Event

width and also had small canisters attached to its top. Lee remembered it was the same container the small alien had insisted on seeing and touching. He came out of his thoughts as he realized that the animal the small being had called the Destroyer had been in this cage. It now made sense why the alien had to confirm to itself that the creature was dead.

'It's here, sir,' Hildebrand said, still looking at Lee with concern.

He followed him to the front of the enclosure. The professor leaned down and pointed to a large brown, jellylike mound on the floor of what Lee now knew was a live-animal cargo container. A disgusting smell emanated from it.

Lee suddenly turned away. 'Jesus, that's bad.'

'Yes, sir, it is. It looks like whatever it was had been completely covered by something that ate it down to this.' Hildebrand removed a fountain pen from his lab coat and slowly slid it into a liquid that had gathered on the floor around the gelatinous mound of material. As he lifted the pen, it slowly began to melt, first bubbling, then turning to liquid as the doctor threw it to the floor. 'We tested all three containers separately and received no reaction, but once the chemicals are mixed, it turns corrosive, more so than anything I've ever seen.'

Lee listened but didn't comment.

'There are other containers like this one, some small, some large, but none as big as this one, but they all have the same kind of substances in them. It may be genetic material that's been reduced to that,' Hildebrand said, pointing to the fluid substance at the floor of the cage.

'Get samples and be careful,' Lee said, suddenly tired.

'We did find this in the large container, or what I now believe may have been a cage, sir. It was embedded deep in the metal.' He walked over to a nearby table and brought back something for Lee to see. The object was some sort of appendage, large and curved. Its tip was like a shovel, sharp and seemingly serrated at its leading edges. It had to measure a good fifteen inches in length. Some kind of scaly flesh clung to its base.

'If I didn't know any better, I would say that is one hell of a big claw, sir,' the doctor said in awe.

Lee nodded, his thoughts turning to what the small being had said about the Destroyer. The director turned and walked away. His mind was traveling a hundred miles an hour. 'The Destroyer' he mumbled to himself as he entered the hangar's office once again. Could Brazel be right, could one of the saucers have brought the other down? Could this have been a... God, could this have been some freakish act of war?

The room was empty and he walked to the phone and dialed fifteen numbers. He waited for the clicks and the chirps to stop and for the phone on the other end to ring.

'Yes.'

'Mr. President, Garrison Lee reporting, sir,' he said into the black handset. He rubbed the bridge of his nose with his left forefinger and thumb.

'What's goin' on down there, Lee?' Truman asked.

He hesitated a moment as he gathered his thoughts.

'It seems, sir, our flying saucer may have been downed by a second, similar craft, and I believe it was brought down here, on Earth, on purpose.'

'Downed! Downed by whom?' Truman asked in confusion.

Lee waited until the famous 'Give 'em hell, Harry' temper subsided a little.

'It's all pretty speculative right now, but the craft may have been some type of container or cargo ship... and...' He hesitated. 'Hell, sir, I think you better sit down for this one.'

Present Day

Compton hadn't moved from his chair throughout the whole of the senator's story; he stared at his shoes, just listening. No questions had been asked by Jack or Niles, and the old man had finished uninterrupted. The senator had added more to the story than he had included in his written report those many years ago. After all, he had had years and years to theorize and piece things together to update his file. The theories fit. Throughout all of the recorded abduction reports made by citizens throughout the world, there had been two factions. One, the Gray beings that were encountered were aggressive and hostile, and two, the Green creatures were kind, gentle, and always benign. Therefore, Lee deduced there were two separate groups involved, one group aggressive and bent on invasion, the other passive and helpful, intent on stopping the Gray whenever they could. The theory fit the facts, and Lee embraced it.

Jack stood and slowly walked to the credenza and poured a glass of water from the pitcher, then walked back and placed it before Lee, repeating the scenario from the day before, only in reverse. The senator lifted his tired eyes toward the major and accepted the water in silence.

'Now you think the same thing has happened, another premeditated attack?' Jack asked.

'Yes, I'm not a believer in coincidence,' Lee answered. 'We don't have much time if that creature survived the crash; I just wish we knew what it was and its capabilities.'

Compton took a deep breath and stood. 'Speaking of which, I'm not getting anything accomplished sitting in here.' He started to turn away, then stopped and looked at Collins. 'I'm relieved the weight of this thing is not only on our shoulders now.' Then he left the conference room.

'This Event has haunted me for almost sixty years,' Lee said to the remaining two people in the room. 'Now another saucer is here again and we can't find it. I guess we need a break and hope God favors the lucky.'

'So what it boils down to is that we have to find the remains of this... Destroyer... and verify that it was killed by its present keeper or in the crash itself,' Collins said. 'If it has indeed followed the same pattern as the incident in '47, that would clearly explain the aggression of that second saucer yesterday and its attempt to keep our naval fighters out of the way.'

'There are so many variables to consider, Jack. For instance, the master-slave relationship as told by the being in Roswell. What if this time the animal's keeper isn't as benign as the last?'

There was silence for a moment and then Jack looked at the senator. 'We have very little information to go on without the testing that needed to be done in '47 on the animal's remains. Someone out there, whoever stole the debris and murdered the Event personnel, has vital information that may help in saving this planet if it comes down to that. What about this Hendrix? Where did he vanish to?'

Lee shook his head. 'He was killed in an air force plane crash two weeks after Roswell. And, yes, before you ask, I know it was that son of a bitch that hijacked the debris and bodies from Roswell. After I turned in my final report, Mr. Truman, as I suspected he would, bowed to the pressure from the Pentagon and their intelligence communities. Then Eisenhower, completely paranoid about anything he didn't fully grasp, buried it and we were out totally. The Event Group had essentially been pushed aside by the triumvirate of LeMay, Dulles, and Hendrix, and men like them, who ended up having the last say in the matter after all.'

A knock sounded at the door, stopping the question in Jack's head. Alice stood and walked to the huge double doors and pulled them open. Outside stood Carl Everett and a man in a green flight suit. Alice beckoned them in.

'Commander Everett,' she said, smiling, 'and you must be Lieutenant Ryan?' She stepped aside as the two men entered the room. 'I hope you had a nice rest, Mr. Ryan?'

'Yes, thank you,' Ryan said.

The senator stood and, using his cane this time for support, walked to greet the newcomer.

'Senator Garrison Lee, this is Lieutenant Junior Grade Jason Ryan, of the USS Carl Vinson' Alice said as the two men grasped hands.

'I understand you have had a trying experience, Mr. Ryan,' Lee said sadly.

Ryan was looking around the huge conference room while he shook the old man's hand. 'Somewhat, but I'll live. Senator?'

'I suspect you will live, son, and, yes, former senator,' Lee said, letting the man's hand go.

Ryan watched him turn and head back to the long conference table. Everett made the other introductions while Lee sat.

'I must admit, I've never seen the back room of a pawnshop before, but this is a little much,' Ryan said while still looking around him. Then he smiled as he took in Major Collins.

'I'm going to be blunt with you, Lieutenant,' Lee began. 'Your flying for the navy? Those days are over. We need information from you and we're also short on personnel. You are now a part of our group, so consider yourself