"If I had used the two I had just killed immediately, I could have used the additional
resonance to paralyze the remaining three. After that, I would have just needed to touch them."
"We can't recapture missed opportunities," said O'Flannery. "It's shame you couldn't get
them all when they were here." He began pacing his side of the room. The only sound in the
room was the agents footsteps for a few moments. "So there's at least four still at large, and we
don't currently know the whereabouts of your comrade or her vehicle. Nor do we know if she has
more, unaccounted for parasites with her."
Nera nodded.
"That's not great. We're now in a position where we can't be sure what they'll try next. If
you had aced the other three parasites, then we'd be down to just your friend with the saucer."
"She's not my friend," said Nera. Her honest vehemence made her sound defensive.
"Figure of speech, dear." O'Flannery continued pacing.
"If they've all gone to ground, then the only way we could actually find them would be to
take you out of this facility until you could pinpoint their locations."
"I am willing to search for them," said Nera.
"Yeah, that's great. Too bad there's no way I can get authorization to take you out of
here."
"Do you think they'd try to get to Nera again?" Asked Ulysses.
"I don't know," said O'Flannery. "She doesn't know," he said pointing to Nera. "You don't
know. This attack could've been our only shot. On the other hand, if the other lady with a saucer
found out that none of those parasites survived this attack, then her plan-B might've been to leave
and come back with reinforcements. So this could be the better outcome, but we just don't know.
Nobody does. And that is exactly what the problem is with this situation."
Uncomfortable silence settled on the room. Ulysses kept standing next to Nera, holding
her hand and facing the soldiers. O'Flannery continued to pace the back section of the room. The
lieutenant watched him, while the soldiers with guns held their weapons in front of them.
The quiet of the room made it so Ulysses could hear a low, pulsing rumble that he hadn't
been able to hear earlier when everyone was talking. He thought it must belong to some sort of
strange government machine because of how irregular and intermittent the vibrations were.
Nera's hand tightened on his like a vise until he had to whisper to her to loosen it up.
"What is it?" He said.
"I think...I think..." She trailed off.
O'Flannery's phone rang. He made a face then answered the call, his pacing
uninterrupted. The agent faced away from the rest of the people in the room. Ulysses wasn't sure
what the conversation entailed but it didn't seem good based on the amount of swearing that
O'Flannery was doing. The call ended as abruptly as it came. He turned around and began
walking toward Nera and Ulysses. The vibrations seemed to be getting more frequent and
intense.
"Looks like your friend's outside," said the agent. "She's taking shots at this facility with
some kind of energy weapon. Do you know how we can stop her?"