"No," Christopher said to Ravi. "He's not moving. Looks dead, honestly. Really? You're positive? Okay." He looked at Chuckie. "We don't do anything now. He's in stasis, Ravi says you've hit the suspension mechanism. He's still active, but nothing can happen as long as your pen remains connected to whatever the hell it is you hit."

Jeff got on his phone. "We need an emergency containment team here now. Yeah, an active android that's just managed not to self-destruct. Yes. Sooner than that. I'm here because my wife is here, why shouldn't I be here?" Heard someone yelling. Said someone sounded like Reader. "You weren't nearby when she called Chuck, Christopher and I were. Yes. No, we didn't take a gate." He sighed. "Yes, he can, he really can. Could we discuss this later? Great, thanks." He hung up.

A dozen Field agents showed up, in what looked like riot gear. They were accompanied by six Dazzlers, also in riot gear, and a gurney.

"Don't let that pen move out of his ear or everyone goes boom."

"Yes, Ambassador," one of the Dazzlers said. "We know."

"Him going boom is not what we want. Especially not if all of you are around him, but even if you're not."

"We'll do our best."

"You need to leave, please," one of the Field agents said. "Commander Reader's orders."

"Happy to," Jeff replied as he took my hand. I grabbed Chuckie, Christopher took Jeff's other hand, and we zipped outside.

Found White and Serene with Chernobog, Tito, and the rest of Team Oliver in the middle of Groom Lake. It was time for a flashback. Really hoped quicksand, javelinas, and combine tractors wouldn't be in our near future.

The Dingo and Surly Vic were nowhere to be seen. Decided I'd ask White where they went later. Like when Jeff, Christopher, and Chuckie weren't around later.

"Are you crazy?" Jeff asked all of us, me in particular. "Is that your problem?"

"Grouchy much? We're all alive and well." And I was still enraged, meaning I could have gotten away because when I was this angry, all the skills flowed like I was Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Chuck Norris combined.

"Miraculously," Christopher said.

"How did you know?" Chuckie asked. "About Butler, I mean. Stryker told us how you figured out where Chernobog was."

"He wasn't acting right, for a military man in that position. He was stalling. At first I thought he was working with Chernobog, but he seemed sincere, which was when the thought that he could be an android hit me and I asked Tito to come over. Then I asked where he'd been stationed last. The moment he told me he was in Europe, the likelihood of him being an android seemed much more, um, likely."

"I feel chagrined that I didn't realize that," Oliver said.

"You were busy negotiating to bring in our Public Enemy Number Five. I get why you all missed it, really."

Chernobog sniffed. "I should be higher than that."

"It took hours for her to admit to being Chernobog," Adriana said, ignoring her. "Half the team shadowed her while the other half searched Home Base for proof. We had nothing to report for quite a while, but we didn't want to be called off, either."

"Hence why you broke protocol and didn't check in," Jeff said in a resigned tone.

"When did you make real contact?" Chuckie asked.

"Early this morning," Oliver replied. "The Home Base team was waiting in her office, and the Shadow team came in with her." He chuckled. "And then the verbal gymnastics began. She's quite good."

"She's been hiding in plain sight for decades."

"Thank you, and I'm right here."

"And once he was there, Colonel Butler wouldn't allow us to call anyone in," Walter said, also ignoring Chernobog. "Ostensibly because it could cause her to shut down and not give us anything."

"See? And you're at the correct slot at five," I said to Chernobog. "So stop whining."

"Public Enemy Number Five?" Jeff asked. "Who are the first four?"

"The Mastermind, his Apprentice, the new and not improved Leventhal Reid and LaRue Demorte Gaultier. Unless you have other people who should be up before Chernobog."

"No, no, that's the right list. I just hadn't thought of them like that." Jeff ran his hand through his hair. "I may never sleep again, now that we've listed them out and given them numbers."

"Oh, poor baby. I think a non-exploded android is one for the win column, though."

"I don't know how he fought the programming," Chuckie said. "Or if we'll be able to save him or not."

"I know. But I hope we can. He just seemed so . . . scared and horrified. He didn't ask for this, I can guarantee that."

"Whether Cameron Maurer did will be the question." Chuckie looked at Chernobog. "Nice to meet you. I'm the head of the C.I.A.'s Extra-Terrestrial Division. As such, that gives me unlimited approval to do whatever the hell I want to get back what you took from Centaurion and other government divisions."

"I'll talk to her," Chernobog pointed to me. "Not you."

Chuckie smiled the nasty, wolfish smile I knew he'd learned at the C.I.A. "Oh, that's nice. I'll be with her when you're talking to her. And, in case you weren't sure, I'm not the nice one."

"Neither am I, honestly. Look, Chernobog, we have requests. You'll either meet every request, or I'll let the C.I.A. do whatever to you and then tell the assassins where you are, so they get to finish the job."

She shrugged. "As you said, I'm an old woman. I've seen more than all of you put together. Your threats don't scare me."

"Yeah? Let me give you a threat I'm fairly sure will. If you ever want to see your son alive again, you'll cooperate."

Her eyes narrowed. "I have no son."

"Oh my God, we know you do, okay? And we have him. And you know it. Maybe you think that a changing of the political guard will mean he's freed. But I'll just tell the assassins where he is, and then let them in."

She looked a little less sure of herself. "You will not."

"Babe, we lost people we loved because of what you did. Loved. Close family members. Take a look, a good look, at the expressions on the faces of the people with me, and then ask yourself if you really think that at least one of us, let alone all of us, won't say it's more than okay to let your loser son die?"

Chernobog sniffed. "It's easy to threaten. Your government has laws."

"And I have Poofs."

On cue, Harlie, Poofikins, and Mous-Mous came out of my purse, and Fluffy and Naomi's Poof, Cutie-Pie, jumped out of Chuckie's pocket. All five went large and instantly in charge. They all roared at her. Chernobog gasped and stepped back.

"Oh, did I forget to mention? You helped kill a Poof. One of their brethren. You helped kill two of the people they belonged to, too. They're as pissed about everyone we lost as we are. Guess what? Poofs are carnivores. See those teeth? They will chew you up and not even spit you out. And they can get in where your loser son is and eat him up, too. Alive, I might add."

Had no doubt the Poofs would do this. They were still grieving Fuzzball's loss, Cutie-Pie was grieving Naomi's loss as well, they were all upset about Michael and Gladys as much as they were about Naomi and Fuzzball, and I didn't like Chernobog, meaning they didn't like Chernobog.

Chernobog gaped, her eyes bugging out. Then she collapsed on the ground.

CHAPTER 73.

FORTUNATELY, Tito was there, and down next to her in an instant.

"Did you just kill her with terror?" Christopher asked.

"She's fainted, that's all." Tito looked up at me. "Apparently you've found her weakness, Kitty."

"Go me. No snack right now, Poofies. Back into Kitty's purse and Chuckie's pocket, please and thank you."

Got five booming purrs, then the Poofs went small. Harlie and Poofikins hopped back into my purse. Checked. They were curled up with a bunch of other Poofs. Well and good. Fluffy and Cutie-Pie jumped onto Chuckie's shoulders, rubbed against him, and then went into his pocket.

Mous-Mous, however, was still out. While Tito brought Chernobog around using smelling salts and much more gentle slaps to her face than I would have managed, I tried to see what the Poof was doing. Looking around, as near as I could tell.

There were some shimmers, off in the near distance. Could be floater gates, could be dust devils forming, could be Sandy being a dust devil. Wasn't sure. But the Poof was definitely looking where these shimmerings were.

But, right when I was about to ask the Poof what was going on, it gave a satisfied snort, jumped up onto my shoulder, gave me a nuzzle and a purr, and joined the others in my purse.

I still might have inquired about this-because there was more than one shimmering I'd seen, and if Sandy manifested using the stuff around him, then the likelihood of others like him doing the same was high. But Tito's ministrations were working and Chernobog's eyes opened. I'd table my shimmering questions for later, especially since there was nothing to see now and I didn't relish being told I was crazy.

Tito helped Chernobog sit up. "What . . . what were those things?"

"Alien animals who don't like you or the people you're working with. Answers. Now." While the Poofs and Peregrines were "outed" as aliens, we'd kept the fact that the Poofs had their Extra Large With A Side of Giant Teeth side hidden. So I knew Chernobog wasn't faking her reactions, because the only people who weren't on our side who'd seen the Poofs large were all dead.

"Yes," she said shakily. "I can retrieve the data taken, and no, your enemies don't know where it is. I didn't give it to them. I kept it in a safe place."

"Why?" Chuckie asked.

She shrugged. "Leverage." This checked out with my assumption, so that was good. "As for what was released into your main research facility, that was alien in nature."

"From Alpha Centauri?" Jeff asked.

She shook her head as Tito helped her stand up. "No. I don't know where it came from or how it was created, but my impression was that it's from far away. My guess is it was created by the invaders."

"How did you release it?" Serene asked. She and Christopher both looked angry and upset, not that I could blame them.

"Cloaked, time-released aerial bombs."

Serene went pale. "They used my designs."

Christopher put his arm around her. "This wasn't your fault. At all."

"Can it be reversed?" Jeff asked, Commander Voice on Full.

"Not that I know of. I didn't create these. I didn't set them, either. Your own people did that."

"No way-" Christopher started.

"They were mind controlled," I interrupted. "And I know which person set them, too. Gladys. She was the only one who would know exactly where to put them so that no one would detect them." No wonder she'd killed herself once she knew Ronaldo Al Dejahl was dead. Living with the knowledge of what she'd done, unwillingly or not, would have killed her, only much more slowly and with so much more emotional pain.

"Why didn't she tell us?" White asked. "If she was the one who set them."

"Maybe she didn't remember right away, or even at all. She said things were fuzzy when she was mind controlled." Not that this made anything better.

"I've told you what you want to know," Chernobog said. "Now let me go."

"Oh, it is to laugh. Look at us, do we look to be in laughing moods? No, you owe us all the information on the people who hired you to hit us, and you need to actually give back what you stole. And then there are those two other things I mentioned. You do those, and then we may have an accord."

"What are the other things?" she asked suspiciously.

"They're dependent upon returning the data and giving us the intel on who hired you. They're irrelevant if we don't get that, because you'll be dead and then these other parameters won't matter."

She cocked her head at me. "You are of Russian descent?"

"Maybe, back there somewhere."

She chuckled. "You have a Russian viewpoint. You would have done well in the KGB." She looked at Adriana. "And you, you are KGB, aren't you? Raised in the old ways."

Adriana shrugged. "My training isn't the same as yours. I'm not on the side of people like you. But I do know what to do with people like you."

"And I know you already know what my people do with people like you when you're not considered worth enough to trade," Chuckie said. "I'm sure you think you're going to get traded. But I mentioned that leeway I have? You aren't going to be registered as our prisoner until we have everything we want. That means if you die, no one will actually know."

"And if they do trade you, let me mention those assassins after you again."

Chernobog sighed. "Fine. I am your prisoner. It would be helpful to have my laptop."

"We took it." Of course, it was with the Dingo, but still, sort of in our possession.

Tito opened his medical bag. "Yeah, we have it." Managed not to ask him how he'd gotten it. Obviously the Dingo had given it to him. Why, was the question.

"I asked that we hold the laptop while the agents helping us went to investigate the base," White said. "So, yes, we do have the laptop." Managed not to tell White he was the greatest, but it took effort.

"Good. Then, you will take me somewhere and we will start in with your demands."

"I want her in the Embassy."

"What?" Jeff shouted. "Why?"

"Because the hackers she's going to be verifying every single keystroke with are there. Why else?"

Jeff shook his head. "I know where this leads."

Rolled my eyes. "I'm not moving her in permanently or something."

Christopher sighed and made a call. "Hey, yeah. Situation under some form of control. Kitty wants the prisoner at the Embassy. Because it's Kitty, why ask why? Yes, of course under heavy guard. Yes, because she wants our hackers watching closely. Yes. Yes." He eyed Chernobog. "She looks harmless. Figure that means we need triple the number you just suggested. Yes, around the clock. Yeah, we'll transport her there. Thanks." He hung up.