"I want so very many things. We'll start with what's going on with these women-are they hurt, unconscious, or being kept asleep?"

"They were hurt," the Spokesdude said. "They're being repaired."

"I need Camilla," I told Christopher. He nodded and zipped off.

Camilla arrived a couple of seconds later. "What do you need?" She looked at the men on the floor. "They're all NSA."

"Yeah, I figured. You're the only one of us trained in medicine. Need you to check out the gals. I've been told they were hurt and are being 'repaired.'"

She nodded and went to the beds, though it was clear she was examining the machines that were still moving slowly over Evalyne and Phoebe.

"These aren't doing 'repairs,'" she said finally. "They're copying both women's physical structures."

"What a pity for you," I said to the Spokesdude.

"Wait, wait!" he shouted as Harlie lowered its face toward his. "They're being fixed at the same time. It does both."

Looked at Camilla. Who shrugged. "It's possible."

"Fine. Next question. Where are all the people who work in this facility?"

"Day shift goes home at seven," one of the other dudes said quickly. "The night shift comes on at nine. They'll find you then," he added, presumably because he liked living on the edge.

"Oh, they'll find someone, I'll grant you that. And it's always nice to be right. So, next question. What's really going on here? And by 'here' I mean this entire black site."

All the dudes were quiet. "Many things," the Spokesdude said finally, presumably because Harlie growled at him.

"Vague replies will not be tolerated. But we'll try a different question. Is this a secret factory making female robots that are to be used to infiltrate an enemy's defenses and then explode?"

The six guys all stared at me, a couple openmouthed, which was a mistake, since the Poofs sitting on their chests drooled right into their open yaps. Those guys gagged and choked, but the Spokesdude nodded. "Yes, that's exactly what it is. Underground. Aboveground we do research and development on a variety of security measures."

"Is this site the one from which you spy on everyone?"

"No."

"Fair enough." And not my current problem. "Where are the completed Fem-Bots?"

"We don't know. Our jobs are need-to-know, and where the completed robots are sent isn't part of what we need to know."

Had my doubts, but the Poofs were really giving it their all with the threatening and no one else shared anything more or different.

"Why did no one come over to check out all the people running around all over Forest Haven next door?"

"Freaks, losers, teenagers and 'ghost hunters' are there all the time," the Spokesdude said, clearly happy to be talking about something other than what they were doing at this site. "We ignore them unless they try to come onto our property."

"Interesting. What happens to those few who do? Do they get the same treatment my people have gotten?"

"They get told to leave because they're trespassing, here and at Forest Haven, and we'll call the cops. Only your people demanded entry after that."

Had more doubts about this, but since we hadn't found any stray teens or homeless people trapped here, this could possibly be the truth.

"What other ways out of this room are there other than the way we came in?" They were silent again, which was an interesting time to be so. "Dudes, trust me, I've been seriously pissed off at men I love for quite a while now. I have no qualms taking out my frustrations with them on all of you, and I'm sure they'd appreciate it if I did so. Answer my question or I let the Poofs eat you."

Murphy opened its maw and leaned toward the head of the guy it was sitting on. "Oh, God, there's a secret exit over there!" He pointed toward the far side of the room from where we'd come in.

"Are there security measures on this pathway?"

"Nothing deadly," Murphy's Potential Dinner said. "It's secret, only high-level people know where it is. We know because we work high security here. The path lets out in the forest behind us and Forest Haven. There are other paths out from other parts of the facility. They all lead into the forest."

"Nice of you to offer information without my having to drag it out of you. Who normally uses that path?" Silence again. "Seriously? Do I say it's Chow Time now?"

"No," the Spokesdude said. "We're just afraid to tell you the truth."

"Be more afraid of lying."

"We don't know. There is no normal here."

That I really couldn't argue with. "Okay, I'll let that one slide. Who used that path last?"

They were quiet again, but Murphy's Potential Dinner finally broke because Murphy drooled right onto him. "Gah! Our bosses. There's another tunnel that branches from the exit in the forest and goes to our main offices."

"I'm supposed to believe that whoever's in charge hoofs it all the way from there to here and back again?" A-Cs would do it, but to an A-C, a few miles was the same as a few steps for a human. Well, as long as said A-C was in shape and all that. "Pull the other one, it has bells on."

"No," the Spokesdude said. "They use Segways."

"Including on the stairs?"

"No, the path is a gradual slope."

"Hang on," Christopher said. He left before I could tell him not to.

"If there's something that you didn't tell us about, and he gets hurt, I'm going to have the Poofs eat you all slowly."

"It's nice to know you care," Christopher said as he returned. "Amazingly enough, they're not lying. There's a network of tunnels down there, all paved, gradual slopes to the surface. I followed the one they said. It took me right to NSA headquarters and there were several Segways there."

"They use them all the time," the Spokesdude said. "The main day-to-day people come here several times during each shift. The bigwigs come by when they feel like it."

"Were any of said bigwigs here today?"

"Yes," the Spokesdude admitted after Harlie growled a deep, hungry growl. "They left after these two were injured."

Was about to ask if said bigwigs had left with anyone like, say, a Fem-Bot or two, but my phone rang. The shock of hearing it almost made me jump, but I controlled the reflex. Dug my phone out and answered on the third ring. "Hey, Mom, where are you?"

"NSA headquarters."

"That was fast. In force?"

"Yes, I prefer to raid with a large number of people."

"Me too!"

"Good to know. I have P.T.C.U., Centaurion, and Air Force personnel with me including Colonel Franklin. Your Uncle Mort is heading to your location with Kevin, some Field agents, and a lot of marines. And yes, we used the Field agents to get us all here quickly, but no, the men you're angry with are still at the White House awaiting your triumphant return."

"Is the sarcasm really necessary, Mom?"

"Yes, kitten, it is. It's part of my process."

"I love you. Christopher will meet Kevin and Uncle Mort at the glass doors going down to the level we're at. I think we have the only keys." He nodded to me, gathered the keycards from the folks on the team who were holding onto them, and took off.

"You might, but I'm sure we'll find plenty of keys. Kitten, once your Uncle Mort is on-site, cede authority to him immediately."

"Gotcha. Mom . . . Evalyne and Phoebe were hurt." Described what had happened and the contraptions they were in and mentioned the Poofs' prisoners. Also mentioned that we had three dead P.T.C.U. agents who'd been with Falk. "So, what do we do?"

Mom was quiet for a few long moments. "Leave their bodies with the women. We have a medivac on the way anyway. We'll take them all at once."

"We're like three floors underground and a long walk away from the entry point for the Underground Labs of Evil."

"James authorized all the help we need, Kitty, I promise."

"So, what do we do once Uncle Mort takes over?"

"I can't speak for the others, but you need to go back to the White House."

"Don't wanna. Want to stay in the Sovereign and Flying Nation of Kitty Land."

"I'm sure you do, but you're the First Lady and, once the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff arrives, you need to go back to being the First Lady."

"Why do I think that I'm going to look back fondly on being kidnapped?"

Mom laughed. "Because you know how your life works."

CHAPTER 83.

KEVIN AND UNCLE MORT were on-site quickly, which wasn't a surprise. Christopher had met them upstairs with the keycards and they'd stationed people at every door so that no one needed to worry about being stuck.

Didn't want to leave Evalyne and Phoebe, but Kevin insisted on it while Uncle Mort had his marines take the six security guys into custody while I forced the Poofs to go back to small and adorable. Which they did. Then they went back into my purse, grumbling about the unfairness of them not being able to eat the bad men. I felt their pain.

Refused to go until the medivac team-which turned out to be a lot of Dazzlers with one human pilot whose expression said he'd scored the best duty of his entire career-had come down and claimed them.

Then we gave Kevin the boxes of incriminating information we'd found and did the reverse tour so we could point out where our people had been held and killed.

Devon and his team wanted to stay on-site. Some were deemed by the Dazzlers to be in need of medical care, so they were also put into the medivac helicopter, which was military and therefore big and able to take everyone. Devon and about half of those with him were able to remain, however.

Falk and Manfred both insisted on riding with the bodies and the women, and no one argued with them about that, least of all me, in part because they both needed medical care, too, and in other part because that way the dead and Evalyne and Phoebe would be protected.

Gardiner was another point of contention. The Dazzlers wanted her to go back to Dulce for medical treatment. Uncle Mort wanted to arrest her on general principles. I wanted to keep her with us. Called Mom, who sided with me, though recommended we keep a guard around her, which appeased Uncle Mort. Promised the Dazzlers we'd have White House medical look at Gardiner, and since they knew that meant Tito, Melanie, and Emily, they were appeased as well.

The rest of us, including the two Field teams who I wanted with us anyway, in part so they could keep Gardiner under guard, were ready to go home. Insisted on going in the helicarrier, mostly because I didn't want to lose it again. And I was stalling. I was still angry, but Joe and Randy had made good points, and now that everyone other than Siler and Wruck were accounted for, I knew I had to actually find out why Jeff and the others had caved so fast and easily.

Of course, Siler and Wruck were missing, and that meant I had to share that with Lizzie. I was not looking forward to that conversation, which I'd be having in about ten minutes or less.

"Do you think they're okay?" I asked Buchanan, who was definitely not deemed able to stay on-site but who had also insisted on staying with me.

"I think that it's going to take a lot to kill either one of them, let alone both of them together. My guess, based on working with Siler off and on for several years now, is that once he knew this site was compromised, he looked for alternate ways in."

"You think they found the secret paths?"

"Probably. Or they spotted someone coming out in the forest. I'll figure out how to reach them."

"That won't reassure Lizzie."

"Lie to her."

Stared at him. "Excuse me?"

He sighed. "Lie to her. Tell her that they're off doing exactly what I just said."

"What if that's not true?"

"They aren't captured because if they were, they'd have been brought back into the black site, guaranteed. Your mother's taken over the NSA and, trust me, the CIA is right behind her, she just didn't tell you because you're still mad at Reynolds. So if they're there, she'll find them. If they're not there, then they're both doing what they've done successfully for decades."

Heaved my own sigh. "Fine. I don't like lying to her, though."

"Channel your parents. Tell her what she needs to know to get her through." Buchanan grinned. "The ability does run in your family, you know."

"Hilarious. True, though."

We got onto the helicarrier from the roof. Made a stop at the armory and, with a great deal of regret, put our weapons and body armor back. I hadn't wanted to, but White and Buchanan both insisted on it.

Once we were back to looking like civilians, others headed off. But White held me back and let the others head back to the command center ahead of us. "I felt it again. When we were in the lab under the black site."

"What, the dej vu?"

"Yes."

"Why is it bothering you so much?"

"I don't know, honestly. I just feel that it's vitally important that I remember why all of these areas seem so familiar. Vital to our safety important."

"I've got nothing, especially if this is an Alpha Four memory. Did your people use labs like these?"