Lieutenant Doyle’s ‘office’ was a small room on the base. A large map of Tanisport occupied one wall, and a screen on the other wall showed the Earth, with a bright green dot somewhere over the Atlantic.

“That’s Fortress Skyguard,” Doyle explained. “Current location. It keeps shifting its position in orbit over the planet.”

I nodded. “Have you ever been up there?”

“No-one has, except for the ultras who serve on it. Aircraft tried to get close, a long time ago. It keeps dodging.”

I frowned. “Doesn’t Bastion choose where the Fortress goes?”

Doyle shook his head. “Bastion’s been in command of the Skyguard Fifty since before they were fifty in number. He doesn’t, however, determine the movements of Skyguard. He just gets to know where it’s headed at any point in time.”

“So he’s not actually in command of Skyguard?”

“Not really. No human is. Even after all these years, we still haven’t even scratched its mysteries.” He sighed. “As if the aliens would ever give us time. So, Belessar - let’s talk about the aliens.”

“I’m happy to share what I know,” I replied. “Even if it means writing a report.”

“I have a friend who would like to talk to you about it, rather than just writing a document. Would that be okay?”

I frowned. “As long as you don’t record my voice or my face.”

“That’s a given. Will you meet with Major Fraser?”

“Sure. Is he stationed here?”

“He’s in this very building, in fact. And I think you wanted access to the alien tech?”

“Yes. Lumina promised me some access - but I don’t think she’s going to deliver on it.”

Doyle gave a lopsided grin. “The military generally doesn’t trust in the promises of ultras. But for you, and you alone, I think we might start making an exception. If you can help Fraser with his questions, he may be able to swing it.”

Major Fraser appeared to be a wholly unremarkable man at first glance. However, a quick Observe gave the lie to that fact:

MAJOR DOUGLAS A. FRASER

LEVEL 8

CLASS: SPY

FACTION: U.S. ARMY

DOUGLAS FRASER IS AN ACCOMPLISHED SOLDIER AND INTELLIGENCE AGENT. AWARDED MULTIPLE COMMENDATIONS FOR SERVICE IN THE FACE OF THE ALIEN FOE, HE HAS PROVEN HIMSELF A SHARP AND CAPABLE ANALYST OF ALIEN INTENTIONS. HIS YOUNG AGE AND SEEMING LOW RANK HIDES THE DEGREE TO WHICH HIS WORK HAS INFORMED AND INFLUENCED THE U.S. EFFORT AGAINST THE ALIENS.

So I was sitting down to debrief with a highly placed U.S. military intelligence officer?

Fair enough - I had nothing to hide. Besides, Observe told me that he had figured out quite a bit about the aliens - even without superpowers of his own. I owed it to him to help as much as I could.

“I’m just quickly going over my notes once before we wrap up,” Major Fraser said. “So the Raptors have clans. And one of these is the Guthnar?”

“Yes. Four scions and one Clanlord. The Raptor Captain we killed in New York was one of the scions.”

Fraser nodded. “And the Sarnak - nothing on them?”

“Just that they’re loyal foot soldiers to the Hierarchy. But I’d need more - chances - to gather information.”

“What type of chances?”

“I need to fight some more of the aliens.”

Fraser tilted his head. “You get information about the aliens by fighting them?”

“Not exactly…. Look, is it okay if you don’t mention that in the record?”

“That’s fine. We’ll keep it top secret.”

I shrugged. “Still, I’d be happy if we didn’t mention how I got the information.”

“Also fine.”

“I can say this much - if I fight aliens, I get opportunities to get information on them. Basically by observing their behaviour and actions.”

“What about the Carnotaurs, as you call them?”

“The Carnotaurs - I expect to fight one at some point, so I’ll share the information I get with you.”

“Can you get information from bodies?”

“Never tried. Do you want me to look at alien bodies?”

“If it’s okay with you. Only what you’re comfortable with.”

“I’m okay to look at alien bodies - I’ve made enough of them that way.”

“That’s true,” acknowledged Fraser. “I’ll arrange it.”

“Any chance I could get to look at recovered tech?”

“Can you figure out something from it?”

“I may be able to. If I can do a couple of small tests - consume a little bit of the materials - it would really help.”

“Alien tech samples are really rare and hard to get,” Fraser said. “I can get you the chance to look at a few, but you need to swear that you’ll share whatever you learn from them with the Army.”

“I promise.”

“This is important - we take stuff like this very seriously. I’ll be taking a lot of approvals to get you the access, so you need to not hold stuff back.”

“Major, some of what I understand from it will only be usable with my powers. The rest? You have my word I’ll share it with you.” I paused. “At the very least, if you give me a sample of an alien material, I should be able to tell you what it’s made of.”

Fraser nodded. “Okay. I understand your powers may get you more use of this stuff than we can make of it.”

“Exactly.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

At three a.m., I was knocking on Maria’s window again.

Maria opened it. “Belessar?”

“The one and only,” I replied. “May I come in?”

“Uh, sure,” Maria said. “I’ll get the girls.”

“Not the girls. Just you.” I slid through the window. “How well do you know Kristina?”

“Pretty well,” replied Maria. “I was there when she was brought in. She’s… a bit fragile.” She paused. “Is something wrong?”

“The warehouse was a trap,” I said.

Maria turned white. “Oh my God.” She sat down. “It must have been the dealer. Kristina would never betray you. Betray us.”

“I know,” I replied. “I figured the dealers strung her along and then set the trap.”

“But you got out,” Maria said. “Safely.”

I shrugged. “I got lucky.”

“What did they have there? More suits?”

I shook my head. “Tigerstrike, Serpentor and Ultragorilla.”

Maria gasped. “All three? How did you ….” She trailed off.

“I killed them.”

“All three.”

“Yeah. It was close. Ultragorilla almost got me….”

“But you killed all three of them. In one fight.”

I nodded. “I got lucky. I want to make sure the next fight isn’t decided by luck alone.”

Maria nodded. “We’ll do whatever it takes to help. And I promise our info will be more reliable next time.”

“That’s not all I want from you now.” I shook my head. “I need more than just information.”

Maria nodded cautiously. “Whatever you need, Belessar.”

“How’s Donna doing?”

The woman appeared puzzled by the question. “Donna? She seems fine… I can get in touch with her if you want.”

“Good. Do that. And there are a few other things I need….”