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think he could be part A-C. Dirty blond hair, which would have a bit of a wave in it if he’d let it grow long, and blue eyes.
    All of them were good-looking, but though Chuckie was handsome by human standards, only Reader and a couple of other human agents had a shot of passing as an A-C in the looks department, after all.
    Normally I enjoyed looking at any of them, Martini in particular. But tonight I got a bad feeling, seeing them standing there together. Martini caught it and looked at me. “What’s wrong?”
    I shook my head. “I don’t know. But I think we’d better be prepared for the worst. Whatever that’s going to end up being.”
    Before we’d met ACE, Martini had implanted a portion of Christopher’s mother’s consciousness into me. It was only a trace, but I’d liked having it there, liked being able to connect to Terry in times of trouble. ACE had removed it, telling me it was better this way. That bit of Terry was now a part of ACE—but I never got to connect with it any more. I wanted to now, more than ever.
    If Terry had still been inside my mind, I’d assume the nameless dread I was feeling was coming from her. Since that couldn’t be, I had to assume what Martini called my feminine intuition was picking up something. Either that or I just needed a nap.
    Reader got up and went over to the other three. “Look, how do you want us to get things rolling? Sitting around isn’t getting the troops prepared.”
    Same size as Christopher, pretty much. Most gorgeous human I’d ever laid eyes on in the flesh. Our joke was that if he were straight, we’d run off, get married, and forget there were aliens on the Earth.
    It occurred to me that I was looking at four men who’d achieved the top levels early in life. Martini was the strongest empath on Earth, and Christopher was the best imageer; Chuckie was the smartest guy in any room, and Reader had been the top international male model for years. There was a lot of drive and talent there, and the rest of us weren’t slouches, either. I relaxed, feeling confident we’d be able to handle whatever was coming.
    The dread hit me, harder. I looked over at Paul. He looked sort of glazed. I tried thinking in my mind, the way I had with ACE in the past. ACE, are you there?
    Yes, Kitty, ACE is here.
    What’s wrong?
    Terry wishes ACE to warn Kitty. His mental voice sounded upset. ACE’s prime directive was to protect, but he also knew doing everything for us would destroy us and turn him into a despot. Which meant I had to help him settle this in his consciousness, or he was going to short out and take Paul with him.
    ACE, are the A-Cs coming more powerful than you are?
    ACE is . . . not sure.
    They created you, or at least okayed your creation, didn’t they?
    Terry confirms this as so.
    Then, that means maybe they are more powerful than you. Or will know weaknesses you have that we don’t know about.
    I could feel ACE considering this. That would mean it would be . . . correct . . . for ACE to protect . . . ACE?
    Yes, I think so. We should see what’s coming, but I think we all need to be prepared. They’re far more powerful than any of us on Earth.
    Yes. Terry says Kitty must be prepared. The test is not for Jeff, it is for Kitty. And Terry knows the royal family will want Kitty to fail.
    Great. Okay, thanks, ACE. I’ll do my best. I didn’t want to push ACE for more. It was better to save that for when we might really need it.
    ACE knows Kitty will be able to triumph. Kitty thinks right. I saw Paul’s expression shift, and he shuddered a bit.
    Martini came over to me. “Are you okay?” he asked quietly.
    “For now, yeah.” The dread had subsided, and I was suddenly exhausted. “Jeff, I want to go to the Lair, okay?”
    “Okay. Right now?”
    “Yeah. Chuckie’s in charge; let him deal with this.” I picked up the Unity Necklace. The dread came back along with a sharp pain. “OUCH!” I dropped it back on the table. Dread disappeared, pain