Fury Saga              by: Darkside

 

The Fury Directive

BOOK II b. Middle Game.

Matthew was the first thru the door, it was his house after all. He smiled as he saw Kat and Cathline chatting. That meant they’d managed to patch up whatever had been eating at them, good.

"Glad to see you’re both friends again," Matthew smiled.

Kat’s face dropped a little, "Matthew I’m sorry but I’m leaving you. I’ve realised that I love Cathline and now I’m like this we can be together. I’m sorry to drop this on you like this, but it’s better you know now rather than later."

Matthew stared, not believing what he had just heard.

Cathline’s face broke into a broad grin, "Gotcha!"

Kat gave a laugh "You should’ve seen your face. I’m sorry Mat it was HER idea."

Matthew walked solemnly over to the sofa, a tear in his eye. "I thought you meant it. I know how much Cathline loves you and the thought of losing you again almost breaks my heart."

Kat wasn’t falling for this and playing along she turned to Cathline and whispered, "Shall we play along?"

Cathline was about to answer when a large sofa cushion struck the back of Kat’s head and bounced onto hers. They whirled round to see where the surprise attack had come from only to see a grinning Matthew.

"Gotcha," Matthew replied. The smile was still all over his face.

"What’s so funny?" Elizabeth asked as she walked into the room.

Cathline’s face became serious and she gave Elizabeth a glare.

"Nothing."

By now the others had walked into the lounge and were in the process of sitting down. Kat stood up and offered drinks to the gathering now seated around her. "I think we’d better finish off what we started a while ago and outline what we’re going to do next. BUT don’t start without me."

A few minutes later Kat returned with an assortment of coffees, teas , and a glass of milk for herself. After she’d served them all out she sat down beside Matthew and waited.

Cathline was the first to speak. "Ok. I guess I go first. My story starts when I visited Matthew and Kat on their island."

Over the next hour or so each member of the party related their experiences to the others. Slowly, after all the trials and tribulations they had suffered the group was starting to bond.

Matthew was the last to speak and just after he’d finished Kat interrupted the general ebb and flow of small talk.

"Liz. I’d like to publicly thank you for not taking advantage of Matthew during your ‘marriage’ to Matthew. When you told me how you planned to keep Matthew safe when the Guild war started and deceive Hassan into thinking you still wanted him I hit the roof. You managed to persuade me it was the only way, by keeping him close to you, and I’d like to say that one act has convinced me that you mean what you say."

Cathline was a little puzzled. "Umm excuse me. I can see a flaw in Kat’s reasoning."

"What?" Kat asked.

"If I’ve got this right then Kat is legally dead."

Kat thought for a moment, "Yeah, Agghhh. I’m dead,"

Cathline smiled at Kat’s dropping down dead impression but continued her analysis, "That means your marriage to Matthew is annulled. You two aren’t legally married anymore."

"Hey," Matthew protested.

Kat said nothing, she’d thought of this before Cathline had voiced it but now decided to let her have her say.

Continuing on Cathline said, "BUT Matthew and Elizabeth got married in Australia, and since Matthew and Kat aren’t married anymore Matthew’s marriage to Elizabeth is legal. Matthew, in the eyes of the law is now married to Dr Elizabeth Bexley."

"WHAT!" Matthew exclaimed.

Now it was Elizabeth’s turn, "You are quite correct. My marriage to Matthew had to be legal otherwise Hassan would’ve seen thru the deception. Besides, I got what I wanted all along. Honey I’m home."

Matthew grew furious at this. Elizabeth had tricked and forced him to marry her and now he was stuck with her, until the divorce came thru that was. "Darling, I want a divorce," he snarled at Elizabeth.

"Unnecessary, what Cathline hasn’t yet got to is the fact that Kat is very much alive and thus my marriage to Matthew was never legally binding. When I turn Kat back, the world will know the true state of affairs, that she is indeed still married to Matthew. Clear?"

It took a little fathoming out but Cathline could see Elizabeth’s logic, even Matthew had calmed down. Cathline then had a very worrying thought, a thought so devious that Elizabeth must’ve considered it. "What if Kat were to have an ‘accident’ when changing back? No one could prove otherwise and you’d still end up with Matthew. HAH got you there Hell Bitch. I knew you had a devious scheme in mind."

Now it was Kat’s turn to be worried. Sure, she trusted Elizabeth but did she trust her enough to let her try and turn her back?

Elizabeth gave a wry grin, "You’re right Cathline and it’s almost a perfect scheme. Unfortunately it fails the ‘Bexley’ test in three ways. Firstly, the only way it would work was if I turned into Matthew again and stayed that way. Secondly, Matthew would have to want to pretend to be me and thirdly, I’m no longer interested in marrying Matthew. I can’t turn into anything anymore. That bloody nose you gave me should prove that, and there’s no way Matthew would play along."

Kat was now a little suspicious and voiced an objection, "But you have or had a very strong grip on Matthew’s subconscious? You could condition him again. You did it with a word last time."

Elizabeth shrugged. Kat ganging up on her was the last thing she wanted, "True, but such a drastic identity change can’t be performed by a mere failsafe. It took days of careful conditioning by the Guild, not to mention the use of my changeling organ. There’s no chance I could get away with any of that now. You all know about it, I would have to kill or dispose of you all and I’m sure that one of you would have a deadman’s mailbox already setup that would tell all in the event of a suspicious death or long term disappearance. So you can all relax. Besides, I’ve kept every promise I’ve made. I promised to cure Kat of her cancer, which I’ve done. I promised to get Matthew and you all out of the Guilds clutches, which I’ve done. And I promised that I will try my utmost to return you all to your proper forms. I don’t see what else I can do?"

Much to her chagrin Cathline was forced to agree with Elizabeth. Elizabeth had kept every promise and darned if she could see a way that Elizabeth could take advantage of the situation. Cathline didn’t want to be in the same room as Elizabeth but circumstances dictated she had to. After all, somebody had to keep an eye on her. One thing still bugged Cathline though, "If you don’t have use of your changeling organ how come you were so fast in tackling Tina? I’ve seen Guild agents move, and they are unbelievably quick but you were faster?"

Elizabeth was getting a little tired explaining everything, but she persevered. At least she and Cathline were talking now rather than trading insults, "The last time I used my changeling organ, after killing Hassan I turned back to my ‘default’ body. I’ve enhanced and improved a lot of things from your standard Rachel Martin form. Improved hand-eye co-ordination, vision, reaction times in the hundredths of a second and not to mention backup spinal cords, vital organs and last but not least improved muscle strength. You might call it Rachel Martin version two."

Now it was Matthew’s turn to question Elizabeth, "So that explains how you recovered so quickly in the hospital. Say, you never told us how you got out."

Elizabeth gave a smile, "I’m tempted to keep that a secret but I won’t. I waited until 4am before climbing out of my bed. It took me a few moments to turn off all the audible alarms on the life support machine and disconnect myself from all the drips. I was a little shaky on my feet for a few moments longer but thanks to my enhanced recovery ability I was soon as steady as a rock. Using the bed I climbed up to an air-conditioning vent and removed it. After kicking the bed away and replacing the vent I crawled thru the air-conditioning system until I reached the laundry room. That time of night there would be few people around and who notices strange sounds coming from the heating?"

Matthew could see where this was leading, "But why didn’t you join me?"

"I’m coming onto that. Anyway, I dropped down into the laundry room and picked out a cleaner’s uniform that was about the right size and just got into that. I waited until around 6am and when the other cleaners came in pretended I’d got in early to make up my hours. Nobody questioned me as I walked out of the hospital and straight into a cab. I managed to get a false passport and some money from a nearby Guild stronghold, and a few hours later I was on a plane. I don’t think the alarm was raised until much later. The doctors and police must’ve assumed that because the guards on the door didn’t see anything and I was virtually comatose I wasn’t going anywhere. By that time I was on a plane and on my way here. Now Matthew, as to why I didn’t wait, that’s easy. The authorities would assume that if I were to escape, I would come with you. They no doubt noticed you waiting for me and followed you to the airport. When you boarded the plane alone they assumed that I was still in hospital and that you’d given up. They probably left right after you boarded. After I landed I picked up a small parcel that a friendly Guild agent had placed for me in a locker at the airport and I then came right here."

Tina gave a slow clap of admiration, "You’re good, Bexley, very good."

Elizabeth smiled and gave a mock bow, "The best. It was the only way I could think of getting out. With a changeling organ in working order my options would’ve been far greater but alas that was not to be. Anyway let’s move onto stopping the Fury Directive."

The senator had been fascinated by the stories and now saw his chance to contribute once more. He was feeling a little left out. He had assumed that he would be the natural choice to lead the fight but Dr Bexley seemed to have that role all wrapped up. As far as he could see it the role of second in command was still vacant, and he needed to feel in charge again. To this end he spoke up, "Dr Bexley what do you know of Hassan’s plans for the changeling organs?"

"Not much. The only thing I know is that they are a much less advanced version than mine, but more advanced than Kat’s. They can maybe only change forms a few times before they fail. The tolerance to new forms and sizes is much less than mine, so there’s no way they could pull some of the stuff I used to. Small things like creating injection talons etc are possible but again they put a strain on them and the host body. The healing of bullet wounds etc is limited too. Anything that wouldn’t normally be immediately fatal can be healed, as Kat’s story corroborates. Once again, if it’s used too much then there’s a major risk of genetic damage. Maybe even psychological damage too, all kinds of instabilities. I just don’t know," Elizabeth explained in her best lecture voice.

Matthew looked worried, "So Kat."

Elizabeth shook her head, "No Kat should be fine. She’s locked into Salah’s body. She has one of the very first prototypes. I still can turn her back to her original form as long as she doesn’t go getting shot many more times. Kat’s is version 1 if you like, the ones Hassan created are version 2, and mine is version 3. Version 2 has one serious defect though."

Scott asked, "Which is?"

"They gradually poison the body they’re installed in. They need to produce more and more of the changeling drug to instigate a change. Too much affects the brain causing megalomania, paranoia and eventually neural shutdown. With each change performed the person equipped with the organ drops further and further into madness. If the organ isn’t removed in the long term the changeling will die. Hassan obviously regarded his changelings as short-term weapons. The driver that took me to Hassan’s stronghold told me that there was a whole changeling training program, and that there were certainly more than one changeling running around."

"If they can become anyone, and I suspect the training that Hassan gave each one was so that they could easily pass as their target then we have no way of telling real from changeling," Tina stated.

The senator inwardly groaned. Things were looking bleak.

Elizabeth got up and walked over to the bag she’d placed on the table. She rummaged around for a few seconds and then pulled out a bottle of yellow liquid, "I had to smuggle this out from under Hassan’s nose but it’s one of our ‘aces’. It’s a test for the presence of a changeling organ. Every changeling organ, be it version 1,2, or 3 produces a small amount of a complex series proteins and enzymes. It’s this series of proteins and enzymes that keeps the body from random genetic changes. An intelligent fixer if you like. Anyway, you simply put a drop of this in a test tube, add a drop of blood, and it’ll turn green if it detects the changeling organ protein in the bloodstream. The solution stays red if you’re clean. If we can fathom out who the changelings are likely to be, and get them to submit to this blood test we’ll be able to deal with them."

The senator burst out laughing and then abruptly stopped as the others stared at him.

"What!" Matthew demanded.

"Sorry, I remembered that just then I’d underestimated Dr Bexley too. Dr Bexley, that’s brilliant, there I was thinking that you’d screwed up in creating an undetectable disguise and then being unable to control it."

"One more thing", Elizabeth said," I want us all to take this test. It’s the only way we can be sure that we’ve not been infiltrated. I’m wise to that one, as I’m sure you all are. Now I know about Kat, maybe Scott but the rest of you should be clean, that includes me. My changeling organ is ruined so I shouldn’t have any residual proteins left."

Cathline raised an eyebrow. Elizabeth was taking no chances, good.

"I’ll go first."

"Fine," Elizabeth said and walked over to her bag again and pulled out a clean test tube, a thin tube and an eyedropper.

"All it needs is a small drop. Nurse Matthew, come and help me with the test. You press it on a thumb and just push the button, " Elizabeth said handing Matthew the tube.

Cathline stretched out her hand and gingerly Matthew pressed the tube on Cathline’s thumb. He gave a quick press and the tube gave a small ‘click’

"OW!" Cathline exclaimed.

Elizabeth took Cathline’s hand and squeezed the drop of blood into the tube. She then took the eyedropper and after pulling a drop of yellow liquid into it dropped it into the test tube. Cathline looked on anxiously.

"Hey relax, you big wuss," Kat said.

After a few seconds Elizabeth pronounced, "She’s clean, see the blood’s still red."

"Me next," Tina volunteered.

"Fine," Elizabeth stated, and walked over to the sink and gave the test tube a through rinse.

Matthew and Elizabeth once again repeated the procedure, and after a few seconds pronounced Tina clean.

"It does work, this test of yours?" the senator asked with a smile.

Elizabeth nodded, "I’m doing the certain positives last. That way I can’t contaminate the other samples by accident. Anyway you’re next."

The senator looked at the still red sample, "Phew."

Elizabeth nodded, "Good that means there’s no changeling organ to get in the way of potentially turning you back."

"I guess it’s me next?" Matthew asked

"Yep, no ones exempt. Nurse Kat, you can do Matthew."

With a mean smile Kat took the tube from Matthew and placed it on his hand. She pressed the button twice in quick succession.

"OW! hey what was that for?" Matthew complained.

Kat gave a grin, "I didn’t think the first one went in."

Elizabeth couldn’t help but give out a loud laugh, which was soon followed by Cathline and the others. It broke an atmosphere that had become very tense.

"That really hurt," Matthew said as Elizabeth squeezed a drop of his blood into the test tube.

After dropping in the liquid and waiting Elizabeth pronounced Matthew clean. Kat took hold of Matthew’s hand and said, "Kiss it better," and she did so.

Elizabeth gave a smile. ‘Kiss it better’ had obviously been Kat’s plan all along, "Now it’s Scott’s turn. Cathline, it’s your turn to be nurse, and Scott it’s you next."

Cathline did as Matthew had done and Elizabeth shook the test tube.

Tina’s face went white as she saw the solution slowly turn green.

"What!" Scott exclaimed.

"Calm down everyone I suspected this. The method Osman used to turn Scott into a woman had to have a changeling organ at its heart. Don’t worry it’ll take me a while to get round it but you should be ok."

Scott breathed a sigh of relief at Elizabeth’s assurances. That had been a close call. In the mean time Elizabeth had moved onto Kat who had simply shrugged and put her hand out.

A few minutes later the solution turned a green color.

"Good, as I suspected," Elizabeth stated.

Tina was a little suspicious of Scott’s result, "Scott. Do you remember what was strange about Carolyn Dawson?"

Scott thought for a few moments, "Yeah, she was the woman the mailman kidnapped and raped. She thought she was David Hawkins for a few days. Strange case as I seem to remember. I think the doctor’s put it down to post traumatic stress syndrome. I remember reading her and the guy who helped rescue her, umm David Hawkins I think, got married sometime later."

Hearing this caused Matthew to raise an eyebrow. He made a mental note to ask Tina or Scott about it later. For her part Tina was satisfied that Scott was who he claimed to be.

"Oh well someone else had better do me," Elizabeth stated and handed the now clean test tube and bottle to Kat.

Cathline was tempted to ram the tube in hard on Elizabeth’s thumb but thought better of it. After Elizabeth and Kat’s lengthy explanation she’d decided to cut her some slack. She simply pressed the button and allowed Kat to squeeze a drop of Elizabeth’s blood into the test tube.

Kat slowly shook the tube, and after a few seconds stared at the result.

Cathline couldn’t quite see, and she moved her head to get a better look.

To the group’s horror the liquid in the test tube had turned dark green.

o - o - o -

The sun rose over the city of Tel-Aviv, its orange yellow glow cast multi-colored shadows over the deserted city. On the outskirts of the town hundreds of soldiers, scientists and officials gathered around armored vehicles and ambulances. The air was eerily quiet with only a few birds and the quiet throb of generators to break the silence. The dark cloud of smoke that had covered the city for the past few days and had started to lift and now the skyline could easily be seen once more.

The fires that had raged thru the city had burned themselves out, leaving only a husk of this once mighty capital. Hundreds of fire fighters had risked all to try and control the blazes and working under a NBC suit was strenuous at the best of times. Several fire fighters had to be treated for heat exhaustion and now, the fire crews could only work at night. The scientists were still unsure of how long the biological agent used would remain lethal. Much discussion was raised on how to determine this and eventually the ‘Noah’ test was developed.

The ‘lucky’ soldier to be chosen for this duty was Sergeant Isaac Stern. He’d been in the army since his national service and had abandoned his plans for afterwards when he found he loved the military life. As he suited up and his ‘buddy’ checked for rips he was more than a little apprehensive. He’d seen the reports of how this agent acted. It was almost instant and 100% lethal. Some scientist had explained to them how it worked, something about rewriting of the victims DNA into random patterns. He wasn’t paying too much attention at the time, and now his time had come he regretted thinking too much about the almost certain conflict with the Arab bastards who’d done this, and not how this weapon actually worked.

His ‘buddy’ gave him the all clear and he checked the air hoses one more time. They were done as securely as he could manage, so if the first part of the Noah test failed at least he’d have a chance to escape. His superior officer, a captain fresh out of the academy gestured to a beat up jeep and then shook his hand.

"Bet you’re glad it’s me that going aren’t you?" he whispered to himself as the captain walked off. He walked up to the jeep and checked the rear seat. There nestled gently between the seats were two small plastic boxes. One he’d been told contained two pigeons and the other a small cat. These were phase one and two of the Noah test, and he was phase three.

o - o - o -

"You fucking liar," Cathline spat at Elizabeth.

Elizabeth just stood there, looking at the test tube in disbelief, "I don’t understand, my changeling organ is ruined. How can I still give a positive result?"

"Unless you lied to us," Tina joined in.

Kat was confused, "Hang on a sec. If Liz knew that her changeling organ would still be working and therefore test positive then why did she suggest the test? Liz, what if your organ was heavily damaged, not enough to stop the protein production but enough to stop it working?"

Elizabeth looked thoughtful, "That possibility had occurred to me. When I was escaping from hospital I tried to change something small, like my hair color but that didn’t work. Maybe it’s gradually recovering and this is the first stage. Cathline, Kat has a point about me knowing about the test results."

"Unless you knew you could pull the ‘I didn’t think it was working’ trick on us and therefore double bluff us," Cathline replied sharply. Just as she was starting to think that maybe there was something in Elizabeth claims of reform this comes up.

Elizabeth was getting a little tired of these guessing games, "Look Cathline, you can second guess me and yourself all the time you’ll only end up going in circles. I’ve promised to help as much as I can, and I standby that oath. To me, that promise is as sure as the one I took when I became a doctor."

"Fat lot of good the Hippocratic oath did us," Cathline snapped

"Point taken," Elizabeth said softly. She was getting frustrated at the same old resentment and mistrust going round and round again and again.

"I believe her," the senator said.

Cathline turned to face him, her good eye showing signs of contempt.

Speaking in his most persuasive tone the senator added, "To me it makes sense. How could Dr Bexley possibly know for sure what the state of her changeling organ was, other than that it didn’t work anymore? Let’s get on with the matter in hand, namely stopping the attack. That’s why we’re all here and like it or not we need each other."

Like it or not Cathline had to agree with the senator’s logic, "So what do you suggest?"

"I’ll carry on my explanations and the rest of you can fill in the gaps. I’m sure together we can work it out," Elizabeth suggested in a conciliatory tone.

Matthew asked, "So Kat has version 1 of the changeling organ and you think the Guild had version 2. You also stated that there were several changelings, and that they’d undergone some kinda training program. I’ve a question. Just who would they replace?"

The senator, eager to tell all started to answer Matthew’s question, "I think I can help there. I know from my experience that my secretary was a changeling. How else could I end up in her body? I also know her objective was to replace me. I thought about this when I was in Libya and then, replacing me didn’t make sense. That was until I heard about my supposed death a month or so ago."

"And?" Cathline queried.

"I was very good friends with the president and the Vice President. We all knew each other from Nam, and we kept in touch most days. Quite often I played golf with Bob, sorry President Andrews at his private course. There would be minimal security and occasionally he liked to dismiss the bodyguards so that we could be alone and just chat, like in the old days. I think he wanted to keep some normality and get away from the power and pressure of office."

"My God!" Tina exclaimed.

The senator nodded, "Knowing what I now know about the changeling organs, the Guild, and all the other stuff, the changeling’s target is obvious. They got me to get to the president. My duplicate would only have to be me for a few days and then, he’d have the ideal chance. I don’t get to see my wife that much so she’d be none the wiser. The fact that I ‘died’ playing golf would indicate the Guild was successful at replacing President Andrews."

"And with Hassan and the Guild gone the fake president is on his own. He would have been instructed not to break cover and to continue the mission no matter what," Kat added.

"But what’s his mission?" Scott asked.

Elizabeth had been analysing all this and formed her conclusion, "If I were Hassan I would ensure that my intended victim had no choice on their course of action. The changeling president could put a hell of lot of pressure on Israel to retaliate. We’ve heard rumors of this happening, of Israel being reluctant to strike back hard and the US putting pressure on them to do so. SHIT!"

Now it was the senator’s turn to query, "Why SHIT? SHIT from you sounds bad."

Elizabeth nodded. Shit was an understatement, "I was putting myself in Hassan’s place, and I figured that just doing this to America wouldn’t be enough. To really be certain you’d have to do it to a whole load of nations. For example Russia could veto the Fury Directive and thus prevent Israel’s attack. Remember Israel has stated that it will not attack without a UN mandate. A UN Veto is the biggest risk to Hassan’s plan, he’d have had to cover it."

"But you can’t replace every world leader. One would be bound to fail and blow the whole thing wide open," Matthew added.

The senator stopped fiddling with his hair and shook his head, "Oh no you wouldn’t. You’d just do the five permanent members, the US, Russia, Britain, France and China. With those nations pulling the strings the other members would have to fall in line. Sure a few Arab nations would vote no but as for the rest. They’d either abstain or vote yes. It’s a brilliant plan on Hassan’s part. Who’s going to be looking out for changelings, and from what I’ve seen it only takes a few minutes to change forms. You could do it from anyone, the maid, the secretary, the wife or even a best friend. If you worked out the chain well enough you could work your way up and nobody would know. The Guild are very good, they’ve had hundreds of years of practice in assassination and other stuff. To them it’s just another operation."

Kat nodded, "That fits. Yeah, the Guild would be able to work it out. They’d have had the contacts and the resources. I think we can take it as read that the five permanent UN members are effectively under Guild control. We can’t take the chance to assume otherwise."

Elizabeth suddenly let out a sob, which caused the other to turn sharply to face her. Already her face was tearful and her hands were over her face and she was letting out slow, tearful breaths.

"What’s up, witch?" Kat asked.

Elizabeth sniffled and said. "No they’re not under Guild control. They’re under their own control. I killed the Guild too early. When Hassan was in charge he could have recalled them at any time, stopped their mission and prevented the attack. Now with Hassan gone and the changelings still loyal to Hassan’s purposes, nobody and nothing can stop them. They’re like a runaway train with no brakes and nobody to stop it. I’ve just condemned over thirteen million people to death. I’d thought I’d done so well but I’ve screwed up. I’m sorry, I wanted to save lives but all I’ve done is kill millions. I can’t cope anymore."

Elizabeth started to cry once more and went to stand up but Kat held her back, "You don’t know that! We still have your disks with the proof we need. The Guild still has a lot of resources and we’re using them to track down more proof. We can beat them, we have to, and we have no other choice. How can it be your fault? You didn’t send the changelings out, you didn’t pull the trigger that wiped out Tel-Aviv and you didn’t order those attacks."

Elizabeth brushed Kat’s arm away, "Cathline, who killed your husband John? Kat who’s fault was it that took away your dreams?"

Cathline looked right at Elizabeth, the glimmerings of hatred in he eye, "You killed him. Matthew pulled the trigger, but he was there as your Judas goat. You led him to his death."

Kat gave a sad sigh, "You destroyed my dreams. I want to be a mother, have kids, and have a normal life with Matthew. When I was younger I dreamed of my wedding day, pretended to be a princess marrying my handsome prince. I have no choice but to admit that you took those dreams away from me."

Elizabeth nodded her agreement, that was the answers she’d been looking for, "I agree with you. It is my fault. In the same way as John’s death and Matthew’s transformation was my fault, this is also my fault. If there were no DNA system there’d be no DNA warhead and therefore no attack. No changeling organs, and no Guild plot to kill Egypt, and so it sounds most of the Middle East. I didn’t pull the trigger or order the attack but the responsibility is mine and mine alone. If only I’d stayed in my cave! I was happy there. The ocean holds such wonders and such beauty and I so much wanted to stay. It was the only place where I could be me, where the pain went away and I felt at peace with myself."

Matthew put his hand on Elizabeth’s, "If you’d have stayed you’d be dead by now, so would Kat. You saved her Liz. Time will tell if we win or lose this one but you cannot change that. You saved the life of the one I love, and the one you blamed for taking me away from you. That at least redeems you in my eyes."

Elizabeth returned the gesture and replied, "Thank you, Mat. That means a lot to me. But even your assurances don’t absolve me of my blame in all this. I’m trying to look on the bright side here but it’ll take a miracle to do anything about it. Kat, any news on how the Guild are doing trying to find the proof we need?"

"I haven’t checked in yet, in fact I was going to do that after lunch. I left instructions for them to start looking before I left," Kat replied.

"So we weren’t just wasting our time, sitting around chatting?" the senator commented.

Kat shook her head, "You think we’d limit our chances by just using us? The Guild can dig around for us, but it’s up to us to get the proof to the authorities. All we need to do is go and get what the remains of the Guild have found for us."

"But if the president is a changeling how the hell do we get them to take any notice? Besides, why can’t the Guild give it to them?" Cathline asked.

Elizabeth nodded towards the senator, "That’s where the senator and the Vice President come in. The Guild’s name is dirt right now, their credibility is zero. It’d be like the Nazi’s saying ‘we got rid of Hitler, it was all his fault, and furthermore we’re on your side now’. Who’d believe them and who’d trust them? We can use the Guild’s resources but the last bit, the most crucial bit is up to us."

"I figured you’d say that," the senator added.

Scott was more than a little concerned, this plan seemed to be made up as they went along. Maybe the senator was right, Kat and Elizabeth didn’t know how to stop the attack, "Who’s going to believe that this woman is now Senator Walter Jameson? DNA tests are out of the window, and there’s a body in the ground that can easily be identified as Senator Jameson. Nobody’s going to believe a word the senator says."

"Jack, sorry Vice President Roberts will. I have his private ‘hot-line’ telephone number. It’s a top secret line that only a few people in the world know. It’s used for vital and ultra-secret phone calls where no record is to be taken and it bypasses all the usual safeguards against crank calls. When Kennedy brokered the deal with Kruschev back in 1963 it was this line that was really used and not the mythical ‘hot line’. If I call him on this line then he’ll have to take me seriously. Nobody outside of the inner cabinet knows the number."

"How come you know it?" Tina asked.

The senator winked at Tina, "He gave it to me so we could talk freely. To tell you the truth we used it to arrange golf games, dinner parties and the like without me having to go thru several layers of red tape once or twice a week. I guess it was an abuse of power and I doubt it’s ever been used that way before but it was our way of bucking the system a little. The NSA hated me using it but they couldn’t stop me."

"It’s obvious. Senator call him up right now," Cathline asked.

Elizabeth butted in before the senator could reply, "Not without proof he doesn’t. In spite of past history you can’t impeach a president on the say so of a single senator and the Vice President. You need firm, rock solid proof. My changeling test is that proof BUT we also need firm proof that the Guild was behind the attack on Tel-Aviv. Kat, I think you should go and check in with the Guild. They’ll be wondering where their glorious leader is, and maybe a few of them are thinking that you’re weak and powerless."

Kat nodded. She’d been putting off seeing the Guild again for as long as she could but now she realised the time had come. "Ok I’ll go after lunch. Mat why don’t you order Pizza."

"Do you HAVE to go?" Matthew asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yeah. Lunch first, save the world later," Kat added with a smile.

Elizabeth had finished running thru the multitudes of possible scenarios for the next stage, and deciding on the best possible one she said, "Scott, myself, Matthew, and the Senator will go to Washington and start to get things ready for talking to the Vice President. Tina, Kat and Cathline have to stay here for a while. Firstly, Kat has to find out what the Guild have found out and secondly, they still need to check in with the NYPD for a couple more days. The last thing we need is for them to break curfew and get arrested."

Matthew interrupted, "I want to stay with Kat. You don’t need me."

Elizabeth nodded, "Yes I do. For two reasons, firstly, the disks are your responsibility and secondly, you’re the best known example of what my DNA drug can do, you are a vital part of our proof. If I carry the disks and I get arrested then we’re fucked, Scott and the senator will need to travel together and you need to take the trip alone. That way we minimize the risk of one or all of us being arrested."

Now it was Cathline’s turn to be worried, "Arrested?"

Elizabeth nodded, "By now the president will know that Kat, myself, and you are back in the country. It’s possible that he will see Kat (as Salah) and me as a threat. I would. Now Kat has the Guild to look after her, as to some extent so do I, but I wouldn’t rule out us being detained until it’s too late."

"That’s why it’s best if we split up and go separately, less chance of all of us being picked up?" Tina offered.

"Yep. Tina, would you mind popping down the drugstore and getting me an eyepatch and some brunette hair dye," Elizabeth asked.

Tina replied, "Why? Oh I get it, the eyepatch is in case you have to pass for Cathline, and the hair dye is so you’re not immediately noticed. Although it’s pretty hard not to notice your face and figure even with the different hair color."

Elizabeth nodded, Tina caught on quick, "Normally I would switch forms to a plain Jane and that would be that. Now I have to resort to other methods."

Tina nodded her agreement and taking her purse with her left the room. She agreed with Elizabeth’s choice, she was the least conspicuous of the group, and besides she needed some air.

"Mat, now what about that Pizza," Kat commented with a smile.

"I thought it was me that was always eating junk, " Matthew said and walked over to the phone. After rummaging around the floor for a few moments he plugged it back in and made a call to his and Kat’s favorite Pizza place.

The senator had been quiet throughout all this. He was still analyzing and thinking thru permutations. As indeed Elizabeth had a few moments before, "I still can’t work out what the Guild get out of this?" he announced.

Now it was Elizabeth’s turn to finish the senator’s analysis. For her, this was second nature. She had got used to waiting for people to catch up on her thoughts and conclusions. Her fellow students at Harvard had called her arrogant and closed minded but this was often far from the case. All that was happening was that she had worked thru the problem and formulated the best, and the most correct approach to the problem way before most of her classmates had even got beyond first base. This was a similar situation now, "Until we see the data on that disk we won’t know for sure. If it were me I’d use the changelings to ensure I got what I wanted. Now from the way events are unfolding I would say that the destruction of Israel is part of Hassan’s plans. An Israeli attack on Egypt would provoke a devastating war and if Israel’s allies such as the US then abandon it then the Arab nations would surely be victorious."

"But if the Guild controlled the five most powerful nations on earth then why be so limited in scope, why not control the entire world?" Matthew asked.

Elizabeth was glad it was Matthew who had voiced this scenario. Too often Matthew had played second fiddle to Kat and indeed herself. Elizabeth replied, "A good question and one I’ve been giving some thought to. The answer it turns out is quite easy. Firstly, as I’ve already mentioned, the version 2 changeling organ starts to break down after a few months. Unless it is removed the subject will die. Even if that were not the case, four out the five countries are democracies. The Guild couldn’t hope to infiltrate all political parties or even rig the elections. Within four or five years their world-wide powerbase would be gone and the Guild would be back to square one. The changelings we’re facing are short term weapons, there for one task only. Now I’ve a good idea what it is, and it does seem to fit in, but again this is only my analysis."

"Kat said something about selling hi-tech weapons to the Arab nations," Cathline offered.

Elizabeth continued, "That was our initial guess but I think that’s too limited. What is it Hassan wanted the most?"

"His honor back. His defeat by you hurt his credibility hard. There’s no way I could have got the support I did if he hadn’t have failed," Kat replied.

"Agreed. Now as some of you know the Guild of assassins ruled Mesopotamia from 1090AD to 1270AD. Their sphere of influence spread much wider than this, and most of the Middle East was under their rule. They were eventually defeated by the Mamluk Sultan and by the Mongols. It follows that Hassan’s only way to win back his honor would be to equal or exceed the empire that his ancestors once did. Kat, I’m sure you can vouch for the hatred the Guild have of this Mamluk Sultan."

Kat nodded, "Yeah, almost every act the Guild ever carried out was to avenge their defeat by him."

"Where did this Mamluk Sultan come from?" Elizabeth asked Kat

Kat thought for a moment, trying to remember her Guild history. A few seconds later she had it, "Egypt."

"Holy shit!" Scott breathed. The penny had just dropped.

Elizabeth gave a sigh, it was exasperating watching the others play catch up but at the same time she felt a warm glow of satisfaction. Despite all that had happened, her failure to stop the attack, the destruction of her changeling organ, and her failure to see what the consequences of killing the Guild were, she could still outthink and out plan most people. The sigh turned to a nod, "That’s right. By destroying Cairo Hassan avenges once and for all the defeat at the hand of the Mamluk Sultan. By wiping Israel out he earns the respect and admiration of his Arab neighbors. After these deeds are accomplished it would be a simple matter to influence the decisions of over half the Arab world. He didn’t want overt power, that’s not the way the Guild works. They prefer to be behind the scenes, pulling the invisible puppet strings. If you are in the public eye you can soon get yours plucked out."

The senator saw where Elizabeth was leading, "Who controls the Middle East controls the oil, who controls the oil controls the global economy. Fucking hell."

Matthew gave a short laugh, "Sounds like something out of Dune," Matthew then went serious. It was no laughing matter.

Elizabeth continued her theory, "Exactly. Hassan never did want to rule the world. He was much too smart for that. What he would have been able to do was ensure that the Arab nations became more than just trumped up oil wells. I suspect he would insist that his puppet Arab nations be given more power at the UN, the rights to reduce or increase oil quotas. By putting the Guild back on top in the Middle East he ensures that his honor is restored, his enemies are crushed, and furthermore he makes a killing out of playing the stock markets. He would also be in a position to wage economic warfare on his enemies."

"Apart from ensuring the attack, I don’t see where the changeling’s come in?" Scott asked.

Kat answered before Elizabeth could speak, "I do. By using the changelings Hassan ensures that the Middle East war doesn’t get out of hand. When you want to burn a field you ensure that you dig deep, wide trenches around it. That way the fire doesn’t get out of control or spread to areas you want to keep. Not even Hassan was stupid enough to start a war and not have a way of stopping it," Kat heard a short sob and turned to Elizabeth who was holding her head in her hands.

"Dr Bexley it isn’t your fault. We can still stop this, " the senator offered.

Elizabeth looked up, her tearful blue eyes fixing upon the senator, "We have to stop it. Kat’s analogy of a bush fire is right on. Once the fire is lit and with no Guild to stop it there’s no telling what could happen. I read that Pakistan was offering to ship nuclear warheads to Egypt, and it follows that if Pakistan gets involved so would India. With the changeling world leaders getting more and more unpredictable and neurotic by the week then it’s entirely conceivable that it could escalate into a third world war."

Elizabeth suddenly let out a loud laugh that reverberated around the room, "I never thought my revenge against Matthew would lead to the end of the world. I bet God’s laughing his head off. Twenty thousand years of civilisation destroyed by one woman’s thirst for vengeance. Oh Lizzy you’ve really done it now haven’t you."

The rest of the group stared at Elizabeth, who was now cradling her head in her hands and crying. Elizabeth was oblivious to all around her, caught up in her own private world.

"Oh fuck," Cathline breathed. She was concerned that Elizabeth had suffered some kind of breakdown.

"I’ve seen her like this before," Kat added.

"When?" Scott asked.

"When we were in the Guild stronghold. She had neglected to take her Stelazine for a number of days. She was in a race against time to finish the changeling organ, and it looked as though all her plans were going to turn to dust. Her last chance of redemption was ebbing away with each passing hour. It was in these moments of madness that she made the most remarkable progress and leaps in reasoning. They say that there’s a fine line between genius and insanity. I think that somehow her insanity moves her to another plane of reasoning and ability. It’s a fact that Mozart and Van Gogh did some of their greatest works during periods of madness. I think Elizabeth’s the same. It would have taken teams of biochemists years to do what she did in weeks."

Cathline turned to Elizabeth who was still sobbing to herself, "She’s extremely dangerous. I think we should turn her in." Cathline then got up and walked over to the phone.

"Are you saying that she did this on purpose?" Scott asked Kat.

"It would seem so. That would explain how she sussed the Guild plans and motives so quickly. Now if I’m right, she would have brought some Stelazine along so that she could get treatment fast. It’d take a while to act but from what I saw it needs only a few hours for it to subside. She was back to normal within a day or so."

Elizabeth looked up, her eyes wide and staring, "I’m ok now. My medicine’s in my bag. Please believe me when I tell you it had to be this way, it was the only way I could reach my full potential, the only way I could stop the coming war. A shame really. It’d make a wonderful show. Matthew, my one true love, please trust me again. Be with me again, forget about Kat, I love you."

There was a loud crack and Elizabeth slumped to the floor. Cathline stood over her holding the remains of the telephone, "I don’t know about you, but I’d sooner trust an angry rattlesnake."

"Right! Scott, pass me Elizabeth’s bag. We’ll give her, her medicine now. Cathline tie her up in case she comes round," Kat ordered. She didn’t agree with Cathline’s prompt action but it was logical and too late to complain. The sooner Elizabeth was back to normal the better and safer for all of them.

While Cathline tied Elizabeth’s hands and feet with belts taken from Matthew’s wardrobe Kat rummaged around in Elizabeth’s bag. Eventually she found a small case and opened it up. Inside was a hypodermic, a small bottle full of a clear liquid and a hand written note.

"What’s the note say?" the senator asked.

Kat read it out loud,

‘If you are reading this note, then it’s clear I have pushed things too far. I have not taken my treatment for sometime now as we, I, need the edge that my madness gives me. In this grave situation we need every card we can, even a wildcard such as this. If I have caused any harm while in this state please forgive me.

If Kat is with you I’m sure she’s related how this affected me last time and the quantum leaps in gene sequencing and splicing I accomplished during this time. It seems as though I can only accomplish what needs to be done thru my insanity. It seems a small price to pay for saving so many.

Please inject me with 10cc of the enclosed drug and look after me until I recover.

Dr Elizabeth Anne Bexley PHd’

"So she did do it on purpose?" Scott breathed.

"It looks that way. Helluva risk though," Kat answered.

Placing the hypodermic into the bottle Kat drew 10cc of the liquid and ensured that there were no air bubbles trapped inside. She moved over to the unconscious Elizabeth and rolled the sleeve on Elizabeth’s blouse. Carefully she plunged the needle into Elizabeth’s arm and injected the drug, "Now we wait I guess."

A few seconds later there was a knock at the door, "Pizza for Mr and Mrs Stephens," A voice called out.

"I’ll get it," Kat offered and walked over to the door.

She opened to door to see a smallish man standing in front of her and judging from the tinny clash of music coming from his headphones was clearly more interested in listening to his Walkman than delivering Pizza. Kat cleared her throat and the guy quickly noticed she was standing there.

"Sorry, " he muttered and handed Kat the Pizza.

"S’ok," Kat replied, handed the guy his money and closed the door.

o - o - o -

After handing over the Pizza, the delivery guy rode the elevator down to the foyer. He removed his headphones and spoke into the left earpeice, "Watcher to control, Watcher to control. Do you read me over,"

A voice crackled thru the right speaker, "Control to Watcher. Report, Over."

"Target acquired. As suspected he’s in there with Rachel Martin, the detective, and some others. What are your orders."

"Return to base. We’ll take it from here. Good Job! Control out."

The man code named ‘watcher’ placed the headphones back on his head and walked over to his moped and drove off.

o - o - o -

 

As she got out of her car, Tina saw the Pizza delivery guy fiddle with his headphones for a few seconds, and then drive away. That must mean Lunch. Man, was she hungry! A few minutes later Scott let her inside the apartment. She saw Elizabeth’s unconscious body sprawled out on the floor, her arms and legs were bound, and her head was placed on a cushion. Whatever had gone on here was trouble, and now Tina was glad she’d dropped by the station to get her firearm back, "What the hell went on here?" Tina demanded.

Matthew gestured at Elizabeth’s limp body, "From what we can work out Elizabeth knew we needed everything she had in order to try and stop the attack. She deliberately drove herself to insanity in the hope that she could work out the Guild’s plans and motives. I think she succeeded but it came at a terrible price,"

"Is she?" Tina asked.

"No. I’ve given her, her medicine, and she should be coming around soon. I don’t know if any of us will ever think of her in the same way again. If anyone doubted her commitment to her redemption I think it’s been proven," Kat said, glancing at Cathline who looked furtively away.

"So now what?" Tina asked.

"Pizza?" Kat offered, showing Tina the box on the table.

"Why not? Make sure you save some for Dr Bexley." Tina replied.

o - o - o -

Sergeant Isaac Stern was baking hot inside his NBC suit. Although the heat of the day had passed it was still stifling inside, and every breath was an effort. He’d long since got over the eerie and disturbing scenes of empty streets and the deathly quiet that made the sound of his breathing as loud as thunder. He was glad that the attack hadn’t left any bodies; that would have been worse. However, here and there, in dark places small pools of pinkish fluid could still be seen, and round stains where the liquid had evaporated created a leopard spot pattern on the sidewalks. It was hard to believe that all that remained of the people of Tel-Aviv was these ink blot stains, empty sets of clothes and a few puddles on the floor.

The air was still full of soot, although it had rapidly cleared in places and now all that remained was the few burnt out husks of buildings. Several times he had to ram his way thru roads blocked with crashed cars or the shattered remains of a house or office. This was, he decided a place of the dead and the living had no right to be here. It was a peculiar sight, it was as if all the people had vanished in the blink of an eye. Now rotting meals lay on empty tables, flies buzzing and circling around them.

He drove further into the city and the piles of clothes and stains grew more frequent. Shopping malls were dark and empty, the power long since flicked off. The mirror surfaces of modern high rise buildings reflected the sun in a myriad of colors, and yet he knew inside, there would be the ‘nothing’ remains of the workers who had just arrived for their days work. He had been told the timing of the attack was minute perfect, the exact moment when the entire city would be on the move, and therefore cause the maximum amount of carnage.

He checked the GPS display on his dashboard and its metre perfect reading told him this was the place. He brought his jeep to a stop and climbed clumsily out. He peered into the back of the jeep, and was relieved to see the pigeons and the cat was still alive. The biological agent that was still in the air had not yet affected them. He pulled out the cage and opened it. In a flash the pigeons had escaped, and flew skywards, and landed on a nearby streetlight. He waited for a number of minutes, the only sound being his soft breathing, before deciding that the atmosphere was ok. He then picked up the cage containing a small tabby cat, and looked around. Eventually he spotted a pool of the pinkish liquid, and he placed the cage down on it. The pinkish liquid began to seep into the cage and the cat took umbrage at this and hissed at him. A few seconds later, the cat licked the pink goo off its paws and sat back down again. He waited intently, looking at the cat’s every move and breath, until after 10 minutes he decided that the liquid was harmless. Just to make sure he released the cat and watched it shoot off into the distance.

He knew what had to come next, but that didn’t stop him being nervous. All the tests pointed to the city being safe, but this was the acid test. He tried to pull his thoughts away from himself, and think of the whole country that was waiting on the results of these tests. To serve God and country, that is why he had signed up and now came the crunch. He silently said a prayer and undid his protective hood. The air tasted sweet and clean, like the air on top of a high mountain. He had expected the pungent smell of death and decay, but this tasted so good. He took a deep, long breath and relaxed, the city was safe. He walked around to the front of the jeep but found his vision becoming blurry, a sudden pain in his chest caused him to stumble. Why couldn’t he see any more? He suddenly felt so weak and powerless and in matter of moments it all faded to black.

o - o - o -

Elizabeth had been out cold for about an hour when Matthew spotted the first signs of her recovery. They had debated long and hard what to do when she did come around, and they had decided that the best option was for Tina to cover Dr Bexley, with her standard issue .38 from a safe distance, and the others would stand opposite her and wait. Matthew alerted the group and they quickly moved into position.

Elizabeth went to sit up but found herself unable to. She had been tied up, "Hey what’s going on?" she complained groggily.

Matthew was the first to speak, "You idiot! We trusted you until you had that little episode a while ago."

"What episode? What the hell are you talking about? The last thing I remember was I was talking about the Guild motives, and then it all went black."

"You started ranting, just like you did back in the Guild stronghold," Kat replied.

"Oh shit! I’ve been without my drug for three days, I was afraid something like that would happen. Did I hurt anyone?"

"No, we’re ok. Your note said you did it on purpose," The senator stated.

"That’s a relief. Yeah, I did it on purpose. I knew we needed every advantage we could possibly get and from past experience I knew that Stelazine clouded my judgement and thinking. The stakes are way too high to worry about one person. I’m just glad you guys were here. I take it you’ve given me my dose?"

Cathline eyed Elizabeth as though she was a Cobra about to strike, "Kat did it. You expect us to believe you’re all ok thank you, and that we should go and trust you now. How do we know that you’re not going to pull anything? Before I hit you, you were ranting about how you still love Matthew and that he should be with you. Now excuse me, but that sounds to me like the ‘hell bitch’ of old."

"I do still love Matthew, and a part of me wants him to be with me," Elizabeth started.

"TOLD YOU, Tina.." Cathline shouted.

Elizabeth heard the click of a pistol being cocked behind her, "Wait. I’m not done yet. Cathline, you still love Kat right."

"Yes, AND?" Cathline demanded.

"And part of you wants to be with her?"

Cathline thought for a moment and then admitted, "Yeah I guess. But that doesn’t.’"

"My turn to interrupt. You were going to say that even though you still love Kat, and a small part of you wants to be with her, that doesn’t mean to say you’ll dispose of Matthew and have her for yourself," Elizabeth stated.

"Exactly," Cathline snapped.

Elizabeth looked earnestly at Cathline, "I feel precisely the same way. Getting to know Kat over the past year, and knowing how much she and Matthew and are in love has shown me, more powerfully than I can describe that they are meant to be together. You must believe me, that I can no more betray their love than my parent’s memory. Cathline, if you’re allowed to love someone, and yet be content with watching them love another then why can’t I? You know what your largest fear is Cathline, it’s not being alone or left out, it’s becoming me."

Cathline didn’t say a word. Elizabeth had a point and she knew it. Kat, satisfied that Elizabeth was back to normal walked over to her and undid the belts binding her legs and arms

"Thanks, Kat. Now, please can we get on with the work in hand? Judging from that Pizza box lying over there you’ve had lunch. Kat you need to get to the Guild, we’ve been sitting here stuffing our faces and now we need to move. We all know where we are supposed to be, we’ll meet up in two days."

"How do we know we HAVE two days?" Tina asked.

Elizabeth answered, "We don’t, but you’ve seen the news as I have. The Austrian government has come up with a proposal, and there’s still a lot of debate going on. In spite of the pressure the five permanent members seem to be putting on Israel there’s still due process to attend to."

"You didn’t answer Tina’s question," Scott replied.

"I didn’t, but put it like this, the Guild have Israel like a pig on a stick. I’m sure the senator will agree with me, when I say that I believe that the Israeli PM is looking for a way out. But because he’s encircled from every side by Guild changelings he’s trapped. He wants time and room to manoeuvre. You just have to look at the press releases and speculation to see that he’s stalling for time. Since when has Israel ever needed UN approval to do anything? They didn’t when they bombed that nuclear reactor in Iraq a few years back. Israel normally doesn’t give a stuff about world opinion when the security of its people are at stake. It’ll only strike when all options are exhausted or the Guild changelings finally decide to put Israel out of its misery."

The senator nodded, his long black hair swishing as he did so, "I agree with Dr Bexley. We certainly have at least four days left, that’s more than enough time. But we need to move."

Kat stood up and brushed herself down, "Ok. I’ll go. I’ll see you in Washington in two days, With the proof we need."

Matthew stood up and walked over to her, tears welling up in his eyes, "I’ve lost you once, please not again."

Kat gave Matthew a long tearful embrace, "I’m coming back, what’s two more days when we have a lifetime ahead of us? My love, I’ll see you soon."

Kat let Matthew go, and she slowly embraced each one of the group in turn. She was about to leave, when she turned to Elizabeth and said, "Look after him, Witch."

"I will. I owe my life to him. Remember that old Egyptian blessing I told you about?"

"Yeah, thanks, "With a single fingered salute Kat walked out of the room.

"Egyptian Blessing?" Matthew queried.

Elizabeth brushed back a tear. She hated sending Kat out again but her mission was the most critical. "I used it the first time Kat went off to be Salah. Translated it goes ‘May God go with you in all the dark places where you must walk’."

There was silence as each person thought of Kat going back to the deadly world of the Guild, the words of Elizabeth’s blessing echoing around their minds.

Elizabeth broke the silence and took on a matter of fact, almost military tone of voice, "Right Scott, Senator Jameson, you’ll take the next flight to Washington. Book yourself into the Holiday inn nearest the airport, and wait for me there. I’m going to go to LA as Rachel Martin, and then travel to Washington from there. Cathline, Tina lay low until I call you. Then travel to be with us, Matthew, you’ll take the next flight to Boston, and then onto Washington as well. You’ll book into the same hotel as Scott and the Senator. Now Kat knows she only has two days to get back to Washington. If she doesn’t, we go without her. We stand little chance of success if she fails but we have to try."

o - o - o -

"Watcher to control, Watcher to Control."

"Control here, report."

"Target has left the building. Am following."

"Affirmative. Do not engage, follow and report where he ends up. Our orders are to wait and strike when he least suspects it."

"Agreed. Handing over to Pursuit."

"Pursuit you ready over?"

A female voice sounded over the radio, "Pursuit here. I will report when target has settled."

In all the traffic Kat didn’t notice a blue sedan pull away from the other side of the road, and drive off, her mind was busily focused on hailing a cab.

This time of day finding cabs was relatively easy and within a matter of minutes she had hired one, and told the driver the address she wanted to go to. Normally, she would have had a Guild driver take her but with the Guild now exposed she couldn’t take the risk that the driver was some government agent. Besides, the place she was going to was a non-Guild owned disused factory. Nobody outside of a few select Guild agents knew of its importance, and it was for one time use only.

A few cars back a large black Chrysler station wagon took position and started to follow the Taxi that Kat was in.

o - o - o -

"How do I look?" Elizabeth asked Cathline.

Cathline looked at Elizabeth from top to bottom. Elizabeth had spent quite a bit of time getting her hair just right and adjusting the eye patch to the position that Cathline wore it. Here and there Cathline could see subtle differences. Elizabeth’s body was thinner and less muscular, probably due to the extreme amounts of energy that she’d required of it, and the fact that her body was still recovering from her fight with the Guild. However to all but the most ardent Rachel Martin fan Elizabeth would pass as her, "Just like me."

Elizabeth nodded, "Good. This will keep me out of harms way until I get to LA. What’s up Matthew?"

Matthew looked worried, "I can’t help thinking of Kat. I ought to be concentrating on doing my bit, but all I can think of is her."

"I understand. But she can take care of herself. She did more dangerous things in the year she was organizing the Guild war than this. All she’s going to do is to gather what information the Guild have and bring it back. She’s in charge now, the Guild do what she says."

"I suppose," Matthew wondered. He felt tempted to ask more about what Kat had been up to in their year away but thought better of it. When it was all over, then he’d ask.

Scott suggested, "I suggest we all book our flights as soon as we can."

Elizabeth nodded, "Agreed. Once we know when our flights leave we can take some well earned rest. Some of us have been on the go for over 18 hours, and we need our sleep. Scott why don’t you book the flights for yourself and the senator, from the phone in the foyer? Matthew and I can use his.

All the phone calls took nearly an hour to complete. The Senator and Scott would be the first to fly out in a little over two hours, Elizabeth as Rachel Martin would use her full VIP status, and leave in style, four hours later and then finally Matthew would leave at 22:00 that evening. As planned Tina and Cathline would follow as soon as the NYPD allowed, and Kat would then catch up when she had proof.

o - o - o -

The taxi drew up beside a deserted industrial complex. The site was littered with burnt out cars, abandoned machinery and everywhere was a general air of decay. It looked as though this site hadn’t been used in over twenty years. From the nature of the building Kat was aiming for it was probably some kinda of chemical plant. Pipes ran out from all over the building and merged into a central point before plunging deep underground. Three aluminium flues sprang out of the middle of the factory giving it a haphazard look.

Kat paid the driver a healthy tip and he drove off. Kat checked her watch, it was almost two pm. She furtively glanced around to make sure she hadn’t been followed, before setting off towards the factory. It took a few minutes for her to complete the walk and soon she was at the entranceway. Before she could open the door it was opened for her by a burly Guild agent, who then gave a single fingered salute and beckoned her inside.

From several hundred metres away the occupants of a black Chrysler noted where Kat had walked into.

"Do we go in now?" the less experienced agent asked his superior.

"No, we wait until he drops his guard, say in a couple of hours and then we call for the strike team. They go in, take him out, and then get out ASAP."

"What about the others?"

"If they get in the way we’ll eliminate them too. If they decide to run, then we’ll let them. Without the boss they’re nothing. Fancy some coffee?"

Kat was escorted up several flights of slippery, filthy steps. Inside the factory was dark, the power long since being turned off. Drips and bangs from leaking air-conditioning pipes occasionally rang out, making Kat inwardly jump. Outside she appeared calm and collected. The impassive, all powerful Guild leader.

She was shown to a large room and left alone. Her escort had silently slipped away. Kat took a step forwards and was suddenly grabbed from behind, her arm pinned behind her back. Unable to move she felt a knife being pressed to her throat and in her ear an Arabic voice hissed, "traitor."

o - o - o -

Only Cathline and Elizabeth were still awake, the others had elected to get some rest before setting out. Elizabeth didn’t feel tired, and she needed to stay awake and prepare. Cathline didn’t trust Elizabeth enough to fall asleep, with her in the room and unguarded so she sat at the opposite side of the room glaring at her identical twin.

Elizabeth was getting well and truly fed up with Cathline’s hot and cold hostility. Kat had told her that the best way to deal with Cathline was sit her down, let her get whatever it was off her chest, and then quietly point out the truth. Honesty and integrity were the things that Cathline respected the most. Elizabeth had to admit that in Cathline’s eyes, she had neither. Elizabeth sighed inwardly. She’d tried the approach Kat had used, she’d tried letting Cathline vent her anger on her, and she’d tried everything in between. A thought occurred to her, a quip she’d made before Kat had left. It was worth a try, "I know what your problem is with me, Cathline."

Cathline said nothing in response. She didn’t want to rise to Elizabeth’s baiting anymore. The sooner she was away from her the better.

"Ok fine, you don’t want to talk to me, that’s ok by me. Every time we seem to have one of our little chats one of us loses it. Your problem with me isn’t what I did to you, it’s who you are."

Cathline looked up and glared at Elizabeth.

"You’ve described Kat as the ‘Anti-Liz. Standing for everything I supposedly don’t, honesty, compassion, and integrity. If I’m Liz and Kat is the ‘Anti Liz’, then you are the nearly Liz."

"I’m nothing like you," Cathline snapped back.

"Yes you are. It wasn’t only me who conspired to turn John into a copy of Kat. It wasn’t only John who had an affair when they were married. You helped me. You slept with me while still married to John. I’m sorry to tell some home truths, and maybe Matthew and Kat have skirted around the issue, but your hands aren’t spotless either. Whatever you say you’re closer to how I am than how Kat is, and that’s your greatest fear. I know what it’s like. To lie there, awake in the middle of the night thinking over what might have been. If only I’d given Matthew more space, if only I’d let him go when I should have. My world is full of ifs and maybe’s, and everyday it eats away at me a little bit more. You’re not the only one to lose someone close. I lost Matthew, lost my parents, and now I’ve lost whatever chance I had at leading a normal life. I’m learning to let Matthew go. Sure it’s hard, but I’m doing it the only way I can."

"Bully for you," Cathline replied. Elizabeth’s words stung her deeply.

How could she know, how could she really understand?

Ignoring Cathline’s barbed comment Elizabeth continued, "You know, I thought the hardest part of my setting things right would be all the DNA work that was required to put Matthew, Kat, and the others right again. Now I’m not so sure. If I fix your eye what will good will it do? You will still despise me, still not trust me, and rejoice when I’m gone. The only way I can redeem myself to you is by earning your forgiveness. Kat told me how you gave up all thoughts of going after me, but she also said that you never really forgave me. That brings me back to your greatest fear. You can see within yourself the seeds of revenge growing again, and you know what it can do to a person. It’s not only me you despise, it’s yourself, and it’s not only me you’ve not forgiven, it’s you. Until you forgive yourself for what you did to John, then you can never forgive me."

Cathline gave a slow, methodical clap, "You get that from that Harvard psychology class you went to?"

Elizabeth smiled, "I guess so. I only got 98% in my finals. It let me down from my final score. Never did understand how, and why people did things, well from the textbook anyway. You have to admit I’ve got a point. My little farewell scene with Kat shook you too didn’t it? I saw the look on your face. You thought how the hell could SHE give Kat such an apt send-off? How come SHE could show such affection to her mortal enemy?"

Cathline couldn’t resist opening up a little. So much of what Elizabeth had noticed in her was right on, "I suppose I do hate myself for what I’ve done. I let my hurt over what John did to me get to me. That was the main reason why I agreed to let us teach him a lesson, and thinking about it may, be one of the reasons why I came onto you so strong in the first place. Yeah, sure I was surprised at your little farewell, but I know Kat, she will trust anyone, she’s of the opinion that anyone deserves a second chance, even you."

Elizabeth was curious, "One of the reasons?"

Cathline nodded, "That, and you were so damn hot in those days.

This," Cathline gestured to her body, "is so, so perfect it’s unnatural. Nobody could ever be born like this. Part of me did love you. When you opened up to me it was a like a treasure I’d never found before, an undiscovered jewel seen for the first time. If I started off with you to spite John it ended with me loving you."

Now it was Elizabeth’s turn to backtrack. "I knew you loved me, deep down I knew it, but I was so messed up inside I took every little knock back as a personal insult. In the end I hated you for the happiness you had. I wanted to torture you bit by bit, like pulling the legs one by one off a spider, and watching it squirm. Like you, I don’t give myself to just anyone, only the people I love. I saw what we had as my last chance of stopping the Fury and what did I do? I turned it around and used it for my own evil."

"You’re right. I do partly blame myself for what happened. Unlike you I take responsibility for my actions."

Elizabeth interrupted, "Wait a sec, what the hell do you think I’m doing now."

"When it’s too late and the damage is done," Cathline commented.

Elizabeth didn’t comment on that remark, she didn’t need to "You’ve known for a long time what you’ve got to do. You have to let John and Kat go. They’ve become part of you, a comfort that you use to quiet yourself in those moments of darkness and pain. John is dead—as tragic as that is it’s a fact. Kat is married. She will never be able to be with you in the way you want. Until you let them go you will tied to the past and unable to move from it. Your feelings of anger, betrayal and resentment will eat away at you until you lose what you value most about yourself, and furthermore you will become me in thought if not deed."

Cathline sat back on her chair and let Elizabeth’s words flow into her. Elizabeth was right. She did live in the past. Events that happened over five years ago ate at her soul, fuelled her pain, and had turned her heart to unfeeling stone. Cathline felt a tear on her cheek, and she refused to wipe it away. So what if Elizabeth saw it.

"I had to let Matthew go, I had to have time to mourn the death of my parents. Forget about DNA sequencing. Letting Matthew live his own life, and realizing that Mom and Dad’s deaths were just horrific accidents was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, it was like letting my entire life go. All the hours, days, weeks and months of planning I’d put in were now for nothing. For so long, they were what defined me. I’m pleading with you Cathline, deal with this before it’s too late. Part of me wants you back. As I’ve said before, you were my final chance to stop all of this and I blew it. Sometimes I’ve wanted to hold you, like I used to hold you. You comforted me, and made me feel loved again. I know we can never have what we used to, but at least let us put an end to this feud. If you said you’d take me back I’d be there."

Strangely, Cathline’s first thought wasn’t horror at the thought. She remembered the good times she and Elizabeth had, had together. If it were anyone else asking then she would jump at the chance. The chance to love and be loved again was more appealing than the cancerous growth of being alone; "If you’d have said that five years ago I would have come. Too much has happened since for me to forget."

"But is there room to forgive?" Elizabeth queried.

"Maybe. If you follow thru with your promises then I’ll forgive you."

"Forgiveness shouldn’t be conditional .You either forgive me or you don’t. I want you to let go for you not for me."

Much to Elizabeth’s surprise Cathline stood up and walked over to her.

She suddenly embraced Elizabeth and gave her a peck on the cheek.

Elizabeth wanted, no, needed more but then Cathline pulled away.

Cathline turned to face Elizabeth and said "If you’d said ok to my proposal, then I would have known that you were only saying those things to serve yourself. What you said was right. Forgiveness isn’t conditional but trust is. You will need to earn my trust all over again. There’s a whole load of stuff I need to sort out for myself, and you’ve given me some more. Thank you for caring. Being with Kat has rubbed off on you."

Cathline remained silent. There was nothing more that could be said on the subject. Elizabeth had pierced into her soul and exposed her fears. Unwilling to show more, Cathline changed the subject, "Ok Liz, now you tell me something. You never start something without knowing how you want it to end. You must have an ending in mind, what is it?"

Elizabeth looked furtively around and said, "I’m going to kill Kat on the operating table and run off with Matthew. You will be powerless to stop me because you’ll be dead. Killed by my newly repaired changeling organ."

Cathline’s eyes widened in horror. A feeling of dread overcame her, she wanted to scream but no sound came out.

Elizabeth smiled and said, "Gotcha."

Cathline didn’t know what to say. Was this Elizabeth’s idea of a joke or a more serious conversation? "WHAT!"

Elizabeth smiled, "Fooled you. Don’t ever play jokes like you and Kat did on Matthew again. He’s vulnerable at the moment, how you reacted just then was how he initially reacted when you pulled the ‘I’m running off with Kat’ stunt back there. I have an ending in mind, and it’s one I promise will suit everyone. How would you end things?"

Cathline thought for a few minutes while Elizabeth looked impassively on, "I wouldn’t kill you because, as you rightly say, that would make me as bad as you. If I toss you into a pit and walk away, and leave you to rot I’m just as bad, and yet if you go scott free and unpunished then where’s the justice in that. I liked the mermaid solution. You were still alive but out of our lives. Justice was served, you were being punished but not so much as to destroy you."

"So you want me to go into exile is that it? Never hear from me again," Elizabeth asked.

"I guess so. The trouble is, is that we’d fear you coming back when it suited you."

Elizabeth lowered her voice, "Deal. When this is over I promise you won’t hear from me again."

Cathline looked Elizabeth in the eye and said, "I’ll have to take your word on that. Yeah if you leave, and I never see you again, then I’ll be happy. John’s soul will be at peace and I can then move on."

o - o - o -

The knife pressed against Kat’s throat pressed a little harder. Kat slowed her breathing down so that she wouldn’t inadvertently cut her throat on the knife.

"Well Traitor, any last words before you die," the voiced said menacingly.

"I’m not going to beg for my life. It wasn’t me who betrayed you it was Hassan," Kat whispered.

The still unseen Guild agent didn’t release his grip, "So you say. It was your pet whore, Dr Bexley who was in the communications room wasn’t it. She sent our entire records to the world. She was under your command, and so you betrayed us."

Kat thought quickly. She and Elizabeth had prepared for such an eventuality, but now it was here, she was having trouble clearing her mind. She closed her eyes, and settled herself in the way the Guild had taught her. She didn’t move a muscle other than her mouth when she said, "I knew you would accuse us of this crime. Have you checked the records of the computer?"

"We did not need to, only Dr Bexley, and her bitch wife were in there."

"Check the records. You will see that the last communication before the disaster was Hassan calling into the room. The logs will show that he used his personal, private key to unlock the database, and then when communications were restored the database was sent to the world. I think Hassan reasoned that if he couldn’t rule the Guild, then no one should. I’m not the betrayer. He is."

Kat’s attacker thought for a few moments. Hassan would, could do such a thing. Although he’d never met Salah before he had heard about his trustworthiness and integrity "If you are lying he warned."

Kat breathed, "If I were lying why would I come here? Now tell me how goes my request?"

Much to her relief the knife was pulled away, and her arm was released. Her attacker moved around so that he faced her. He was a tall man, almost as tall as Kat, and even after pinning Kat’s arm behind her, his sharp Italian suit didn’t even have a crease. The man gave Kat a single fingered salute and waited.

Kat returned the salute and said, "It’s ok. You will not be punished. You have shown by your actions that you are still loyal to us. Now what have you learned?"

The man offered Kat a seat and sat down on it. Kat waited while the man went off and returned some minutes later.

"Is there only the two of you? What happened to all the rest?" Kat was concerned that the Guild seemed to have fewer resources than she’d hoped. Furthermore she now had little protection against anyone who wanted to move against her.

The Guild agent nodded, "Most of us have left the country. Those few that remain lay hidden in secret places awaiting the pogrom to fade. Our agents have come under attack from almost every security service in the world. I’m just glad Israel is paralysed, I did not look forward to having to deal with Mossad."

"I see. Now what of the mission I told you about?"

The Guild agent walked closer to Kat and sat down at her feet, "We heard that Hassan made a video recording of the DNA warhead test. We have located the videotape, but unfortunately it doesn’t contain anything that points to him. The only point to note is that the accents of the villagers can be traced to only to that part of Libya. We tried to locate the driver of the tanker, but apparently he was killed by Dr Bexley during the final assault on Hassan’s stronghold."

Kat had mixed emotions. They were SO close to finding the proof they needed, but a featureless videotape of a nameless place was not it. "Anything else?"

"I am puzzled as to why you want this so badly. My loyalty is utmost but I do not see why we should concentrate all out efforts into this one thing when all around the world our agents are being hunted down," The threat was veiled in the agents voice but Kat noticed it and took note.

Kat thought carefully, every word she was about to speak was critical. One wrong move and she would die. "This is our only chance to survive. We will not hide and cower in fear of the pogrom that is being raged against us. By proving to the world that the Guild are honorable, and are not terrorists as Hassan made them we can then earn the respect of the world. The Guild was laid bare and naked by Hassan’s treachery, and that cannot be changed. We may as well show the world what the Guild should be like. What we can do, is sit down at the table of our enemies and turn them towards our side. Why can’t we use our resources for helping the needy, disposing of evil and protecting the innocent. For too long, we have become proud and inward looking, for nearly a thousand years the Guild has looked only to itself. It is time we looked outwards, towards the future."

The Guild agent thought. It was a bold vision, of the Guild acting on the side of righteousness. No more hiding in the shadows and skulking around like criminals. Salah’s vision for the Guild was courageous and different. He could see the praise of the world heaped upon it when it was revealed that the Guild, and the Guild alone had dealt with the terror of genetic weapons. "I am sorry to have doubted you."

Kat breathed an inward sigh of relief, "That is ok. What else did you find?"

"We removed a box of videotapes from our Australian stronghold. They are on their way here. We hope that a more detailed version of the weapons test is among them. Also in them are records of conversations, and actions that were recorded there, there may be some clue as to Hassan’s plans in them. From our American associates we have obtained a satellite photograph of the village that we think was used in the test. That too is being sent to you, we dare not send it by mail so it will be hand delivered. Both packages will reach you by the end of tomorrow. Where will you be staying?"

Kat’s hopes lifted a little. It seemed as though there were lots of puzzle pieces but no picture to work from. Kat gave the Guild agent the address of a locker at JFK airport. She would need several hours to wade thru the mass of puzzle pieces and decide which she could use and which were useless. It would be cutting it very fine indeed.

The Guild agent committed it to memory and continued, "Hassan’s files remain heavily encrypted and even our best efforts to decode them have been thwarted. We think that all the details have been stored in there, Hassan was very efficient at covering his tracks."

"As he should be. What of the Warhead production facility and of the remaining DNA systems?"

The Guild agent’s face dropped, "Destroyed. As soon as it looked as though we were going to win, agents loyal to Hassan set off fuel-air explosives, and incinerated the entire installation. We have gone thru the remains and found nothing that points to a genetic warhead factory. The tankers used in the attack were purchased from all over the region, and over a time span of a year, so there is no way they can be traced back."

Kat shrugged, "It seems as though Hassan’s reputation for thoroughness was well earned. What of the changeling training facility?"

"Dismantled, and all records removed. Once again this was done some time ago."

Kat knew where this was leading, dead end. She needed information desperately and time was fast running out!" You have been most helpful. Now go and organize the shipping of those videotapes and other records. Use every means, every resource and every last bit of money to find the proof we need. Our survival depends on it, depends on you, and depends on all of us."

The Guild agent stood up and gave Kat a single fingered salute and walked off, his mission objectives now clear and his loyalty re-established.

o - o - o -

From the outside of the factory, the watchers saw the Guild agent leave by a side door. They were not interested in small fry, and now as it was getting dark the optimum time for a strike approached. They watched him jump into a battered Chevy truck and drive away. They waited a few minutes and then the leader called for the hit team.

The hit team had been sitting outside in a blacked out van for sometime. They wore full body armor, had special image intensifying helmets, which allows them to see clearly in the darkness of the factory, and they also carried specially silenced Heckler and Koch MP5 submachine guns. All of them had been trained in counter terrorism techniques, and storming a building such as this was second nature. They were the most highly trained troops that their nation could provide.

o - o - o -

The target of the hit team sat on her chair, drinking a cup of dark, rich coffee. Her sole companion, the guard at the door had just walked downstairs for a spot security check. Kat was bored and just wanted to leave but she had to wait until the other agent returned. She decided to have a walk around the factory, it passed the time and besides she was curious and she needed to think.

It seemed as though Hassan had all the bases covered. All evidence of the manufacture of the warheads had been destroyed. As had the changeling training facility. The only witness to the Guild usage of the DNA warhead was dead. and all that remained was a few minutes of video footage. She was amazed that the Guild had found so much so quickly as it was. They must have had to wade thru hundreds if not thousands of documents to find what they did. Kat wanted to be able to filter through the crap herself so she could be sure it contained the information they wanted. She had debated about sending it all onto Elizabeth, but it wasn’t safe to do so, she didn’t want it to be intercepted on the way there.

She’d walked up several flights of stairs and had reached what looked like the main processing center. Conveyor belts ran out from each side of the room and ended up in a series of large, sealed silos. Coming out of each silo was a large rusted pipe, which then plunged into the floor, and led who knows where.

Kat had reached the room where she’d first met the Guild agent when suddenly she heard a series of gunshots echo thru the empty corridors. Instinct took over and she flattened herself against the wall. She patted her pocket, and regretted not taking the slender Guild assassin knife with her. Whether she’d be willing to use it would be a different matter. She froze as someone walked into the room. Kat was about to grab the mystery person in an arm lock, when she saw it was the Guild agent who’d been left behind to guard her. By the looks of him he was wounded.

"Are you alright?" Kat whispered.

The Guild agent nodded, "There were seven of them, I got three before I had to flee. Quick this way."

Her heart pounding, Kat followed the Guild agent thru several dark corridors. At every step she expected to be gunned down where she stood. For his part, her guardian kept watch, listening for any tell tale signs of movement.

The strike team had fallen back to the main entranceway. The speed and ferocity of the terrorist guarding the door had shocked them, and now three of them lay dead on floor, their throats slit. Still at least the guard had been wounded, and was now trapped on a higher floor. The strike team commander adjusted his image intensifier, and gave the signal to move out. The plan was to slowly drive them into a corner before finishing the job. The commander debated whether to wait until reinforcements could arrive from the van outside, but decided not to wait in case they escaped. He gave a quick finger signal, checked the radio link between his remaining team members, and carefully climbed the stairs once more.

Kat was shown to the main processing area, and the guard pointed to a large section of pipe. Part of the pipe had been removed and replaced by a metal grill.

"Get in, this leads to the sewer system You can crawl to safety thru there." The guard gestured to the pipe.

Kat grimaced, she’d have to crawl thru several metres of sewage and waste just to get out. Still it beat being shot. She was about to ask the guard what he was going to do, but then she knew. He was going to hold them off while she escaped. The guard unclipped the metal grill and Kat slowly crawled into the damp and stinking pipe. Kat heard the grill being clipped back into place, and she started to slowly crawl downhill towards the sewer. The smell was almost overwhelming and she didn’t want to know what kinds of stuff she was crawling into. She nearly didn’t fit in the pipe and her movement was restricted by the fact she had to be quiet.

The strike team commander took point and his remaining team fanned out into the processing area. There was no sign of the guard or their target. It was possible they had fled further on, but tactically this was the best place to make a stand. There were numerous places in where they could hide and pick them off one by one. He scanned the room but couldn’t see anyone.

Suddenly from his far left there was a noise and a blood-curdling scream which was stifled short. He whirled around, ready to open fire but all that remained was empty space, and the body of one of his comrades. Suddenly the room echoed to the sound of automatic weapons and sparks flew as bullets ricocheted around the room.

Kat was about to slide down into the downward sloping sewage pipe when she heard gunfire. She froze, hardly daring to breathe and waited for one side to win.

The guard was pleased, he’d managed to obtain a weapon from the fallen soldier and was now hiding underneath one of the conveyor belts. He’d spotted what looked like the commander, and he waited. If the commander fell then the others would be more easily taken.

The commander looked around the room. The greenish glow of the image intensified light gave the room a ghostly, otherworldly feel. If he were on the run and trapped in this room where would he go?

His gaze fixed upon a conveyor belt. Yes, that would provide a good hiding place. Plenty of cover, a good arc of fire, and a handy retreat if required. He caught sight of a glint of metal underneath. "So there you are," he breathed to himself.

He risked radioing his second in command and notified him of the suspected position. They quickly formulated a plan, a risky one, but the best in the given situation He then casually walked over a catwalk, allowing the guard a clean field of fire at him.

The guard was elated, his enemy had made a tactical blunder. He raised his weapon and prepared to open fire. Suddenly there was a noise above him, and his last thought was that he’d been outmanoeuvred.

"Got him," the second in command radioed to his commander and he jumped of the conveyor belt. While the guard had been drawing a bead on the commander he’d managed to leap onto the belt and shoot thru the rubber belt and into the enemy below.

The remains of the strike team reformed and searched the room. The target must be somewhere. After a few minutes of fruitless searching, they were almost ready to move on. Then the commander had an idea, he’d been looking at the way the pipes were laid out. He gestured for all but one of his team to remain still, and listen. The other he got to call out, "Sector is secure move out."

Kat heard the muffled order and decided to risk moving a little more. She was getting cramped from waiting in her prone position and the stench was making her ill. She decided to move a fraction of an inch but miscalculated and her foot gently scraped alongside the side of the pipe.

The commander froze, and pointed to the section of pipe where the sound had come from. His team surrounded the area of the pipe, and with the phut hiss of silenced gunfire, they all riddled the area with bullets. A loud, deep scream cried out from inside the pipe, and then died off. Sewage poured out the holes and then trickled away. The commander took out a flashlight and looked at their handiwork. A thin red liquid seeped out of several holes and it was sticky to the touch, blood.

"We got him," the commander stated.

"Are we going to confirm that?" his second asked.

The commander shook his head. "Unless we cut the pipe open we ain’t gonna get him outta there. He’s been hit at least five times, and even if he is alive all that shit in there will cause massive infection to those wounds. The main sewers are at least a quarter mile away, and there’s no way he can get there. These pipes are flushed every so often, so he’ll just get flushed right out. We’ve done our job, let’s go home."

o - o - o -

The changeling president was about to sit down to dinner when the phone rang.

"Mr President?" the voice asked.

"What it is?"

"This is Major Jackson of the strike team you sent for. We can confirm that the terrorist called Salah has been taken out just as you wished."

The president felt elated. His worst enemy was dead. That left him as the most powerful figure in the Guild, "Excellent. You have his body to confirm?"

"Sorry Mr President. Salah was inside of a long pipe when we got him. He must’ve been hit at least five times, and the pipe was thick with waste and shit. He ain’t getting out of there."

"Nonetheless I want to see a body." the changeling president was concerned. No body, no sure kill.

"The pipes were flushed out about half hour after we left. Salah’s body’s been washed out into the main sewer system. The sewage there is at least ten feet deep, and the tunnels run for miles. Trust me, Mr President, with those bullet wounds he’d have no chance of living. Even if he did somehow survive the gunshots his body would be massively infected by now. He’s either dead or dying a slow painful death."

The changeling president relaxed and gave a nod, "Thank you Major, that will be all."

"Pleasure, Out," the major said and put the phone down.

The changeling president gave a deep, contented sigh and went back to his Pork Saltimbocca.

o - o - o -

As soon as Elizabeth walked out of the departure lounge of LAX airport, photographers crowded in and besieged her. Apparently the newly maimed Rachel Martin was a big a news item as ever.

"Rachel, how did you escape?" One called out to her.

A small man dressed in scruffy jeans pushed his way thru the crowd and called, "Rachel, What are you going to do now?"

Another reporter shoved a micro cassette recorder into her face, "Did you see Dr Bexley? Did she do this to you?"

Elizabeth was tempted to respond in someway, but thought better of it. She managed to push past the crowds, and after a brief chase spotted a waiting limousine. It hadn’t taken long to organize one, and the hire Company had fallen over themselves to help out Rachel Martin. As Elizabeth was shown inside, a last question was thrown at her by a persistent reporter, "Rachel, are you worried about reports of Dr Bexley’s freedom?"

Her chauffeur closed the door behind her, and Elizabeth got inside the driver’s section. His voice sounded over the interior speakers, "Where to, Miss Martin."

"Just drive me around for an hour or so. Drop me off at this hotel, and then take me back here," Elizabeth replied. Her connecting flight to Washington left in about three hours and she needed to catch it. Resisting the temptation to sample the Moet in the cooler she stretched out her long, perfect legs, and decided to catch up on some more rest. For what was to come she’d need it.

o - o - o -

Scott and the senator threw their bags onto the floor and flopped onto their beds. The flight over had been exhausting, and neither of them had gotten much rest. Their limbs ached and their minds couldn’t focus on anything but sleep. Although only three days had passed since their release from the Guild, it seemed as though it had been three minutes. Interrupted sleep, the strangeness of their bodies, and then having to try and get their minds around a threat so horrific it turned the stomach had all played their part in their current state of exhaustion.

As soon as Scott’s head hit the pillow he fell asleep, dreaming of happier days with Rebecca, and hoping that more would follow. The Senator on the other hand took longer to fall asleep. His mind playing out scenarios, ifs and maybe’s. His task was, perhaps one of the more difficult the group faced. To try and convince the government that their commander in chief had been assassinated and a double put in his place. In theory, his plan should work, but a lot of it depended on how Kat did back in New York. If she drew a blank then his plan would fail. It was as simple as that. The disks that Matthew carried were also vital, and it was prudent of Dr Bexley to insist they be delivered after contact with the Vice President or ‘Jack’ had been established. It would be all too easy for them to be lost or destroyed unless Jack took a personal hand in it.

He guessed that Dr Bexley’s changeling test would also be a critical part of the proof, but getting a president to submit to a blood test on the whim of a senator, especially a transgendered senator, would be an almost impossible task. He tried to clear his mind of the worry that pressed in. He looked over at the shapely form of the sleeping Scott. The shape his breasts could be seen under the thin blanket, and he wondered if Scott was really dealing with the effects of his transformation. His thoughts turned to himself. Was he really dealing with them, or had his sense of higher duty kicked in and was overriding his feelings? He ran his hand down his smooth leg and relished the sensation. He shook his head, and felt his pony tail swish against the back of his neck, and he resisted the temptation to go look at himself in the mirror again. He was too tired to think any further, so he lay down beside the still sleeping Scott, closed his eyes, and was soon drifting off into much needed sleep.

o - o - o -

Matthew sat in first class and was treating himself to another portion of ice cream. He’d made the connecting flight to Boston, and was now on his way to Washington. Over the last few days it seemed as though he’d spent most of his time on aircraft, and rushing from place to place. Inside he felt free again, his love was alive, and she still loved him. He whispered a silent prayer to whatever God was listening at the time, and prayed that Kat would be safe, and that the Egyptian blessing Elizabeth had given Kat would hold true. He had managed to have a brief rest on the flight to Boston, but his body cried out for more. The line from Tennyson’s Ulysses, that he’d told Kat when they’d flown out to Elizabeth’s Island came to his mind. Things were very different but just the same, and the line was as apt now as it was then. How did it go now..

‘Though we are not now that strength which in old days moved Earth and Heaven, that which we are, we are. One equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will; to strive, to seek, to find. And not to yield’ .

Matthew gave a wry smile, strange how fate twists and turns. The last time he’d thought of that section he’d been on his way to fight Elizabeth, now he was flying to help her.

o - o - o -

The limousine stopped outside of a cheap motel on the outskirts of Torrance and waited outside. Elizabeth collected her hand luggage from the trunk and went inside.

Sprawled over the desk was an overweight and balding man. A cigarette hung from his mouth and he was so engrossed in the sports pages of the local rag that he didn’t even look up when Elizabeth asked him for a room. He merely pointed to the guest book, grunted 30 dollars a night and after giving some monosyllabic directions dumped a room key on the desk.

Elizabeth shrugged and picked up the key. It was room number 36, which apparently was across the hall and third on the right. The state of the room didn’t matter, Elizabeth only needed it for the privacy. It didn’t take long to walk to the room and walk inside.

It was just as well Elizabeth didn’t need the room for the night as the beds sagged in the middle, the walls looked a little fragile, and by the state of the carpets Elizabeth thought that maybe someone had lit a fire in here. None of that mattered to her, as she reached inside her bag and took out a bottle of dye. She was relieved that there was at least hot running water, and a towel. After filling the sink with tepid water she dunked her head into the sink and made sure it was thoroughly wet.

Elizabeth looked on the side of the bottle and rechecked the instructions. That girl on the front has nice brown eyes, she thought casually. Carefully she opened the bottle of dye, and was about to apply it to her head when she noticed that her eyes had turned brown instead of their usual deep blue. A thought struck her and she checked her new eye color with that of the girl on the front of the bottle. She rechecked again, they matched, right down to the little flecks of green around the pupils. If her eyes could change color because she thought of them, then it must mean that her changeling organ was gradually healing. She closed her eyes and concentrated. She imagined herself with long, dark hair, just like the girl on the bottle. The tell tale pins and needles told her something was happening, and a few seconds later she opened her eyes and stared in the mirror. To her surprise and relief she now was a brunette.

Elizabeth tried another experiment. She closed her eyes and imagined herself wearing the bottle girl’s face. No matter how hard she tried she couldn’t change faces. She tried to grow a dart shooting talon from her arm, but once again that didn’t work either. Apparently hair and eyes were the limit at the moment BUT it did bode well for the future. Given another day or do it should be possible to change form once more. However, it would be some while before she regained its full use and abilities. She debated whether to tell anyone about her newly regained abilities, but that would destroy the trust she’d worked so hard to gain, and besides, she’d need to keep it a secret for what she had in mind for Matthew and Kat. She threw the bottle of dye away, and dried her new hair with the towel. After throwing thirty dollars and the keys on the desk, she walked out of the motel and got into the limousine once more.

It took another hour to get back to the airport but as a brunette, brown eyed Rachel Martin she was almost anonymous in the crowds. Sure people ogled, and the odd wolf whistle came from the odd over sexed male, but nobody recognised her as Rachel Martin, which was after all the point of the exercise. She boarded the flight to Washington with minimal fuss and was soon fast asleep.

o - o - o -

Cathline and Tina had just got back from the police station. Tina’s captain had been reluctant to rescind the check-in order, but after some serious sucking up to him by Tina he had agreed. They could fly out the next day and as far as the Captain was concerned Tina could stay in Washington for good, if either Cathline or whoever did anything illegal.

"Let’s check the news. I need to see what’s going on," Tina commented.

"Fine, I’m bushed though, I won’t be paying much attention," Cathline yawned.

Tina walked over to the TV and switched channels until CNN 24 came up. Luckily they were just in time for the main broadcast. A young reporter who reminded Cathline of Stephanie Lane sat behind a desk, shuffled some papers and started to speak.

"Good evening. You’re watching CNN 24. The main headlines tonight. A date for the vote on the Fury Directive has been set. After a closed meeting of the UN this morning sources have revealed that the vote will occur in two days. Israel has re-stated that it will not attack before it has UN approval, and that it continued to welcome any plans that could resolve the situation peacefully.

In the meantime several divisions of Syrian, Egyptian, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Quatar infantry and armor has begun to move towards the Egypt-Israel borders. Defence experts estimate that some 5000 armored vehicles, and nearly two million troops are expected arrive there in the next week or so. For it’s part Israel has mobilised all it’s reserves, and put all armed forces on full alert. It has not ruled out a pre-emptive strike, if the nation’s sovereignty is endangered. We hand over to our defense advisor, Jack Clancy to talk us thru these latest developments."

The camera panned to a middle aged man with large rimmed glasses. In spite of his non military air he spoke with authority, "The speed of the Arab build up has surprised most defense analysts. Egypt clearly has a lot of friends. In spite of the large numbers of troops, and hardware arranged against it, Israel has a number of advantages. Firstly, its equipment is better maintained and more modern, secondly, its troops are used to fighting as a coherent unit whereas this hastily formed alliance has had little experience of joint operations. However, this is partially negated by the fact that most of Israel’s command and control centers were knocked out during the attack on Tel-Aviv. Finally, Israel is fighting on home soil which, by our calculations, equates to the Arab nations needing at least a four to one ratio of attackers versus defenders in order to obtain victory.

In spite of all this Israel will clearly be fighting for its very existence, and current projections indicate that unless several of Israel’s allies, the US, for example, get involved then it is doubtful that it will prevail. Current analysis of Israeli tactics indicates that they will use the nuclear option before allowing a significant portion of their country to fall. If that happens, then it is certain that the Arab nations will respond in kind using weapons borrowed from Pakistan. Which in turn would provoke India into launching a pre-emptive strike against Pakistan."

Jack Clancy paused, letting it all seep in and then continued, "Should that occur then it would be difficult to keep other nations out, China, Korea, and Japan. Even Europe, Russia, and the US could find themselves being sucked in. With the prize of most of the world’s oil at stake few nations would be able to resist joining in. In short, we are closer to world war three than at any time since 1963."

"Fucking hell," Cathline breathed.

"Shh," Tina whispered.

The camera had panned back to the reporter, "President Andrews issued a statement today, stressing that we all should remain calm, and that panic buying and hoarding was not an acceptable option. He restated America’s neutrality, and promised that it would not get involved unless forced into doing so."

"You realise now he’s mentioned panic buying etc, then it’ll only increase the chances of it happening," Tina commented.

Cathline was too tired to comment.

The reporter continued, "In other news. Rachel Martin arrived in LA today looking much improved after her traumatic kidnap ordeal. Strangely there seems to be no sign of the man, known only as Salah who was so instrumental in her rescue. Rachel pushed passed the lines of reporters, and was hustled away by Limousine to an unknown location."

"At least SHE got there," Tina commented to no one in particular.

The stress and flat out pace of the day had got to Tina too, and after switching the TV off she walked into her bedroom and fell asleep.

o - o - o -

There was a knock at the door of the president’s private chambers. The changeling president swung his legs off the large leather sofa, and tidied himself up. He left the visitor waiting for a few seconds before calling out, "Enter."

A burley man with close cropped hair, and sharp gray suit walked into the room. The man looked around and after closing the door behind him gave the president a single fingered salute.

The president returned the salute and gestured for the man to sit down next to him. The man did so and turned to face the president.

"Welcome my brother. It has been a while since we talked. This is the first chance we’ve had to be truly alone," the president said.

The man nodded, "Indeed it is. We haven’t spoken since I helped in the take-over of president Andrews, back on that golf course. It is strange wearing this body. Still, at least my job as part of the secret service bodyguard unit is close enough to my old role, unlike yours."

The president felt a great deal of relief. It was good to have a fellow Guild infiltrator and changeling to talk to. For the last few weeks he’d been on his own, unable to release any of the tension building up in both his mind and body. The mission was reaching a critical moment, the UN vote was now only some forty hours away, and the next day and a half would be make or break. It didn’t pay to be reckless in these crucial times, so he’d decided to slightly alter the mission profile. After all, when he was head of the Guild then it wouldn’t matter that he’d deviated from Hassan’s plan, "Your mission was to provide backup in case I failed. I am changing that mission. I have removed the only obstacle to our victory, and so your old mission is no longer required."

The man looked worried, "But."

The changeling president smiled, "Don’t worry. You have done very well. I have pulled you off of backup security detail, and promoted you to the Vice President’s personal bodyguard. Your mission is to ensure that he does not interfere with what we have planned, if he does then kill him. So far he does not suspect a thing but I want to, how do the Americans say, cover all the bases. When I am Guild leader you will be my second, I promise you."

The man smiled, "Thank you Mr President. What about Salah?"

The president gave a satisfied smile, "One of the useful things about being president is that you can remove people without leaving any trace. I had a secret service strike force take him out yesterday. Salah is dead, a shame really as I read Rachel Martin was getting quite attached to him. I promise you, after our mission is complete then we will take his place."

The man stood up, "Very well. I obey. We will talk when it is done."

The president gave a single fingered salute once more and walked to a phone, sitting on a nearby table, "Alice get me the Vice President."

The president heard the door shut in front of him and gave a smile.

He’d just closed Hassan’s only loophole.

A sleep voice answered the phone, "Yes Mr President."

"Hi, Jack. I’m just letting you know I’ve assigned a new guy to be your bodyguard. I think you’ll like him, he’s called Mike Clarke. He was with me when Walter died, he’s a good man."

The Vice President gave a yawn, "Ok fine, you’re the boss. Send him over."

The president smiled, "He’s already on his way. Goodnight."

There was a click as the Vice President put the phone down, and the changeling president went back to lounging on the sofa, so far so good. Tomorrow would see the Israeli rejection of the Austrian initiative and the final round of canvassing, threats and blackmail of the smaller UN members. The power of all the big five pulling the strings was awesome to behold. All it needed was a majority, and no vetos by the big five. A straw poll so far gave them 73% of the UN vote and naturally no vetos.

o - o - o -

The bright rays of morning sunshine broke thru the thin curtains of Scott and the Senator’s hotel room. Its two occupants were too tired to respond to the suns gentle rays, and continued to sleep for another hour. However, they were woken up by the sound of several people entering the room. They both breathed a sigh of relief when they saw it was Matthew, Elizabeth, Cathline, and Tina. Their look of relief turned to worry when they saw the worried faces of the new arrivals.

"What’s up?" Scott asked.

"Kat hasn’t been here has she?" Matthew asked, his face almost in tears.

Scott swallowed, something had obviously gone very wrong, "I wish it were better news, but no I haven’t seen her."

Matthew said nothing and grabbed hold of Cathline, and pulled her into a distressed hug. For her part Elizabeth walked to the bed, and sat down on it to think. Tina spoke up, "She didn’t show at the rendezvous point. We’ve been scouring the airports and city for her. I even got the local cops to check the video footage of passenger arrivals at the airport. She hasn’t landed here."

"Maybe she’s held up?" Scott suggested.

"No, she would’ve called," Elizabeth spoke for the first time.

"What’s with the eyes?" Scott commented, noticing Elizabeth’s brown eyes for the first time.

"Contact lenses, blue didn’t go with the hair. Are you sure Kat hasn’t left a message? She was always most punctual," Elizabeth said.

"We didn’t hear anything," Scott replied softly.

Seeing the worry and fear flick across Matthew’s face, Cathline put a hand on his and said, "It’ll be ok. I know Kat, she can take care of herself."

Matthew gave a resigned nod. He preferred it when he didn’t know what Kat was up to.

The senator spoke for the first time, "This is bad, very bad. With no proof how can we go to Jack now?"

Elizabeth looked at the senator with her new brown eyes, "We have to, We’re out of time. The UN votes tomorrow, and I can’t risk waiting any longer. My timing on this had to be perfect, move too soon and we risk exposing the whole operation, and move too slowly."

She didn’t need to finish the sentence, an air of depression sank into the room. Tina was the first to speak again, "Can’t we wait a few more hours? Maybe Kat’s onto something and can’t call us for fear of alerting the Guild?"

Elizabeth shrugged, "Maybe, but she knew the timescales. We have to move now. It appears that the best option now is to try and get the Vice President to delay the vote. That should give Kat enough time to get here."

Elizabeth picked up the hotel phone and handed it to the Senator, "Senator, make the call."

The Senator was reluctant to say the least. This last phase seemed so rushed. They must have more time. He checked the clock beside the bed, it was nearly 10:30. So much had gone on in so little time, and as much as he wanted to try and find fault with Elizabeth’s plan he couldn’t. She’d moved as fast as she dare, and in some cases he could see where she’d pushed too hard, but it came down to this, they were out of time. The senator took the phone and dialled.

The phone was picked up on the second ring, "Yes," the Vice President’s voice sounded over the phone.

"Jack, now listen carefully to what I have to say."

"Who is this? How did you get this number?" the Vice President demanded.

The senator knew he only had one shot at this, "Viet Cong bunker 167, grid reference 163829, April 4^th 1969."

There was a pause on the phone, "How did you find out about that? Listen miss, you are dealing with the wrong person here. I suggest you get off this phone before I have you arrested."

The senator kept his cool, only three people knew what had really happened in bunker 167, himself, Jack, and the president. To affirm that fact the senator said, "Bob and I were helping a load of villagers evacuate before Charlie showed up. We were going door to door, when we came under heavy machine gun fire from a hidden bunker on the outskirts of the village. We’d been set up all along.

The villagers ran back into their homes, leaving us pinned down and nowhere to run. You managed to get thru on the radio, and call in an air-strike. You’d miscalculated the co-ordinates, and when the air-strike came they Napalm’d the whole village by mistake. Men, women, and children were burned alive in their huts. Sure the bunker was taken out too, but at what cost. We never told anyone what really happened, and you still feel the guilt over what happened all those years ago."

There was a stunned silence on the phone, and the Senator could almost feel Jack’s pain as he relived that terrible day again. "Who is this?" The Vice President demanded.

"Believe it or not, it’s me, Walter. I don’t have time to explain, but must see you at your place. It’s about the destruction of Tel-Aviv. There’ll be six of us. If you want to atone for all those deaths in ‘Nam now is your chance. So what do you say?"

Another long pause. The Vice President had no idea how this lady knew about bunker 167, or why she claimed to be Senator Walter Jameson, but he did know he needed to find out. If this got out his career could be ruined, "Ok meet me in one hour. I’ll tell the guards to let the six of you in."

The senator slowly put the phone down, "We’re in."

Elizabeth hissed a triumphant "Yes,"

The mood of doom lifted, at last something was going their way.

It took about 20 minutes to call a cab, and check out, and about another 30 minutes to drive across town to the Vice President’s private residence. As the cab drew up, and dropped them off outside of the massive, armored gates Tina gave a slow whistle, "Nice place."

The Senator walked across to the speakerphone on the gate, pressed the buzzer and called into the speaker, "Tell the Vice President that his guests from bunker 167 are here."

When the gates didn’t open the senator shrugged his shoulders and went to try again. As he was reaching down he heard a metallic clang and the gates slowly swung open.

"We go in I guess," Matthew commented.

Before they could step a foot inside the gates ten armed bodyguards appeared from almost nowhere, and escorted them up the seemingly endless driveway to the front door. Scott noticed that one of them seemed to be in contact with the troops inside the house at all times. A few minutes later they were let inside, and after being frisked, searched and scanned told to wait. Tina’s .38 raised a few eyebrows, but her badge allayed most of the fears. She was still asked to check it at the desk though. They walked into a large, ornate lobby, but before they could sit down on the plush chairs, the Vice President appeared before them. A very large burly man in a gray suit stood beside him and eyed them with the greatest of suspicion.

Matthew gave the Vice President the once over. He was sure that he looked taller on TV, younger too. But at least they were here.

"Now Miss would you mind telling me what this is all about?" the Vice President demanded.

"Not here. Let’s go to your private rooms and talk. I don’t want anyone else to hear this," the senator asked.

"Ok, I’ll only take my personal bodyguard. But since I recognise Matthew Stephens and Rachel Martin here I take a risk. Who’s the others."

"I’ll tell you when we go inside," the senator said firmly.

More secret service agents led them to a set of double doors and they were let inside. The room was much as the senator had remembered it, wooden floors, antique furniture and the old battered writing desk given to Jack as a wedding present. A large screen TV sat in the corner of the room. The Senator heard the door close behind him and the Vice President walked in, flanked by his bodyguard.

The Senator stood up and said, "Mr Vice President, I would like you to meet Matthew Stephens, Rachel Martin, Detective’s Tina Cox, and Scott Harris."

The Vice President pointed to Elizabeth, "Who’s she?"

The Senator relutantly replied, "That is Dr Elizabeth Anne Bexley."

Instantly the bodyguard had drawn his revolver, and had it pointed right at Elizabeth’s head.

"It’s ok, she’s with me," Matthew said, trying to calm the situation.

That comment raised an eyebrow from the Vice President, "Ok, will someone tell me what in hell this all about. Ok, Mike you can put that away now."

The bodyguard holstered his revolver, but moved to the corner of the room where he could cover everyone.

It took two hours to tell the story from the start, each of them filling in the details as they remembered them.

"I’m sorry, but this is all supposition. As much as I’d like to believe that you’re Walter, I have no proof. Thank you for telling me such an interesting tale. This, this changeling organ is too outrageous even for Dr Bexley’s abilities. As for your excuse that she can’t use it anymore, isn’t that convenient."

The Senator gave an exasperated sigh, "For once in your life Jack add the pieces together. How did I know the private phone number? What about bunker 167? Matthew here is living proof that DNA can be altered For God’s sake put it all together.

The Vice President thought hard. Sure, the story was fantastic but it had the ring of truth behind it. Some of the president’s more recent decisions had struck him as being a little odd, and even out of character. He’d put them down to the pressure of the current crisis, but even then that couldn’t account for the some of the erratic, domineering, and sometimes even dangerous choices the president had made. Maybe the story was tru,e but truth demands proof, "Look I want to believe all this, but you must give me something."

Elizabeth had remained quiet all this time, thinking of what could convince. Then she remembered, "Get me to a an X-ray machine. My anatomy is, shall we say unique. If that shows what I know it shows, then would you believe us?"

The Vice President thought for a moment and then replied, "We have a small infirmary in the west wing. It’s supposed to give immediate assistance in any emergency. It’s got a lower power X-ray machine , and there is always medical staff present, with a doctor on standby if needed. We’ll go there."

Elizabeth nodded, "Good, that’ll do just fine. Lead on."

An armed escort led the party thru a long series of corridors until they reached a set of double doors. They were opened for them, and they walked inside.

Elizabeth was impressed with the facilities before her. Although the room was small, about operating theatre size she reckoned it contained virtually every piece of equipment required to treat anything from a burst appendix to gunshot wounds. A complete operating theatre sat on one side complete with lights, table, and a wide variety of life support and monitoring equipment. A nurse sat in the corner of the room, and she jumped to attention when she saw the Vice President walk in.

"At ease," the Vice President stated.

The nurse relaxed, and waited for further instructions.

Turning to the Elizabeth the Vice President asked, "Now what it is you want?"

Elizabeth gave a winning smile at the nurse and said, "Ok. I want an abdominal scan. High resolution, but on lower power. We’re looking for organs, not cracked bones. Take five exposures from different angles. Oh, and I don’t want everyone ogling me. So if that’s ok with the rest of you, wait outside."

All heads turned to the Vice President, "Sure why not."

They all filed out, left the medical facility and waited outside. The changeling bodyguard was by now extremely worried. If the Bexley demon proved her story to the Vice President that could very well blow everything wide open. He fingered the .45 in his jacket pocket, and debated whether to end it here. He decided it was too risky, there were too many troops and too little options. If he opened fire now and took the Bexley demon and the Vice President with him then it would only strengthen their case against them. Even if the Vice President believed them, where was the proof that would stand up in a law court? The bodyguard did nothing except stand behind the Vice President, and watched every move and gesture around him.

It seemed hours before they were let back in again. Elizabeth was just finishing buttoning up her blouse, and the nurse was just pinning some X-rays on the lightboard on the wall. Elizabeth heard them walk in and turned to face them, "All done. You can go look if you like."

The Vice President glanced at the nurse. Something had obviously shaken her, as she was trying not to look at the woman who called herself Dr Bexley. Ignoring this the Vice President said, "Well, what have we?"

The nurse gave a short sigh and switched on the lightboard, "Sir, I’m not a doctor," she started, The Vice President knew she was going to say this, first rule of the medical world. Cover thy butt, "We haven’t time to call him in. You’re best shot nurse, if you please,"

"This is an X-ray of this woman’s abdomen, These gray areas here and here appear to be another set of organs, heart, liver, even a lung. I’ve no idea what this large blob is just here. Its where her appendix should be. Best guess a second pancreas,"

"Or a changeling organ," the Vice President whispered to himself.

"I’m sorry sir but that’s as good as I can do. All I can say is this woman’s anatomy is nothing like I’ve seen in any textbooks. If I was designing a body for maximum survivability that’s what I’d do."

The Vice President gave a resigned nod. The story was true, the fucking story was true! But what to do next? A few X rays wasn’t going to prove anything, and if President Andrews had been taken over as they were suggesting then the consequences would be disastrous. He felt elated that his friend, Senator Jameson was alive even though now a woman. Affairs of state came first, and therefore it was entirely in keeping that his next question was, "Ok I believe you. But these X-rays only prove that Dr Bexley here has altered her body,"

Elizabeth breathed a sigh of relief, turned to the nurse and said, "I left a small bottle of yellow liquid and blood tester in my bag at the front door. Please can you get them for me?"

"What’re they for?" The president asked. He wasn’t about to give Dr Bexley any of her toys to play with. Her cunning was legendary.

"They are part of the proof. Inside that bottle is a chemical that will test for the presence of a changeling organ. If we can get the president to submit to a blood test then we’ll know for sure."

"How do we know you won’t rig the results?" the Vice President asked.

"Because I’ll do the test on someone you trust, and then on me. That way you’ll have a positive result with me and a negative with them."

The Vice President looked at the nurse and gave a nod. The nurse opened the door and went off to fetch Elizabeth’s bag.

The group waited in silence until the nurses return. Tina noticed that the Vice President’s bodyguard was getting a little edgy. Years of being on the street had taught her to spot signs of tension. She put it down to his nervousness at his charge being around someone as inherently dangerous as Dr Bexley was. Still, a presidential bodyguard wasn’t supposed to show anything. Something wasn’t right, Tina thought and she tensed herself for action.

For his part the Vice President’s mind was in a whirl. How could their security have been so lax? How could they have been duped? What about the other countries that had been taken over? How could the US prove to them that their leaders were in fact genetically engineered terrorists. Still the answers to those questions would have to wait. First things first. He glanced at Senator Jameson. The Senator’s hands were folded over his chest and he could see how they’d pressed his breasts up against his chest. He had a cute ass too.

Elizabeth was relieved. It looked as though they didn’t need Kat’s proof just yet after all. She just hoped that Kat was all right. She could tell Matthew was worried and torn up inside, his face was showing the worry lines that hers used to. Cathline was trying to remain at peace, but Elizabeth could tell from her hair twiddling that she felt the same tension as Matthew did. The nurse entering the room with her bag interrupted her thoughts, and brought her back to reality. The nurse handed the bag to her, and she took out the bottle and the blood tester. Elizabeth looked at the Vice President and said, "Ok You choose who we test on. All I’m going to do is prick a finger and put a drop of blood in a test tube. If the solution turns green then the person is a changeling. If it stays red then your clear."

"Nurse. I want you to perform the blood test. It seems straightforward enough."

"Fine," Elizabeth said, a little hurt that she still wasn’t entirely trusted. She handed the bottle to the nurse, "Now don’t use too much. It’s got to last."

"Mike, do the honors for me," the Vice President said, turning to the bodyguard.

The bodyguard froze for a second. To refuse would be dangerous, to submit to the test even more so, "Sir, what if I’m affected? Who would protect you?"

"The nurse needs to perform the test, and I can’t take that risk myself.

Submit to the test, that’s an order."

"Sir?" The bodyguard protested.

"You heard me soldier," the Vice President said sternly.

The bodyguard had an idea, it was dangerous and risky, but if it came off then the danger to the Guild would be over once and for all. He stepped forward and held out his hand. The nurse walked over to him and jabbed his finger with the blood tester. She squeezed a drop of blood into a test tube and gave it a shake.

Almost straight away the solution went green, and the bodyguard had drawn his pistol. Tina, already on full alert threw herself at the Vice President, and a shot reverberated around the room.

The bodyguard had swung his aim and was about to shoot Elizabeth, but Elizabeth was faster. With a loud shriek she drop-kicked the bodyguard, sending him and his gun sprawling across the floor. In an instant he was standing up, the kick that would have broken a man’s neck had only stunned him. Still disorientated he moved into to finish the job he’d started.

Within a matter of seconds the room was full of soldiers, pointing their guns at everyone in the room. Scott rushed over to see if the Vice President was ok, and was alarmed to see a dark bloodstain across his chest. The Vice President’s eyes were open and he looked unharmed. A wave of horrific realisation flooded over Scott and he turned his attention turned to Tina, who was lying on the floor. Globs of blood were swelling out of a large wound in her back, "Oh no," Scott whispered.

By now, the Vice President had recovered enough to stand up and was instantly surrounded by soldiers, "Arr, Arrest him," he managed to say pointing at the bodyguard. The soldiers trained their weapons on the bodyguard and gestured for him to put his hands up.

The bodyguard, knowing all was lost, suddenly stooped low, and in a movement too quick to follow had pulled a throwing knife from his sock, and had hurled it at the Vice President. The last thing he saw was that Bexley demon casually reach out and pluck it out of mid air. There was a loud crackle of gunfire, and the changeling bodyguard lay still.

Elizabeth slowed down enough to watch the bodyguard crumple to the floor, blood flowing from multiple chest wounds. Catching the knife had taken all of her enhanced speed and dexterity, BUT it had saved the Vice President’s life. She turned to the nurse and called, "Quick help me get Tina onto the table. I’ll need O2, morphine Oh nuts you know. Now get to it."

They all helped to lift the still bleeding Tina onto the operating table while Elizabeth scrubbed down.

"We have a doctor on call," the Vice President said and turned to a nearby soldier ordered, "Go get him NOW!"

Elizabeth shook her head, "No time, if we don’t stabilise her now she’ll die. As much as you all want to help, let me do this!"

"At least let me help," Scott pleaded.

"Get the FUCK out, all of you, every second I waste talking to you narrows Tina’s chances. GO!" Elizabeth shouted.

The others almost rushed out of the room.

Elizabeth cut away Tina’s clothes, while the nurse hooked up the ventilator and monitors. Within moments the fast but weak bleep of Tina’s heartbeat was heard from the monitor. Turning to the nurse Elizabeth said, "I think she’s got internal bleeding, but we’ll need to be sure. Ok let’s see what we’ve got."

Elizabeth looked down at Tina’s back. There was a half inch hole right between her shoulder blades that was still bleeding slowly. She gently rolled Tina over, making sure her back remained straight, but saw no signs of an exit wound. Lifting Tina’s right arm up she saw a bloody hole. It looked as though the bullet had ricocheted off the shoulder blade and gone out from under the arm. At least it hadn’t penetrated the chest cavity.

Elizabeth’s first priority was to stabilise Tina’s vital signs, and she trusted the ventilator to supplement Tina’s oxygen requirements and keep her heart going, "Right, get me that portable X-ray again. Let’s see what we’ve got."

The nurse handed Elizabeth the portable X-ray and Elizabeth reconfigured it into scan mode. That allowed it to be used in real time, a feature, which dispensed with the wasteful photographic processing or Digital techniques. Elizabeth ran the X-ray machine around Tina’s back and didn’t like what she saw. Tina’s spinal cord and vertebrae had been shattered by the bullet’s impact, fragments of bone threatened to increase the damage, and the presence of a lot of gray fluid meant she was bleeding internally.

Elizabeth sighed, this was going to be delicate work.

Outside, they waited. The Vice President was still in shock. His own bodyguard had been a changeling. If that detective hadn’t been on the ball then he’d be dead. He realised that he owed her his life, Dr Bexley too. Since the president assigned the bodyguard to him only the day before, that only served to strengthen the accusation. "I don’t believe it, he was one of us," he uttered.

"Logical really," Cathline said

"Yeah, You wouldn’t send just one changeling in you’d send two. That way one could back the other up if the need arose. Hey, if we dissect that guy’s body in there it’s the best proof in the world," the Senator stated.

"I know," the Vice President said. The events of the past few minutes were rushing over and over in his mind.

"I wonder how Tina’s doing?" Scott asked.

The thoughts of the group turned back to Tina’s desperate fight for life.

Inside the infirmary things were going as well as Elizabeth expected. She’d run out of blood plasma and synthetic blood, and after a frantic battle had managed to stop the internal bleeding. That still left several fragments of bone to deal with and as good as this facility was it didn’t have the equipment to deal with such severe spinal injuries, "Nurse. I think I’ve done as much as I can. Get a chopper at let’s get her to a proper hospital."

The nurse was experienced enough to realise that this was the only option. She was also skilled enough to realise that this woman who called herself Dr Bexley was an exceptional surgeon and had probably saved the woman called Tina’s life.

Scott’s face brightened when he saw the nurses head come around the door, "How is," he started.

"Dr Bexley’s done as much as she could. Get us a chopper right away," The nurse said and went back inside.

"Is that good or bad?" Scott whispered, not daring to breathe.

"Dunno, Good I guess," Matthew said.

"We should go back to the lounge. Leave Dr Bexley and the nurse to it," the senator suggested.

In spite of Scott’s objections a few of the troops escorted them back to the room.

As the nurse went back inside the room she caught movement from the corner of her eye. The body of the changeling had just twitched and the eyes were opening. The nurse gave a short gasp, which had the effect of making Elizabeth snap her head round.

Elizabeth spotted what the nurse had seen and whispered, "Fucking hell I’d forgotten about that."

The changeling was slowly coming round, the multiple bullet wounds healing with every passing second. Elizabeth scanned the floor until she spotted the gun that the changeling had dropped. She stopped what she was doing and casually walked over to it and picked it up.

The nurse looked on in horror as Elizabeth walked over to the recovering changeling put the gun inside its mouth and squeezed the trigger. There was a loud CRACK and the top half of the changeling’s head was blown right away, spreading parts of brain all over the wall. Elizabeth then threw the gun across the floor and then said, "No time to explain now. Get me a kidney bowl and a large scalpel. Hurry we don’t have much time."

The nurse was staggered by Elizabeth’s change. One moment she’d been fighting to save a life, the next she’d taken one as casually as one swats a fly.

"Hurry!" Elizabeth called.

Fear welled up inside the nurse and she almost ran across the room, and picked up a fresh scalpel and a clean kidney bowl and handed them to Elizabeth.

By now soldiers had run into the room to see what the noise was, and they stood and watched as Elizabeth literally hacked her way inside the dead changelings chest. She worked frantically, and a few moments later pulled out a limp bloody organ. She plopped it into the kidney bowl and ordered the nurse to put it in ice. The soldiers watched on in amazement as the changeling’s body started to dissolve. In a matter of moments a puddle of pink sticky liquid was all over the floor.

Still not speaking, and acting as if nothing had happened Elizabeth scrubbed down again and returned to work on keeping Tina alive until help arrived. Her only comment was to shoo the soldiers out of the room.

The helicopter arrived five minutes later and with the help of the medical staff in it a still unconscious Tina was wheeled into the waiting helicopter. Elizabeth waited until the chopper had lifted off before returning to the medical room to clean up.

"Thank you nurse, Your performance was exemplary," Elizabeth said and gave the nurse a smile.

By now the nurse was terrified of this woman standing before her. This woman’s ability to save and kill in equal measure was disturbing at best and evil at worst. The nurse thanked her, made her excuses and rushed out the room.

Elizabeth wiped the last of Tina’s blood off her hands, pulled the latex gloves off, and breathed out. It had felt good to save a life again. It was feeling she’d missed since she’d saved Kat nearly a year ago.

Escorted by troops Elizabeth was taken to the room where the rest were sitting and waiting. At the sight of Elizabeth, Scott stood up and asked softly, "How is she?"

Elizabeth sat down and started to talk, "I’m not going to lie. I’ve managed to stabilise her condition. All the signs show that she’ll pull thru."

Scott breathed a sigh of relief.

"However her spinal cord was badly damaged, severed in a few places. If she does pull thru it’s doubtful she have any feeling or movement below the arms. She’s still comatose, and I doubt if we’ll see any change in that for a few weeks at least. She’s lost a lot of blood, which hasn’t helped matters but the generics I gave her made the difference. It’s down to the surgeons at the hospital now. I didn’t have the tools or expertise to do anymore, I’m sorry."

Scott walked over to Elizabeth, looked into her eyes and said, "You did your best, Thank you, " The thought of Tina paralysed from the arms down was horrific.

In the mean time one of the soldiers had been talking to the Vice President. After a short conversation the Vice President turned to Elizabeth and asked, "Do you mind telling me what that stunt with the changeling was you pulled back there?"

Elizabeth shook her head, "You hadn’t killed him. A changeling can recover from bullet wounds. Unlike me, these versions take a while and it requires a lot of energy to do it. As soon as I saw the changeling start to come round I knew what I had to do. Only a bullet thru the skull can stop the regeneration process. I hacked out the changeling organ before it was dissolved, along with the rest of the body. Another sign of Hassan’s thoroughness, he didn’t want any traces left should a changeling be killed. I’d anticipated that and got it out just in time. We now have a changeling organ for analysis. Matthew give the Vice President the disks you were carrying."

"They’re back with the guards," Matthew stated.

"Disks?" the Vice President queried.

"Not all of the Guild database was dumped onto the net. These disks contain all the information about the Guild changeling’s and everything else. The only thing is, is that’s is encrypted," Elizabeth explained.

"Right I’ll get them off to the NSA right away, Private?"

The solider standing next to the Vice President snapped to attention.

"Deliver those disks to the NSA headquarters right away. I’ll phone ahead and get them to drop everything."

"One last thing, "Elizabeth stated.

"Which is," Matthew asked.

"For God’s sake don’t let the president know."

o - o - o -

The telephone next to the president rang and the president answered it on the second ring, "yes."

"I think you should know that there’s been an attempt on the Vice Presidents life," the voice said down the phone.

"Is he all right, What happened?" The president demanded.

"I’m not sure, I’m only a private but I knew you had to know. For some reason no ones making any fuss about it, it’s as though the Vice President wants nobody, even you to know about it. I know my duty sir and I had to say,"

"Thank you solider, you’ve done well. Now what happened?"

"I’m not sure, but what I do know is that a group of people turned up and asked to see the Vice President. I know one of them was supposed to be that Dr Bexley. They talked for a while before going off to the medical center. The Vice President’s bodyguard tried to kill him but was gunned down. One of the party, a detective I think was shot and maybe killed. I dunno, I think they flew her out. Anyway when I heard a single gunshot and rushed back in only to see that Bexley woman cutting something out of the bodyguard, the bodyguard then kinda melted away. Sorry if this seems fantastic but it’s true."

The changeling president swore to himself, "Thank you soldier. You country is proud of you," and put the phone down.

If the Bexley demon had managed to salvage the changeling organ from his fallen comrade then things were looking dire. Armed with this the trail lead right back to him, whatever proof Salah, before his death had managed to dig up would only strengthen the case against him. His grand vision was falling apart at the seams but maybe there was still a way to save it.

He picked up the phone and dialled the number of the US ambassador to the UN.

A soft Texan voice answered the phone, "Yes Mr President."

"I want the vote brought forward to one hour’s time," The president stated.

"That is highly irregular, not to say very difficult to arrange. They vote tomorrow, anyway what’s the rush."

"It’s within my rights as a permanent member of the UN. This is top secret but there’s been an attempt on the Vice President’s life. He’s OK, but the assassin’s body dissolved in the same way as those that tried to kill the Brit PM the other month. Egypt is getting desperate,"

The ambassador was shocked, an assassination attempt! "Yes Mr President but Israel will need to second it, as will another permanent member."

"You leave that to me, You know how to vote."

"Yes Mr President," with that the ambassador put the phone down.

Now, what was next? the president thought. A quick call to Russia and Britain should suffice. With those on board A quick vote looked certain.

Ten minutes later and the seconds of Russia and Britain secure he called the Israeli Prime minister.

It took a few moments to get thru and then a voice answered, "Yes Mr President."

"I don’t have much time, so I’ll make this brief. Egypt has just tried to assassinate my Vice President. I want you to get the vote brought forward to one hour from now."

The Israeli PM was lost for words, "But."

"The United States will not tolerate such terrorist actions against it. If you do not bring this forward, then we will leave you to rot in the face of your enemies," the changeling president almost shouted down the phone.

"Why can’t we wait until tomorrow?" the Israeli PM almost bleated back.

"Because we want to send an immediate message, this will not be tolerated by any party or government. You would do the same if it were you."

The Israeli PM had to agree he had no choice, "I will see to it."

"One more thing," the president said, as if mentioning some minor point.

"Which is?"

"If you get the approval, it would be better for you if the attack proceeded right away. I’d hate Egypt to get wind of your plans for the coming attack and invasion," the president let the threat hang for a moment

"It would be prudent to strike back right away," the Israeli PM conceded. His dreams for a peaceful resolution shattered in this brief phone call.

"I’m glad we see eye to eye on this matter, thank you," the president said and put the phone down.

The president made another phone call and asked for a large brandy, his nerves were strained as it was, and this would help calm them.

The phone rang about ten minutes later—the vote was on. Procedure dictated that he contact the Vice President and the cabinet, and inform them of the change in plan but that could wait, a mix up in communications would be the excuse.

An hour later it was all over. The Egyptian ambassador held his head in his hands as the vote overwhelmingly for the invocation of the Fury Directive was passed ten votes for, two no, and three abstentions. He couldn’t understand how it could happen, right up until the last moment he was sure that common sense would prevail, but now it seemed as though all was lost. His only hope was that Egypt could stave off the Israeli attack.

o - o - o -

The Israeli F16-C ‘Wild Weasels’ swept in low and slow over the Egyptian border. All at once the US made Hawk surface to air missile (SAM) system illuminated them on its targeting radar. Smiling, one of the pilots armed his HARM anti-radar missile. Flicking a switch from safe to live he launched. His plane gained a little altitude as the missile was launched, and he saw the smoke trail shoot up almost vertically. A few seconds later the radar was silenced. Air opposition should be lax, as diversionary raids were under way from multiple directions, only one was real, this one. The Egyptian airforce would be under assault, stretched in all directions, and pushed to the limit. Thanks to numerous deals with the Americans, and experience from other wars the Israeli airforce was one of the best equipped and trained in the world. Now, that training would come into play.

o - o - o -

His wingmen penetrated deeper into Egyptian airspace, taking out a further three hawk SAM sites. By now the Egyptian airforce had been alerted and radar showed eight inbound F16’s. The pilot radioed his wingmen and they dived lower still. Looking down at his Radar he saw ten inbound planes from the rear. The radar indicated that they were the ‘cavalry’, the new Lavi or ‘Young Lion’ air superiority fighters. The pilot smiled to himself. The world had been told that the Lavi had been cancelled back in 1987, and up until this mission the very existence of Lavi was a closely guarded secret. Now the secret was out and soon those Egyptian dogs would find out how good Lavi and the long range AMRAAM air to air missile really was.

His threat light lit up again, another SAM site come online. Diving low again his co-pilot or ‘RIO’ released another HARM missile, another kill.

His plane shook as three Lavi fighters screamed past at well over Mach one. The radar showed the incoming F16’s had gained height and position. Suddenly, there was a warning beep and before he could react his plane shook as though it had been tossed aside by a giant. He fought to maintain control. Looking over his right shoulder, he saw that a large hole had been blasted in his right wing, probably from a shoulder-launched missile. "EJECT, EJECT, EJECT" he called to his RIO and he pulled the eject handle.

One Lavi pilot had noticed the pilots eject from the F16, but he was too busy concentrating to recall much more detail. He closed to within 40Km of the enemy F16’s and armed two AMRAAM missiles. He waited a further 20 seconds to ensure a good lock and then launched. Over his right shoulder he saw two further streaks as his wingman fired a further two. Banking away into a high G turn he lost altitude, and switched weapons to the latest generation Sidewinder short-range missile. Checking his Radar he saw three of the enemy F16’s had been destroyed. By now the F16’s were less than 15Km away. The whole engagement had lasted less than thirty seconds.

His threat warning bleeped and he immediately released two flares and a chaff cartridge. He put the aircraft into a tight turn, his body complaining at the increase in G. He noted with satisfaction that the missile that had been fired at him had lost its lock and he got on with the job in hand. He finally saw the F16 that had fired at him. The two aircraft performed an elaborate aerial ballet, as both pilots sought to gain the advantage. Then the F16 made a mistake, it lost too much energy in a turn, allowing the Lavi to open up with its cannon. The pilot saw with satisfaction the shells strike the centre of the fuselage and the F16 veered out of control. Checking over his shoulder he saw that his wingman was still with him, good.

His friend or foe system showed that there were now only three remaining F16’s, and not a single Lavi had been lost in combat so far. The large Boeing E-3 Sentry AWACS aircraft circling just inside Israeli airspace sent a tactical update to all pilots. The eight F15’s were closing fast and low. His commander called for him and his wingman to hold back and escort the F15’s on their bombing run while the rest of the Lavi’s engaged the remaining F16’s.

A few minutes later he was joined by the F15’s. Their hard points loaded down with sidewinders, AMRAAMS and two ugly looking bombs. The Lavi pilot noticed the lack of any guidance systems and only a small set of fins protruded from the rear of each bomb. His heart sank as he realised that only one kind of bomb requires this little guidance. Of course he knew what the mission was but the reality of what they were about to do hit home when he saw those bombs mounted and ready to drop. Still, duty was duty, and the Egyptians had to pay for what they had done to Tel-Aviv and his family. There was no time to ponder, a further five enemy F16’s were inbound, Egypt’s last ditch attempt to stop Israel’s terrible revenge.

Five of the F15’s fired two AMRAAM’s each, and then pointed their noses almost vertical, their twin Pratt and Whitney engines powering them upwards, going ballistic the Americans called it. The Lavi’s couldn’t keep up of course, but then they didn’t need to it was their job to protect the precious payloads of the F15’s.

Four signals blinked out on the radar, leaving only one F16 remaining. The F15’s had by now reached an altitude of 65,000 feet, and were punching thru the gap in the Egyptian air defenses that the ‘Wild Weasels’ had created. They were now only 15 minutes away from their target. The last blip blinked out, the other AMRAAM must have hit after all. He put the Lavi into a steep climb to rejoin the F15’s now rapidly closing in. He tried to focus on the job in hand but in his minds eye he could almost hear the air-raid sirens starting to sound, and see the panic that was about to hit the city of Cairo. Now the F15’s were only 10 minutes away and he remembered when he was a child, learning about Egypt. He could see his teacher reciting ‘Cairo is the capital of Egypt. It is famous for the Pyramids and Sphinx, which were built over 4000 years ago. The population of Cairo is thirteen and a half million people. Many of which live in poorly built housing.’

The figure thirteen and a half million people stuck in his mind. He was part of a mission that would kill thirteen and a half million people. His mind flicked back to the scenes around Tel-Aviv after the genetic warheads had hit. He’d lost his family in that attack, the children had been at school and his wife shopping. The thought of their bodies dissolving into nothingness took his mind off thirteen and a half million people. They’d shown no compunction about killing half a million Israeli’s, neither would he show any mercy towards them. By now the drop was only 5 minutes away and he could see Cairo ahead, a busy modern metropolis.

The F15’s broke formation and split up to cover the cities from all angles. Modern theory of nuclear weapon deployment stated that multiple smaller warheads spread over a large area did more damage than a single multiple megaton warhead. He formed up on the wing of the lead F15. His radio crackled into life. It was the pilot of the F15. "Gideon one to base, Gideon one to base. Confirm weapons deployment. I repeat confirm weapons deployment."

There was a short pause and then the reply. "Joshua, I repeat Joshua.

Confirm weapons deployment."

"Affirmative. Payload deployment in 30 seconds."

‘Gideon one’ ignored the small arms fire erupting from the city below, he was travelling too high and fast for it to be effective. A series of calls came over the Radio "Gideon one, weapons deployment in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5,4,3,2 1. Release. I confirm payload released."

"Gideon Two, payload gone."

"Gideon Three payload away."

"Gideon Four payload away."

"Gideon Five payload away."

"Gideon Six payload away"

"Gideon Seven payload gone."

"Gideon Eight payload gone. May God have mercy on us."

The Lavi pilot engaged full afterburners and followed the F15 into a steep climb, noticing that the rest of the F15’s had already reached their maximum ceiling. A few seconds later there were multiple flashes, each as bright as the sun and he tried not to think of those on the ground.

o - o - o -

Still sitting the Vice President’s lounge, Elizabeth sat in front of the TV.

Dumbstruck as the news broke, "My God, my God. All those people.

What have I done?" she sobbed.

Matthew sat next to her, his arm around her, trying to comfort her. "We failed. Fucking hell we failed," he stopped and listened to the TV news reports.

"We repeat. Today Israeli F15’s launched a nuclear counter-strike against the Egyptian capital Cairo. Up to sixteen, twenty kiloton devices were dropped on the city."

After the detonation a massive pulse of electromagnetic energy killed most electrical and electronic systems. Details of casualties and damage are not available at this time. We know from Satellite images that Cairo is under a thick cloud of fall out, fires still rage throughout most of the city and," the newsreader paused with tears in her eyes.

"I’m sorry. It’s the thought that all of the city’s thirteen and half million people have been wiped out. The city it’s self is gone, thousands of years of culture and civilisation wiped out in that horrible nuclear fire."

Elizabeth wailed in anguish "Fourteen million people, Matthew. I have the blood of fourteen million people on my hands. I truly have become death incarnate. Oh Matthew, why couldn’t I have failed in the smaller things. Now it’s gone all gone. All those lives wasted, all that pain I caused, it was for nothing, nothing at all."

The reporter continued "The provisional Israeli government issued a statement saying that the Fury Directive had been implemented, and that vengeance was satisfied for the horrific attack on Tel-Aviv some nine days before. We now pass over to Professor David Wayne of the Institute Of Strategic Studies. Professor, distasteful as it seems, please tell us what the effects of such a raid would be."

The camera panned to a gray haired man with a military look about him. He put his hands together, gathering his thoughts and then said, "I hoped to God I never would see this day in my lifetime, but it’s here. If I seem dispassionate its because I have to be objective, inside I am as distraught as the rest of you.

Some of you may be aware that the multi-megaton devices of the cold war era are no longer widely used. The effects of treaties and new thinking have put paid to them. The modern nuclear device is a smaller affair, maybe 600 kilotons maximum."

"Professor can you quantify the damage the bombs that were dropped on Cairo would do?" the reporter asked.

"I’ll try. One way of measuring blast is by using PSI or Pounds per Square Inch in excess of the normal atmospheric pressure. So a one PSI blast on a normal window of say 34" by 64" would bit hit with nearly 2000 pounds of force. Similarly, a 3PSI blast would hit the window with 6000 pounds of force. A while ago an analyst called Glasstone likened the effect to stomping on an empty cardboard box. Walls collapse, windows shatter, and ceilings fall in. A single 20 kiloton weapon would produce around 8 square miles of 3 PSI destruction. Eight such devices would produce 64 square miles of 3PSI devastation. The sixteen that were dropped today would produce over 128 Square miles of 3PSI damage. That’s about the same level as a single megaton device."

The reporter sat stunned for a moment. She managed to say "My God."

The professor took a deep breath and continued. "That’s not all. The expansion of gasses causes a blast wave to form. The front of this wall behaves like a wall of super compressed air, which can travel at over 780mph. This wall envelops structures to give the whole building a catastrophic jolt. It’s not just a single foot that’s stomping on the box it’s the top and sides that are being kicked in. We’ve discussed the structures, but what really matter are the people."

Elizabeth screamed again "I killed them, I killed them all," Matthew tried to console her, but she was too distressed. Elizabeth just sat there rocking back and forth letting out small sobs, her head in her hands.

The professor continued "Fifty percent of the energy from a nuclear blast is distributed in blast forces. Thirty five percent is released in the form of heat. At Hiroshima, the ground below the blast, ground zero if you like, attained temperatures of around 4000 degrees centigrade. Such temperatures could easily be reached as far away as 3 miles. Remember such heat will cause anything to burn, gasoline dumps, gas stations, natural gas pipelines, anything. Combined with the blast waves I mentioned above this would cause the effect known as firestorms. Apart from uncontrollable blazes, firestorms have been known to cause walls of fire moving at almost supersonic speed, incinerating everything in their path."

The professor paused to let it sink in, and then resumed "This is all from a single device. We had sixteen such devices dropped in a surrounding pattern, leaving no place for the survivors to run. Walls of fire, and pressures measured in the tonnes per square inch coming in from every direction. With the high level of slum housing in Cairo, I think we will find few survivors. In my opinion the symbol for the atomic era should not be the mushroom cloud but the firestorm."

The reporter swallowed hard and asked, "Can you sum up what conditions are like on the ground?"

"I’ll try. Imagine temperatures above the boiling point of water, hurricane force winds at street level and the air poisoned with toxic and radioactive gasses. We understand that firestorms and massive fires have broken out all over the city, there would be no place to run and no place to hide. I very much doubt if the resources exist to extinguish the fires, since any survivors would be too shocked or injured to mount much of a rescue attempt. Water mains would be shattered and emergency services all but eliminated. To all intents and purposes the city is burning it’s self to death with no hope of rescue."

Elizabeth slowly stood up, brushed away Matthews attempt to comfort her, and walked out of the room while the interview continued.

 

TO BE CONCLUDED....

 

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