We were all quiet. I assumed the others were, like me, trying to figure out the answer to Drax's pertinent and obvious point.

Chuckie broke our silence. "I have a question. Why are you here? And I don't mean here in this room. I mean here on Earth?"

Drax looked embarrassed and mumbled something.

"Excuse me? None of us could hear that. Try again." Noted that Wruck was concentrating. "John, is everything okay?"

Wruck nodded. "I'm encouraging honesty."

"Thought you said they had no guile," Jeff said.

"Not much, as a race. However, they're good about dragging out the answers. I'm speeding up the process."

"How so?" I asked.

"By hurting me," Drax snapped. "But fine. I'm the youngest son of the Potentate, and since I have thirteen brothers and seven sisters older than me, there's literally nothing on Vatusus for me to do. I wanted to make my mark, to do something grand. Earth is beginning to gain quite a reputation-your dealings with the Z'porrah have impressed many." He shrugged. "So, I thought I'd come here, set up shop, and see what I could accomplish where no one knows me."

"Wait," Chuckie said. "Are you saying that you're part of the ruling family of your country?"

"Oh, no," Drax said nonchalantly. "Of my planet."

CHAPTER 21.

JEFF GROANED. "Only us. These kinds of things literally only happen to us. John, can you verify if what he's saying is true?"

Wruck shook his head. "I've been on Earth far too long, and Vatusan politics was never a great interest of mine. However, when I left, there was only one ruling family for all of Vatusus. And Vata in general and their royal family in particular believe in having as many offspring as possible."

"You're saying you can't tell?" I asked Jeff.

"I really wanted confirmation from someone else for this, the political system on Vatusus in particular, but yeah, baby, I can tell. He's telling the truth."

Drax looked frustrated. "Of course I am! I believe on Earth I would be called a prince. However, I eschew the title."

"You do?" Chuckie represented the shock in the room well.

"Yes. I'm the youngest of twenty-one children. Do you have any idea what my role on Vatusus would be?"

"Get married and have twenty kids?" Hey, it was worth a shot.

"Worse. All I did was attend parties."

"Wow, are the Kardashians from Vatusus, do you think?"

"What do you mean?" Drax asked.

"I mean I think I'm making a FLOTUS decree that all aliens working on my side need to watch some damn television. Anyway, Gustav, lots of people would think just partying all day long was the best."

"That was my job. Going to parties. Being charming. Being funny. But I couldn't say anything where anyone could take offense. I couldn't do anything. I couldn't entertain on my own because that would indicate favor, and I couldn't do that. Plus, I couldn't think. I design things-I know you think that I stole my designs to bring them here, but I didn't. I just wanted to be . . . important, in a real way. Somewhere that I'd fit in."

"Jeff, is he lying?"

Jeff heaved a sigh. "No. He's still not. I've been monitoring him and I can feel him as well as I can feel everyone else. He's telling the truth, and I don't sense that he's hiding anything, either."

Felt bad for Drax. Knew I shouldn't-he could still be an enemy somehow-but I couldn't help it. He wanted to be meaningful and didn't really have the training to do so. He was fumbling around like a really enthusiastic puppy, but puppies weren't evil. They needed training to be good dogs, but treats and love worked better than beatings and cages for that.

"Put him back in stasis," Jeff said to Wruck, who nodded. Drax went back to the Dead But Alive look.

"Why did you do that?" I asked. "If he's telling the truth, then he's not a bad guy. An idiot, to be sure, at least in terms of how to impress, but not bad."

"It's dej vu all over again," Jeff said.

"What is?" Chuckie was again speaking for the room.

"Kitty's ready to adopt him," Jeff said. "And don't tell me you can't tell, Chuck. I don't think we need this. We have too much on our plate right now to focus on befriending this guy."

"Actually, we do need him," Buchanan said. "At least if we want to stay ahead of our ever-growing list of enemies."

Wruck nodded. "Vatusus is far ahead of Earth and Alpha Four."

"And that," Chuckie said, "means that even if Drax is the worst weapons creator on his planet, he's likely still better than anyone here."

"Kendrick indicated such, too."

Jeff grunted. "You're close to bringing Kendrick in out of the cold, too, baby, I can tell."

"You said he was telling the truth, too, Jeff."

"This is her skill," Siler said, rather gently, presumably before Jeff and I could get into some sort of domestic dispute that, to me, made no sense. "I said it before you questioned Drax. This is what we want. You want another alien on your side. Let me mention that while Drax may be the twenty-first child, he's still royalty, and that means his parents probably care about what happens to him."

"They might care even if he's not royalty, but yeah. Vatusus in general might care, too. Jeff, why are you so against him?"

Jeff heaved a sigh and ran his hand through his hair. "Honestly? I'm not. I'm just kind of tired."

"Of adding in allies?" Wruck asked carefully.

Jeff shook his head. "No. I'm thankful everyone in this room is here, even Drax, if I'm honest. I'm just tired. Literally. And that's making me want to, I don't know, hunker down and not add in anything or anyone else new into the mix."

"That's normal," Chuckie said quietly. "You're allowed to be stressed."

"Not really. Especially not after the last week or so that we've had. But I can already tell why Presidents go gray so fast."

"You'll just look distinguished." And probably even hotter than he did now, if such could be believed.

Jeff laughed. "Thanks, baby, I needed that. So, what do we do with our newest royal exile?"

"I think we find out if he can tell if a person is an android or not."

The men all looked at me. "How would we test him?" Chuckie asked.

"We have two androids and the Kitty-Bot. Dress the Kitty-Bot in what I'd wear, have him see if she's real or not. Same with the Cameron Maurer and John Butler androids."

"If the Kitty-Bot's in any condition to be seen," Chuckie said. "You kind of went to town on her."

"I resent her very existence, so sue me." And, reality said that I hadn't damaged the Kitty-Bot all that much. That Chuckie had probably been a lot more focused on the Double Kitty Chick Fight in general as opposed to specific wasn't all that surprising. Decided that pointing this out would only be likely to make Jeff jealous and/or give Chuckie a mood swing and migraine combo, which we really didn't need.

"He should be able to tell," Wruck said, presumably to stop our potential bantering or bickering. There was a lot of that going on in the room. Chose not to be bitter. Yet. "Though Vata are not used to ever trying to connect to others' minds. They connect to others' electronics and computer systems and similar, but not the people themselves. So he may not actually know how to tell."

"Surely we aren't the only planet that has androids or robots on it," Chuckie said.

"No, however, if they're considered sentient beings, then the Vata would not try to connect with them without their permission."

"No time like the present to find out if Drax has the skills or not."

Jeff's phone beeped. He groaned. "Actually, it's past time for me. Raj just let me know that I've been absent too long and I need to get back and keep the country running."

"Do I have to go back, too?"

"No. Raj says that Vance is handling whatever you should be. Am I right in that you hired him?"

"Yes, he's my Chief of Staff. Thank me for that later, because I can guarantee that Vance is going to FLOTUS better with five minutes on the job than I'll ever be able to. We can discuss all the fun changes later because yes, I have to hire more staff, too. Get back to Presidenting and I'll handle things here."

"I'll ride herd on her," Buchanan said. "You want Reynolds with you or here?"

"Both places?" Jeff didn't sound like he was joking.

"One Chuckie-Bot coming up."

"Not funny," Chuckie and Jeff said in unison.

"Too much caffeine, guys?"

"We're ignoring you, Kitty. Though we all know that's dangerous." Chuckie sighed. "You have three extremely competent men here, two of whom I trust to kill someone first and determine if they were really an enemy later. I'll go with Jeff."

"Works for me." Hugged Chuckie, who seemed to need it, gave Jeff a longer hug and a quick kiss, then he grabbed Chuckie and they zipped off to do important things. Turned back to the others. "Let's wake Drax up again."

Siler put up his hand. "Before we do that, I want to hear your plan."

"Beg pardon?" Tried to look politely confused.

Siler snorted a laugh. "You have a plan, I know it. It's probably a crazy plan, but even if it's somehow sane, I want to know what it is."

"Seriously, I want to do exactly what I said-I want to see if Drax can tell if someone's an android or not."

"I'd like to know if it was really Thomas Kendrick who stole his helicarrier first," Buchanan said. "Since that's a high priority and we have personnel missing."

"I know. But the Kitty-Bot appeared on the White House lawn. Sure, it could be an elaborate ruse to make us think that Kendrick's not involved, but that's overly complex even for our enemies. Barring Kendrick wanting to show her off and show his control over her, I doubt it, especially since she came to us from Camp David."

Siler and Buchanan both looked like migraines were on the horizon. "Let's deal with what's in front of us first," Siler suggested.

"Fine," Buchanan said. "That means Missus Chief here. What did you find when you left the White House grounds? Oh, and before you try to lie about it, I know because your husband was aware of where you were and he advised me. Something about my security measures needing improvement."

"Sorry to get you in trouble, Doctor Strange." Did a fast recap of what we'd found in Villanova's bizarre faked crime scene. "I have no idea where Evan went, since we didn't follow him and I came right back here instead."

"If you somehow think that gives you a pass, Missus Chief, you're sadly mistaken." Buchanan looked pissed, but I didn't think it was with me.

"Malcolm, what's upsetting you?"

"We should have kept eyes on him. And I forgot."

"Gosh, it couldn't be because we were literally facing the end of the world as we knew it, was it? We all forget, even you. But he's back on our radar and working with someone-presumably Villanova-on a plan. Whether it's the plan that Strauss had going already or a different plan, though, I can't be sure. But my money's on them following the old plan and just trying to adapt."

"Is whatever those people are doing related to the missing helicarrier situation?" Wruck asked. "Because if not, we need to prioritize."

"And we need to let Drax out of stasis. Just to be nice."

"You're sure he's not lying?" Siler asked Wruck.

"The Vata have little guile, as I said. Their ability to connect to electronics means that they can connect to each other that way as well, albeit via the electronics. Their planet is very . . . wired, for want of a better description."

"As if their planet really is a worldwide web?"

Wruck smiled at me. "Essentially, yes. Meaning that the Vata are used to plugging in and interacting this way as easily as interacting in person. It's hard to hide when you're all linked together, so they don't. There are always rogues who are willing and able to buck the norms, but in Drax's case, the norm he's bucking doesn't seem to be truth-telling."

"Jeff confirmed it, and, honestly, he's tried to lie, and he's as bad at it as most of the A-Cs are. We have a handful who lie well, you're one of them, Nightcrawler, but overall, most A-Cs can't lie convincingly to an infant, let alone anyone else, and Drax seems firmly on that side of the alien house."

"Then I'm with Kitty," Siler said. "Let him out."

Buchanan nodded and Wruck let go. Drax blinked and returned to the Land of the Living. "I really hate it when you do that," he grumbled. "What did I miss? And where did the President and your friend go?"

Before I could answer, my phone rang. Checked before I answered. "Malcolm, get your blinky phone thing out again. It's a blocked number, and since Gustav's in the room with us and Stephanie is locked up nice and tight, it's likely a new player in our continuing Game of Lunatic Throne Lovers Anonymous."

CHAPTER 22.