. And timely. Did we get the entire room?"

"I think so," Stryker said, sounding shaky. "But we need to get everything hooked back up."

"Really? Because everything still looks . . . active." It did. The screens were still showing their images, the computers and such had stopped going haywire and appeared to be running, even the big servers.

"Hurry," Naomi said through gritted teeth. "It's harder to keep this going than it looks."

"Com on! Walter! Need some help here!"

"On it, Chief." No sooner said than a large number of A-Cs arrived and started plugging things in to what appeared to be portable generators. More came in with what looked like telecommunications apparatus.

"Not that I mind, but how did so many agents become available?"

"Sent over from Imageering Main," William shared. "They're always the last imageers pulled into Field situations."

"And because you didn't use the gate, Chief, they were able to come through without delay," Walter added. "Embassy shield is back at full power."

"Okey-dokey, good job, and keep the com line open."

"Will do, Chief."

Everyone did what they could to speed things up, but being A-Cs, they were done quickly even without the additional hands. Hacker International confirmed all their stuff was working. But Naomi and Abigail still looked taxed. "What hasn't been reconnected?"

"The gate," Abigail replied.

"Wow, you brought the gate, too?"

"It was in the room. We left the bathroom, though."

"Wise choice. So, um, what do we do about the gate?"

William zipped over to the server box containing the gate. "Hang on, I think I can fix it so that it'll function like a stable floater." A couple of other agents went to help him. "Okay, let go."

Naomi and Abigail relaxed, took deep breaths, and let them out slowly. "I don't want to have to do that again," Naomi said.

"Was it a big power drain?"

She shook her head. "Not as bad as it could have been. But controlling all the electrical and information and so on isn't easy."

Abigail nodded. "I just wasn't sure we'd be able to react in time."

"You girls did great, and now isn't the time to start doubting your abilities." We had had enough of that already. "Do you need to go into isolation or anything?"