with eyes the color of obsidian. The almond-shaped orbs again blinked, and the eyelids, to Gus's amazement, slid not down from the top but from the outer sides of the eyes. Then the small creature looked over at its rescuer, clearly in pain. The head was big, shaped like a lightbulb. Not a hair was to be found on its light green skin. Dark green blood was covering most of the boy-sized body. Some had dried, and more was still flowing, albeit slowly from several small wounds. The creature slowly moved its hand away from its body and held it out toward the sky. The small, long fingers reached almost longingly toward the heavens, before falling back into the dirt at its side.
Gus looked up at the sky and then down at the slowly closing deepness of the being's eyes. The strange eyelids closed from the sides again, enveloping the eyes from the temples toward its small nose.
'I don't think I can get ya back to Mars or nothin' like that. Hell, boy, couldn't even get you to Phoenix, but maybe I can fix you up a little and get you to someone who knows just what to do with ya. And if you have a friend up there in them rocks, I don't believe I care to meet him.'
As Gus looked on, the eyes opened and the small mouth and thin lips tightened in either pain or anger, the old man couldn't tell. Then the large eyes roamed to the rocks above them for a moment as if it knew what Gus had said before. Then it turned back to Gus, and the thing's right hand came up and clenched around Gus's blue denim collar and squeezed, the eyes closing with pain at the effort. Then the grip loosened and the hand fell away. The eyes half closed and the small being shuddered.
The prospector reached down and took the small, broken body of the survivor in his arms. It weighed almost nothing as he lifted its small frame against his chest. The head rocked back with pain, then lay against the old man's dirty shirt. He only hoped his wildly beating heart didn't pound the poor thing to death.
Gus knew the injured being had passed out because the small body had lost its tenseness. He looked down into the now serene face. The features were soft, the mouth relaxed. He saw the small nose, no more than a bump with two little holes he thought were its nostrils. They were moving, so he assumed the creature was still breathing.
Gus shook his head and started toward the far end of the valley where he had entered. He steered a wide path around the large, ominous hole in the ground he had almost fallen into earlier. As he passed it, he didn't notice the small thing in his arms clench its fist in an unconscious gesture of fear. But the man did feel the terror engulf his own mind as he struggled out of the valley, leaving the mysteries of the crash site behind. But the image of that large hole and the feeling of being watched from the rocks remained, and the two memories pushed Gus forward as if Satan himself were on his tail.
The larger Gray watched the rescue of the keeper, the slave of its home world, and this time it let the growl escape its lips. Again it turned and watched as the man started his long struggle down the mountainside. The yellow eyes narrowed as it followed the retreating form. Again the nails scraped against the rock and left long scratches.
The Gray stood and limped toward the small opening in the mountain valley. It started tracking not only one, but two enemies of its kind.
TWELVE
Jack had been up since 0400 this morning going over his security staff files. His new department wasn't in as bad a shape as he'd originally thought. He had some real good men on assignment here. Sergeant Mendenhall had top scores in all his field evaluations. Jack figured with his record, the young man should be targeted for officer candidate school. He closed the file on Mendenhall and took a swallow of coffee. The cafeteria was just now filling up with personnel from all of the departments. He watched as a familiar face walked in yawning. As their eyes met, Sarah McIntire smiled and gave Collins a small wave of her hand. Jack nodded and went back to his files.
He placed Mendenhall's file aside in a group that included that of Everett and five others who would eventually compose his initial discovery team if the crash site was found. Across from that file was another larger grouping of paperwork that included lists of the equipment they would need to receive from logistics. He had been most impressed with the equipment the Group had buried deep beneath the sands, such as weapons and night- vision gear. His predecessor had been serious enough to at least know what was needed for field operations. Right now Collins was only guessing at what would be needed for this mission. But he did know that this site would have to be secured first at all costs. He took another sip of coffee and watched as Sarah McIntire turned to him as she took her coffee toward the door. He looked away quickly when she noticed him and smiled again.
Collins walked into the computer center cleaned and in a fresh blue jumpsuit after his post-breakfast mile in the athletic center. Alice had called and left a message for him to meet her there.
He stood and watched the buzz of activity. The whole time he had been studying his personnel files, his mind had been here, wondering how the search for the saucer was progressing. Technicians in white, static-free coats were at consoles, and others were walking around with printouts. Large flat-paneled screens lined the walls, while smaller ones were mounted at every workstation. The largest high-definition screen was located in the middle of the white plastic wall and was filled with a color map of the western United States, and as he watched, a computer-generated line started sectioning the various points into a grid. A small dotted line ran up from Panama through Mexico and then split off into several lines as it crossed the border into New Mexico. The major noticed that where the dotted lines entered the state, they had been changed to small question marks instead of dashes by some imaginative technician. On other screens he saw raw data and real-time images of desert locations that were obviously bouncing via satellites to ground stations. Niles was sitting at one of the technician desks and staring at the large screen as if he were hypnotized.
'Jesus, Dr. Compton had to pull a lot of strings and dish out favors from now until next century to get that many KH-1 Is on this,' Everett said, coming in after Collins.
'He did. The NSA is screaming bloody murder at the use of their bird,' Pete Golding, the Computer Center director, said. He was standing nearby, tapping at a set of computer keys.
Collins looked from Golding to the wall projections. 'Nothing on the crash site?'
'No.' Golding seemed irritated as he looked back at the two military men and then removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes. 'Damn thing isn't where we thought it would be according to the track we initially calculated.'
'Maybe it didn't go down at all,' Carl said.
Golding just gave the navy man a sour look, then abruptly turned and walked away.
'Forgive Pete, he and Niles are a little tired and on edge this morning,' Alice said.
'You look chipper,' Collins said.
'Old people don't require the sleep you young ones do.'
'It looks like Dr. Compton and Mr. Golding need to take five and get some shut-eye,' Everett remarked.
Alice tilted her head for a moment watching Niles, knowing he had been shocked by the file the senator had given him to read. She turned and eyed the two men standing next to her. 'He needs to be right here. You gentlemen better get used to the idea that we're basically on a war footing here. Never before has the center been placed on total lockdown and all departments deployed for one specific Event. Our need to find that crash site is paramount, absolutely paramount.'
'Where is the senator this morning?' Collins asked.
She smiled. 'He's sleeping, personal assistant ordered rest.' She winked at the men, then walked over toward the middle of the room and looked closer at one of the satellite images for a moment, then shook her head and stepped back. 'He may bellow and bark at the rest of us, but at least he still knows who is smarter. But I'm afraid both he and the president are taking tremendous heat from the Joint Chiefs about this incident. Everyone who's aware of our existence thinks we're way over our heads, and I'm afraid all the old agency enemies are coming out of the woodwork on this one.'
They stood there for a moment, not knowing what else to say, then Niles started raising his voice about something.
'This is why I called you both,' she said as Niles took a printout from one of the techs. 'This doesn't look
