We all jerked. "That's why they took the helicarrier. It's not just for the hostages, not that anyone has given us a ransom demand. They have fighter jets and an invisible helicarrier carrying God alone knows what tech. It's why they haven't attacked us with it, yet, too. They're still too busy learning from it."

"Which again points to Titan," Drax said.

"It does, that's true."

"Do you think whoever took my tech and your people, be it Thomas or someone else, is creating androids of the hostages?" Drax asked.

The rest of us stared at each other. The looks of horror on the men's faces probably matched my own. "Gustav," I said finally, "we hadn't considered that horrible option until you just mentioned it, but it just moved to the top of the list of what I think our enemies are doing."

"Do you mean 'our enemies' as in yours, or as in yours and mine?" Drax sounded rather hopeful.

Heaved a sigh. "Yours and ours. Clearly whoever took your tech isn't doing it to give it special upgrades and return it to you." Only the A-Cs did things like that. And while we did have traitors in the A-C midst-Stephanie currently being Example A-it wasn't likely that an A-C had engineered this particular heist. Possible, but improbable.

"So how do we tell if Kendrick is for us or against us?" Siler asked. "I mean, I have ways, but they're unpleasant."

"To put it mildly, I'm sure. But if he's essentially being framed, that wouldn't be a wise course of action." Looked at Buchanan. "You haven't heard from our mutual friend?"

"Not since the last time I told you about." When Camilla had sent a weird message-Staying longer on Spring Break, getting lots of souvenirs. Which had told all of us, Buchanan and Chuckie included, nothing.

But thinking about Camilla reminded me of something. She'd been in deep with Drax before I'd pulled her out to supposedly help save the day at the end of Operation Epidemic. "Ah, Gustav, did anyone other than Stephanie answer your ad on the dark web?"

"Yes," he said with more than a little defensiveness. "A very competent woman. She has a very different role than Stephanie does."

"You mean you don't have two chicks shooting arrows at your prospective clients? I almost want to ask why not."

"Because Stephanie was functioning as my bodyguard in addition to assisting in creating a demand for our products."

"Wow, I guess they have marketing on Vatusus. Because that was a truly impressive spin for what Stephanie was actually doing. So, what's this other woman's name?"

"Marguerite Gautier. Her family is French, though she's an American."

Managed not to react, but this was necessary only because my father liked old movies and I'd watched many with him growing up. Marguerite Gautier was the name of Greta Garbo's character in Camille, which was basically Camilla's name. And it was close enough to Gaultier that it was likely she was getting double duty or more from the alias.

"Where is Marguerite now?"

"She had a family emergency-I believe her mother had contracted the disease. Of course I let her leave to go home and care for her parents."

"Of course. Why would I think that a guy who has his bodyguard shooting crossbow arrows at half of D.C. wouldn't be a kind and caring employer who puts the needs of his employees first?"

"Yes, I do. It's a Vata strength, something we pride ourselves in on Vatusus."

"I see they lack sarcasm on Vatusus, though. But, whatever. So, Marguerite left and you haven't seen her since?"

"No. She told me she'd advise me when it was safe for her to return to work. After all, the disease was quite contagious. It was very valiant of her to go home and risk exposure, but she's a loving person, and brave as well."

Brave I could agree with. Loving I had yet to see from Camilla, but I was sure she was capable of the emotion. Clearly Drax had been completely fooled by her, though without Jeff, Jeremy, or another empath, we didn't have confirmation that he was telling the truth.

"And you're here now, so if she's trying to call, the phone's just ringing."

"My phone was confiscated."

"Figure of speech. Okay, so what did Marguerite do for you?" Might as well find out what Camilla was doing there. After all, no one in the know was willing to tell me, so getting the information out of Drax, in front of Buchanan, was kind of Ironic Justice. Which I still felt should be the title of a monthly comic.

"She was in charge of expansion. She was brokering the deal between Drax Industrial and Titan Security."

Of course she was. But whether this meant that she was finding out just how bad it was before the CIA, NSA, FBI, and all of Centaurion Division did a raid, or whether she thought Kendrick and Drax were both on the up and up and wanted us to reap the benefits of their merger I didn't know. And I also knew that I had no way of knowing without being able to ask Camilla straight out. Which was currently not possible.

"So, what about your other employees?"

"I don't have any others."

"We only found him and Stephanie," Siler confirmed.

"Do you have hyperspeed?" Why not? Everyone else from other solar systems seemed to.

"No, not as your people do. But my machines build themselves."

"Want to explain that more clearly? Are you saying that you've got robots in your factory?"

"Not as such, not like you're talking about. But Vata can mentally connect to electronics and such. It's not that difficult to merely show the machine what it is I want it do to or create."

"Every day. I learn something new every, single day. At least this is new information I could not possibly have known before, so there's that. So, seriously, no other staff? No henchmen hanging about to do the dirty work or just the heavy lifting?"

"No, I have machines for that."

"I see the future, and it's all Terminator."

"Nothing attacked us," Buchanan said, eyeing Drax suspiciously.

"Because you didn't find me at my factory. You found me at my home."

"It was a lair," Siler said. "Trust me. Total lair."

"Nightcrawler, you complete me. Sharks and such?"

"No, but they're probably on order."

"So, who helped you design your home, Gustav?"

"Stephanie," he admitted. "I liked her design suggestions."

"I'll bet they were quite grandiose." Siler nodded emphatically but I kept the Inner Hyena at bay. Just. "So, I didn't ask before-where is the Supervillain Lair and where is the actual factory?"

"The Supervillain Lair is in the Ivy City neighborhood," Buchanan shared. "It's a converted warehouse."

"Right in the middle of D.C.? Seriously? And no one's noticed?"

"Yep," Siler said.

"I keep a low profile," Drax said with a sniff.

Siler grinned. "True, at least on the outside. Though the warehouse the agents went to first was in the middle of Turkistan. Be happy we have gates."

"Always am. So, Gustav, where's the factory?"

Drax made sure to look at Siler and Buchanan when he answered. "Across the street."

CHAPTER 24.

DRAX HAD A RATHER SMUG EXPRESSION, which contrasted nicely with the shocked and embarrassed looks from Buchanan and Siler.

The Inner Hyena got a snort out of me, but I managed to keep the rest inside. "So, I assume everyone was far too busy with Stephanie to check out the surrounding buildings?"

"Nice spin," Buchanan said as he texted.

"I'll take it," Siler added.

"Sending agents to the area now." Buchanan looked up. "What might they be facing?"

"Not much, since they won't be able to get into the factory without me," Drax said. "The building won't let them in."

Let that sit on the air for a moment. "Ah, Gustav? Are we to assume that you mean the building has some form of sentience?"

"Not as any of us do. But it's computerized and automated, and I told it not to allow anyone in if they're not with me. That includes Stephanie and Marguerite."

"You know, Alpha Four had some weird smart metal, it's what their Unity Necklaces are made out of. Think it's the same?"

"Similar," Wruck answered. "Different worlds have different properties."

"So, like, there are worlds with sentient dirt and water and such?"

"Yes. Most are more like the metals in the Unity Necklaces and those from Vatusus. Very few elements can actually reason and communicate, though there are some planets that have such, of course."

"Oh, of course. And, oh my God, we are so not ready for the Greater Galactic Community. Plus, the learning is starting to get to that point where I feel like I'm back in college. College was great, but I'm really not ready to go back for my Masters in Alien Planetary Geology."

"You'll be fine," Wruck said loyally. "As a species humans are amazingly adaptable, and you personally, Kitty, are a prime example."

"John's my favorite. But back to the fun of Gustav's thinking metal, because I'd rather deal with the problem at hand than the myriad problems just waiting for us out there in the great unknown."

"I've had the agents hold," Buchanan said. "In case the building decides to be nasty."

"It won't," Drax said. "I don't have it programmed to be violent. Well, not as long as they don't actually get in."

"Fantastic. Malcolm, please keep those teams on hold. The ramifications of all of this are just awesome, aren't they? No wonder Titan wanted to do a merger. Which, I have to add, makes it more unlikely that Kendrick is the one who stole the helicarrier. Why steal one thing when there's so much more you can get just by playing nicely with others?"

"I have to agree," Buchanan said. "Did Kendrick know that you were the creator?" he asked Drax.

"Of course. And he was also aware that I had . . . safeguards . . . so that no one else could access my building. Though he wasn't aware of what they were. I didn't share that I was from another planet."

"Wise, under the circumstances. Did he suspect, do you think?" If he had, Kendrick hadn't mentioned it to me.

"No, he believed I was from Eastern Europe and didn't try to determine my country of origin."

"Why weren't those safeguards on the helicarrier?" Wruck asked. "It seems . . . foolish to have left them off of what had to be your most expensive piece of equipment."

Drax heaved a sigh. "I had to allow the helicarrier to function with human personnel. My temporary help were going to have to think on their feet, so to speak, so I turned off the sentience, as you'd put it."

"Can you turn it on from a distance?" Hey, it didn't hurt to ask.

"No. I've tried, believe me."

A thought occurred. "How in the world did you get all the equipment to build a helicarrier and anything else you have? And how did you get to this planet in the first place?"

Drax stared at me. "I brought it all with me," he said finally. "I thought that was obvious."

Time for the rest of us to stare back. "How?" Buchanan asked finally. "And when?"

"In my ship." Drax said this as if it, too, was obvious. "And about two years ago."

So probably during Operation Defection Election, meaning we were all focused on Sandy and the Superconsciousness Seven and, perhaps, not paying attention to anyone else arriving. However, that didn't seem likely-we were all about monitoring for suspicious activity. And by "we" I meant every world government all the time. Sandy and Friends would have had the governments on higher alert, too.

"What ship? I'm asking because no one, anywhere, has mentioned that a spaceship arrived from parts unknown and landed here. We're picky about things like that here on Earth. We tend to notice. And complain."

Drax shrugged. "We have good cloaking. I came when there were other beings here, I do know that. They left me alone, however."

"Superconsciousness someones?"

"Yes, I think so, at any rate. They were rather . . . insubstantial. We've heard of them, of course, but haven't seen them. They don't come to the Galactic Core, for whatever reasons."

"Count your blessings. Okay, so where is your ship hidden? And if you say it's in the middle of D.C. I'm literally going to take some Advil and go lie down for the rest of the day."

Drax chuckled nervously. "No, of course not. Well, not the middle. I don't think."

Buchanan and I exchanged a look. "I'm sure I'm going to hate this, Missus Chief."

"Me, too. So, Gustav, where is your cloaked spaceship hanging out?"

"There's a large hospital complex that's undergoing major renovation that has a parking structure that's not being used and hasn't been torn down yet. My ship is on top of that."

"So . . . your spaceship is parked at the old Walter Reed hospital complex? And no one's noticed? I shudder to think how the press is going to play this when that ship is found." Because I was certain that it would be found. At the worst possible moment for Jeff's presidency. Because that was how our luck rolled.