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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 4994328" data-attributes="member: 143">Session 8 (June 2, 2008)Chapter 25Vasily groaned as pain accompanied the return of consciousness.  He blinked to see James kneeling over him.  “Aliens?”“All down.”  “Everybody all right?” “Buzz will have a headache for a while, but we’re all otherwise intact.”Vasily grimaced as James lifted the tri-prong injector he’d used to deliver a second dose of alien bio-material.  But the pain began to fade, accompanied by a surging lethargy that the Russian forced aside with a considerable effort.  He didn’t turn down the hand that James offered to help him up, though. He glanced around the restaurant.  “Where… where she go?” he asked, shooting a hard look at Jane.  “She just disappeared,” Jane said. “She got gun, she could commandeer Skyranger,” Vasily said.  “Ken even got gun?”Their communicators buzzed.  “I’ve landed just outside the main entrance to your building,” Ken said.  “We’ve got company coming here, a full platoon of soldiers coming up the street.”“We need to go,” James said.  “Everything secure here?” Jane asked.“We got what the aliens were carrying,” Catalina said.  “No time,” Vasily said.   They emerged from the main doors back into the street, the light and heat hitting them like two hammers.  The Skyranger was there as promised, waiting for them, but so was a large group of soldiers, led by a man shouting orders who did not look pleased to see them. “Somebody tell me what the sam hell is goin’ on here?” he yelled, his voice tinged with more than a hint of the Deep South.  “Who the hell are you people?”“Somebody else best do talking,” Vasily said quietly. Catalina stepped forward, gesturing subtly for James to accompany her.  “Special Branch of FBI, fast response unit,” Catalina said, her British accent suddenly gone.  “So, where are you guys from?” James added, wiping blood off of his shoes.The soldier, who wore the oak leaf of a lieutenant colonel, turned to Catalina.  “FBI?  Look, ma’am, I’m just a soldier, career army, but I’m no idiot.  We just saw some freakin’ weird-ass bodies back there, and I got orders to clean me up this here whole district, which includes the—” He was cut off by a subordinate, who ran up holding a portable radio. “Sir.  Radio message coming in.”“Well now, Jenkins, give it here,” the colonel said.  “Sir, yes, it’s Randolph.  We got us...” he paused for a moment, listening.  “Yes, yes, that’s them.  There’s these bodies…  Sir.  Ah, yes, sir.  Whatever you say.”He lowered the radio and looked at Catalina.  “You’re free to go.”“But sir,” one of the other soldiers started, only to be cut off by a hard look from the colonel.  Catalina nodded, and walked past him to the Skyranger, the hatch opening to greet her.  “Told you, Special Branch,” she said, climbing on board the aircraft.  The others followed, while the colonel remained shouting orders behind them.  They could still hear him, the soldiers backing away as Ken fired up the engines of the Skyranger, until the hatch finally closed, leaving the chaos of the street scene behind them.</blockquote>

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