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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 5002397" data-attributes="member: 143">Session 9 (June 9, 2008)Chapter 28When they entered the briefing room, the others were clustered around the big monitor in the wall.  Kim Wagner was reporting information as it arrived on her console, updating the track that was crawling across the map on the screen. “What’s the course now, Kim?” Garret asked.  He had a phone on one ear, with a communications headset in the other, and looked like he was carrying on several conversations at once. “The alien vessel is moving quickly over the Gulf of Mexico, heading north by northeast.”Garret glanced over his shoulder at the members of Alpha as they entered the room.  “Radar’s picked up an alien, small, moving fast,” he said, before turning back to the screen. “Over the eastern states?” Catalina asked, looking at the trajectory that continued to evolve on the map. “At its current course, it looks like it will pass over Florida, maybe South Carolina,” Kim said. “Oh good, swamps,” Buzz muttered.“That trajectory takes it over some heavily populated areas,” Catalina said. “Rest assured, we will deal with it when it enters United States airspace,” Agent Drake said.  The pilot Ken Yushi was sitting on the briefing room table behind the knot of people around the viewer.  “I don’t know, Agent.  It’s moving real fast,” he said. “Interceptor 1 is en route,” Garret announced.  “Time to intercept, Kim?”Kim entered a few calculations into her control console.  A new track, highlighted in green, appeared on the map.  “At current course and speed, nineteen minutes.” “Shouldn’t we be in the air?” Jane asked.  “Well, I think we should,” Drake began, but she was cut off by Kim.  “Wait!  I am reading another track.”“What?” Garret said.  “Another UFO?”Kim bent over her console.  “Yes,” she finally said, after a few seconds.  “Confirmed…”“Course and speed?” Garret barked. Kim looked up from her screen.  “It’s heading… it’s heading right for us.”“Here!” Grace exclaimed. There was a stir of exclamations around the table.  “Director, I need to attend to the missile battery,” Grace said. “Go, Grace,” Garret said.  She was gone in a flash, running before the outer door had slid fully open. “Excellent,” James said.  “We can wait for ‘em here, no need to fly.”“What bout other one?” Vasily asked. “The other one is still on its course,” Kim said.  The track of the second alien ship had appeared on the screen, its path pointing like a dagger toward the small blue square that represented the Nevada base.  “Interceptor 1 will be in range in twelve minutes.”“What about Interceptor 2?” Yushi asked. “Still being repaired,” Garret said.  “Should we be heading after the first?” Catalina asked.  “The second could be a decoy to distract us.”“Or maybe first is decoy, to draw us out before they attack,” Vasily said.  “Or maybe is just one big coincidence.”“Who knows what the hell is going on in those little gray heads of theirs,” Drake said.  “Anyway, is this not why we have two teams?” Vasily asked. “That’s what I was thinking,” Cat added.  “If we launch now, they’ll spot the base for sure,” Drake said.  “The second alien’s course is shifting,” Kim reported.  “It is… what is the English expression, to go back and forth?”“I think ‘zig zag’ is what you’re looking for, doc,” Yushi said.  Grace’s voice came over the intercom.  “Grace here.  The missile battery is armed and ready.”“Kim, status?  Is UFO 2 heading here, or not?” Garret asked. “It is continuing to ‘zig zag’, almost like a search pattern.”“Range to target?” Garret asked. “Seventy miles,” Kim returned.  Garret activated his communicator.  “Grace, what’s the range on the missile battery?” “Forty-five miles, give or take.”“Kim, range to UFO 2?”“Fifty miles, and closing.”Garret placed his fists down on the table.  “Then the question becomes, do we take the shot?”  He looked up at the members of Alpha, who formed a line along the far side of the table. “It not good if we can be stalemated like this,” Vasily said.  “What are you doing, asking them?” Drake said.  “Of course you take the shot!”“Kim?” Garret asked. “Forty-two miles.”“Enemy in range, but it’s a long shot, chief,” Grace’s voice came over the speaker. “They want us to reveal our position,” Jane said. “Oh, and your extensive experience tells you that, Swift,” Drake snapped.“If missiles keeping it messing about doing nothing, I say, keep missiles as deterrent,” Vasily said. “Kim?”“UFO 1 is… forty-eight miles off.  It’s moving away.”“You blew your chance!” Drake hissed.  “Now it will report back.”“Yeah, but it has nothing to report,” Stan said.On the eastern part of the map, the green line coming from the west had nearly bisected the red one coming up from the Gulf.  “Interceptor 1 has engaged UFO 1!” Kim said.  There was a period of silence, as everyone there watched the lines running across the map, as though they could reveal what was happening in the skies hundreds of miles away.  Finally, Kim bent over her console again.  Letting out a held breath, she said, “Interceptor 1 has reported an Avalanche hit on UFO 1.  The alien has gone down, is off our screens.”“Where did it go down?” James asked. “The Florida Everglades.”“UFO 2?” Garret asked.“Still heading away.  American fighter jets are moving to intercept, but I doubt they’ll catch it, at the speed it’s moving.”“Let’s get ready to launch to the Everglades,” Allen said.  “We need to recover that one, at least.”“Allen’s right,” Garret said.  “Get to Skyranger 1.  We’ll launch as soon as it’s clear that UFO 2 is clear and not coming back.”</blockquote>

Verification