Alien vs. Alien

pictures. “Huh.” He handed them to Chuckie.
    “Interesting.” Chuckie handed them to Christopher.
    I managed not to mention everyone was looking at my audition for Hustler Girl of the Month. I was still too shocked to think about much at all, other than wondering when Chuckie and I had blacked out and consummated this torrid affair, because it certainly wasn’t an event I remembered.
    Christopher grunted and put the pictures back in the envelope, which he held onto.
    “Thanks for stopping by,” Jeff said to Armstrong. “Let me show you out.”
    “I understood you were still in Washington,” Armstrong said, not budging.
    “This is my parents’ house. My wife and child are here. What’s surprising about that?” Jeff smiled widely. It wasn’t a very nice smile, not like his normal one. I got the impression he was controlling himself from hitting someone. “Of course, I can see how my being here puts a real monkey wrench into your plans to blackmail my wife.”
    “Sorry about that,” Christopher added, in a tone of voice that said quite the opposite.
    “See the senator and the other gentlemen out, will you?” Chuckie said to Len and Kyle.
    The boys nodded and moved closer. Gadoire and Vance took the hint. “Call if you want to talk or need a shoulder, my dove,” Gadoire said to me as Kyle none-too-gently nudged him and Vance toward the door.
    “After you, Senator,” Len said. He also looked like he was controlling himself from hitting someone.
    Armstrong shook his head. “We need to talk about this,” he said to me. “These pictures were sent to me, and they’re going to be used against you.”
    “Unless what?” I asked.
    “I don’t know,” Armstrong said. “Look, I know we’re not the closest of friends, but I didn’t come here to blackmail you. I came to warn you.”
    “We’re warned,” Jeff said. “We’ll be in touch.” He nodded to Len, who took the senator’s arm and led him out of the study. Chuckie locked the door behind them.
    “Kitty’s been here the whole time,” Amy said. “We’re sleeping in the same room, too.”
    Jeff rolled his eyes. “We know. Christopher, what do we have?”
    Christopher took the pictures out again and spread them on the table.
    “Crap, Armstrong left his attaché here.” I reached for it, but Chuckie grabbed my wrist. I looked up at him, and he shook his head strongly.
    “We’ll send it to him,” Jeff said.
    “These pictures are real,” Christopher said. “I’m sure we [’oire don’t want them being leaked.”
    I opened my mouth, and Chuckie put his hand over it, giving me a “you’re really being dense” look.
    “We’ll figure out what we need to do once we’re back home, then,” Jeff said. “I’ll deal with the two of you later,” he added.
    Only, he wasn’t looking at me, or Chuckie, or even Christopher. Jeff and Christopher were looking at and talking to the attaché case.
    Amy’s mouth opened, and Chuckie rolled his eyes and shot her a “shut up, shut up” look. We’d all gone to high school together, so she recognized the look and slammed her mouth shut.
    “Let’s get out of here,” Christopher said. He gathered the pictures and put them back into the envelope.
    We all filed out of the study and went into the kitchen. This was not where I wanted to have the powwow. However, the three men still looked as though they didn’t want me or Amy to talk.
    To my surprise, no one I was expecting was around. Instead, there were two field teams, each comprised of an empath and imageer, patiently waiting. Like the rest of the men, they were wearing black Armani suits with white shirts and black ties. A-Cs loved their Armani and formality, usually in that order.
    “Search the house, quietly, quickly, and carefully,” Jeff said in a low voice. “I’m assuming the only bugs are in the study we just left, but let’s be positive.”
    The agents nodded and zipped off at hyperspeed. In the olden days I wouldn’t have been able to see them. Now I could. Sort of. So far, if I wasn’t concentrating at all or was concentrating really hard, I could see A-Cs using hyperspeed. But if I was in that middle phase of normal focus, they still sort of disappeared.
    “Does anyone want to tell me and Amy what’s going on?”
    Christopher went to the counter and spread the pictures out yet again. This time, though, I could tell he was actually examining them using his imageering talent. “It’s really Kitty and it’s really