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.One didn't have to be Fox Mulder to get a sense that something was badly wrong.After the alien presentation was finally finished – the only thing saving it from terminal boredom had been the presence of the alien himself – Joseph remained behind after the aliens escorted most of the humans out of the room, saying that he had to go to the washroom.The aliens accepted it, leaving him alone for long enough to allow him to take an unsupervised look around the chamber.In a bad novel or TV series, he would have discovered the secret plans at once.Instead, he found almost nothing.The chamber seemed to be little more than a movie set.Puzzled, he slipped out of the door, purposefully choosing to head in the wrong direction from the tour group.Silently researching excuses in his head, he walked down the metal corridor, noting the strange proportions as he passed a handful of sealed doors.An attempt to open them resulted in nothing, apart from a sore hand.The alien locks seemed unbreakable – at least without revealing his presence.He was on the verge of giving up when he discovered a door that was half-open and slipped through it before he had a chance to think.The door slid closed behind him and he swore under his breath.There was no way to retreat back to the relative safety of the tour group.He paused – and realised, for the first time, that the slightly unpleasant scent that seemed to accompany the aliens was noticeably stronger.The lighting, too, was different, seeming to blaze down on his bald skull.Nervously, wishing he’d been able to carry his handgun into the alien base, he kept walking down and paused at the corner, peering around into a vast chamber.Two aliens stood in front of him, their backs turned, studying a set of images that flickered in and out of existence in front of them.Some of the images seemed to be human television channels, others appeared to be jumpy, as if they were carried by an amateur cameraman.One of the aliens seemed to twist in a manner that reminded him of his grandfather’s pet snake, his sinuous neck snaking outwards towards a single set of displays.They showed a handful of humans within what looked like an operating facility.Joseph must have gasped, for both aliens spun around with startling speed.It was already too late to retreat.He was still inching backwards when something stuck him in the back and he crashed down to the cold metal floor.The smell grew stronger as a third alien loomed over him, picked his paralysed body up with apparently effortless ease, and carried him down another corridor.His mind, already spinning under the influence of whatever they’d shot him with, started to blur; he spun in and out of awareness.A whole series of flickering images seemed to flash across his mind; an alien, looking down at him; something being extended towards his neck; a brief sense of almost intolerable pain.And then everything seemed to fade away into nothingness.***Jason looked up as the science-fiction writer was escorted back into the chamber.“I just got lost,” he mumbled, as if he were drunk.“They pointed me back here.”“Good for them,” one of the other visitors said.“Isn’t it lucky that they were here to help?”Chapter EightFort Meade, MarylandUSA, Day 17“If you’ll follow me, sir.?”Toby followed the NSA staffer with some irritation.The call to Fort Meade – the headquarters of the National Security Agency, responsible for intercepting enemy messages and protecting American communications security – had come out of the blue.It was true that he was overdue for a routine security check and lecture, but his life had been really quite alarmingly busy.Unlike many of the government staffers, Toby didn't hold security in absolute contempt, yet it could be irritating at times.He was cleared for almost everything, after all.He’d expected a pleasant office, like the ones that had been used on his prior visits.Instead, he found himself led down a long corridor and into a sealed examination room.He was still puzzling over this when the staffer vanished out of the door and the room sealed behind him with an audible thump.A moment later, a stern voice came out of nowhere.“Remove all clothing and personal possessions,” it ordered.Toby bit down the comment that came to mind and slowly undressed.Coming from a large family, he had few taboos about being naked in front of strangers – and besides, he could be reasonably sure that the NSA would only have male officers peering at him
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