Chapter 11

"I'm pleased that you saw fit to see me, Chairman," Chief Blacker said. He bowed formally to the youngish looking man behind the glass desk. "The matter is most urgent, as you can see from the files I've sent you."

"Hmm," said the man. His name was Hedron. At thirty-six, he was the youngest ever Chairman of the board of Tomlin Corporation, the organization that many Fortune 500 companies depended on to keep Industrial Espionage at a minimum.

Blacker stood uneasily, waiting for a more appropriate response from the man behind the desk. He had the idea that this man knew more than he was letting on. 'He might already know about the existence of alien technology here on earth. He might try to cut me out of the game... '

"You should be made aware, Mr ... Blacker," the man said, finally, "that the situation has changed during your journey to our ... beautiful country."

He cleared his throat before continuing. "The, um, female ... the second one, I mean, has reunited with the original. They are both now at the Pestova residence. It seems that she and the Tabors went on a field mission last night and rescued the daughter of an associate of mine. Evidently, these 'X' file females also do field work for Tabor Investigations; another item missing from your report.

"The girl evidently used their special transportation device to extract the victim from her abductor and managed to seal her kidnapper into a bomb shelter built beneath a night club called Renee's. It's in Bozeman, a small town in Montana, I believe. The kidnap victim's name is Maddie Connors, the sole heiress of Conners Industries. I understand that the police are currently trying to burn their way into the bomb shelter. They haven't had any success, as of yet.

"This is somewhat of an embarrassment to us, Mr. Blacker," the man continued. "We have been looking for the young lady for almost two months, and a rival agency that you, according to your report, have been monitoring, just walks in with no preamble and plucks her out of an almost impregnable fortress.

"They were successful on their very first sortie, Mr. Blacker. I've perused the security tapes at Renee's. These people knew what their objective was before they even entered the premises. They created an unbelievable diversion, skirted all of their security precautions, then did a complete 'Judas Goat' to gain entry to their underground facility and successfully extracted the kidnap victim.

"And I have no idea how they did any of it!" the Chairman concluded angrily. "I have read your report that you believe these girls belong to an alien species; that they have 'gifts' of long life, 'special' mental abilities, and a 'teleportation device' which they employ to move from place to place.

"Some of these things may be true," the Chairman conceded, "but I don't like reading reports that sound like science fiction is necessary to 'explain' how something is done. Do you understand? The only part that has been demonstrated to be true is that they have a superior method of transportation! They can move from place to place, seemingly instantaneously.

"That they also have a new method of gaining information is obvious," the Chairman added. "Their new method could enhance our organization beyond even my imagination to measure it. It also appears that they have developed a method of negating the effects of your thugs standard drug overdose. I want to know how they do it.

"So, Mr. Blacker, you have your assignment. On the table by the door are discs containing an 'interview' with the doorman of Renee's club, the security feeds from there, and reports from our agents for the last twenty-four hours. There is also a disc with the security feeds for the last twenty-four hours from the MAS-DEC system you had secretly installed at the Pestova residence – unbeknownst to your superiors at that time, I might add. The data ... is quite interesting."

Knowing he was dismissed, Mr. Blacker bowed and turned toward the door. He was furious. The Chairman was being very generous considering the apparent oversights he'd committed in executing his duties, and the fact that he'd been conducting clandestine operations without upstairs approval. As he stopped and picked up the envelope at the door, he heard the Chairman clear his throat again. He turned back toward the center of the room.

"Yes, Mr. Chairman?" he asked. 'He can still push that button before I can get out the door ... I have to be very careful not to upset him further!'