Alien Education by Gini Koch

Author:Gini Koch
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: DAW
Published: 2017-03-07T17:01:07+00:00

CHAPTER 49

CLEANED, DRESSED, and pressed, we were all ready to go in less than an hour. I chose wisdom over propriety and was in jeans, my Converse, and an Aerosmith t-shirt. The bake sale might not have erupted into real life Cake Wars if I’d had my boys on my chest.

The press corps was assembled with the teenagers at the Secret Service offices. Per my text update from Vance, White was there, riding herd on the young’uns and the others, the K-9 squad was staying on-site and would escort the Valentino kids to Sidwell and back, along with the rest of the security teams that had been with me at the school, and security at the Intergalactic School had been warned that I’d be there soon.

On my way downstairs I ran into Gadhavi. Chose not to ask why the Grizzly Bear of G-Company was wandering the White House halls freely. Right now, I’d take a grizzly and all of G-Company over the PTA.

“We studied that picture,” he said by way of hello. “We found nothing.”

Pulled my phone out of my purse and looked at the shot I’d taken. As I did, realized that my iPod was plugged into my portable speakers. I never left it that way. Checked my iPod out. It was on a Listen Like Thieves playlist that, before today, I hadn’t had.

So that was how he’d done it. Not via a person, but via my purse. It made sense and was something that would be totally believable if discovered. Moved the iPod and speakers up to the top. Why miss out on any clues Algar might toss my way? Sure the ones at Sidwell hadn’t helped much, but why risk it?

Looked at the picture. As Gadhavi had said earlier, not a lot there other than hate. But I’d seen something. “I need to look at this on a bigger screen.”

He nodded. “The picture is still up in the meeting room.”

We went there together, him expressing sadness for my horrible experience and me trying to play it down with limited success. By the time we were there, he was pledging to replace any and all funds the bake sale had lost or should have made as his donation and I was ready to ask him to roll with me to the Intergalactic School. Refrained, but only just.

We were alone in the LSR, which made me feel very tiny. Didn’t feel alone, though—Gadhavi had a presence that definitely filled a room.

We stared at the blowup of the image that had bothered me. Looked at the groups individually. It was easy to spot who was from what region because people were clumped together.

Had to figure that what my subconscious had spotted was on the periphery, so that’s where I focused. It took a few minutes, but finally worked my way to the upper right corner. And there they were.

Hit speed dial and he answered on the first ring. “I saw the spectacle.”

“I’m sure you did. Are you with Jeff?”

“No. I’m in my offices.

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