“As Captain Suttles said, you’ll be well paid for your cooperation, Mr. Hager.” Kerry was staring so hard at the diminutive figure stuffed in the Texan’s backpack that she was trembling.

“There’s nothing more you can do with the alien, Ross Ed.” Robinett made a face as he reeled in his line and saw that he’d caught only kelp. He continued talking as he cleaned the hook. “You’ve had him for a while. Why not give the experts a chance? Fair’s fair. Are you worried that we’re going to damage the body? Do you really think we’d be so careless with the discovery of the millennium? Or is that you think our intentions are bad, that we want to learn the secrets of the alien suit so we can use them to help us build super-secret super-weapons?”

“Don’t you?” snapped Caroline.

“Wouldn’t be averse to it,” Robinett admitted, “but that’s a small pan of the knowledge we hope to gain. A very small part.”

“As sworn soldiers, the defense of the United States is our responsibility.” Kerry drew herself up. “I work for the United States Army, not the Los Angeles Department of Sanitation or Aunt Jennie’s Bakery back home in Greensboro. When Captain Suttles told you that we were just doing our job, he was doing no less than telling you the truth. You wouldn’t want your alien and his miraculous suit technology to fail into the wrong hands, would you? It’s impossible to keep this sort of thing secret from other governments for very long. We know, for example, that the Russians and the Japanese already have an inkling of what’s been going on out here.”

“None of which matters.” Reluctantly, Robinett set his pole in one of the metal holders than were spotted along the seagull-stained railings. “Because this is where it ends, Mr. Hager. You can’t get off this pier.” He indicated the dark green waves rolling in beneath their feet. “The water’s cold, it’s deep here, and sharks like to feed at night. I wouldn’t chance it.” His eyes met Ross Ed’s. “Besides, aren’t you tired of running? Why not just do the sensible thing and come with us? I promise you that everyone will end up happy. I’ve seen the tranquilizer darts. Getting punctured by one doesn’t look like it’d be a lot of fun.”

“We’ve made friends here in Los Angeles.” Caroline was emphatic in her half-truth. ‘key could make a lot of unfavorable publicity. You wouldn’t like that.”

“No, we wouldn’t,” Suttles admitted, “but we’d live with it.”

Ross Ed drew himself up to his full, impressive height. “Nobody’s taking Jed until I’m good and ready.” Reaching up and back, he swung the backpack around until it was resting against his chest. Carefully he removed the alien corpse from its carrier. Robinett sucked in his breath as he got his first clear, full-length view of the body. Kerry’s eyes glinted.

“I claim my rights as an American. Jed stays with me until I say otherwise.” Advancing on Robinett, who bravely held his ground, Ross suddenly turned and extended both arms over the railing. “If you won’t let us leave here quietly, I’ll drop him in the ocean.”

Robinett twitched. Kerry started forward and Suttles had to put out an arm to restrain her. “Easy now, let’s everybody just take it easy. You don’t want to do that, Mr. Hager. You don’t want to trash something you’ve spent so much time protecting.”

“Don’t fool yourself.” Robinett considered making a grab for the alien, which was only inches from his grasp. “I’m a strong swimmer. Throw it over and I’ll be right behind, even if it is cold down there. It won’t hit the water much before I do.”

“What if he sinks?” Ross Ed continued to dangle Jed precariously over the roiling water. “What if he goes straight to the bottom? This suit’s pretty solid. It’s dark down there.”

“Be reasonable.” With a great effort Kerry kept her emotions in check. “Do that and we’d have a team of specialists out here in minutes.”

“Me, I don’t know if that’d be fast enough.” Caroline’s expression was stern. “Like Ross Ed said, the water’s dark. There are waves, and tides.”

“We’d recover the body promptly. Make no mistake about that.”

“I reckon you would,” Ross conceded, “but in what kind of shape? No telling how old this suit is. I wonder if it leaks? Seawater might contaminate it right quick. Might even dissolve poor little Jed’s whole body.”

“You argue plausibly.” A visibly distraught Robinett took a step forward.

Ross Ed effortlessly retreated a comparable distance. “Back off, mister. Have you forgotten what happened the last time you tried to take him away from me?”

“We haven’t forgotten.” Kerry was rapidly running out of patience. “But it’s a chance we’ll have to take.”

“For everyone’s sake, please try to look at this rationally.” Suttles glanced back over his shoulder. “There are forty rangers on the beach, more in the lot behind the restaurant. They have heavy weapons and their commander isn’t as sold on talking as we arr.” He did his best to empathize. “You can’t get away, Mr. Hager. It’s over.”

“More like a stalemate. I’d say.” Caroline stood close to Ross Ed. “Rush us and we dump the alien in the water. Stand there talking and Ross Ed’s arms get more and more tired.”

Kerry’s voice was hard. “I think you’re bluffing. This is the second time I’ve seen you with the artifact. You’ve grown attached to it. It’s downright unnatural. I don’t think you can speak so sympathetically about it one moment and consider abandoning it to the ocean the next.”

Ross Ed’s response took the form of a thin, infuriating smile. “Well, ma’am, you know how to find out.”

“I’m not leaving this pier without it.”

“Why not just put it down while we’re talking?” Suttles urged him.

“So some sharpshooter can put a bullet in him?” Caroline hugged the Texan. “Don’t do it, Ross Ed.”

“This is a matter of national security!” By now Kerry had advanced from simple frustration to outrage.

“National insecurity, you mean.” Ross Ed’s determination was unshakable. Unfortunately, his arms weren’t. Slowly, so as not to panic the three officers into trying something desperate, he set Jed down on the railing, resting him in his familiar ventriloquist’s dummy posture. It was eerie to see him sitting there, practically of his own accord, the fog-diffused light shining moistly off the unearthly suit, the multiple limbs dangling loosely. Ross kept the body from tumbling off the railing by clutching a fistful of suit fabric tightly in his right hand.

Caroline’s comment had started him thinking about long-range scopes and infrared sights. Were there crosshairs trained on his head and hers even as they argued with the three officers? He made sure to keep Jed balanced precariously on the edge of the weathered wood so that if he was shot, the little alien would go spinning into the sea.

The one called Suttles was right, he knew. He was tired of running. And if they’d managed to find him here, they’d find him and Caroline anywhere they tried to flee. Next time they might decide to shoot first and talk later, even if only with tranquilizer darts. It was pretty clear that it was simply a matter of time before they caught him asleep or off guard and snatched Jed away. He turned to his left.

“What do you think, Caroline? What d’you think I should do? Jed’s turned bullets before, but I ain’t sure I want to count on him doing it again.” Instead of replying, she looked over her shoulder and frowned. Frowned at the sky and the fog. “What, what is it?” He followed her line of sight and saw nothing.

“Don’t you hear that?” Terse determination had given way to puzzlement and uncertainty.

He squinted into the mist. “What is it, more whales?”

“No. Not whales.”

“Excuse me?” Suttles took a step forward. “Remember us?” But the big Texan and his statuesque companion ignored him.

The light was faint at first, too dim to be seen from shore. As it drew nearer it split into several distinct sources. All thoughts of fishing forgotten, Robinett stepped away from the railing.

“Chopper,” decided Kerry curtly. ‘be Grandparents of the Damned from Indiana, or worse. Somebody get on the phone, quick.”

“It’s not a helicopter.” Robinett was backing up slowly.

Between the end of the pier and the land, the fog bank remained solid and impenetrable. From the cupola westward a vast globe of mist simply evaporated, as if scooped out by a giant hand. In its place hovered a disk-shaped artifact a little larger than Disneyland and slightly smaller than Burbank. A very few faint lights showed along the edge facing the pier as it whispered of faraway places and inconceivable technologies.

Tearing his gaze away from the fantastic aerial apparition, Ross Ed noted that Jed’s suit was not glowing. What that portended he did not know, but he had a feeling they were going to find out.

He found himself telling Caroline that everything was going to be okay. She was less than completely convinced.

“How do you know it’s going to be okay?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” he found himself saying. “It’s Jed’s folks come to recover his body.”

“How do you know that? How do you know it has anything to do with Jed’s people? Remember the cube-ship in the mountains?” She was flinching slightly, as if that would make any difference should the gigantic object choose to close the intervening space between its underside and the surface.

“Yes I do, and this doesn’t look anything like it. Who else would just suddenly show up like this except someone looking for Jed? We didn’t perform any kind of ceremony and his suit isn’t glowing or reacting defensively. We didn’t send any kind of signal.” He nodded in the direction of the monstrous ship. “Whoever’s in there came looking for him. Has to be.”

“But how did they find him?”

Ross shrugged. “Maybe his suit’s been putting out some kind of undetectable signal ever since he’s been here and it was blocked until I pulled him out of that cave.” He glanced back at the three awestruck officers. “Pretty good timing.”

“If they’re here for Jed, then what are they waiting for? Why don’t they take him? It’s like they’re looking us over.”

“If you’re not going to use that phone,” Kerry hissed at Robinett, “let me have it.”