A lone guard stood at the entrance. He never knew what hit him. One minute he was conscious, eating a tuna sandwich, and the next.... Karlos dragged his body deep into the woods and stripped him of his uniform. Then he bound him with twine and dressed himself in the guard's clothes. He took his clothes and hid them in a nearby bush, together with his motorcycle. Then he quickly returned to the guard's post. He looked around to make sure that no one had witnessed the events and relaxed when he saw not a soul.

He heard a car door slam and looked up to see Kelling and Manchek walking towards him. He lowered his eyes and pulled down his hat. Being careful not to expose his face to them, he unlocked the door and turned on the light. He returned to his post but kept an eye on them. He saw them enter one of the private offices on the side of the building. He left his post and walked quietly around the outside of the building. He paused to listen under a window when he heard their voices. They seemed to be talking about the remains of the helicopter. He heard:

Kelling: "Thats all thats left?"

Manchek: "Yup. A big pile of ashes and some human remains."

Kelling: "How many people were in the 'copter when it crashed?"

Manchek: "We're not sure. We have not yet found the divers yet, so we think that they were incinerated in the crash soon after they were recovered."

Kelling: "Is that for sure?"

Manchek: "Nothing in this case is for sure."

Kelling: "Guess I better start writting my report."

He heard a door close. He started towards the door, and walked right into the barrel of Kelling's gun.

"Freeze," she said. He did exactly the opposite. The gun went off crazily as Karlos hit the side of the barrel. The force of the attack knocked the gun from her hand. It landed in a tuft of grass a meter away.

Karlos swung at her. She deflected his blow, and at the same time sent him reeling with a kick to his chest. He paused to catch his breath as he saw Kelling reaching for her gun. He dived at her and tackled her to the ground. She uppercutted his jaw, and Karlos saw stars. Kelling extended her hand towards the gun and Karlos could swear he saw it jump into her hand.

It's over Karlos, she thought. We know who you are. A look of puzzlement spread across his face.

"How did you get in my head?" he whispered with fear.

Thats for me to know and you never to find out. Aloud she said, "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you saw can, and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attourney. Should you chose to waive this right, you will be appointed one by the Justice system."

Manchek came running out of the building. "Did ya get him?" Kelling nodded. "Take him down to the station to interrogate him." Each of the officers got an arm and led him across the grass to the station.

2:57 PM

The lone bulb of the interrrogation room flickered on and off. The stone-faced prisonner didn't care. A guard opened the door and Manchek walked in with Kelling at his side. They sat down and immediatly began the questioning.

"What is your real name?" Nothing. "Where do you come from?" Nothing. "Who do you work for?" Nothing. Finally Kelling said, "You you are withholding information from the US government. At the present time, you are in the state of Texas. The death penalty is still in effect here. If you will not cooperate with the American government, you will be tormented like never before." Nothing. "Since you fail to cooperate, you leave us no choice but to send you to an institution where you will watch Barney the dinosaur reruns until you crack. Should this fail, we will have to resort to more drastic measures.of torture, such as cutting off your fingers and toes one by one, slicing off indevidual parts of your body slowly, and if even this should fail, we will inject you with the deadly Ebola virus. During the seven daays after injection, your organs will begin to liquify. Your pores will fill with blood. Your genitals will swell up and turn black and blue, and you will constantly itch. Whereever you scratch, you will tear away bloody pieces of skin. At the end of seven days, you will 'crash and bleed out'. And through this whole time, your room won't be cleaned. The smell of blood and urine will drive you mad." she paused and studied Karlos' face. She could see him sweating. More gently she added, "If you cooperate, we will place you in a witness protection program, and whom ever you work for will be caught. Now, we will begin the questioning again..."

6:35 PM

The bushes shifted to the right. Then they snuck forward ten paces. They paused, listening. A pair of eyes peeked out the lead bush. They darted back and forth, searching. A twig snapped. The eyes jerked in the direction of the sound. A rabbit stepped out of a shrub, twitching it's pink nose. The bush sighed with relief. It's leaves rustled as it reached for it's walkie talkie.

"Scout leader to scout group. All is clear. Just a rabbit," he paused, turning his attention back to the rabbit. It stared at him for a moment, and then continued on it's way. The bush shifted it's weight to it's other foot. "Proceeding towards target," it said. Six bushes crept towards the seemingly empty cabin.

"Scout leader to Echo Base. How's your end?" Echo Base was an unmarked white van. Inside this van was a high-tech surveillance center. Eight TV's showed different views of the cabin and of the scout group. A second van monitored te area of the lake. "Lake Base, what is your position?"

"Echo Base, this is Lake Base. All scopes are clear.

Back at the cabin, painted figures emerged from the bushes. They flattened themselves to the ground or the side of the cabin. The group split into two. Those on the ground slithered towards the rear door and the windows. The ones flattened against the cabin wall slowly made their way to the front door. They quietly lined up as the leader gave the signal.

"Freeze, police!" They were momentarily stunned when all they saw were two dummies with their arms up. Then a slight ticking caught their attention. They looked down at the box at their feet. The leader picked up his walkie talkie and yyelled "Bomb! Scatter!" even as he was running out the door.

He was kocked to the ground as the front door blew off it's hinges and hit him on the back. Those near the windows were pelted with glass shards as the whole house went up in flames. Those few unlucky agents that weren't quick enough, dropped to te ground in a desperate attempt to quench the flames that were scortching their skin. A few people went back to help their wounded comerades as the roof collapsed, sending a shower of shingles and dust flying.

They stumbled onto the road as the firetruck arrived, swerving desperatly to avoid running over the cut and burnt officers. The firemen ran over to the cabin, dragging their fat hose. They worked frantically to extinguish the flames. Fortunatly, they were able to put out the fire before it spread to nearby trees.

The men in Echo Base got out to aid the people who had been hurt in the explosion. There was a moment of confusion when the ambulances arrived to take the most injured personnelle. The rest of the people got in the tow vans and followed the ambulances to the hospital.

Kelling was busy on her cellular phone, talking to the head of Special Forces, the Pentagon. She was trying to explain to him what had just happened. She had to explain it three times before he finally understood. He told her to standby for further instructions. She prressed the 'end' button on her phone and started to help with the injured. She had medical experience because her mother had been a doctor and she had worked as an intern for several years when she had been younger.

She pulled on latex gloves and helpedunclog a man's airway. She treated burns as best she could with the limited first-aid kit that was kept in the van. She injected the most serious cases with morphine and sat down as she waited for it to take effect. When the noise quieted down and she could hear herself think, she realised that she had a splitting headache, so she looked for some acetaminophen to quiet it. There was much commotin in the hospital because there weren't enough rooms to treat all the people.

Sarah's phone rang. "Kelling." she answered.

"This is the president of the United States. What is going on?"

"Mr. President, sir, most of the men on the team you sent out have been hospitalized for burns. That cabin we surrounded contained a bomb that went off soon after we opened the door."

"What is their condition?"

"A couple have third degree burns and one has second degree. The rest have minor laceration caaused by flying glass."

"Kelling, this is not over yet. They are on to us. We must be very careful until the end." With that, he hung up.

Manchek came running in. "Sarah," he shouted. "turn on the TV." She immediatly told a nurse to do so. Seconds later they were watching a special news bullitin.

"Turn up the volume," someone yelled. An intern immediatly complied.

"....minutes earlier a government SWAT team was partially blown up when a bomb, supposedly planted by Russian spies, blew up. We hear have linked this event to others, including a rumor that a giant lizard is running around town. In related news, a Russian scientist/terrorist known only as Karlos was arrested...."

Sarah saw projections of the future in her head. People running amuck, fearing for their lives. Pandemonium has broken loose. Hundreds of cars in crashes, trying to leave town. She had long since learned that she could see the future in her head. If they didn't do something soon, these pictures would become reality. She saw Manchek on the phone. He seemed to be arguing with someone. On TV, she saw someone hand the announcer a paper.

"We interupt our special bullitin to bring you this update. I have just been informed by the acting Chief of Police that there is no lizard monster running on the loose on the town. Russian prisonner Karlos is cooperating with police to track down the people who planted the bomb." Kelling sighed with relief. That might hold the people in the town from rioting or fleeing. Now, they had to contact the newspapers and news stations and tell them not to say or print anything on the news broadcast. Manchek walked over.

"Looks like we're back to square one. Lets go talk to Karlos." They walked out of the room together.