“I will say this only once, fellow members of the council, to threaten her life again, to kill her now, when she has told the Texas Rangers everything that she knows, would be foolish in the extreme, it would only bring about that which we wish to conceal, that aliens do in fact walk amongst them.” Redh Madr stated evenly, coming down unconditionally on their leaders side. Many of the other council members also agreed with his statement, and so Sally`s life was safe, for the moment anyway. Had they known that Sally had told the Rangers only the barest details, they would definitely have sided with Jorman.
**********
At that very moment the alien commander of the North American continent was walking around a private mental clinic in Austin, Texas, it had few patients and even fewer staff. The patients that they did have were all female, and had been dumped there by the local authorities, the reason being was that the clinic offered terms that could not be refused. Now the alien commander was looking for more patients from the cities further away, again with the same bargain basement charges, knowing that no one cared too much about the level of care that these patients received. The women capable of child bearing lived and received excellent care, the other patients, mostly the elderly, did not. The clinic was run by alien clones, although they also employed a few human doctors and nurses, but ones who had been brainwashed.
The real aim of the clinic was to bring some of the aliens` embryos out of cryogenic stasis, just a few initially, it was to see how they coped with the germs, viruses and bacteria present on Earth. The clones had almost no problems at all, but the doctors wanted to see how very young Magentan children would cope. They have carried out trials on the Endeavour with excellent results using human females. Kidnapped and brainwashed, they carried the embryos for nine months and never complained. This would be the final test if successful, and would allow Phairlis to move rapidly ahead with his own plans. It would also mark the commencement of phase four, which was the phase that would see an infertility chemical added to all of the world`s water supplies, a chemical that had not yet been perfected, although trials of it were being carried out in another facility in Austin.
***********
In space the aliens that were in orbit around Uranus were becoming restless, the ones brought out of cryogenic storage, and they wanted the invasion to proceed a lot quicker, they had not signed on to sit inside of a space craft looking at a gas giant. They had read between the lines of the document compiled by Phairlis, the one listing all of the plans agreed by the government for the invasion of the sixth planet, and expected Phairlis to make the invasion move a lot quicker. They now began to exert their own pressure front upon him.
In answer to their pressure, Phairlis sent a soothing message. “Have patience my friends, but soon you will be free to roam around the sixth planet, for I too tire of this farce.”
**********
On the planet Earth, Sally was also feeling decidedly bored, hiding away in her uncle`s house in Austin, and so she decided to go for a stroll to break the monotony of looking at four walls, that or daytime television. After watching daytime television, she was now considering the advantages of suicide over becoming brain damaged, and so a walk was more preferable. However, now that she had escaped the confines of her uncle`s house, as she walked the quiet back streets of Austin, she felt a little fearful of encountering one of the aliens, or even one of the humans who had been brainwashed. It was while her mind was taking time to dwell on this that she noticed Doctor Carlisle, an eminent NASA scientist, he had been one of the scientists who had been aboard the Mars Colony Two space craft, and he had returned to Earth along with Doctor Swenson. He was walking on the other side of the road from her, and luckily going the same way as she was, so he did not notice her. She was just about to turn around and hurry away before he did see her, for she had long assumed that the whole Mars team had been brainwashed and were now spies working for the aliens, either that or they had been replaced by alien clones, the option that she now most favoured. Just then, Carlisle turned into a yard within which sat a two storey commercial building. Sally looked across at the place, the repainting job on the fence around the yard was poor, for she could see the old paint at the very top of the fence that the decorator had left unfinished to give the site an unimportant look. Positioned on a large corner piece of land, the building looked relatively small, and much of it appeared to be unused. Through the open door that Carlisle had used, Sally saw a large yard meant for deliveries and some storage; the buildings were on the other three sides of the area. Walking past it Sally noticed an old sign painted on the sidewall, it told her that the place had one been used to provide ready-mix concrete.
She wondered about his reason for going there, of course he could just be dropping by to see an old friend, or a relative, but she refused to believe that. If she were right in her thinking that all the Mars colony team had been replaced by aliens, then he would not have a friend or relative to visit, would he? Sally crossed over the road and walked slowly back to the door through which Carlisle had entered. Looking in she saw a yard filled with large bags of something she assumed was to do with the building trade. There was no one about, save a security guard sitting just behind the door. Although she did not know it, the security guard was a human, one who had been brainwashed, the aliens would have preferred to exchange him for a clone, however, there were not enough of them to go around.
Excitement coursed through her veins when she saw that the security guard seemed to be more asleep than awake; she thought that she could easily enter unnoticed, and she really needed more information regarding the aliens if she were ever to make others believe that their world was in danger. No sooner had the thought entered her mind than she acted upon it, she quickly but quietly entered into the yard, ducking down out of sight of the guard until she was hidden by a large stack of the bags which all bore the name Houston Cement Works. She came to an open window, through which she could see Carlisle talking to two other men, who although she did not know it were clones. She hastily moved back out of view before one the men saw her, from her position near to the open window Sally could hear everything they said, and luckily, they spoke in English, for the aliens wanted to be fluent in the language. She eagerly listened to the conversation while keeping an eye on the yard, to ensure that she was not seen by whoever else working in the place.
“Carlisle, we need those results urgently, we have identified all of the delivery points in North America and are now ready to commence delivery. However first we need you to confirm that the latest version of the chemical is effective against the earthlings, especially after the chemical has been immersed in water for an extended amount of time.” Clone 1 asked.
“You have been testing the chemical for two years now; surely you must have some idea as to the operational effectiveness of it?” Clone 2 demanded to know. “Tell us now, what is the amount of Trichlorian Plus required per one thousand gallons of water, and how often should we add top up doses? With this information we can proceed with the field tests in some of the remoter areas of this continent.”
The two aliens waited impatiently for their fellow Magentan to supply the necessary information, as did Sally listening equally impatiently outside of the window, for she feared discovery for every moment that she lingered inside the factory yard.
“At the moment the dosage is high, too high for it to go unnoticed for the length of time that we require to be of use to us, I need more time to improve its effectiveness or we will fail.” Carlisle replied angrily. “I might be able to refine the chemical enough by the end of next month, but not before. As for when it will be necessary to add more of the chemical that is dependent upon the amount of water used each day. I have sent a detailed graph to your computers detailing everything that you will need to know.”
Clone 1 was not happy. “You will have to tell Consul Phairlis about the delay, and your excuses as to why the chemical is still not ready for delivery, because I will not be the one to tel
l him.” Clone 2 nodded vigorously in agreement but did not add anything.
Sally decided that she had heard all there was to hear and was turning to leave when she heard a door open, and then she heard someone walking across the yard. She could not see the person, but whoever it was would soon see her. She moved back behind a pallet of cement bags and crouched down; she hoped that she would remain hidden until the person had gone. The person was a man and he stopped to look in the open window through which Sally was getting so much information. He only had to turn and look down to see her, Sally was afraid now, really afraid, for these people here really were aliens, and if she were caught then she would either be killed, or tortured, or brainwashed, and she did not really relish any of the three alternatives. The man did not turn around though; instead, he opened a nearby door and walked into the building, no doubt to join the three men. However, Sally`s luck was not improving, as she had hoped when the man entered the building, a woman appeared at the top of a flight of steps at the rear of the factory yard, she could see Sally crouching behind the bags of cement and foolishly called out to her.
“Hey you, who are you and what are you doing snooping around the yard?”
Luckily, for Sally, the newcomer did not instantly realize what Sally was up to; else, she might have come down the stairs without alerting Sally to her presence. Sally jerked round to look up at the woman and almost froze, as fear made its presence felt, but it was the fear that made her turn and flee. The security guard in his shed woke up now and looked around when he heard the woman call out, and seeing Sally he made to leave his office. Luckily though for Sally, in his haste to get up his leg caught the leg of his chair and he tripped over it, and he fell hard against the door jam, his hand saving him from injury but slowing his response. However, by the time that Sally had reached the doorway in the perimeter fence through which she had entered, the woman was down the stairs and half way across the yard, and with the guard close behind her. Sally flew through this open door and ran for her life; the angels appeared to be on her side for a bus had just stopped to let off a passenger. Sally jumped aboard just as the door was closing, her pulse rate was in the danger zone by this time and her eyes were open wide in fear, however, the bus driver did not notice, he was too busy ogling the latest Ford Mustang that had just turned into the road from up ahead.
At the open door to the factory yard, the woman looked after her, memorising the face of the intruder, and as the bus pulled away, she returned to the office with the security guard to go through their computer in search of their mystery woman. It took them just five minutes to identify Sally.
“What did she overhear?” The woman asked, for she was supposed to be in charge of security at the yard, she now feared that she might soon lose this job.
“We were talking about Trichlorian Plus and how much dosage is required, but we never mentioned reservoirs, of that I am certain.” Carlisle replied anxiously.
“She already knows who we are, it will not take her long to realize just what we were talking about; we should report her snooping to Consul Phairlis immediately.” Clone 1 declared anxiously.
“She is a weirdo, no one takes her seriously, and if the authorities did come here what would they find? Nothing but a second rate cement works that is on its last legs. The laboratory and the Trichlorian Plus are safely concealed in the sub levels of this factory, they will never find them; they are too well hidden.” The woman remarked contemptuously.
Their contempt for humans meant that they did not report the incident to Consul Phairlis, who might at least have decided to increase security at the factory, he may even have decided to move Sally up to the top of his hit list, to either kill her or brainwash her. As it was nothing happened, and unknowingly Sally enjoyed another reprieve.
“Getting back to the Trichlorian, is there not a danger of it sterilising all animal life on the planet, leaving nothing here for us to eat?” Clone 2 asked anxiously.
“No, the water has to be heated up to a temperature of at least 150 degrees Fahrenheit, the heat together with the water causes a molecular change in the chemical, and it is only then that it acts as a sterilising agent.” Carlisle explained patiently.
“So when the water is used to make a hot drink, or when it is used in cooking a meal, it actually sterilises the consumers, all animal life will be unharmed if they do not eat a meal that has been boiled in water?” Clone 2 replied.
“Yes, and this has been one of the reasons behind the delay in producing the chemical, but we have now solved that problem. Now we are working on creating a new version of the Trichlorian Plus in a much more concentrated version. We are well on the way to finding the answer to this problem, I need three, maybe four more weeks, that’s all, and then the chemical will be ready for mass production.” Carlisle enthused to those around him.
**********
Sally got off the bus at one of Austin`s shopping malls and immediately headed for a coffee house, she needed the caffeine in it to yet again help calm her jagged nerves. There she could sit in safety so that she could go over all that she had heard, and before she forgot any of it, she would make a few notes. She pulled out a small Apple tablet and began to input all that she had heard. The name of the chemical was Trichlorian Plus, she had never heard of it, but it sounded like a chemical of some sort, and according to what she had heard, one that needed diluting in water. She quickly googled the word, but as she had thought, the word was not known to the World Wide Web. What else had she heard; they had spoken about using it against earthlings and in amounts of thousands of gallons. Oh My God, they must have been talking about reservoirs; they were going to poison all the people on Earth! Sally immediately pulled out her cell phone to call her uncle, but she did not call her uncle, she stopped to think for a moment, something she had not done since catching sight of Carlisle.
She knew that she could only use her phone in a real emergency, her uncle had advised that to leave it turned on could allow the enemy to find her using the GPS system on her cell phone. She could have used a public phone, but a thought had just occurred to her, she needed more before she bothered him again, she would return to the factory during the early morning, when all the staff would have left and she could snoop around at her leisure. Instead of calling her uncle, Sally returned home and broke out her laptop, she needed to use Google Earth to see if it showed a way in which she could enter the factory, short of breaking in, something she had never done and had no idea how to go about it. Google Earth showed a scalable wall that ran from around the garden of the house that backed onto the factory. From there she could jump down into the yard and attempt to gain entry into the factory, assuming that it was not alarmed.
Early the next morning Sally woke up to her uncle’s alarm clock ringing, and she quickly washed and dressed in her jogging clothes and trainers, they were dark in colour and might hide her body in the shadows, should it become necessary. She only allowed herself a glass of water and a biscuit, there simply was not enough time to bother making anything hot, in any case her nerves were a jangle and she wanted to be off, not waiting for her coffee to cool sufficiently to allow her to drink it without burning her mouth.
Before she left she wrote a note for her uncle, she told him everything that she had heard, and her thoughts on what it all meant. If she did not return then her Uncle would know the reason why, and come looking for her. With this important item out of the way she walked into her uncle`s garage via the door connecting the garage to the house, moments later she was sitting in her car and driving towards the old cement works.
Sally parked in one of the nearby residential streets and walked the rest of the way, seeing no one along the way; finally, she came to the garden wall along which she hoped to gain access to the rear of the yard. Checking that no one else was in sight, she began the task of scaling the six-foot high wall. She took a run up at it and leapt upwards, her hands getting a hold on the top of the wall, luckily she was able to find enough footholds in t
he old wall to help her, and she was finally able to push herself up to finally sit on top of the wall. She only allowed herself a quick moment to get her breath back before she began to edge along the wall, just a little fearfully, for she had never been one for heights, even ones of only six feet. She finally came to a place where she would be able to climb down a sturdy looking storage rack within the old factory yard; here she listened for any sign that the place used guard dogs during the night, hearing none she climbed down the storage rack. When her feet touched the ground Sally again stood silently, and a little nervous, for she had never broken the law before, but nothing broke the silence of the night. She then moved over to the rear of the building and began to try the doors and windows there in the hope of finding one open, she was in luck, she found a window left open; Sally assumed it was to allow some fresh air in, for the day had been uncomfortably close. Even so, she had to struggle to clamber up the wall to access the window, which in any case was not that large. She thought that she must have looked a sight, her legs waving outside of the building while she struggled to pull her body through, luckily, using a nearby desk she did not need to fall in; she merely wriggled her slim body through the small window.
Finally, she was standing inside of a room, the door to which was open, Sally moved across to it and after listening for signs of life, carefully peered around the door, there was no one in sight. She pulled out a torch that she had had the foresight to bring along, and quickly exited the office; she walked along the corridor that turned away from the rear of the building and took her to the very front overlooking the yard. Unfortunately there was not a plan, or any signs on the wall to tell her where to go, she had to resort to checking out each door, as she searched for the manager`s office. After ten wasted minutes, she was back at the front of the building, standing in the room where the Carlisle and the other two men had stood and talked. Sally investigated the draws of the desks within the office, but found only paperwork to do with the cement; she felt crushed by it, all the hard work had provided her with nothing to show for it. It was now, as she turned to retrace her steps to the open window at the rear of the building, that she heard a noise. It was coming from along the same corridor that she had meant to walk along, it was a soft whirring noise, and then a few moments later she heard the voices of two men, they were coming towards her. Sally quickly ducked back inside of the office and hid beneath one of the desks, her heart was racing and she was in fear once again of discovery, and all the pain that it would lead to, why had she not awaited her uncle`s return.