BUCHANAN TOSSED ME THE TRACER, I inserted it into the phone's headphone slot, then hit answer. Buchanan, Siler, and Wruck all pulled out phones and began listening in-the Privacy Police on the job again. Wruck's phone was near to Drax's ear. Had no idea why Wruck felt it was time to share with our Visiting Vata, but I wasn't in a position to argue.

A very tiny part of me held out hope for this being AeroForceOne because it could happen if I really believed. "Hello?"

"Missus Martini?" Unfamiliar woman's voice, pleasant. The hope that it could be AeroForceOne stayed alive.

"Yes?" Probably sounded too eager. But you know, I didn't want anyone thinking I wasn't excited to win a private meet and greet with Steven Tyler and Joe Perry.

"Hello. We haven't met before. My name is Talia Lee. We have a mutual friend, Janelle Gardiner from Gaultier Enterprises." This was not AeroForceOne.

"Hope is dead."

"Excuse me?"

"Oops, was that my Out Loud Voice? Um, nice of you to call, I guess. I don't know that I'd call Janelle Gardiner a friend, but you do you and all that."

Per Vance, Lee did indeed call Gardiner her bestie. She was the head lobbyist for the firearms lobby, and therefore also the National Rifle Association's best friend forever. And this would be, if my intel was correct, the very first time she'd ever contacted anyone from American Centaurion, we who used guns a whole lot. My Dealer of Death Bingo Card was filling up.

"Ah . . ." She paused. I'd stunned her into silence, go me. "I'm calling because I have information that you might find interesting."

"I doubt it."

"Excuse me?"

"Damn. Out Loud Voice again? Ignore that. What information are we talking about?"

Noted the men's reactions. Siler was cracking up silently. Buchanan had a long-suffering look that I felt sure he'd learned from watching Jeff's and Chuckie's reactions to my doing things like this. Wruck appeared interested. And Drax looked horrified by, I presumed, my utter lack of decorum. Well, he'd learn that it wasn't just for him. Perhaps that was why Wruck was sharing his phone, to bring Drax along into the program sooner as opposed to later.

"Well, several things, really." She seemed flustered. Needed to control my Out Loud Voice. Possibly.

"And they would be?"

"You have an underage criminal you're protecting."

At this, Siler's amusement disappeared. Because the said supposed criminal was his adopted daughter, Lizzie. She, like Siler, was using Vrabel as her official name for any who were asking. And she wasn't a juvenile delinquent so much as a kid who'd stuck up for the underdogs and kicked the butts of many kids who were connected to Very Important People. People like Lee here, whose son, niece, and nephew were all in the ranks of Those Whom Lizzie Schooled.

"Oh, Talia, that's so last week ago. Besides, we have no idea who you're talking about."

"Elizabeth Jackson."

"Noted when your buddy Ansom Somerall called me before my husband had to take over the Presidency of the United States. In case you're not clear, we have no such juvenile with us and we're tired of you all trying to create stress when we already have more than enough."

"She's dangerous."

"So are dogs but, you know, if you train them right-"

"This is a serious issue!"

"Oh, blah, blah, blah. Seriously, if this is why you're calling, we're done." Had a feeling they were still on the Lizzie is a Bad Girl kick because Amy Gaultier-White had just given birth and therefore they considered her vulnerable. My gut was quite confident that the Gaultier Enterprises Board of Directors and their Dealers of Death buddies wanted to get rid of Amy and blame it on Lizzie. Therefore, and despite all that had gone on, the extra guards I'd put onto Amy were still there, and she was safe in the Embassy.

However, it paid to be sure. Grabbed a pen from Jeff's desk, wrote on a convenient notepad, and shoved it at Buchanan. Who nodded. Good. The security was still set to Extra Crispy at the Embassy.

"Well, that's not all."

"Oh goody. I'm breathless with antici- . . . pation."

"Ah, good."

She hadn't gotten my Rocky Horror Picture Show reference. My disdain knew no bounds. Clearly Lee and I were not destined to "get on." A heartbreaking shocker I'd somehow have to manage to recover from.

"Still waiting here." Wrote on the pad and shoved it at Siler. Who nodded and zipped off at hyperspeed. For all I knew, Lee was sending a drone or a bomb or the invisible helicarrier to bomb the hell out of us and just wanted to be sure of where I was.

Siler was back and indicated that the skies were clear and we were not under imminent attack.

"I'm sorry, I'm just having trouble understanding you."

"Get in line, Talia. My time-it's limited. As is my patience. Much to do when an insane home-grown terrorist goes to town and wipes out a great deal of the power structure of your country and all that. Cut to the chase or stop wasting my time. Is that clear enough?"

"Ah, yes. Well, the other information I have is that Thomas Kendrick is creating robots designed to take the place of a variety of high-level politicians and businesspeople. Including you."

Half a day ago, this would have been scary news. As things stood now, all this made me do was figure that by coming here Kendrick had cut his ties with the rest of the Land Sharks-what I called the now-heads of Gaultier Enterprises, Titan Security, and YatesCorp-even if he didn't know it.

"Gosh. That is interesting news. What proof do you happen to have?" There was silence on the other end of the phone. Hit my mute button. "You know, I just have to say that I am freaking sick and tired of being considered the stupidest link in the chain. I mean, it's helpful and all that, but come on."

Lee cleared her throat. "Proof?"

Took the phone off mute. "Yes, proof. In this country we love to have some before we convict anyone. And I, personally, like to have more to go on before I release the hounds and shock troops to arrest someone."

"Arrest?"

"You've just made an accusation of treason against the head of Titan Security. What, exactly, do you think I'm going to do with that information should it somehow prove to be correct?" Hit mute again. "She cannot be this stupid, can she?"

"No," Buchanan said. "Assume entrapment. Focus on the call. Rant later."

Nodded and once more took the phone off mute. And waited. For a good thirty seconds.

"Are you still there?" Lee asked. Wasn't sure if she was up on the Sales Tip of the Ages or just unsure if I'd hung up. Which I was tempted to do, but I took one for the team and stayed on the phone.

"I am, still here, waiting for you to share what proof you have that Thomas Kendrick is acting in a treasonous manner."

"We've seen the robots."

"And I've Seen The Saucers. But since I doubt we're about to go see Elton John together, let's have you share more actual information. Who is 'we' that is co-accusing?"

"What does Elton John have to do with this?"

"Possibly as much as Thomas Kendrick, since you're awfully short on details, facts, or anything resembling information. Start with who the 'we' is that makes up the 'you' that is so concerned for the safety of the world."

"Janelle, myself, Ansom, Amos Tobin, and several others I don't believe you've met yet." Tobin was the head of YatesCorp.

"Quinton Cross?"

"Oh. I'm sorry, you must not know. Quinton passed away. Due to the Alien Flu."

"It's not the Alien Flu. It's the disease Clifford Goodman created and released on an unsuspecting populace, which he called the Alien Flu. However, that disease was human-made. Let's be sure that you and the rest of 'we' keep that very, very straight."

"Ah, yes, yes, I'm sorry."

"And condolences on your loss." Losing Cross probably meant that the ick factor in the world had gone down, but that wasn't an appropriate thing for the First Lady to say, so I wasn't going to say it. To Lee. To Amy? Hells to the yeah, I'd be sharing this news with her as soon as possible.

"Thank you. That does sort of bring me to the last thing on my list. With Quinton gone, we need to shore up the Gaultier Enterprises Board. We'd really like Amy Gaultier to take her place with them now."

"It's Gaultier-White now. And why are you telling me this?"

"You're her oldest friend, she's married to your husband's cousin, and we can't reach her. If you'd pass along the message and let her know, we'd appreciate it."

"Talia, you know what's interesting to me about this request?"

"What?"

"That it's you making it, not, say, Janelle or Ansom or anyone else connected with Gaultier."

"Janelle and Ansom are still too broken up over losing Quinton to handle these kinds of calls," she said quickly. "I'm helping out."

"How good of you. Thanks for the heads up, I'll be sure to share the message as soon as I can."

"Wonderful. Thank you for your time, I hope we get to meet in person soon." She hung up before I could say goodbye.

Made sure the call was dead then handed my phone to Buchanan so he could retrieve his tracker. "Well, that was interesting."

"I personally liked how she avoided telling you who all those making up 'we' was for as long as possible," Wruck said.

"Guaranteed it's everyone she named and probably the rest of the Dealers of Death that aren't actually sitting in the White House with us." Whether the Kramers were part of "we" was something I figured we'd find out soon enough.

"I'm more interested in the robot," Buchanan said.

"I'm more interested that she called it a robot and not an android, personally. There's a distinction and I think it's important. And remember that Eugene Montgomery was fed the robots story to get him to help out the wrong side during Operation Sherlock."

"I honestly didn't realize that bringing Lizzie to the Embassy would have caused all of this," Siler said, sounding angry and worried.

"It didn't, it just gave them something else to barrage us with. Trust me, this would be going on with or without you two in the Embassy. But it's good to know that they're still going for the Juvenile Delinquent Gambit."

"So, does this mean that Kendrick's off the suspects list?" Buchanan asked carefully.

"Still fifty-fifty."

"He stole my helicarrier," Drax said huffily. "I don't believe that indicates you should trust him."

"Yeah, about that . . . Gustav, how'd you like to get onto my good side?"

CHAPTER 23.

WE EXPLAINED OUR suspicions about there being an android version of Kendrick about, and also shared that there actually was a Kitty-Bot as well as a couple of friendly, in-control androids.

Drax seemed amenable to seeing if he could determine if someone was or wasn't an android or robot. Buchanan made some calls and the androids were requested.

The Cameron Maurer android was living in D.C. with his mother, Nancy. They had four Field teams assigned to them on a 24/7 basis and Nancy checked in with us regularly. However, we didn't do a lot of study on Maurer, because, frankly, it was already hard enough on his mother, and we saw no reason to make things harder.

The Colonel John Butler android, on the other hand, was at the Dulce Science Center in New Mexico, since that was the main A-C Base of Operations for Centaurion Division. Butler had agreed to as much study and testing as we wanted to do, so him staying at Dulce made sense.

Both androids had been able to retain enough of their humanity that they were now more Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation than The Terminator. So far, they were the only ones we'd been able to capture and keep from self-destructing, but the hope was that we could hot-wire other androids and save them, too.

The decision was made that it was safer to do Android Identification Testing at Dulce than at the White House or the Embassy. But before Drax was allowed over there, Buchanan wanted Reader's approval, not to mention Jeff's, Chuckie's, Tim's, Serene's, Gower's, and my mother's. To say that Buchanan wasn't trusting was to say that ice was cold and water wet.

"But how can you be sure that the Thomas who took my helicarrier isn't the man who's sitting in another part of the white House right now?" Drax asked.

"That, Gustav, is the question of the hour. Tell me, truthfully, what did you think of Kendrick before the stolen helicarrier incident?"

"I liked him. He was enthused about and interested in everything I could bring to his company. It was exciting, my first big potential client. We were discussing a merger," he added rather wistfully.

"He mentioned that, too. So, did he act differently when he came to see you, when the helicarrier was stolen?"

Drax looked thoughtful. "You know . . . now that you put it that way, yes, he seemed a little off. Frankly, I thought it was because of all the drama that was going on here."

"Why did he come to see you during that drama? What reason did he give?"

"We'd had a meeting planned already. But when he arrived he said he didn't want to discuss the merger but instead wanted to get some of my invisible tech to test out . . ." Drax looked pissed. "And so he took my invisible helicarrier when I went to get him a small handheld tracker. That was a joke, wasn't it? Something I was supposed to laugh at?"

"Well, whoever took the helicarrier is laughing. Whether that's the real Thomas Kendrick or an android under someone else's control is the question. Did you ever meet Clifford Goodman, or did Kendrick ever mention him to you?"

"The lunatic who tried to kill everyone? No, no one other than Stephanie had ever mentioned him. She was afraid of him until-" Drax looked like he was sorry he'd said this.

"Until what? Or, should I ask, until you gave her what tech?"

"She has a personal protection suit. It increases her strength and natural abilities, and assists her with things that don't come naturally."

"That's why she was so hard to control," Buchanan growled.

"And why she can ride a motorcycle so well." Though Serene had already proved that A-Cs with enough will could find the way to manage human machinery. And suit or no suit, I was sure that Stephanie had had the will. "Why didn't you want to tell us about that, Gustav?"

"It's still experimental, and I don't want you to take it from her and reverse engineer it."