Alien Proliferation by Gini Koch Read Free Book Online Page B

Mud.
    Supposedly my skin was glowing, my hair was more luxurious, and my eyes were sparkling. I guess. I looked blotchy, scraggly, and tired, at least whenever I risked a look in the mirror these days.
    Between worrying about Amy, listing how crappy I looked, wondering if Jeff and Christopher were going to be okay, and hoping Jeff didn’t think about our time in the Metro bathroom with the wrong kind of nostalgia, I was crying in short order. This was guaranteed to make me look worse than like crap, but I hadn’t been able to control any emotion for the last six months, especially when I was tired.
    There was a knock at the door. I almost shouted for them to come in, then I stopped and considered.
    Jeff wouldn’t knock. Neither would Christopher, come to think of it. As Jeff’s cousin and best friend, he had certain leeway with the niceties. As the head of Imageering, he also had the right to enter if he felt there was a risk. Plus, we were all almost totally past the time he’d ravaged me in the elevator. Jeff hadn’t brought it up for months, and Christopher and I had gotten to where we didn’t feel like we had to act like opposing magnets if we were near each other. I was pretty sure he was over me. I knew I was over him—I had been for a long time. Besides, for me, in the choice between Jeff and Christopher, my decision had been made even before the ravaging moment. The aftermath of that incident had merely confirmed who I was in love with.
    The knocking continued. I realized I’d wandered off into my own little dreamland there, which was happening more and more. Of course, the idea of getting up and walking through two rooms to get the door seemed like a lot of work. I got a weird feeling.
    “Com on.” Jeff had installed the A-C version of “the Clapper” for me the day after Tito had insisted on bed rest.
    “Yes, Commander Martini?”
    “Gladys, someone’s knocking at my door.”
    “Politeness is, as you may recall, an A-C trait.”
    “Yes, great. But here’s the thing—everyone knows I’m on bed rest. And Jeff isn’t here. Even if he were back, he wouldn’t be knocking. None of Alpha or Airborne knock, or at least, they don’t knock and then keep on knocking when I don’t come to the door.” Earlier today, as an example, everyone knocked and then came right on in, because everyone knew I wasn’t coming to the door in anything resembling a hurry.
    “Security on the way.”
    “Good. ’Cause that big old unused for anything but sneaking in drainage pipe is right by my door.”
    “Security is on the way, Commander. And, let me remind you, again, that we secured said pipe during your introductory mission, and it’s been secured ever since. Your mother confirms this every month, which you, somehow, forget.”
    “And I’m alone. And very pregnant. And extremely freaked out right now.”
    “Yes, Commander, I’m picking that up. Security is on the way.”
    “Are they hyperspeeding?”
    “Yes.”
    “I ask because the knocking is still going on.” I was full on freaked now. Well, I did have a defense that I didn’t have to get up to get. “Harlie, Poofikins, come to Kitty.”
    Our royal pets purred and leaped from their Poof Condo onto my lap. No one was more shocked to discover he was in line for a throne than Jeff. He’d given it up to stay with me on Earth. I got all misty thinking about it.
    The knocking got louder. Wow, off on that daydream tangent again. But back to reality and a higher level of being totally freaked out. The Poofs picked up my fear, because they went huge. They weren’t growling, but they were ready.
    I heard noises, and the knocking stopped. Then there was silence. And then the knocking started again.
    “Com on.”
    “Yes, Commander?”
    “Gladys? Have your Security guys checked in?”
    “No. Are they with you?” I heard concern in her voice, faint, but there.
    “No. I just heard scuffling and then silence and now the knocking again. I’m thinking