Monday morning came and Greggory's efforts to locate the survivors of the plane crash had failed. The Visitors
finally cancelled the search.

Diana was angry, but yet satisfied.  Today she would present her evidence against Juliet Parrish to Nathan Bates.
However, this was only part of her vendetta against Bates.  For in a few days, she would send Professor William Barnes back to work a new man.  One under her control.

Diana wasn't well liked among her peers and those under her authority.  And not everyone knew that she had climbed
up the ranks by killing her superior officers and by sleeping with the great leader himself... both matters for which she had no remorse.   Dressed up in her black and white uniform, she reached into a plastic storage container, pulling out a little white mouse.  It screeched with horror as she put it in her mouth, gulping it down.  She wasn't really fond of
these kinds of mice for the heartburn they gave her.  But she found comfort in a bottle of name brand antacids which her troops had found on a human subject.

Her next movements were over to the cupboard in which she had placed the items found on Terrance's expedition.  She intended to take the files to Nathan in just a while. She found the purse and coat  in her closet.  But the manila
file was not there.  It had disappeared.

She stormed out of her quarters in a rage, unsure of who to blame.  The thought of another Fifth Column growing
aboard her ship annoyed her.   There was nothing more that Diana hated then traitors among her own kind.  Many of those Visitors had remained back home, refusing to participate in the takeover of earth.  They were believers in the
religion of Zon.  Diana didn't believe in Zon, or any other meanings of Pretenama.  She only believed that a species must survive at all costs, and traitors would not be tolerated.

his little incident only strengthened her beliefs that  Julie was still involved with the resistance.  Now, it was up to her to find the one who was looking out for that woman.  Diana hated Julie almost as much as she hated Michael Donovan.  To rid the world of them both would be a great victory.  But she had to take it one step at a time if she
did not wish to look like a fool.

Her first intuition was to check with the house keeping  staff and find out who had cleaned her room last.  When she
arrived in sector J, she found the  orderlies  sleeping on their cots.  Turning the overhead lights on, she summoned
a couple of guards who had been standing out in the hallway.

"EVERYBODY UP!!"  Diana shouted.  Her metallic voice echoed throughout the dorm.

The seven rose to their feet and stood at attention.  Not a one of these aliens wore a human  disguise.  Diana observed them dubiously.

"Who cleaned my quarters last?!" she demanded.

None of them spoke.

"Somebody had better answer me.  Your lives are in danger!"

Still, no one answered.

"Very well then," she went on. "Since no one here wants to talk--"  She made a quick gesture to the guards and ordered, "Remove them and feed them to the crivits!"

The crivits were a special creature that the Visitor scientist had bred to put fear into humans and Visitors who
chose not to cooperate.  The creatures had hundreds of jagged teeth in their little reptilian mouths.  And they
devoured anyone or anything.  To be eaten alive was a cruel and agonizing way for one to die.

"WAIT!!" A male orderly said.  She turned to face him.  He continued upon her request.  "Janna is not here.  She
was on yesterdays schedule."

"Where is this schedule?!" Diana demanded and followed him to a nearby chart that hung on the  wall.  The
suspicion was confirmed.  "Where is this Janna now?"

"I do not know, your excellency,"  he replied.  "No one has seen her since yesterday."

Disgusted, she gestured to the guards once more.  "This one can live.  The others must die."

With that, she turned to continue her search. After an hour of looking through personal files and trying to locate the female orderly, Diana had found that Janna was a part of the Fifth Column, and had left the mothership yesterday.  Diana assumed that the girl would not return.
 
 

Nathan Bates was not having a good morning.  In fact, Diana had just showed up with her so-called evidence.  She
put the few items on his desks and explained, not that she really needed to.   "My officers retrieved these from a
cargo plane that they shot down over southern Colorado. That is your Dr. Parrish's identification and Michael
Donovan's coat."

Nathan turned away from the alien Supreme Commander to hide the glum expression on his face.  Not only had she been successful in making a fool of him, but so had Juliet Parrish.

"Did you also capture either of them?"

"No," she glowered.  "Unfortunately they were able to escape before we could get to them."

"Lucky for them," he said dryly.

"You don't believe me," she accused.

He gazed at her with a piercing stare.  "Should I?  Your people's technologies are so far ahead.  Surely you could
reproduce an article of clothing or a pocketbook?"

"Maybe you just don't believe that your sweet and innocent Julie would betray you!"

"You're wrong, Diana!  You have no proof of that--"

"She 'was' with Mike Donovan!"

"Diana, I have no say in her personal affairs. So unless you have proof that she was engaging in an illegal activity,
I suggest you leave."
 

Hours later, night had began to overcome the state of Colorado.  Near a small airport, Julie Parrish crouched to
the ground, checking the bullet chamber on her small pistol once again.  She and Donovan had walked for nearly a
day to get to this place.  And they were both worn out.  But the day's journey, had only been the beginning of their escape. Now came the more difficult part.  They both waited in the grass outside of the iron gates to make their move.  "Go ahead," she beckoned.  "I'll keep you covered."

Donovan ran, hurdling over the barbed wire fence, then fell to the ground.  Sprawled on his belly, he waited for the
search light to pass over him.  As soon as it had, he gathered  himself to his feet, running towards the metal
building which served as a hangar.

He hadn't liked the idea of letting Julie stay behind to cover him, but she'd insisted on it and he knew better than
to argue with her.  After all, it was his fault that they had gotten into this mess in the first place.

Julie knelt on the ground, just inside of the barbed wire fence, waiting for the security beams to pass by.  She
watched Donovan walk into the building.  Moments later, another persons shadow reflected against the building as he
entered it.  She could not discern whether the man was younger older.  But one thing she knew for sure was that he
was carrying some sort of rifle.  The search light passed over again and Julie ran, her heart thumping.

Inside the hangar, it was cold and dark.  Donovan moved slowly, and careful not to make a sound.  He was unaware of
his pursuer.  He felt around for a light switch, turning it on.  A row of small planes was revealed.  He smiled to
himself, feeling like a kid in a candy store.  All of these planes were much newer models than the one that the
resistance had been using.

"A common thief," his mother, Eleanor had once called him.  But Donovan felt no wrong doing in stealing a plane at
this present time.  The resistance needed a plane for pick up and transport of supplies across the United States.  And
besides, Ham Tyler was going to have a fit when Donovan had to explain to him about how the cargo plane had been
destroyed due to his own carelessness.  He couldn't think about that now...

"HEY YOU!!"

Mike Donovan jumped, then slowly turned around, raising his hands.

"Yeah, you," the man said.

Donovan studied the grim expression on his face.  The man looked about fifty, with his grey, thinning, hair.

"That's it, keep those hands up!"  The man gestured with his rifle.

Donovan said nothing, silently admitting to himself that he was scared.  He wondered if Julie was okay.
 

Julie backed up against the outside of the building, right near the main entrance.  She listened for Donovan to
summon her with a whistle.  But instead, she heard the other man's voice.

 "What are you doing in here?"

 "I uh--" Donovan gasped.

Julie stepped into the hangar with her little 22 automatic cocked and aimed at the man.

 "HOLD IT!!" she said.

 The man turned to face her as she warned him, "You better put that gun down real nice and slow."

His gun stayed risen, and unaimed.  He made no attempt to obey her command.

"Don't think that I won't kill you.  Put your gun down!" she ordered.

Her blue eyes were deadly.  It was an expression that Donovan had seldom seen her give.  He Knew that she meant
business.

The man gave her a twisted smile, aiming the barrel of his rifle at her, and putting his finger around the trigger.

"NO!" Donovan shouted before he could catch himself.

Juliet squeezed the trigger.

POW!!!  The gun cried and the old man fell to the floor. An endless flow of red oozed from his chest, soaking the
flannel shirt that he was wearing.

Julie's mind was racing.  But her body was not.  She approached her victim and said, "Oh, God, I'm so sorry."

Donovan came over to her as she knelt down beside the man.

"Help me, Mike," she pleaded.  "I've got to save him."

"C'mon! We've gotta go!" he insisted.

"No, I can't just let him die!"

She was being unreasonable, he thought.  Or maybe she was just scared that the authorities would connect her to the
murder.  Regardless, they had to get out of here quickly.

"Yes, you can!  You have to!" he looked at her intently. "C'mon! Now!!" It was not a plea, but a command.  She did not budge.  He pulled her away, letting her feet drag against the concrete.

Once they reached the plane, she climbed inside, unaided.  Donovan followed her.  They sat down in the cockpit.  He
turned the engines on as bullets flew into the windshield. Julie ducked.  Donovan accelerated, heading straight towards the intruders, and out into the open sky.  Julie looked up at it as the airplane lifted off the ground.  She was still shaking, still in shock.

"C'mon, c'mon!"  Donovan shouted as he tried to gain speed. No one followed them.

At least five minutes passed before he relaxed after realizing that they were not in any present danger.  He glanced
over to Julie.  Her face was pale and soaked with tears.

"Hey, are you all right?"

"I just killed a man," she said angrily.  "Now I'm a murderer all because--" she caught herself wondering if it
were all totally his fault.   "I took four years of medical school to learn how to save lives.  And every since this war
came we've had to kill the Visitors.  You know I'm just now learning to accept that.  But killing a human being is
different," she began to cry.

"You saved my life-?" he reminded her as if he were truly grateful.

She shook her head.  "We shouldn't have been in there to begin with. We can't go around hijacking planes and
murdering people.  It's not right.  And if we believe that it is, then we're no better than the Visitors."

She was right.  But what more could he do or say?  Apologies weren't enough to undo the damage.  He knew that
Julie was truly ashamed of her crime.  He took her hand in his own, stroking it gently.  They stayed that way for the
remainder of the flight.
 
 

Continue to Chapter Five

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