Event

either side of another man.

The president ignored the three and turned his attention to the phone and punched the intercom. 'Marjorie, you can connect the call now.'

'Collins.'

'Major, we're done here, and New York corporate is in the bag. Tell Senator Lee to have fun,' the president said.

'Yes, sir.'

'Oh, and, Jack, I want you to know I couldn't have been more wrong about trying to hide you away like I did. That was some damn good soldiering in the desert; I want you to know that you can have any combat command you so choose.'

There was silence for a moment, and then Collins said, 'I have a command already, Mr. President, I think I'll stay in the desert air for a while.'

'Then, good luck, Jack, you take care of Director Compton for me.' The president silently laid the phone into its cradle, then he looked up at the man standing handcuffed between two Secret Service agents.

'Now, what to do with you, Agent Davis,' he said as he closed his eyes in thought.

The Sage Building, Midtown Manhattan

Collins looked at the senator, who was quietly sitting in the foyer of the Sage Building, as Jack closed the cell phone after speaking with the president. The receptionist was sitting in a chair behind his ornate desk in a shiny new pair of handcuffs not saying a word as two agents from the FBI's New York office flanked him on either side. The senator tapped his cane, and Jack stood and assisted Lee to his feet. Alice had wanted to be here but Garrison wouldn't allow it.

Collins winced from his healing ribs as he helped the older man to his feet. Everyone had tried to convince him not to go, but he had to be with Lee when he did this.

'Before we go down there, Jack, I want to say thank you for staying with the Group. We need you here. Niles will need the strength of a strong arm as the Group starts recruiting replacements for all the people we lost,' the senator said sadly.

'Niles is going to be just fine, it's an honor to stay and help him.'

Lee nodded his head. 'Let's go down and meet an old friend, shall we?'

On the ride down on the ornate and secure elevator, Jack looked at the senator and knew that time had finally caught up with the old man and he was showing his age. The cane wasn't much of a support anymore, and his hair had thinned since the Event in the desert had started. It seemed Lee had come full circle from Roswell to Chato's Crawl and the time had come to pay the bill. Jack looked away toward the five FBI agents who were accompanying them to the sublevels of the Sage Building, which had been a gift of another scoundrel who would be Jack's headache in the future: Colonel Henri Farbeaux.

The basement was where they were to meet the founder of the Genesis Group and Centaurus. The double doors slid open and the agents were the first out with their handguns drawn but placed at their sides. They had been the souls of propriety as they had taken all the security people into custody an hour before. Most of the detained men were former soldiers of the U.S. armed forces and were quite surprised at being pushed around by federal agents. They must have been used to doing all the pushing, Jack thought, then wondered if he had just witnessed some of the infamous Men in Black. If they had been, they didn't look all that formidable when faced with men who could shove back.

Jack helped the senator out of the elevator, and they turned to see a well-lit riser with two large glass enclosures. In the left enclosure there were three aluminum cases, tilted up at an angle, and they could see these contained the original bodies from the Roswell crash site, as they were illuminated with spotlights hidden in the ceiling above. Lee shook his head and then looked at the reconstructed saucer in the giant glass-walled viewing room on the right. Then he let his eye settle on a lone figure sitting in a large wheelchair facing the viewing area. Collins helped the senator down the small incline and past rows upon rows of theater seating. They approached the man cautiously as the FBI agents had their weapons drawn and half aimed at the figure sitting in the chair. Collins helped Lee into another, smaller chair to the right of the solitary man, and then Lee waited, placing the cane between his knees and leaning on it.

'You were alive all this time,' Lee said aloud.

The old man in the large high-backed wheelchair didn't turn at the sound of the voice. He continued to stare at the saucer behind the glass.

'My son tells me that you had another encounter. This is true?' Charles Hendrix the elder asked.

Garrison looked at the haggard form of Hendrix; he seemed to be aging right before his eyes. The man who had been helped by Curtis LeMay and Allen Dulles to disappear in a false death these many years.

'Yes, another came down,' Lee answered as he turned away and looked at the saucer encased in glass.

'The animal and crew?'

'All dead,' Lee answered.

Hendrix sat motionless for a moment. 'You know, I've had years to think on this. The Grays will soon tire of doing things the easy way, and sooner or later, for better or for worse, they will come themselves,' Hendrix said as he finally looked his old antagonist in the eye.

'That's what we at the Group conclude,' Lee said. Then he looked away, then slowly back. 'Hendrix, I believe your Mr. Farbeaux has given the location of my men from 1947.'

Hendrix smiled and chuckled and then pointed to his right temple. 'They're right here, Lee, they never left. They've been with me and have never left. So why don't you just leave them there? Remember what I told you a long time ago, controlled violence. You never had the guts to carry inside of you the responsibility that had to be taken upon oneself to truly secure this country. I did, and I have the ghosts in here to prove it.' Hendrix tapped his head hard with his right finger. 'Right in here, Lee,' he said louder, then grimaced for a moment as he was momentarily frozen with pain.

'All my staff, the civilians and the young soldiers and airmen that were lost, and you may have been able to help them with the knowledge your company has learned over the years from Roswell. Why didn't you help?' Lee asked.

Hendrix looked at the senator again and once more grimaced in pain. 'In many ways Centaurus helped those boys, helped with some of the equipment they used to fight the animals with. The same equipment that will be used time and time again to defend this country.' He grabbed lightly at his chest, wrinkling the large coat he wore. 'You are still a Boy Scout war hero, Lee,' Hendrix said too low for anyone but Garrison to hear.

The old man reached for the inside of his coat and shakily brought out his nitroglycerin pills and fought with the tin lid of the ornate pill carrier. Then he fumbled it and the small pills fell to the floor, a few landing in Lee's lap. Hendrix looked at Lee with sad eyes and the senator returned the stare. Then Lee brushed off the fallen pills and stood, waving Jack away as this time he did it without the use of his cane. Then he bent down as Hendrix's eyes started to flutter as he went into the opening throes of a heart attack.

'Controlled violence? I guess I finally understand what you were getting at after all,' Lee said. 'It seems I just now realized I am capable of it.'

He gestured for the FBI agents to assist Hendrix, but knew the old man had only moments more to live.

'Let's go home, Jack.'

Near Roswell, New Mexico

July 22

On a desolate piece of land once worked by a rancher named Mac Brazel, Senator Garrison Lee felt he had come home. He stood leaning on Collins and had an arm around Alice Hamilton, who raised her sunglasses and wiped a tear from her eye. As Lee watched, Niles Compton was leading the actions of the forensics team, who were removing the first casualties of the invasion from another world.

'I hoped not to get too emotional over this,' Lee said as a light, cooling breeze sprang up.

'Old man, it's all over now. You owe those men your emotions, they deserve anything we can give them, the least of which is the memory we have of their friendship,' Alice said as she used her handkerchief.

'You did the right thing, exchanging this for letting Farbeaux out of the country,' Jack said.

Senator Garrison Lee lowered his head, and finally a tear was shed as he watched Niles and his team bring the last body out of the ground where they had been buried and hidden close to sixty years before. Dr. Kenneth