"Are there not still members of your military that are under their thrall? And you are uncertain
how many of my people were present during your encounter in the desert? Or how many more of the
parasites were with them?"
"Look, lady," said O'Flannery, the skin on his neck swelling where Nera had choked him. "You
can do whatever you want. But even with as strong as you are, I don't see how you're going to succeed
all by yourself. If there are more of your people along with those things, then I'd say that makes the
odds decidedly not in your favor. But you do you." He held up his phone. "Right now though, I'm going
to do me, and call 911. So you and your friends might want to get going." The agent dialed the number
and waited for the operator to pick up.
"C'mon, Nera. Let's go. We'll figure out what next once we put some distance between
ourselves and this place." Ulysses tried to keep his voice even, despite the mixture of adrenaline,
hunger, fear, and exhaustion he felt. He gently grabbed her hand and began guiding her away. Giles
followed them.
O'Flannery finished his call and watched them walking away. He cursed under his breath, then
ran after them.
"Hey, wait!" He waived after the trio, who looked back at him with incredulity. O'Flannery
caught up to them, reached into his pants pocket, and pulled out a card. He flipped it over and
scrawled a phone number on it. "Take this. Call me if you find out anything else or decide to do
something crazy, like trying to take the fight to these things."
Nera nodded once. She handed the card to Ulysses, who slipped it into his phone case. Then
the three of them quickly walked away. O'Flannery went back to where the cops lay and waited for
emergency services to show up.