Event

TWENTY-NINE

You're going to what?" Lisa asked a little too loudly.

Sarah checked her pack one more time, then she looked around at the preparing Delta and Ranger teams as they checked their equipment. Only a few of them looked their way when Lisa raised her voice. Sarah looked at her friend and nodded toward the commandos sitting around them at tables. Then she withdrew the nine-millimeter automatic from the shoulder holster and chambered a round, checked the safety, then replaced it. She checked for the fifth time the small oxygen tank that was lying on the cot and saw the needle well into the green. Then she turned and faced her friend.

"I'm leading the main excursion into the first excavation made by the parent, right here at the crash site," she finally answered as nonchalantly as she could.

"That's nuts, sister of mine. Did you hear what those things are capable of? Did you see the wounds on some of those airborne guys?" Lisa looked around her and stepped closer to Sarah. "Does Major Terrific know about this?"

A few more of the Delta and one or two of the Rangers looked up at the two women, who stood toward the front of the huge tent. Lisa eyed them until they looked away.

Sarah held the night-vision goggles to her eyes and adjusted the width of the eyepieces. "Lisa, it's my job, and, yes, it's the major's plan. He chose me. The geology teams are split up among the other tunnel teams." She lowered the ambient-light device and looked at her taller friend. "Look, we have to find these things in less than nine hours, and if the air force is cut loose on them, we won't be able to piece together enough bodies to tell how many we bagged. It's not like I won't have company. Other members of the mine and geology teams, plus the zoology members, are leading groups into over fifty holes. Besides, since those Delta guys and Rangers arrived, our odds of surviving have gone up substantially."

Lisa walked over and closed the tent flap, cutting off some of the sunlight and noise from the helicopters coming and going.

"That's those things' turf down there, and now you're volunteering to go into those holes? Has the major lost his fucking mind?"

Sarah turned and looked at her roommate while inserting a thirty-round magazine into her XM8 light assault rifle. "Why aren't you that concerned about Carl or the commandos going down there? Why me?" she asked, looking her friend directly in her eyes.

Lisa didn't back down. "Because, goddamn you, they're macho schmucks with not one fucking ounce of brains, which I used to believe you had, but I guess not."

"It's my fucking job, Lisa," Sarah said in a harsh whisper. "What do I say on my first mission, 'Oh, can't do it... a little too dangerous'?"

Lisa lowered her head and bit her lip, cutting off more of her argument because she knew her friend was right.

"I'll be okay. If I have to, I'll toss a few of those Delta Force guys in front of me and run like hell, alright?" Sarah looked over and smiled at the few of the elite troops who were still watching them. They nodded.

Lisa smiled for the first time since her friend's arrival. "Just watch out for Carl, he thinks he's the hero type."

"I would, but he's not on my team. But he's with Jack, that spunky little navy guy, and Will Mendenhall, so he'll come back, I promise," Sarah said, taking her friend's hand into her own. "I've got to go, Lisa. We have a briefing in five. Those things don't know it yet, but it's our turn to start hunting them."

Julie slowly stepped off the bottom rung of the ladder, afraid the noise of her tennis shoe coming into contact with the broken floor would be enough to bring one of those things up through the broken tile and grab her away. But all was quiet in the kitchen. She saw a hole that had been made during the attack and stared into the dark and forbidding pit and shivered. Blood lined the mouth of the hole, and she silently prayed it hadn't been Hal or Tony who had been pulled down to their death. As she moved forward, she heard the hiss and pop of the jukebox as the needle was stuck and kept hitting the stop and sliding back.

Overhead she heard the powerful turbines whining from the large helicopters settling just above the rooftops. Things in the kitchen began to rattle loudly as the down blast from the powerful five-bladed rotors hit the Broken Cactus. She jumped when one of the hanging frying pans fell from its hook over the stove and clanged to the floor. Then her heart fell to the floor as she was touched on the shoulder from behind. She gave out a yelp and quickly covered her mouth. Billy placed his small hand over his mother's and held up a finger to his lips.

"Shhh," he hissed. "Come on, Mom, what're you doing?" he whispered, removing his hand.

"Goddammit, Billy, get your ass back up those stairs, now," she half whispered, thanking God for the loudness of the turbine-driven engines of the Pave Lows.

"No way, not without you," Billy said, looking around for any sign of the animals that had so ravaged everyone in the town. He had yet to see one of them and didn't ever want to. He was putting up the best look of bravery and defiance he could muster; he just didn't feel either of those at the moment.

Julie pursed her lips, trying hard to' hold her temper. Then she consciously counted out loud to ten, angrily forcing out each number as she did. She calmed a little and opened her eyes.

"Alright, it doesn't look like anyone's here anyway, so let's get back upstairs and the hell out of here."

They were just starting to turn when, over the rumbling sound of the settling Pave Lows, they heard the sound of voices. They weren't traveling down the stairwell from the rooftop, but were coming from the dining area just around the corner out of their vision. Julie raised an eyebrow.

"There must still be people in here," she whispered a tad nervously, as she knew that everyone was supposed to be on the roof.

She took Billy's right hand in her own and gently pulled him out of the kitchen and around the bar. They crept as quietly as they could, stepping lightly over fallen barstools and broken tables, and as they moved, the voices grew louder.

"Whoever they are, they don't speak English. It sounds like French, I think," Julie said in a whisper.

They finally reached the corner of the bar and looked around it. Julie quickly counted sixteen men. They all wore black suits like Ryan and the others who had come into the bar earlier, not the brown desert fatigues of the other soldiers of the 101st. These soldiers were different somehow from the black-clad men of Lieutenant Ryan's outfit. Their uniforms were a different make, and some of these men had beards. They looked, in Julie's unprofessional opinion, lethal.

As Julie started to pull Billy back, a hand fell on her shoulder. She couldn't help it; she hated being this scared and tried not to, but she screamed anyway.

"Hey, can I pay you later for this?" Tony's slurred voice asked loudly.

The men that had been sitting around loading weapons suddenly stood, and the ones who had already been standing brought their weapons up and ran to a better angle inside the dining area and aimed at the intruders. A dozen pinpoints of laser-red light hit the intruders' chests and didn't waver an inch. All Julie could do was raise her hands to show she wasn't armed.

"I'm glad you're okay, Tony, but you couldn't have picked a worse time to wake up," Julie whispered out of the corner of her mouth, taking a deep breath.

"Miss Dawes, what a surprise. I was sure you had vacated the premises with the others," the blond-haired man from the Interior Department said, as he stepped away from his companions.

Gone were his casual clothes, and in their place was this military, black jumpsuit. He had a large pistol strapped to his side and the most lethal-looking knife Julie had ever seen on the black belt across his chest.

"Mr.... uh...?" Julie stuttered.

The man just smiled and stepped up to the three intruders. He placed his hand on Billy's head and rubbed his hair. The smile, all three noticed, didn't touch his now cold eyes.

"We'll leave my name out of it for now, Miss Dawes. And this must be the man of the house. I'm glad you located him. Today isn't one to be roaming around outside."

"My son, Billy," Julie said, looking worried.

"As I said, Miss Dawes, you really should have left on the evacuation helicopters with the others. But as it stands, I'm afraid you'll be accompanying us. I am sorry."

"Okay, okay, what'd I miss?" Tony said, taking the cap off the bottle of Jack Daniel's.

The four F-15 Strike Eagles out of Nellis streaked through the blue sky at twelve hundred feet off the desert floor. Lieutenant Colonel Frank Jessup led the flight of air force jets, who were on temporary duty from Japan, here to take part in Red Flag, a rigorous course to train pilots to fight foreign aircraft and their tactics. And now they had been summoned on the most unusual CAP mission he had ever been in command of. He scanned the ground, watching for any kind of activity out of the norm. He was trying to figure out just what the norm should be when his wingman, Major Terry Miller, called over the radio:

"Drover lead, this is Drover Two, they said unusual activity, correct?"

Jessup thumbed the transmit button on his joystick. "That's what they said. What have you got, Drover Two?"

"Look to your nine o'clock and tell me what you see."

Colonel Jessup looked to his left and down, but his weapons officer in the backseat saw it first.

"What in the hell is that, Colonel?" he asked.

Jessup stared in wonder as the ground below rippled as if a small speedboat were traveling across the sand. Just behind the advancing wave, the ground was caving in as if whatever was causing the wake was traveling close to the surface, weakening the tunnel it was making and causing the ground to fall in just as it passed.

"All right, Drover flight, we have a target of opportunity as per orders. Our ROE are still the same." Jessup didn't have to remind his flight that the rules of engagement were simple: sight the enemy and attack. "Drover Three and Four, sight on target and attack" was Jessup's brief command. "Drover lead will ride high cover."

"Drover Three and Four, sighted and locked."

In all three locations, ears listened anxiously to the radio conversation between the air force pilots as they rolled in and dived on what must be the leading element of the animals as they were exploring the valley. The president's attention went from the live feed in the desert valley to the monitor hooked into the Event Center for a reaction from Niles Compton. But Niles was busy listening to the radio transmission and watching the live feed himself. Then the president looked at the Joint Chiefs in the room, then to another monitor showing the crash site, where the largest audience by far, made up of Event Group technicians, were gathering to hear the exchange between the attacking fighter bombers.

The F-15E Strike Eagle is an amazing aircraft, capable of dogfighting with the best fighters in world, belying that it also has a bomb load capacity almost equal to that of the venerable old B-17 bomber from World War II. The bombs on this flight had been researched and specially chosen. If the animals were traveling close to the surface, the pilots were to use the general-munitions cluster bombs. They didn't have the shaped charge or the weight of the Bunker Busters that the F-16 Fighting Falcons were carrying above the larger fighters at ten thousand feet, but they were accurate, and they exploded with a large bang and killed well for their size. Before the human element went below to fight the creatures, the air force had been given the green light. Now they would see what air power could do to help right the situation in the valley.

The two fighter-bombers streaked in low, maintaining their height at three hundred feet, a dangerous altitude for the large fighter, even in the relatively flat terrain of the desert. Then, at three miles out, the fighter-bombers nosed up and climbed, water vapor pouring off their wingtips as the Eagles fought for altitude. At a thousand feet they leveled off, and Colonel Jessup watched as both Drover Three and Four dropped their munitions wing abreast. This tactic would expand the area of impact and make their killing zone wider, rather than longer, for the best chance of taking out the lead elements of the animals. The colonel watched as four small wing-brakes popped out from the back of the eight six-foot-long bombs, retarding their speed and rate of drop to give the fighters time to get out of Dodge before they impacted. At 175 feet of altitude, a pressure-sensing device activated and blew the outer casing off the eight bombs, loosing two hundred softball-sized bomblets. They struck the ground just two feet in front of the wave of dirt and sand that was caused by at least two of the moving animals, causing what looked like a fireworks display gone awry and exploding on the ground. To the men and women at the crash site it was if someone had set off two hundred grenades at once.

"Direct hit," Jessup said in a businesslike manner into his oxygen mask.

As Drover Three and Four banked hard to come around for an assessment pass, they didn't see another two waves approaching the first set until they were almost on top of the strike zone. Jessup saw the twin waves breaking fast from above his pilots, who were too busy to notice the approach. In horror, he watched an animal they thought had been stopped in the cluster munitions strike rise from the dirt and sand and shake itself.

"Drover Three and Four, pull up, abort pass! Bandits are approaching the strike area, and the active target is now aboveground!"

The call came three seconds too late. As the colonel watched in horror, two of the animals approaching the first exploded out of the sand and dirt of the desert. Bunching up their muscled legs and using their powerful tails as a natural catapult, they sprang into the air at incredible speed. The first one caught Drover Three in the left air intake, smashing into the fuselage and being sucked in, exploding through the Pratt & Whitney engine, causing a catastrophic failure and explosions that ripped through the cockpit and fuselage of the heavy fighter, tearing it apart. The second animal ricocheted harmlessly off the remains of the disintegrating jet, falling onto the desert floor, along with the mile-long stretch of settling wreckage of Drover Three. To the amazement of all watching, the animal rose and stumbled, fell to the ground, then rose again. This time it shook its massive bulk, jumped into the air, and dove into the desert soil. Drover Four banked hard and climbed, pushing the big fighter to afterburner in its attempted escape, taxing the huge jet's air-frame as it did so. The first beast was on the surface of the desert floor below and was watching the F-15 Eagle trying to make her escape. The beast timed its jump perfectly and leaped just as Drover Four went to afterburner and started climbing. But before the full effect of the powerful twin engines could provide enough thrust to propel the heavy fighter forward and up, the animal struck hard. It hit the Strike Eagle's left wing and punctured straight through it, tearing out control surfaces and bending and weakening the struts until the wing creased and folded inward toward the cockpit with a pop that sounded as if a bomb had exploded. The wing then slammed hard into the glass-enclosed canopy, crushing the life from the two men inside instantaneously, seconds before the aircraft slammed into the desert floor and disappeared in an expanding fireball. The Talkhan that had embedded itself in the fighter's wing rolled free of the wreckage. It was burning as it gained its feet, stumbled three steps, then collapsed dead to the sand.

"Jesus Christ!" Jessup yelled into his mask. "Drover Three and Four are down. Repeat, Drover Three and Four are down, no chutes. Drover lead is on the attack."

Jessup banked hard to the left, bringing the fighter to a nose-down attitude. His wingman mimicked the move as he followed. The colonel brought his cannon to bear on the still form of the animal that had downed Drover Four. The cannon embedded in the left side of the aircraft just aft of the radar dome in the nose erupted with all six barrels with a short bruuuuuup. Rounds from the powerful minigun struck the remains of the invader, tossing pieces in all directions and further disintegrating the wreckage of the downed Drover Four, pushing the carcass hard across the desert floor.

Jessup applied power and pulled back on his stick, bringing his fighter back up to a safer level, then he called, "Drover flight, climb to five thousand feet and hold for targets."

Lieutenant Colonel Jessup removed his oxygen mask as he made the fast climb to altitude and rubbed a gloved hand across his sweating mouth. In all the missions he had flown in deserts just like the one below him, in all the time he had spent in, over, and around the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, he had never lost anyone, not even an aircraft, with all his aircrews coming home safely. Now four men lay crumpled and dead in their aircraft on American soil. Dead because someone on the ground had underestimated the ability of the enemy they were facing. Jessup had become like most commanders in the opening phases of war. He took it for granted that he had superior firepower and numbers, the same mistakes that had been made by men of his nation since the times of Washington, Lincoln, Custer, and Westmoreland.

Once he made it to a safe altitude, he thumbed his transmit switch and raised his mask to his face. "Drover base, Drover base, this is Drover lead. Inform National Command Authority, the enemy is a viable air threat."

Billowing clouds of black smoke that marked the remains of the two downed air force fighters and crews could still be seen from their high vantage point above the mountain valley. They had all listened and watched in horror as the aircraft and four brave men were lost, and that made for the grim determination they felt as they gathered in the large command tent.

Collins watched Specialist Sarah McIntire as she spoke with a member of Delta, obviously a part of her tunnel team. He waited until she looked up and made eye contact with him. He had been tempted to place her on his team, which had been assigned one of the town holes, but they needed one of the tunnel experts to go in after the mother, and Sarah was it. Since she was the most experienced in tunnels, she would be making a few points about the geology of the valley during the briefing.

"Alright people, let's settle in and get started, we're damn near out of time," Colonel Fielding said, standing at the head of the one hundred men and women of the tunnel assault teams.

Behind Fielding was a three-dimensional computer blowup of the surrounding mountain and desert floor. Marks in a dozen places indicated the routes the squad-sized tunnel teams would take. Larger dots indicated a parental hole and the smaller ones the offspring.

"Before we start out, we wanted you to hear what we're up against here. It's nothing you have trained for, but your units have been chosen for your ability to adapt to a fluid situation. And make no mistake, people, your enemy is ruthless and cunning, as we just witnessed in the valley."

The absolute quiet of the gathered soldiers told the colonel they understood.

"Very well." He turned and looked at Collins. "Major Collins, if you would, please."

Collins stood and stepped forward. "Here's what we know. They are diggers, as you've heard. Our soil is absolutely nothing to them because their body is so much denser than our own. They can be killed, even though they're heavily armored. Hit it where it is weakest, where the armor plates meet, but even then it will take a pounding before it dies. As search teams, your job is simply to search and destroy and count. I can't stress this point enough, count.

"I'm sure some of you are wondering why we just don't bomb the valley from the air. We need to keep them confined. If just one escapes, the cycle will start over and we can't control it. Airpower is never a certain thing, especially after the events of this afternoon; the creatures actually sacrificed themselves for the well-being of the group, so the air campaign is not the answer. I believe along with the docs here that all the animals would have to do is go deep. Dirt and sand is the best bullet and bomb stopper there ever was.

"When you leave the briefing, we have a gift that has been supplied by the army and a very special engineer from the University of California at San Diego. We're pulling in a lot of favors here today." Jack turned away and retrieved something from behind him. When he held it up, it looked as if it were another piece of body armor that covered the chest and back and zipped up like all others. "This is a new piece of armor developed by Kenneth Vecchio, a mechanical and aerospace engineer. He has developed new armor made from, of all things, abalone shell. The shell has undergone what they call 'depth of penetration' testing and can resist a steel rod traveling at two thousand miles per hour. In our language, people, it is what is called a bullet stopper. And that means this animal may have a hard time biting or clawing through it. As you can see"--he laid the vest down and brought up leggings, which resembled shin guards like those a catcher would wear, and thick arm bands--"these are made of the same material. Each of you will be issued a set after you leave this tent." When Jack saw the doubt on their faces, he said, "Welcome to the world of biometrics, people. We are imitating other life-forms from our own world to survive." He paused for a second. "In this case an abalone." That elicited tension-breaking chuckles from these hardened soldiers. "Now, a quick brief by our geology element, Specialist McIntire." He indicated Sarah, in the front row.

McIntire walked to the front with a rolled-up virtual map. She unrolled it and placed it on the easel Colonel Fielding had placed there.

"As you can see, our operational area is ringed with granite mountains. This will be the outermost area of the assault. The tunnels lead off in all directions as if the animals are seeking the quickest and easiest way to get out once the food supply is gone." She turned away from the map and picked up a softball-sized instrument and held it up. "This is a remote-sensing device that will be air-dropped onto the valley below. It will sense the vibrations underground just like the VDF remote devices each of the teams has been issued. These aboveground units will send a signal to an orbiting global-positioning satellite and an AWACS that will relay the coordinates to our teams to allow you some warning. Of course they have never been used in this manner but--"

"Thank you, Specialist," Collins said, purposely cutting her off. The men didn't need to know the what-ifs if all this technical stuff failed.

McIntire looked at the major, then caught the innuendo about morale and turned and sat, leaving the virtual map out and displayed. The mountains were by far the predominate feature as they circled the valley like wagons in defense against Indian attack, only the Indians were in the circle with them for this fight.

"Okay, assemble to your assigned assault teams and good hunting," Colonel Fielding said.

The men and women of the tunnel assault teams moved out of the tent with not much said. Jack watched them leave with doubt flitting at the edges of his thoughts. They needed more time to plan this assault. He could be leading them into a massacre by not knowing the animal's full potential.

The tent was near empty as Commander Everett and Lisa Willing stepped inside.

"Jack, you wanted to see Signalman Willing?"

"Yes, I did," Jack said.

Lisa swallowed. She didn't know what was to come; Carl had said he didn't know.

Sarah was rolling up her virtual map and gathering her equipment, just getting ready to join her tunnel team.

"Specialist, if you would join us here, please," Collins asked her.

Sarah looked from the major to Lisa and received the slightest downturn of her lips to show she had no idea what was happening. Sarah laid her gear down and joined the small group at the front of the large tent.

Collins nodded in the direction of Colonel Fielding, who quickly pushed the entrance flap aside to allow a tall, lanky man inside. He was carrying something in his arms that was covered with a white sheet. He walked quickly to the briefing table and set his small burden down, but still held on with his old and scarred hands. He lifted one of his hands and quickly removed his fedora and nodded in deference to the ladies in the tent. Then he looked at Major Collins.

Jack half smiled and looked at Sarah and Lisa. "McIntire, Willing, we have something to show you. Colonel Fielding brought it to my attention that in case something happened to those who are privy to what you are about to learn, we had no one else in the field that could possibly protect the most vital asset we have in the coming fight. Therefore you were chosen by me in case something happens to those who are in the know. You are to make sure that this item gets back to the complex unharmed. Your lives are expendable in that pursuit. If none of us return from the assault in the tunnels, Willing, you are to immediately leave Site One with this package and return to Nevada and personally turn it over to the director. If you make it out of the tunnels, McIntire, you're part of the chain. Others have the same orders; you're just the end of the domino line. Am I understood?"

They both nodded.

"Good. This is Mr. Gus Tilly, the man responsible for us even having a fighting chance is this mess. Gus, this is Lisa Willing, U.S. Navy, and Sarah McIntire, U.S. Army."

Gus smiled and again dipped his head in acknowledgment. "The military's changed a mite since I was in, progress ain't all bad, I guess."

"Gus, will you make the introductions?"

Gus took a deep breath and removed the bedsheet from his friend. Lisa and Sarah both stared wide-eyed at the small being that stood on the table, its large eyes blinking in the bright light. Matchstick looked around nervously until it saw the friendly faces of Gus, Jack, and the colonel.

"Ladies, this is Matchstick. He's what you might call one of them little green men."

Lisa allowed her mouth to do what it wanted. It fell open. Sarah actually laughed and clapped her hands just once. Her smile was from ear to ear as she stepped up to the small alien. She looked at Jack, who in turn mouthed the words Go ahead. She slowly brought her hand up and held it in front of Matchstick.

"Well, don't leave the lady hangin', son, shake her hand," Gus said.

Mahjtic looked from Gus to the woman in front of him. Then it slowly brought its small hand up. The long fingers gently touched and slowly wrapped around her smaller ones.

Sarah turned to Lisa and took her hand. "Kind of justifies what we do here, doesn't it?"

Lisa just kept her eyes on Matchstick as she slowly closed her mouth and smiled.

Jack pulled Sarah away from the small group and walked her outside.

"Listen, I have been thinking of something. Do you have your virtual map of the geologic formations of the mountains surrounding us?"

"Yeah, I have it right here," she said.

"Can I see it? I have an idea."

Julie, Billy, and Tony were now being led into the very hole Julie had stared into when she'd entered the kitchen. She had pleaded with the blond-haired Frenchman to let her son and Tony stay behind. But he'd insisted, although politely, too politely Julie thought, and they went along.

Three members of the Frenchman's commando team were the first to rappel into the hole. It wasn't but thirteen feet deep below the surface of the kitchen when it trailed sharply off to the south and down. The tunnel was about six and half feet in diameter and smooth around the circumference. The smell was that of a slaughterhouse, with that coppery odor. Julie noticed as she inched her way down the rope that blood was smeared and splattered on the tunnel's smooth and shiny surface. She silently prayed it wasn't Hal's.

She waited for Farbeaux to land on the tunnel floor, then she approached him, shrugging off the hands of one of his men.

"What is it you expect us to do?" she asked.

"Do? Why, nothing. You may buy my men and me some valuable time, if and when we run into our guests down here." Farbeaux smiled and not too gently moved past her and deeper into the black void beyond. He knew a small sample of this animal's DNA would be highly valuable on the open market, and he might need the lives of the three Americans to deal his way out of town.

Niles was on the video link with Virginia Pollock discussing the autopsies of the animals they had recovered. Alice listened in.

"Basically, we're in deep if that third generation is born. There'll be just too many of them to contain. And you saw the confrontation with those air force fighters. They had adapted well to the lightness of this atmosphere, although we are not sure the parent doesn't have that same ability because we haven't seen her yet. In any case, they were trying to seek the limits of the valley and were possibly sending scouts out before heading for greener pastures when they were attacked by the air force."

Niles rubbed his weary eyes and looked at Alice, then back to the camera.

"What makes you think they haven't already escaped? They could be well on their way to Phoenix, or Albuquerque."

"The autopsy of the mangled animal we pulled from one of the holes that were bombed indicated they were void of digested food. That's why they broke from the main pack, to scout the surrounding area because they're hungry. We've removed their food source by evacuating the civilians, so we believe the rest will seek nourishment anywhere they can before setting out," Virginia answered.

Niles gave her a worried look. "The only food in the area is the teams on the ground."

"Yes, that's the obvious conclusion."

Suddenly Jack appeared on the screen with Sarah by his side.

"Niles, I've come up with something here. It might be the backup plan we need." Jack nodded toward Sarah, who removed her helmet.

"Mr. Compton, do you have virtual reality map 00787 there with you?" she asked.

Niles reacted quickly and punched in the command on his desk keyboard. As they watched, a tight, multicolored view of the valley popped up on the screen. Niles quickly looked it over and made sure the map numbers matched.

"Got it," he said as Alice joined him in front of the large screen.

"Do you see the eastern end of the valley?" Sarah asked.

"Yes," Niles said.

"Now, the major caught this little item and I missed it. See the rock stratum goes down into the ground at some points more than two thousand feet, but at the eastern end it tapers out to almost nothing, and there is an actual gap in the ring of mountains at the easternmost end. The rock stratum is virtually nonexistent."

"I don't get it, what are you saying?" Niles said.

"Niles, the animals will try to exit the valley through the point of least resistance. They may just choose the eastern range, because of the shallowness of the mountain stratum in that area. It's a funnel, Niles, a funnel!" Collins said.

Compton finally got it. "A trap of some kind?"

"Right, we need an engineer company at the point where the mountains dip down to nothing, where there is no rock deep enough. We need them there with one of the packages from MacDill, placed about a thousand feet down ought to do," Collins said.

"I get you, Jack, but what in the hell is going to keep them from heading to the shallow point before we're ready?" Niles asked.

Alice understood and grabbed his arm. "The tunnel teams have to keep them busy for a while, Niles, that's all."

The director stood and looked at Jack and Sarah. "The only way you can do that is to make yourself targets, Jack. You're there to try and flush them out, and that's their goddamn territory down there!"

"Niles, can you get the engineers there ASAP?" Jack asked.

"They'll be there, Major," said a voice from the doorway that caught them off guard.

Both Alice and Niles turned to see Senator Lee standing in the doorway leaning on his cane. He was wearing a red robe and slippers and was staring at both of them. Alice and Niles both stood in shock at seeing him there.

"Thought you could get rid of me that easy?" he said as he glared at Alice. "You have to do more than hide my pants, woman, you... you usurper."

Alice finally gained back some of her senses and threw her pad on the desk. Niles didn't know what to do, so he did what came naturally lately, he plopped back down into his chair, shaking his head.

"You need to be back at the clinic!" Alice said, going to Lee's side and helping him to the couch.

"Now, can someone fill me in on how this war is going? Or do I have to wait for the damn movie?"

Niles explained Jack's plan to the senator, who sat and listened with his eye closed.

"Jack, I know exactly what you need, and maybe I can get you some bait out there to ensure the animals' participation in their destruction. You two go on with your mission and we'll take care of everything from here."

"Yes, sir, nice to see you decided to go to work today," Jack said, and smiled into the camera, placing his hand on Sarah's shoulder and walking away from the camera.

"Okay, smart guy, what do we do to take advantage of knowing where they will run if they get by the tunnel teams?"

"Well," Niles said while eyeing Lee, "as Jack said, we order some engineers into that gap in the mountains and drill a hole as deep as we can and then booby-trap it. One neutron bomb should do, no radiation. That may just finish them and break their backs, unless they just go deep under any rocks in the immediate stratum and go under the mountains at some point."

"We may be giving these animals too much credit," Lee said. "I mean, are they sentient or just wild beasts? We don't know, and our only choice is to treat them as animals. So maybe they will take the path of least resistance just like the major said and go where they don't have to dig deeper. We must hope they are driven by their metabolism, not their brains. So, where we stand is, we need their path to be failsafe and very, very tempting. Get every head of cattle left in that valley and get them to that gap."

Niles didn't comment but just nodded and marked the break in the mountains with his finger, drawing a line that bled into the map as his finger passed.

"So there it is, the line has been drawn, huh, Niles? Now get on the horn and tell the president Jack's fallback plan," Lee said. "If the tunnel teams fail, Major Collins may have to do the unthinkable."

Niles looked at Lee and shook his head, hoping it wouldn't come to that.

"After you get done there, Niles, we have to sit down and discuss a little e-mail I just received from a traitor in the midst of our enemies. It seems after this is all over, we have an old friend we have to go meet in New York."

Alice and the senator sat on the couch exchanging gentle words. It seemed whatever e-mail Lee had just received was like a tonic that gave him a breath of new life and a new mission.

Niles connected with the president. "Sir, Major Collins has come up with a rather ballsy backup plan. Are you ready for this?"

Collins followed Sarah, catching her just as she was walking up to Everett and Lisa. "You watch yourself, don't pull any hero crap out there." He stopped and looked her in the eyes and then at Lisa. "Because in my experience, a hero is a sandwich." Then he gave her a soft smile and turned away and left.

Sarah smiled sadly at Lisa and Everett, then joined the line to get her body armor, leaving Lisa and Everett alone.

"I've decided something," Lisa said as she watched her friend leave.

"And that is?" Everett asked, not caring who saw them talking with each other. At this point, Congress could climb into one of those cursed holes and go straight to hell.

"I'm resigning from the navy."

"No, now that Jack is on board, the Group's security is in the best hands possible. It's me who's resigning."

Lisa couldn't speak.

"That means as soon as this thing's over, we're going to your folks in Houston and we're getting married. That's an order."

She smiled and hit him in the shoulder. "Ow" was all the big SEAL said.

Man has always been wary of the darkness and thus has followed the path laid bright by the moon; therefore I shall steal the moon glow and blacken the night... and show him just why he is afraid of the dark.

-- ANCIENT HEBREW TEXT