Don nodded. "Well, listen, Fran. I may have had my head up my ass for the past fifteen years working for the government-I did what they told me to do and took their money and didn't think much about it. I didn't think much about anything. Hold it"-he held up a hand as Fran started to interrupt-"let me finish." He pointed at the Wall. "But the events of the past forty-eight hours have opened my eyes. I'm not sure what's going on here, but I do accept that I have a responsibility beyond my own little world."
Pencak had been so quiet that it took both of them by surprise when she spoke. "Very good, but even now you still refuse to accept the possibility that the unacceptable may have to be accepted." Pencak's words hung in the air for a long moment.
"I can accept the unacceptable if I know what it is. This is all so-" Batson's words were cut off as the Wall suddenly glowed brightly and Hawkins and Debra stumbled through. They looked no different than if they had just gone through a revolving door. Hawkins had his hand on Debra's shoulder and was holding her, as they both blinked in the glare of the high-power lights pointing at the wall.
The lieutenant was yelling into his com-link as Fran, Batson, and Pencak gathered around the two travelers. "Are you all right?" Fran asked as the two tried to get their bearings.
"We're fine," Hawkins answered, looking back over his shoulder at the portal.
"What happened?" Batson asked.
"We met the creators of all this," Debra said, gesturing around at the chamber. The way she said it told Fran right away that she wasn't talking about the Russians.
Hawkins held up a hand as they were barraged with questions. "We'll tell you everything, but I want to do it only once. We don't have much time."
"We don't have much time for what?" Fran asked.
In reply Hawkins pointed at the hole. "Let's go up. We need to brief Lamb so he can relay it to the President."
Fran listened in amazement as Hawkins gave a detailed account of what had happened to Debra and himself from the moment they went through the wall to the time they returned. Debra occasionally added a comment or small fact, but it was obvious to Fran that Hawkins was well versed in giving such reports. She imagined he had to do this after every mission he went on-she was also sure, though, that he'd never experienced anything like what he had just gone through.
When he told of the twenty-four-hour time limit, Lamb was shaking his head. Fran didn't know what to make of it all. Not having gone through herself, she thought it all sounded very distant and outrageous. Hawkins's dry and factual accounting of the events didn't lend them an air of credibility. They sounded like stories from a supermarket checkout tabloid rather than an army officer's after-action report.
"Did you see the Russians go back through their portal?" was Lamb's first question.
"No," Hawkins said. "We were let off the craft at our portal first. It lifted and headed toward where I presume the Russians' portal was-near the opposite wall."
"So for all you know, the Russians might still be there," Lamb said.
A look of frustration flashed across Hawkins's face. "That is a very slight possibility. I'm sure they would be in as much of a rush to get back to their superiors and report what happened as we were."
"Unless they set this whole thing up," Lamb returned.
Hawkins leaned forward. "They didn't set this up. There's no way they could have set it up." He pointed out the door of the tent toward the mine shaft. "How do you explain the portal? How were we transported? There's never even been a hint that Russia possesses such a capability. And where were we transported to?"
"That's what I'd like to know," Lamb said. "They said you weren't on Earth, but if these aliens could transport people that easily, how come they didn't come here?"
"Would you have come here if you were the one in control like they are?" Hawkins countered.
"What about Richman?" Batson wanted to know. "If you have to go through one Wall or portal to get here, and another to get to Tunguska, how did he get directly from Tunguska to here?"
"The Coalition said they had Richman for those eight hours," Hawkins explained.
"You said you were in some sort of large building-maybe underground. Why do you think it wasn't here on Earth?" Lamb demanded.
"It didn't feel like Earth," Hawkins said. "I know that sounds strange but the air, the building, the machinery, which I didn't recognize-the whole thing just felt very different, like nothing I've ever experienced before."
"Why did they hide from you?" Lamb asked.
"For all I know they weren't hiding," Hawkins said, his voice taking on an edge. "They probably weren't even on the same planet as us. It looked like a transmission. Maybe those points of light were members of the Coalition."
Fran spoke for the first time, trying to get the conversation back on a productive track. "What is it exactly that they want from us?"
"They didn't say they wanted anything," Debra said.
"Then why the twenty-four-hour time limit?" Fran asked.
"They gave us twenty-four hours because we asked for it-or to be more precise, Colonel Tuskin asked for it. I got the feeling that they were going to shut the system down in twenty-four hours anyway and were just letting us know that. We wanted a chance to come back and tell our leaders what the situation is. If any move is going to be made, then we need to be the ones to make it and then present it to the Coalition."
Lamb threw his hands up in the air. "This is the craziest thing I've ever heard. I can't go to the President with this. He'll think I'm insane. We have no evidence other than your story."
“If you don't go to the President with this immediately, then you might be dooming this planet," Hawkins returned hotly. “If he won't believe what he's told, then ask him to get on a plane and fly here." He pointed down. "There's hard evidence right below our feet. The President can make it in less than four hours aboard the X-27"-referring to the Air Force's super-secret spy plane capable of traveling at eight times the speed of sound. "He can go through with us and see for himself. If you wait too long, the portals will shut down and we'll never know if I was right or wrong."
Lamb looked at Hawkins incredulously. "How did you know about the X-27?" he demanded. "You weren't cleared for that!"
"I know a lot of things I'm not cleared for," Hawkins replied ominously. "I know if you decide to get off your ass and tell the President exactly what's going on and recommend he come here, that we can do something positive for once. Let's use our resources for good."
"There's no way he'll come here," Lamb argued.
"Well, he has to do something!" Levy blurted.
Batson tried mediating. "I don't understand why the aliens-if that's what they are-have to do anything. Why can't they just leave things alone? If this story is true, then things have gone all right for a very long time."
Hawkins shook his head. "The loss of their relay station under Vredefort Dome has apparently reduced the capability of their defense system below an acceptable level."
"Why can't they just fix it, then?" Batson asked. "If they can send you back and forth so easily, why don't they send someone through with a toolbox and fix the damn things? I'm sure the sites can be guarded from here on out from another incident like the one that happened in South Africa."
"You don't understand this from their perspective," Levy said. "We're a minor irritant to the Coalition. It's as if we put a radar site for our nuclear early warning system on some island in the Pacific in the middle of a war. And there's a bunch of monkeys on that island that threw coconuts over the fence around the radar. And finally one day one of those coconuts breaks the radar. What would our reaction be?"