Chapter 4

“Incoming transmission from Surveillance Team Alpha,” the wall secretary said in its mechanical voice.

“Thank you, Charles,” Blacker told the machine. “Open a line.” I’ve got to reset that thing with a female personality one of these days...

“Line open,” Charles, the wall secretary said.

“This is Chief Blacker.”

“Uh, Sir,” the voice on the other end of the line said. The loud whir of a rotor-powered flyer nearly drowned his voice. ‘That would be the personnel flier I issued to enhance Alpha team’s ability to observe the Pestova residence.’

The two aircraft Blacker had issued his Alpha and Beta teams were an all-plastic design with virtually no electronics, making each team invisible to any electronic navigational scanners or radar devices. They could go anywhere. If no one heard or saw their craft, no one would know they were there.

“Sir,” the voice continued. “We have retrieved the package and are in route to Safehouse 6 for debriefing.”

‘Retrieved the package? They actually captured one of the alien females from the Pestova residence?’

Blacker had begun to believe that the little cabin in the desert was a stronghold. The incredibly expensive MAS-DEC system had stopped transmitting its data within a few days of the females’ arrival. The most annoying thing about that was... ‘It still works for them!’

“Is the package intact?” Blacker asked. ‘Is she alive?’

“Negative,” the voice replied. “The package has been damaged.” ‘They had to kill her... ‘

“I’ll review the data,” Blacker told his inept operative. “I’ll debrief you personally!” This had better be good! They had strict orders to observe and not make contact! Somebody’s head is going to roll for killing that...

Calming himself and taking a deep breath, he sat back down.

“Charles, open the microwave package that arrived with that last transmission; large display.”

He sat back to look at what his surveillance team had recorded. Both surveillance teams had standing orders to observe and do not make contact unless capture was possible without damage.

Alpha team consisted of two members; Gary Terns and Joanna Cooper; both experienced trackers, both stealth and assassin trained. ‘It’s not like them to have to terminate their target in order to make a capture.’

The recorded feed from the scrambled microwave transmission began:

He fast-forwarded the recording while the team traveled over the rocks, traveling in the direction of the descending flitter, stopping when he noticed them talking again.