Free Alien in the Family by Gini Koch Page A

think you know the answer.”
    “Ah, a human thing. ACE has data for that.” ACE had the consciousness of any human who’d died in space joined to it. It sort of made them part of the God in the Machine, and I was happy they were there, since their presence had altered ACE’s mind-set toward protecting the Earth from the other races, not the other way around.
    “Jeff? What did you do with the necklace and the bug? And why did my hairspray neutralize it?”
    “The hairspray was a guess. Since we’re all allergic to alcohol and there’s alcohol in it—and since hairspray worked so well against Mephistopheles, and this clearly comes from our home world—I figured it might work.”
    “Whoever wants us followed knows we’re all here now, however,” Chuckie mentioned.
    “True.” Martini sighed. “And as for what I was doing, it’s a game my father taught us,” he inclined his head toward Christopher. “We used to think it was fun. He’d give us different metals, and we had to make something new with them without hurting the original shapes. Most of the time, he had us play with the metals and the Unity Necklace, but not always. I didn’t know it was anything but a child’s game before. But I’d guess once I make another call, and, you know, get through all the haranguing from my mother, I’ll find out this was commonly used by the royal family.”
    “To spy on their underlings,” Christopher added with a snarl.
    “Or their enemies.” Chuckie let this one hang on the air for a bit. “I think we need to stop pretending the only issue will be Kitty passing whatever marriage test they’re going to administer. We didn’t send bugs or spies over to check out Charles marrying Camilla, so this isn’t what I’d call standard royal wedding protocol.”
    “It’s not, as far as we know,” Claudia offered.
    “You’re confirming that?” Chuckie asked her.
    “Sure.” She shrugged. “Girls care more about this stuff than boys. My mother told me about how weddings on our home world were handled. Spying on the bride-to-be wasn’t mentioned.”
    “My mother didn’t say anything about this, either,” Lorraine added. “And she told me all about the last royal wedding she’d seen, right before they left our home world.” She shot a look at Christopher. “I think it was your parents’.”
    He looked shocked. “But they disowned my mother, that’s what my father said.”
    Lorraine looked uncomfortable. “They probably did. My mother would know for sure. But, disowned or not, I think they still had a royal wedding.”
    “Maybe we should ask your father if they got bugged.”
    Christopher sighed and pulled out his phone.
    While he was engaged, Chuckie leaned over to me and Martini. “Regardless of the Pontifex’s answer, this creates some serious issues. So, Martini, before the rest of the C.I.A. starts demanding I allow them to move into every Centaurion stronghold, any idea of what’s really coming?”
    “Not really. We should pull my father in, sooner as opposed to later. He’s the one with the information.”
    My brain kicked at me. “Uh, guys?”
    “Yes,” Chuckie agreed. “But I’d like you to ask him, if you don’t mind. I don’t want to give the impression we’re demanding his cooperation.”
    “Guys?”
    “Well, that’s so nice of you,” Martini said, sarcasm knob turned to full. “How is it my father rates consideration when our Sovereign Pontifex doesn’t?”
    “Guys.”
    “He rates consideration because he’s the only one with any real idea of what’s going on, and, just in case, the C.I.A. doesn’t want to create an interstellar incident by upsetting a royal scion.”
    “Guys, oh, guys.”
    “I’m supposedly a scion and so’s Christopher. You don’t seem to mind upsetting us. In fact, near as I can tell, you live to do it.”
    “Guys? Really, need your attention.”
    “You really have a problem with authority, don’t you, Martini?”
    “Guys? Please,