by Allen Wold
The colonel's scream of pain caused his soldiers to turn their attention to him instead of to the rebels, who lost no time in taking advantage of the momentary distraction. Robin, breaking free of her father at last, ran to her daughter while Mike, Robert, Ham, and Martin dashed in to grapple with the colonel's staff. The soldiers, afraid to hit one of their officers, dared not shoot.
Diana started to run toward the shuttle, but Juliet was faster. She ran four steps, then jumped, just barely catching Diana's legs with her outflung hands. It wasn't much of a tackle, but Diana stumbled, her glasses fell from her eyes, and she cried out in pain as the bright southern California sunlight blinded her.
It gave Julie the chance she needed to regain her feet, grab Diana, and twist her arm behind her back so forcefully that the confused soldiers could hear the Visitor's shoulder joint creak. The scene froze like a tableau.
Rebels and staff officers were too closely entangled for the soldiers to do anything more than raise their weapons in idle threat. Mike Donovan, holding the colonel, managed to draw his pistol and put it to Fletcher's head.
"Just hold your fire," he said to the soldiers, "or your colonel's dead."
"Destroy the plant," Diana screamed, struggling in Julie's determined grasp. "Now!" Julie twisted her around and struck her hard across the face. Diana slumped to her knees, her human disguise half torn off, revealing the green scales underneath.
"Look!" Julie said, turning her captive around so that the soldiers could see her true face. "This is who's been giving your colonel orders."
Beyond the fence the tank commanders, who had been instructing their crews to aim at the plant, hesitated.
"There are eight thousand human beings in there," Robert Maxwell called, holding Lieutenant Casey in a stronghold.
"That's a lie," Major Garret shouted. "Just a few rebels, that's all."
Once again, the barrels of the tanks, the batteries of the mobile rocket launchers began to swivel for direct fire.
Then the double doors of the plant opened, and out came a hesitant trickle, then a stream of revived suspendees. Dazed, confused, in ill-fitting clothes, they formed an ever-growing huddle on the paved yard.
Beyond the fence, an officer picked up a bullhorn.
"Lower your guns," he called.
Captain Broadbent, held securely by Martin, stared at the pitiful human ex-prisoners. Then, craning his neck so he could see Colonel Fletcher, he said, "You didn't tell us about this."
"Forty people," Colonel Fletcher said, still half blinded by the venom, "fifty people. What does that matter when the whole country, the whole world is at stake?"
More suspendees came out of the plant, slowly filling the area between the building and the fence.
"They've been continuing with the deprocessing the whole time," Mike Donovan said in wonder.
"Seemed like a good idea," Martin said, slowly releasing his hold on Broadbent.
The tank officer who had stopped the attack on the plant started directing his soldiers to come to the suspendees' aid. As word spread among the soldiers, they lowered their weapons and began to back off. The stream of suspendees was slackening now, but by Mike's estimate, fully three hundred humans were now standing out in the plant yard. Their numbers slowly diminished as those who had been instructed to help them started leading them away.
A squad of MPs dogtrotted out to where rebels and staff officers still stood in frozen postures of struggle and resistance. The soldiers nearby fell back, seeing master sergeant's stripes on the MP's leader. The Military Police knew their business and soon had Colonel Fletcher and his staff disarmed and in handcuffs.
"That sure is some secret weapon," the master sergeant snarled at Broadbent as he took him into custody.
"Colonel Fletcher told us," Captain Broadbent explained, "that you had a nuclear device in that building." He looked at Lieutenant Casey and Major Garret, whose grim faces told him they had not been deceived. "At least," Captain Broadbent went on, "that's what he told me."
A major leading another squad of white-helmeted MPs, marched across the yard from the gate in the fence. Beyond them, soldiers who were not actively engaged in assisting the suspendees were drawing back. Colonel Fletcher and his men were marched off, leaving only the rebels, and Diana still firmly in Julie's grasp, to meet the new officer.
"I think we can take this lady off your hands now," the major said, indicating Diana. "If I had known that she was behind Colonel Fletcher's orders, it never would have gone this far."
Four MPs, all the size of football tackles, went over to Diana and handcuffed her securely. She looked bizarre, with one-half of her face still that of a beautiful woman, the other half that of a green, scaly reptile. The MPs, not liking to touch such a being, were not gentle.
"There will be no convenient escapes this time," Juliet said as a security van rolled up to them. "We'll see you again, at your trial."
Diana was roughly loaded into the van. The major saluted and marched his men off the field.
Mike and Julie and the others turned to leave as well and saw Robin and Elizabeth sitting on the pavement. Elizabeth had constructed a fanciful tower out of her crystal blocks. It gleamed like fire in the sun.
Watch for
THE CHICAGO CONVERSION
the next V book from Pinnacle
coming in January!
THE FINAL BATTLE IS OVER—OR IS IT?
The alien stranglehold on Earth has been broken, and the resistance has triumphed. Victory is sweet until alien leader Diana uses her powers to escape from her captors. The alarm is raised, and the familiar beat of fear rises in the heart of the resistance. Diana must be stopped.
Resistance member Donovan sets off in the alien Mother Ship in pursuit of the fleeing Diana, praying that he will be able to capture or destroy her before she can reach alien forces and trigger another invasion of Earth. During Donovans absence, the victory continues to unravel. And so, the battle once won, must start again...
V
Created by Kenneth Johnson
From Warner Bros. Television
A Warner Communications Company
