Shocking everyone, Congress and the governors of all fifty states agreed. Most of the countries worldwide were doing the same thing. This probably had a lot to do with what the “visiting dignitary,” also known as King Alexander from Alpha Four, had said when he was cleaning up the intergalactic mess. Alpha Four was all about stability, and Alexander had definitely shared that he didn’t want to have to come right back with his huge space battle cruisers and explain the Alpha Centaurion position to new folks any time soon.
So protests happened, we were blamed or praised, depending—but mostly blamed—and everyone who’d been elected stayed elected. All of them seemed happy about the extension of power and being able to stave off a re-election campaign for another year or so. But my hopes of one or more of the Cabal losing their seats were definitively dashed. Always the way.
As usual for the Cabal, they all arrived together. Operation Destruction had shifted power in the group, however. Senator Vincent Armstrong had moved from Senator Being Somewhat Manipulated to Big Man on Cabal Campus. He’d made this move because he’d aligned himself with us. That Armstrong owed us favors, as we did him, was something I’d managed to accept over the past few months, albeit unwillingly.
Accepting that Armstrong was planning his run for the Presidency wasn’t as hard, because I’d realized that was coming during Operation Destruction. Armstrong had become an extremely pro-alien politician over the past many months, meaning he was considered a Friend of American Centaurion, title totally implied and important. We needed friends, and powerful ones were, these days, good to have.
His wife, Elaine, was with him. I’d gotten to know her over these past months and actually liked her. Sure, she was a career politician’s wife, but she wasn’t odious, obnoxious, or even overly fake. Mom liked her, too, which was the final seal of approval I required.
Barely had a chance to say hello to the Armstrongs when the unofficial spokesperson for the Cabal came toward us, smile beaming. On some people this would be pleasant. On Lillian Culver, it was horrific. The woman was attractive, but only at first glance. Longer looks shared that she was all bones and angles, a well-dressed skeleton with skin on. She also possessed the widest mouth this side of a top super villain. I called her Joker Jaws to myself for a reason.
Culver was all in red, including dramatic red lipstick, which just made her look more like the Joker in drag to me. Managed to control my impulse to jerk away from her outstretched paw—I was pretty sure she didn’t have an electroshock buzzer hidden in her palm, though I’d never have bet money on this.
However, Culver was a powerful lobbyist for a variety of defense contractors, and therefore a bad person to be overly rude to.
“Kitty, you look amazing,” Culver said.
“You, too.” Hey, I was amazed with her resemblance to the Joker.
Culver’s husband, Abner Schnekedy, self-proclaimed artist, Most Influential Spouse of Someone With Actual Power on Cabal Campus, and odious twit, grinned at me. “Happy Holidays, Kitty.”
“To you, too.” I was doing great with the short, polite replies, and they were doing great with the not saying anything obnoxious. So far, this part of the event was a success.
My ability to remain monosyllabic was instantly tested. Always the way. Eugene and Lydia Montgomery were the next from the group to come within speaking distance. Lydia was the junior senator from New York, and Eugene was her husband. She was racing as fast as she could into the power centers of D.C. He was dull and normal and an actuary by profession.
When we’d first moved here, Eugene had been my only friend in the Washington Wife class. That friendship had been strained to the breaking point when I’d discovered that he’d been using me as a front for his affair with Nathalie Gagnon-Brewer, who I could see standing with her husband, Representative Edmund Brewer, right behind the Montgomerys.
Nathalie was a French expatriate and a former international model. But unlike Reader, who was a faithful spouse to Gower, Nathalie didn’t enjoy her husband’s preoccupation with being a fast-tracking politician. She’d been happy being married to a successful California vintner; not as happy married to a political animal. Couldn’t blame her, of course.
Meanwhile Eugene had felt ignored and shoved aside by Lydia. Opposites had attracted and she and Eugene had started a passionate affair, which I’d discovered