Chapter 19

Frank woke up. He was lying on a litter on the ground. The sky was lit with a bright orange glow coming from somewhere behind him. He sat up and looked around. Jake lay next to him on another litter. His face and arms were wrapped in gauze. Tanya was kneeling on the ground next to Jake, the unsteady orange glow illuminating her tear-streaked face. Frank sat up to see where the glow was coming from.

"What happened?" he asked, when Tanya rose and came to his side. "What's wrong with Jake?

"We had to pull him out of the fire," Tanya said, her voice breaking with grief. "He went right into it trying to get her out."

Frank looked at Tanya. He'd never seen her look so miserable. He touched her cheek, running his finger through the mascara tracks her tears had caused. Then he noticed that her hair and face was singed. Her eyebrows and lashes were completely burnt off. Taking her by the hand, he noticed that her acrylic nails had melted around the ends of her fingers.

"Oh, Frank!" she sobbed, collapsing against him. "It was awful!"

Frank held her close and let her cry for a moment. Then he noticed something.

"Tanya," he said, suddenly fearful. He wasn't sure he wanted to know. "Where's Béla?"

Tanya stopped sobbing. She pushed herself up and looked into his face.

"She ... she's," Tanya couldn't say it.

Instead, she looked toward the orange glow that was lighting up the area. Frank turned around to see what Tanya was staring at. The iron skeleton of a small sports car was burning fiercely.

"She's in there," he heard Tanya whisper.

They held each other for a long time, staring into the flames.

A soldier, running from the helicopter toward a group of officers, attracted their attention.

"Sir," they heard him say, "Our communications are being blocked and there's something on the radar you should take a look at. It's coming from the South. And sir, it's big. I mean, really ... big. Sir."

Frank and Tanya looked up at the crescent moon that had risen a few hours earlier. As they watched, it disappeared. The stars were going out one by one, from the southern to the northern horizon, as though someone was closing a vast curtain to shut away the entire sky. In another moment, all the stars were completely gone.

A beam of blue-white light appeared in the center of the road near the helicopter. A white-haired man stood in the center of that, the light causing his skin to glow an eerie shade of blue as well. And although his lips didn't move, everyone seemed to hear what he was saying.

Frank and Tanya were the closest to this incredible being bathed in its strange blue light and making its declarations about the survival of everybody on Earth. Frank stood up, pushing Tanya's arms away as she gripped his shoulders tightly to pull him back down to her in her terrified desire to remain unnoticed.

"Who are you to determine the fate of an entire planet based on the actions of one insane murderous individual?" he demanded, shouting loudly to make sure the god-like being heard him. "You think that I don't feel pain because your... 'Daughter' ... is dead? I loved her, too. And my soul hurts that she is gone!

"But that doesn't make me want to kill everybody!" he concluded. "What kind of an advanced civilization are you to make such a sweeping decision as to wipe out an entire planet because somebody did something you didn't like?"

The strange being in the brilliant blue beam of light turned toward the smaller human who had spoken so angrily. Although his lips still did not move, all those present could hear the being's words in their minds.

'We are not destroyers, ' the being seemed to speak directly into Frank's mind. 'The destruction of this world will occur during the natural progression of events common in the universe – from creation to destruction – and I have not the power to prevent your world from dying.'

Frank stared, stunned, suddenly aware of the frailty of the thin blue being as it glowed in the light. The awe-inspiring power emanating from its glowing presence became a simple light trick to Frank's mind, something that was being used to overawe the indigents. 'That means us!' Frank realized, his temper rising.

"You are not some all-powerful god, then, come to wreak vengeance on humankind?" Frank declared angrily, his voice sounding loud even in his own ears. He couldn't believe he was standing up to this alien creature who had an untold amount of power available to do anything it pleased, which just might include squashing him for being argumentative! "What could Béla have done, then, to save us all? She was just a girl. An alien girl, maybe, but – just a girl!"

'The purpose of my last daughter, ' the alien mentally intoned, 'as was my son's, was simply to guide. My son was a philosopher; my daughter, a harlot. My son tried to teach, individually and collectively, that there is a better way to live; a better way to treat others. He was hanged for his efforts, so I enabled him to return to me. My daughter sought out the baser elements of your society and tried to persuade them to improve. She was killed many times in her efforts to improve your animalistic nature. Now that her body is completely destroyed, her life on this world is over. I now take her back.'

As the alien being delivered his message and faded from view, another beam of light lit up the skeletal remains of the burnt out sports car. The fire simply went out as the light touched it and, after a moment, dust and ash began swirling in the air and traveling up the beam of light. When the beam of light was clear again, it vanished, leaving them in darkness.

"What about the fiery conflagration he mentioned?" Tanya quipped from her seated position beside Frank. "The one that's going to kill us all?"

Frank simply shrugged, then looked over at Jake, who had missed everything.

"What am I going to tell him?" he asked no one in particular.

Two months later:

Frank and Tanya stood together holding each other's hand. Tanya was trembling with excitement, her stomach full of butterflies. Her teeth were clamped together and she held her mouth tightly closed to keep from grinning like a silly schoolgirl.

She looked at Frank. He looked comically boyish in the tuxedo he was wearing. Jake looked just as out of place for the same reason. She was sure she looked just as silly in her gauzy blue gown and veil. For the first time, she was glad her gown was stiff and her bodice was tight. She felt it was the only thing holding her up.

Jake was being prompted for the ring. He handed it to Frank. Tanya held out her hand and Frank slid the ring onto her finger.

The minister said, "Repeat after me: 'With this ring, I, thee wed',"

Frank repeated the phrase, "With this ring, I, thee wed,"

The minister went on, "to be your companion for life,"

"to be your companion for life,"

"for now, and forever."

"for now, and forever. Always," Frank added, gazing into his new bride's eyes.

"I now pronounce you husband and wife," the minister said, making the sign of the cross. "You may kiss the bride."

Organ music broke the tension with the traditional fanfare. Frank pulled Tanya into his arms, kissing and hugging her tightly. Everyone behind them was cheering and clapping. Jake's eyes shone with unshed tears as he gazed at them during this happy moment.

The reception at the Target Club was crowded. Half the staff from Military Intelligence was there all decked out in their uniforms. Many of the patrons from the club were there as well, including Adam and his new fiancée, Edith. Adam introduced Jake to her.

"I'm so happy to meet you," Edith told him. "Any friend of Adam's is sure to be a nice person. Adam is just so sweet and the kindest..."

They both offered their condolences and regards for his loss. As Adam shook Jake's hand, the tears shone in both their eyes. In his own way, and much too late, Adam had loved Béla, too. Jake wondered if Béla somehow knew that she'd succeeded in improving at least one person's outlook on life. Adam was no longer a bully.

Jake left the reception early. Everything around him existed as a result of something that Béla had done. Despite the fact that she would never have believed it, she had made the world a better place in which to live. And now she was gone.

The two surviving rogue agents that MI had captured fingered Charles Blacker, a Gallatin Heights police officer who worked in Forensics as the person who had put them onto Béla's trail. Plus, Blacker's fingerprints had been found on the unexploded car bombs recovered by the Military from beneath Frank's car and Jake's pickup.

In his defense at his hearing, Charlie had said he 'wanted to make sure none of those monsters got away'. He produced the evidence he had collected as a Crime Lab officer that the woman he killed was, in fact, a murderous monster, and an evil creature of the night who had probably lived for centuries, murdering people in their sleep.

Testimony from other police officers in his precinct invalidated Charlie's evidence. The precinct lieutenant was able to prove to the judge that Charlie had actually contrived the evidence he had presented to protect himself.