“Gladys is in there with our moms,” Claudia said, worry clear. “They know what we know and what Tito knows.”
“I don’t think Gladys will do anything while she’s in the Embassy,” Irving said.
“Really? Like she wouldn’t in the Science Center? I think that she won’t do anything because our enemies currently think they’ve won, and that’s the only reason.”
“We won’t have long before Chernobog drills down and discovers that what they want they don’t have,” Omega Red added. “Hours, not days.”
“There’s decades’ worth of data, and Chernobog isn’t an A-C. We may have days. But I’m with Yuri—whether it’s days or it’s hours, we won’t have as much time as we’d like.”
“If we want into Gaultier, we’ll need to have Camilla’s help,” Amy said. “There’s no way they’re going to leave things unprotected long enough for us to find what we need, hyperspeed or no hyperspeed.”
“Don’t suppose we can do like Al Dejahl and pull an older move of our own, like just flipping their fire alarm to clear out the building,” Tim said with a laugh.
“Oh, Megalomaniac Lad, there are times when I just don’t know how I function without you by my side on a regular basis. That’s it.”
“There’s no way a fire alarm will clear out everyone we need,” Amy said. “Gaultier’s equipment is state-of-the-art. And I wouldn’t leave my special, evil brews and ill-gotten data unprotected, fire or no fire.”
“There’s more than one way to clear out a building. And when push comes to shove, we can use an effective weapon—public opinion. Besides, we don’t need everyone out, just the people who can give orders.”
“You mind explaining that?” Chuckie asked. “Because while we followed you on everything else, I guarantee none of us know what you’re talking about right now.”
“So few ever do, Chuckie. So few ever do. Hang on.” Sent Jeff a text. Happily, or un-, depending on whose viewpoint you went with, the A-Cs had decided that they needed to support the President’s wishes, or else it would look like the protestors had won. Good, that played into my plan.
Verified one other thing, and got another happy reply, and the additional news that Gladys and Lucinda were heading back to join the rest of the Gowers and their closer relatives and share the group’s decision, meaning that the rest of our gang was on their way over to join us.
Seeing as they were all A-Cs, they were with us by the time I finished reading Jeff’s text.
Brought them quickly up to speed. Interestingly, only Christopher was shocked by the revelations. Amy was right—he was really distracted. He’d admitted why to pretty much everyone here, other than his wife, and I was fairly sure she was the last person he wanted to tell. But we’d deal with Christopher’s issues later.
“Kitty has a plan, but, as always, we don’t know what it is,” Chuckie said when we were done with the catching up.
“Blah, blah, blah. Just wanted the rest of the team over here so I didn’t have to say it twice. But first, a couple of questions. Am I right in thinking that no one has actually ever seen an A-C funeral because you really don’t do them anything like humans do and no one outside of Centaurion Division would have had cause to attend?”
“That’s right,” White said. “We’ve attended human funerals, of course, but only our personnel have ever attended one of ours.”
“Super. We need to use the funeral. I realize that’s totally disrespectful, but I worked with Michael plenty of times, and I can guarantee that he’d be okay with it if it meant we caught the people who killed him and Fuzzball.”
“I agree,” Jeff said. “At least, about Michael. I have no idea what your plan is, other than that you’re really excited about it and you expect me not to be.”
“Right, because you’re not going to be in on the action. None of the men are.”
“Why not?” Chuckie asked.
I shrugged. “Because men in this country don’t wear veils.”
CHAPTER 57
“YOU MIND EXPLAINING THAT?” Jeff asked.
“I get it,” Tim said. “But I think you’re expecting too much out of Gaultier.”
Shook my head. “No, and here’s why. They pissed Amy off, right? She already threatened to go to the press. So, we’re going to the press. MJO, am I right in feeling confident that you could write an article that would practically require the Gaultier Enterprises Board and other top dogs to ensure they were at Michael’s funeral?”
Oliver nodded slowly. “I’d suggest including Titan and YatesCorp in that goal as well. I can focus in such a way as to insinuate that non-attendance means anti-alien sentiments, along with non-support of the President.”
“But what if they don’t care?” Amy asked. “There’s a freaking mob outside, and we have politicians who hate us. They may use it as an excuse not to come.”
“Well, as to that, I think we’ll make our ‘friends’ outside work for us, not against us.”
“Only Tim and Amy seem clear on your idea, baby. I’m not clear, and looking at Chuck’s expression, he’s not either. If he can’t follow you, no one else can.”
“Okay, here’s my plan. We not only agree to the President’s wishes, we go one better. We go overboard. We bring out all our top people, with the clear expectation, since we’re honoring a war hero, that everyone else will be showing up. A few calls made on our behalf by my good friends Lillian Culver and Guy Gadoire and we have plenty of important people who realize this is a be seen or never expect a favor from American Centaurion again event.”
“I’m sort of stuck on the veils,” Jeff said.
“No one’s going to expect us to do anything during Michael’s funeral. Everyone should be attending, right? And that means we need to be visible. However, funeral attire includes veils for women. So, we make it a new ‘rule’ that all women have to be heavily veiled, so that no one can see their faces. Gloves on the hands. Sensible shoes. And all that.”
Raj smiled. “I can find the body doubles. They’ll need to be able to imitate mannerisms. We have plenty of troubadour women, all bored, because the science and mathematics sides don’t feel it’s an impressive skill, either.” Oh look, Raj had a sarcasm knob just like the rest of us.
“We’re about to make your brothers and sisters in acting talent feel very needed and vital to the cause, Raj.”
“Good. We can delay the funeral about a week, maybe a little more. Preparations have to be made, and we can claim cultural needs to create what will seem like a natural delay versus an invented one.”
“Like sitting shiva.”
“Right. In fact, we can use the Jewish traditions as examples, with specific details changed to our advantage.”
“Instead of rending the outer garment, make it like a burka and make us even harder to identify, type of thing.”
“Exactly, though more tailored. We can’t stall too long, but it should be enough time for my troubadours to be able to imitate their assigned doubles well enough to make it through the event itself.”
“Here’s what I don’t like, if I’m following your so-called plan correctly,” Chuckie said. “The only people who will be disguised are the American Centaurion women. Meaning those same women will be the ones doing the guerrilla raid.”
“Yes, that’s exactly what the plan is. Look, we need to get in and find out what the hell Gaultier is up to and retrieve our stolen data, right? And that means we need to get our hackers inside so we can all sing the Proximity Equals Access Song. But none of them are trained in fieldwork, so they have to go in as part of a team.”