We had a quick breakfast, got something to go for Michael, and picked him up at the Temple of Crom. Vesta had a change of clothes for him. We got to the airport early and had the driver park just off the grounds. Olivia got out told Leo, “Be right back.” She cast her flying spell and then an invisibility spell and took off. Leo asked us what was up; I told him that she wanted to get a closer look at one of the Janet jets. There was one at the terminal loading up.

                She ‘appeared’ just a short while later and told us it went fine. She’d found a place to hide the transponder, no problem. But she noticed a couple of weird things while she was doing it; first of all the plane was really, very cold, but none of the passengers seemed to notice. The second thing was that there were magazines in the plane, all dated from February 2005, and they were all in perfect condition, as if they’d never been touched. Other than that, everything seemed routine - people finding seats, chitchatting, behaving like nothing was strange.

                We went off to find concourse B and found Caesar was waiting for us at the entrance to the terminal.  He had his limo and a couple of luxury vans waiting.  Olivia introduced Leo and we went inside. We met up with Connors and Alfred inside the terminal.  And then there was McCarran, waiting for us. But he felt different - this was the real one, not the one we’d met yesterday. He had the full Overlord aura going as he welcomed first Caesar than us.  “Such a glorious day for a happy event, wouldn’t you say? Have you made plans as to who will be adopting the children?” Olivia told him that there would be families in the Kingdom happy to take them in. “Good! Glad to hear it.” The weird thing was that I got the ‘feeling’ that he almost meant it, totally different than the feelings we were getting yesterday. He said, “Caesar tells us that you have a desire to transport a large number of people to the Cortez airport. We have mages working overtime to create the fuel for the trip.”

                Olivia told him, “I’m glad you’re feeling better. You seemed a little under the weather yesterday.” He dropped some of the attitude and said, “There is an awful lot of pressure and work to be done around here. Caesar told me of your concerns regarding my behavior yesterday. You caught me while I was preoccupied with other matters. But I assure you that I am glad to see these orphans finding good homes.  I meant what I said yesterday – I don’t like breaking up families, and we have many children who need good homes.”

                A Janet plane landed and taxied to a stop at the concourse.  Some security guys wearing dark suits and sunglasses escorted the kids off the plane. Olivia and I had our fairie fire CZ’s ready, but all they detected was some very faint residual Magic. There were 14 of  ‘em, between the ages of 8 and 16. They all looked kind of scared and regarded Olivia and Alfred with some trepidation. Olivia moved forward to reassure them that they were free and safe. Then McCarran presented them with new clothes and some toys and games. Caesar told them, “Olivia and her friends are all staying at Caesar’s Palace. I’m Caesar, it’s my Palace, and you’ll all be staying there, too.” Then he said to us, “I’ll make sure they get settled and are comfortable.” I told them that they would enjoy the Palace, there were pools they could play in and some game rooms, too. Michael asked one of the older kids if he could see his hands. The kid looked at him like he was crazy, but shrugged and held them out. Clean, well manicured and no out of the ordinary calluses.

                Olivia asked them, “So, how was it out there?” And right on cue they said, “It was hot and there was nothing to do.” Connors asked them, “How was the food?” There were a lot of blank stares and then one of them said that it was OK, plain, pretty boring. Then the others started nodding. I asked them, “So what did you have for dinner last night?” And again lots of stares. One spoke up, “Mystery meat with mystery gravy.” “Oh yeah. That’s right,” said the others. “Well you’ll get a good lunch back at the Palace” I assured them as Caesar’s men led them off to a bus.

                Then the security guards brought out the winged Elf.  She was in chains and her wings were bound. When Vesta voiced concern about that the guards told her it was ‘standard precautions’. She was unchained and her wings were freed. She stretched arms, legs and wings while they told her, “These people have purchased you. Here are your personal items and your medicine.”

                “Medicine?” I asked. “Insulin.  She’s diabetic.” They made her sign for her personal items and her cash. At my baffled look, I was told, “Standard policy, ma’am.” As they left, she turned to us and asked, “Where am I?” We asked her name (Evelyn) and we tried to explain, but she was very confused. The last thing she remembered was being picked up outside of Bozeman, Mt. She remembered the day perfectly. It was overcast and foggy, but not foggy enough for her to hide from the NSA forces who’d caught her. She could remember what she’d had for breakfast right before being captured, but couldn’t remember what she’d had for dinner last night when I asked her.

                “The guard said you bought me?”  She looked so frightened!  Olivia and I rushed to reassure her that we had bought her in order to free her.  After she’d had a couple of days to figure out what was going on, she would have a choice of where she wanted to go. I asked her about her medicine, and she told me that she really didn’t need it anymore, since her metabolism had changed with the rest of her.  I made a mental note to check her out later.

                McCarran asked us if we were pleased with our investments and told us if we wanted to buy more to come back and see him, then he left.  As we were leaving, Connors sort of jerked, as if something had goosed her. She indicated to Olivia and I that the tracking device clipped to her belt had started vibrating and we needed to get going. Olivia nodded at her, but turned to Caesar and demanded. “Did you tell him ahead of time that you were coming here to check him out?”

                “Well, of course I did. This is his domain.” Olivia was furious, and she and I said, “That was not the same person we spoke to yesterday. You warned him and he switched!” Caesar got very serious and spoke to us as if explaining something to a child, “This is his domain. If you could get him to meet somewhere neutral then you could try to trap him. But I will have nothing to do with such behavior on his domain!”

                Olivia turned and asked Connors if she had “gotten our other ride”. “Other ride?” asked Caesar. Olivia said, “Yeah, we want to take Leo here on a little sight-seeing trip and try to find someplace ‘private’ for Michael and Vesta’s honeymoon.”

                “Oh, I see” he said.  Hook, line, and sinker!  I told Evelyn to go with him and asked Caesar if he would see that she was taken to either Carson or O’Bannon. He promised to do so and I told her that they would explain everything to her and let her know what options she had. She nodded and got into the limo as Caesar held the door for her.

                The rest of us followed Connors and Alfred to the hanger where Lucifer’s invisible helicopter was waiting for us. Olivia asked Leo if he’d ever seen one of these before. “Not like this one, no.” he said. We were greeted by the pilot, the same one who’d flown us into Grand Junction. He looked at us and said, “OK, you four have done this before.” He looked at Michael and Vesta and asked, “Have either of you ever jumped from a helicopter using a rappel line?” They shook their heads and Leo stepped forward and said, “I can rig a tandem line and take one of them with me.” The pilot checked out the SEAL insignia on his collar and said, “Yes you could.” Alfred spoke up and said that if they could rig one for him, he could take Vesta with him. So the pilot showed them to the equipment locker and they got to work as the pilot made ready to take off. Connors gave him the coordinates to head to.

                On the way we discussed the ‘slaves’ we’d just met, and formed a theory (of sorts). Maybe they have the Changelings in some sort of stasis. The kids were wearing clothes that were a little too neat. They didn’t look at all outgrown. Their hands were clean and they all looked like they’d just had manicures!

                The pilot came on and said. “We are now in violation of numerous laws and regulations. Are you ready to go through with this?” We told him to keep flying. Connors pulled out the tracking device and gave it the oddest look. She told us that it was registering in 2 different places! “Where and where?” I asked. “Approximately 5 minutes ahead and back in Vegas.” Someone, I don’t remember who said something about time travel. I didn’t even want to consider that.

                Connors asked the pilot to open the door so we could take a look. Couldn’t see much: sand and some scrub plants. Michael pointed out a line in the ground – a groove actually - that was unnaturally straight and ran for some distance. Olivia asked the pilot to land so we could take a peek. He set us down a few feet from it and told us he’d keep the rotors going and he could get us out of there 10 seconds after we got back in. He sounded only a little scared.

                Taking a look around, the groove was about 30 feet across and Connors and Leo estimated it to be about 200 feet long. At it’s deepest it was about 5 feet. Olivia pitched a rock into it, and nothing happened. Michael said that it looked to him like the plants to either side of it were new growth. He poked around under a bush and found signs of a fire not too long ago. Olivia was poking around a saw something shiny. Michael helped her dig down further and they pulled out a piece of aluminum - twisted and burnt aluminum with rivets in it. It looked like a piece of fuselage.

                Connors had gone further down and came back holding something she had dug out from about 3 feet of sand. She showed it to us and my head started to swim. It was the transponder that Olivia had planted on that plane less than 2 hours ago!

                Michael asked, “So, are we in the future or in the past?” Connors said, “It gets better.” And showed us the tracking unit, it was now showing 3 beeps. The one she was holding, one still ahead of us and one back in Vegas. “I think we’d better get back on the helicopter,” Alfred said. Connors agreed and left the transponder behind. She told the pilot to keep moving ahead.     

                After a few minutes, we could see some of the Janet Jets sitting on a runway near some hangers. There were other buildings too, barracks, office buildings and hangars of all sizes. As we got closer we could see what looked to be people moving around. Connors asked the pilot to circle the whole area so we could get a look at it.

                As we got closer we could see that almost all of the building had been burned out. Some were collapsing, others were moderately stable. The Janet jets we’d seen on the runway seemed to be superimposed over some wrecked ones. The pilot took us in even closer and we could see that people (Humans and Changelings) were walking around as if everything was okay - opening doors that were no longer there, that sort of thing. Then we saw that they were walking THRU some of the rubble.

                Connors suggested that we go check it out; she didn’t think that they would even notice us. But just in case, only one should go first. Leo immediately volunteered to do it. He attached himself to a line and lowered himself down. Connors was right. Not one single person noticed someone materializing 100 feet in the air and lowering himself to the ground. Comparing Leo to the others, they looked just as ‘real’ as he did.              

                Leo kept himself clipped to the line and went to a pile of rubble. He dug thru it and found a badly decomposed body. Olivia signaled him to get closer to the people. He did and stepped right in front of a woman who was walking past. She smiled at him said, “Excuse me,” and walked around him. Then he walked over to a man who was buying something from a vending machine that wasn’t there. He went to tap the man on the shoulder and his hand went right thru him. Leo stopped and then signaled to us (very theatrically) that the man was cold. Very cold. We all looked at Olivia, “Was it that the plane was so cold, or the people in the plane were so cold?”

                We told the pilot to land and we all got out. Olivia threw a rock at the first person she encountered, it went right thru him, but he did react. He slapped at his arm where the rock had ‘hit’ him and said, “Damned bugs.”

                We went into the first building we came to, a hanger. Inside was a plane that looked like nothing I’d ever seen before (Leo said it was an Aurora), but it was a wreck. There were bodies all over the place. Some in uniform, some dressed as civilians. It appeared that they had all killed each other.  There were lots of handguns and spent shells everywhere.  It also looked like some had been strangled or bludgeoned, and there was one body that had what had to be a letter opener in its chest. Leo and Connors agreed they all looked like they’d been dead for about a year.

                There were some locked security panels in one of the walls and they had lights still blinking on them. Olivia searched a couple of bodies until she found a card key. She tried it, but nothing worked. Not wanting to mess with any more of the bodies, she pulled out her unlocking wand and opened them that way. All she found was stack and stacks of blueprints and schematics.

                While she was looking thru the lockers Michael and I noticed that it looked as if something had been chewing on the bottom parts of the plane.  The entire landing gear and most of the lower steel alloy parts had been eaten – there were teeth marks in some places.  Connors cleared her throat and called out, “Hey, guys. The tracking unit is now reading NOTHING at all.” She held it up for us all to see, and it was dark.

                We decided to try the next building, which appeared to be an admin building. As we crossed to it we saw one of the Janet Jets taxi out and take off. We stood and watched it for a moment before continuing. As we got closer we heard snuffling and snorting coming towards us. We all pulled weapons and slowly went around the corner of the building. We saw what appeared to be a huge freakin’ eight-legged wolverine with gold fur.  It saw us at the same time and charged. It was an aurumvorax, just like the one we’d seen the pelt of. Leo opened fire and hit it several times. Michael slashed at it with his betleH. It whirled and bit him as he slashed it again. I summoned up my spiritual weapon, a long sword, but the blows just deflected off the thing’s hide. Leo pulled his K-Bar and attacked it while Alfred closed in to attack with his bare hands. Olivia pulled her zapper wand and fired a charge at it. It managed to turn its head and lock its jaws on Michael’s arm. Even with it hanging off his arm, Michael was able to stab at it and drive one of the points of the betleH thru the thing’s skull, pinning it to the ground.

                When it finally stopped twitching, Leo and Alfred pried its jaws open while Olivia sawed thru the jaw muscles. As I was Healing Michael, Olivia and Alfred cut the thing open to find a whole bunch of metal, but nothing that looked valuable. Olivia cut the paws off to remove the claws later. While Alfred was finding something to put it all in, Michael and Vesta skinned it.

                As we were finishing all that, Connors noticed a plume of smoke rising to the south of us from the area where we’d just seen the ‘wreck’. The ‘people’ around us all started to run that direction as a klaxon alarm started to come from a speaker right over our heads – one that was clearly broken! The ‘people’ were all obviously terrified and as they were running several of them ran right ‘thru’ us. It was a horrible, cold, nightmarish feeling. Suddenly a security guard rounded a corner right in front of us with an automatic rifle aimed right at us and opened fire. We could all ‘feel’ the bullets going thru our bodies. He emptied a clip, reloaded and started firing again. We finally realized that he was firing at something behind us. When we turned we saw a woman, a half-Human/half-Elf (literally  - the left side of her was Human and the right side Elven).  She was pleading with him not to shoot her, but then she pulled a weapon of her own and fired at the guard, hitting him at least once in the head.

                It was all too much, so I stepped aside and conjured up some Magic to let me see what was truly going on.  Suddenly, all the ‘people’ were gone. The few buildings that I’d seen as being intact were now nothing but rubble, and hovering over everything was a black aura of terror and destruction. I was conscious of someone (Alfred?) pulling me toward the helicopter.  On the way, I saw that one of the Janet Jets in the runway really was ‘real’ - and there was someone doing some maintenance on it!  He was real too. I picked up a stone and threw it at him. It hit him right between the shoulder blades and bounced off. The person spun around a pulled a gun that he pointed at the group. That’s when I saw that he was a shape changer, just like the one we saw in Caesar’s office in his ‘true’ form, a Gray, space-alien dude. He yelled at us, “You cannot be here. You must get out. Now!”

                As the helicopter was taking off, Olivia told us that the numbers on that plane were the same as the one that took the kids to Vegas this morning. We all looked back and saw the Gray running for one of the buildings.

                Someone told the pilot to head towards where we’d figured Manzanar should be. We flew over the nuclear testing area and over another area that had a bunch of ruptured storage tanks. I don’t know what was in those things but it must have been nasty. The entire area was dead.

                The pilot pointed ahead of us and we could see what appeared to be the classic POW camp: rows of identical buildings inside large barbed wire fences with guard towers along the perimeter. As we got closer we could see absolutely no signs of life. There wasn’t a thing moving out there. Our pilot circled the area so we could get a good look. We saw at least 60 rows of barracks. With 50 barracks per row. Just guessing it looked as if each building could hold 20-30 people each, minimum.  90,000 people!  Then Leo spotted a lone figure, skulking along the shadows of the buildings. It was a man in a uniform and he was carrying something. When he got to just about dead center of the place he knelt down and started to mess with what he’d been carrying.  Then he pulled out a rosary, kissed it, crossed himself and reached into the pack he had and twisted something. We all expected an explosion, even the pilot. He jerked us up and away from the camp. But there was no explosion, and we were able to watch as he died. But before the pilot was able to put us down the guy vanished. He just wasn’t there anymore!

                We set down the only place we could – in the middle of a tennis court by the mess hall.  As we walked thru the area, there was no destruction here like there was at Groom Lake. The buildings were in need of repairs - broken window glass, shutters hanging off their hinges, that sort of thing - but no actual destruction. Olivia and Connors went to enter the nearest barracks. Connors said she didn’t know if she should pull her gun or hold Olivia’s hand.

                We all went into the first one, and the first thing we saw were the remains of some Gold Elves. Long dead. It looked as if they had died clutching their throats, trying to breathe. One had a pillowcase over his mouth. “That guy must have used some kind of gas, “ Leo said.

                As we looked further thru the barracks we saw that everyone inside had been wearing identical jumpsuits with I.D. numbers on them. Olivia remembered the numbers one of the kids had been assigned, so we went to find the appropriate building. Outside of it were fresh bootprints leading to the door. There was a sign identifying the building as an orphan’s barracks, and everyone we found inside was dead, just like the others. We found 14 empty beds – the same number of orphans we picked up this morning. And we could see were some footlockers and closets had been gone thru. To get their clothes?

                The radio clicked on and our pilot told us that there was another helicopter headed our way. He said that he was going to take off so the guy didn’t land on him, but he would stay within range. The new copter swooped down and landed exactly where ours had been. We couldn’t see who got out but when the rotors quieted down, we heard a voice call out, “Hello! You should come out now. This is not a good place.”

                Suddenly there was a man at the door.  He looked to be about 60, kinda’ decrepit looking. Actually, he looked just like every crazy old desert rat you’ve ever seen in a movie. “Congratulations,” he said, rather cheerfully, “You’re the first group to make it in. But I don’t know why anyone would want to come out here, it’s depressing.”

                He invited us to go back to his place for a bit. Seems he lives in Hanger 18 out at Groom Lake. He said that he’d been out here in the desert for a couple of years now. As we walked to his helicopter he explained what we’d been seeing: nothing but ghosts. Ghosts reliving their last day over and over again.

                “So what happened that last day?” I asked him. He paused and looked a bit more serious. “Well, that’s not a tale to be told,” he said, “Not without a drink, anyway!” So he took us to his place. On the way, he confirmed what Leo had said: all the people here were killed by nerve gas back on February 20, 2005.  In the meantime, he and his friends had been getting people out, a few at a time. I asked, “What do you do with them, after you take them from here and before you send them to Vegas?” “Now, that’s what we need to talk about.” And he wouldn’t say a word until we could “Take a load off and get comfy.” When he wasn’t looking, Connors showed us that she’d kept the radio open so our pilot would know where we were going and follow.

                We followed the guy back to his helicopter and he told his pilot (another one of the Gray shape changers) to take us ‘home’. On the way he told us that there had been a mistake; we never should have met McCarran’s replacement yesterday. The ‘first string’ would have fooled us. “Where’s the ‘real’ McCarran?” we asked. He told us that the ‘real’ McCarran and a bunch of his people had come out here back at the end of February, 2005, but never made it to the base proper.  “They were killed by their own fear. That’s really the only defense system left out here to keep people out.  The Fear. If you think what you saw this morning was bad, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. It grows thru the day and gets worse and worse. Then at night, it’s unstoppable.” He turned to the Gray pilot and asked, “Isn’t that right?” The Gray turned to glare at him and hissed, “We have no fear, only curiosity.”

                When it was obvious that the old guy wasn’t going to say anymore, I said, “Well, here were are intruding on your home and we haven’t even introduced ourselves.” So I introduced the group and asked our host for his name. “Charlie Cox. Glad to meet you all.”

                The pilot landed the helicopter outside a building clearly marked Hanger 18 and showed us in. We passed quite a few more Grays, but they just ignored us and went about their business. Inside, Charlie had a pretty nice setup; some nice comfy furniture, cable TV (with a feed from Vegas, he told us), stereo, DVD player and an entire wall full of CD’s and DVD’s. He told us all to make ourselves ‘to home’ and asked us if we wanted something ‘to cut the dust in our throats’. When we all said yes, he went to the 'kitchen' and got a bottle of wine. “Hope you don’t mind homebrew.” He poured for us all and then sat down.

                “So, how much do you all know about Nazi occultism?” We all threw in the dribs and drabs that we’d heard about Hitler and his interest in different forms of the occult. Charlie nodded and said that because of Hitler’s interest in it the British felt compelled to start up a counter-occultism unit. Then, when the U.S. entered the war, they jumped on the bandwagon and started recruiting psychics of different sorts. Eventually, it turned out that they had just enough ‘luck’ that the government continued the programs after the war. Then, during the Cold War the Soviets really got into it (not that they believed any of it……) so the American government stepped up their programs.

                Then sometime in the mid 60’s an auditor ran across a box of drawings that had been done by one of the government psychics back in 1941. In it, there were drawings - detailed specs of jet airplane engines - SR-71s, F-117s, and others. At the time the drawings were made they’d been dismissed as garbage, but when they were ‘discovered’ the Pentagon became very interested and started a program that encouraged engineering scrying. It worked occasionally (very occasionally). But then they found a way to ‘boost’ the signal.

                Charlie went on, “What they discovered was that all living things create non-differentiated particles, or ‘ifs’, which, when they interact with an ‘expectant’ particle, become whatever kind of particle the observer expects to see. The 'expectant' is what's responsible for the Observer Effect. It decides if Schroedinger's cat is alive or dead. It's quantum physics, not sorcery - the wavefunction of an object or entity will remain in a superposition of all possible states until the object or entity is observed, at which point the wavefunction collapses into a single state - a state decided, to a great extent, by the mental state of the observer."

                "Anyway, ifs were then manufactured and concentrated in certain areas, like here at Groom. But these ‘ifs’ weren’t meant to exist in concentrated numbers, and people were afraid of what might happen. That created a new factor in the formula – ‘what ifs’, basically a set of very negative and paranoid ‘expectants’ - and they discovered that they had built themselves a machine that amounted to an Infinite Improbability Generator. That, and a self-fulfilling prophecy engine.  ‘Ifs’ started leaking everywhere as far back as the early 1990s.  A major leak developed in the containment system in July of 2004, but it wasn't detected until the 13th of February. They tried to fix it, but it kept getting worse. By the 17th, ambiant 'if' levels had hit the point where people were starting to be able to manipulate them unconciously, and Manzanar was activated. Then, on February 20^th, 2005, the ‘if’ containment system malfunctioned, containment collapsed utterly, and they escaped en masse.  Here at Groom it was the realization of people’s worst fears. That fear led to hysteria which led to chaos.” He paused and looked around the room at all of us. “And you saw the result. All the people who were here that day killed each other. Why? Because they gave themselves to the Fear.” Olivia asked him about the people we saw getting on those Janet jets in Vegas: where do they go? “They don’t go anywhere. They’re nothing but ghosts reliving that last day over and over again.”

                 I said, “But at Manzanar, all those barracks. There were obviously Changelings here long before February of last year. How long had they been there? How long had people been Changing?” His answer just blew me away! “There are records of the first known Changelings (as you call them) going back 10 years.”   He told us that the physical part on Manzanar, the infrastructure, dated back to Reagan’s war on drugs, the Rex-84 project (the incarceration of drug dealers and users on Federal properties). Since that idea had been abandoned, but the camps still existed, it was only ‘logical’ to use them to keep Changelings out of the public eye.

                Olivia said, “But they were being rounded up well after the 20^th.  What happened to them?” Charlie grinned at us and said, “By that time, the Grays had taken over and assumed the likeness of the guards. The trains would arrive at the station a few miles from here, the Grays would take over, the trains would leave and then the Grays would put a whammy on the prisoners to wipe their memories and let them loose.”

                Connors said, “You mentioned other camps - are they still functioning?” Charlie looked genuinely unhappy and said; “The guards kept them running until they ran out of ammunition and space to bury the bodies. At one of the camps, one of the new arrivals went Waster on them and killed all the guards. But only the guards; all the rest escaped unharmed.”

                I asked Charlie how he knew all this. He told me that they Grays, as part of their assuming the role of the guards, had kept in contact with the other camps. And the rest? He had been working out here as part of Project Looking Glass. “And that would be?” He smiled at me, “Paranormal espionage.  I wasn’t into that.  I was here for research into the psychometabolic healing - the laying on of hands.”

                He told us that he raises the dead of Manzanar. He can only do about 20 at a time, and he only does it when someone asks for them since he has no way of feeding them. “There were close to 75,000 people out there when that lunatic killed them all,” he said. There was only enough food for a few days, tops. I can’t very well raise them from the dead to let them starve to death, can I?”

                He said that he would be able to raise more than 20 at a time if he used the generator but he was afraid of what might happen to him. Then he looked around at all of us and said, “If you could find someplace where they would be safe, and fed. I’ll keep raising them.”

                We sat in silence for a few minutes, trying to absorb the impact of everything. Then Olivia asked him about the Grays. Charlie laughed and said we had no one to blame for them except ourselves. Apparently, the only reason they exist at all is because so many people believed all the stories about little gray aliens being out here. Once again, ‘what-ifs’ became reality. He told us that the same theory worked on the defenses around the area. Most of them were destroyed back on 2/20, but so many people believed so many dreadful things about the place that the defenses just kept getting bigger and badder. “So us being so damned cocky, we just waltzed right thru?” Olivia asked him. Charlie just smiled.

                Then he asked us if we wanted to see how it all worked. Sure! Why not? So he took us to an elevator that took us wa-a-a-y down.  My ears popped a couple of times before we stopped.  Then we went thru some corridors where we could see bullet holes from the chaos on 2/20. There were also some bodies left too – apparently, Charlie doesn’t think much of housework. At the end of one corridor there was a small room.  He held the door open for us all and flipped a power switch. HAL’s voice (from the movie 2001) greeted him with, “Good morning Dave.”

                “This is Zaphod,” he told us, “It helps me do what I do.”   Thru the observation window we could see a large, metallic column in the middle of a room that was about 200’ across – I couldn’t see a roof or a floor.  Tunnels filled with conduits, cables, and other stuff lead off from the room – one of them reached a vanishing point before it ended or turned.  A group of Grays came in carrying five body bags; they put them on the floor between the machine and Charlie, opened them, then left the room. Charlie told us that they were an entire family that had Changed into Gold Elves. He sat in a large chair and faced them. We could Feel as he started to draw Magic from the machine. I could also see that Charlie is a junkie - a Magic junkie. And he is this close to becoming a waster. The only thing that keeps him from Changing is the power he gets from that machine.  We could feel it, too – like holding a thunderstorm in your hands.  The Magic was a solid, physical presence in the room.         

                Charlie looked at the body bags and said, “Rise and walk.” And just like that, the bodies were healed!  All the decomposition and desiccation vanished, and they started breathing again!  The five people got up (as if they were getting out of bed in the morning) and stood before him. They looked as if they were in a trance. Before the Magic in the room faded, Charlie ‘made’ some clothes for them, and then the Grays came in to take them for their ‘programming’. One glared at me on its way out, “And now thanks to you, we will have to add what they had for dinner last night to the standard ‘It was hot and there was nothing to do’.”  Well exc-u-u-u-u-use ME!

                As they left, Charlie got out of his chair and declared, “I love my job! It’s better than sex!” He grabbed an old Playboy and excused himself. TMI! TMI!  A Gray came in and asked us if we wanted to go with it to recover the personal belongings of the newly raised. Given the choice between waiting for Charlie to finish his business and walking around in a hot building full of dead people, we decided on the latter.  Back up that lo-o-o-ng elevator ride and into the hanger.  Before we walked outside, the Gray warned us, “Beware of the Fear, it gets stronger as the day goes on.”

                Once outside, we could see the fighting had begun to intensify. Leo shook his head and looked at Olivia, “This is seriously fucked.” Well, there was no arguing with that. Alfred asked the Gray, “And it’s all repeated every day?” the Gray nodded, “Here and at Manzanar, too. The guard you saw at Manzanar broke into the armory and got hold of some nerve gas, took it over to the Camp and killed every living soul. Why? Because of the Fear. And that event is replayed at the same time every single day.”

                Olivia was very angry and said that when she saw Jesse she was going to demand an explanation as to how he could allow that to happen. That made Leo pretty mad, “He didn’t know anything about it. He was a civilian when most of this took place.”

                We were all pretty quiet, chewing on that while the Gray lead us to an admin building. In the basement there were stacks and stacks of small boxes, all with the same numbering system as the prisoners. As we were digging out the boxes for the people that Charlie had just raised we heard a low moaning sound that seemed to be coming from all around us.

                The Gray started to ‘push’ us towards the door; “We must hurry. The Fear has wakened. You must get out of here.” Leo was clearly beginning to freak a little. Michael tried to lighten the mood; “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” We all laughed, but I don’t think a single one of us meant it. Leo muttered something about ‘his duty’.

                Then, from behind us, or beside us, or maybe both, a voice said, “Let’s talk about your duty.” We all turned and saw Vaschanka standing there. But he was bigger and meaner looking. I sent a quick glance at Michael; he was drawing his betleH but it wasn’t glowing! I did the first thing I could think of and threw up a Circle Against Evil between it and us. It moved towards the closest of us, Olivia, and as it did ‘Vaschanka’ broke apart (for lack of a better description) and the hallway was filled with a huge black mass, which lashed out a tentacle towards Olivia. The tentacle was so large it hit her, Leo, Michael, Vesta and me. It hurt like Hell! As I struggled to my feet I noticed Vesta had been thrown against the wall and was unconscious, I dragged her as far away as I could.

                Alfred started firing at what had been the center of Vaschanka and hit it at least once. Michael was slashing at the tentacle with his betleH. Olivia cast a spell to dispel the Fear, but it didn’t work (kind of like my Circle against Evil). Leo screamed, “Eat me!” and emptied a clip from his assault rifle into the thing. Connors opened fire at the same time towards a different part of it.

                 I tried to cast the same spell that Olivia had tried, but put more power into it. The thing just laughed at me as another tentacle appeared and lashed towards Leo and I. It hit Leo square and tore thru the riot armor he was wearing. He fell to the floor bleeding badly. Alfred had holstered his gun and attacked the area that Connors had shot at. Michael continued to slash at the first tentacle. Olivia had her zapper wand and let loose with a charge. Connors had reloaded and was firing at it again. I ran forward and grabbed part of the tentacle that Michael was attacking and threw all the Power I could gather into harming the thing. I felt a surge of energy flow thru me and I fell to the floor. It weakly lashed at me but missed. Michael moved in closer to the center and slashed at it again, splitting it open like a rotten melon.

                Suddenly a wall of sound surrounded us. It sounded like the death screams of all the souls who died here that day, all at once, right on top of us. The entire group dropped their weapons and fell to the floor trying to protect their ears. Olivia was the first to recover; when I came to my senses she was kneeling by Leo with her Healing wand. She had managed to slow the bleeding so I was able to take enough time to Heal him some more. When I’d finished he struggled to his feet (shaking off any help from Olivia and Alfred) and picked up his gun (almost fell down again doing that), and said, “Let’s go.”

                Michael shook his head and pointed behind Leo, “Don’t forget your kidney.” I thought he was exaggerating, but we all turned to look and there was something on the floor. The Gray picked it up as Leo finally consented to allow Alfred and Michael to help him out of the building. Connors was helping Vesta who was still mostly out of it.       

                Charlie came running over, “What the Hell happened? What was that sound?” Someone told him, “We killed the Fear.” The Gray handed him Leo’s kidney (or whatever it was). Charlie looked at it, then at Leo and suddenly pointed behind us all and yelled, “Look, it’s the President!” Leo turned to look and Charlie grabbed him by one shoulder, took the kidney and just shoved it back in. Then as Alfred held Leo Charlie started to pull out some broken bones and something that looked like a belt buckle. That had to be the most disgusting thing I have ever seen. By the time I stopped puking, Charlie had the hole in Leo’s side all healed up and Alfred was carrying him. (For some reason Leo fainted. Can’t imagine why.)

                Since Charlie had already done his part, I did my best to Heal Michael. Olivia had used her wand on herself, so I healed myself up. An alarm sounded from Charlie’s place and he said, “We have to get inside, all this activity’s been noticed.” “By who?” I asked. “The dead. You do not want to meet them.”

                He told us about the dead who were killed when those tanks we’d seen on our way in exploded and released all their toxic waste. Well, Michael’s curiosity was piqued. Charlie told us that from what he was able to tell, they had acid for blood and emitted a cloud of toxic fumes all about them. Michael, Olivia and I stayed to get a closer look while Charlie got the others inside. Before we could even see them, Michael’s betleH began to glow and visibly shake. Then we saw them - there were 20-30 of them rambling towards us.

                Olivia sent a fireball at them and 6 exploded - all that was left was a horrible green vapor and an area where their ’blood’ had eaten away some rock and dirt. I called down a flame strike and 4 more disappeared. Michael closed in on a group and attacked. He injured one but was splashed by some of the blood. He slashed at another and killed it, and was splashed with more of the blood.  His arms were starting to smoke and burn, but he kept going.

                He turned and slashed at the first one he’d injured. He finished it off and managed to avoid the blood but found himself in the cloud of gas. Olivia sent another fireball at a group that was well to the side. She vaporized 4 more while I conjured up another flame strike and got another 5.

                All the sudden I saw Michael jumping away from the two he killed, just as the wall (which had already been damaged) they’d been near collapsed. As it fell it buried the remaining 4 or 5 that were just about to pounce on him. Michael looked pretty awful from the all the acid that had splashed on him. I conjured up some water to pour on him and that seemed to help a little. Charlie, who must have been watching, appeared with a box of baking soda (which smelled like it had been in a refrigerator since before the Change) and dumped it on the worst of the acid burns. Then he hauled Michael over to another building where there was a chemical wash station. Michael cleaned himself and his betleH, and then I was able to take the time to Heal him completely.

                Alfred told us that our pilot had radioed and was running low on fuel. Olivia nodded to him and asked Charlie, “That family you just raised, was that a special order for someone?” He said that he was just gonna send them back. Olivia asked him to have them sent to the Excalibur first thing in the morning. We started to head out of the hanger when she stopped and asked, “Now that we’ve killed the Fear, will those ghost planes keep flying to Vegas every day?”

                Charlie thought about it then said that he didn’t think that the Fear was really dead. The Gray behind him shook its head and said that it thought the Fear was truly dead but, “The ghosts, they will be here tomorrow, just like always.”

                Alfred held up the radio so we could all hear the pilot yelling that if we didn’t leave in the next 5 minutes, he wasn’t going to have enough fuel to get us back. Connors told him to land in the clearing near Hanger 18 and that we were on our way.

                We thanked Charlie and told him we’d get back to him about someplace to send the dead of Manzanar. He shook our hands and said, “Well, I’m not going anywhere.”

                During the ride back we discussed what to tell people. I said, “It was hot and there was nothing to do.” Leo cleared his throat, “If I tell the President that they’re all dead, he’ll lose interest in the whole matter.” I nodded and said, “And it would be the truth.” Leo’s not MY brother but even I could see that the thought of lying to his President was deeply disturbing to him.  I don’t think it had occurred to him that Jesse might be interested in Zaphod – here’s hoping it never does!

                When we landed at the airport, Armani was waiting with Caesar’s limo. We thanked the pilot for his assistance, and before we could say anything else he said to us, “Don’t worry about me. I didn’t see anything, I didn’t hear anything.” And he walked off (to get a few drinks, would be my guess).

                On the way back to the Palace, Armani asked us how the sight seeing went. “It was hot and there was nothing to do,” we all said in unison. He got very upset.  “You went out to Area 51?!?” Olivia had Alfred show him the gold pelt of the aurumvorax. He was still upset, “You went out to Area 51?!? After everyone told you not to? Are you people crazy?” Connors told him to go get a drink and calm down, we were all fine. He called Caesar on the speakerphone and let him know we were back. He also told him where we’d been. “Damnit!” Caesar yelled, “Damn them, are they alright?” Armani told him that some of us looked a little beat up, but were okay. “Get them back here and take care of their needs.” And he slammed the phone down. Armani gave us all a look I haven’t seen since Mom-Owens caught me sneaking into the house after an all night party in high school. Olivia said all we really needed was some food.

                Back in the suite we all cleaned up and sat down to the dinner that Armani had sent up. Michael announced that he was going to go back to the workshop at the Temple of Crom to keep working. He totally missed the look Vesta gave him so Olivia said, “You know, it was kind of a rough day. I bet Vesta would feel better if you would stay here for the night.” So he agreed and we all went to the roof to soak in the tubs up there.

                Leo was soaking along with us and watching the Drow kids playing in the pool. He looked pretty shell-shocked to me. I don’t know if Olivia noticed it too, but she got out of the tub and said that she was going to go to the Reformed Temple of Crom to pray for a bit. She asked Leo if he would like to go with her. He totally shocked me by saying yes.  Maybe after today he feels like he needs some spiritual guidance.  I hope so – he could use it.

                I finished up and went off to find either Carson or O’Bannon to walk over to the Market with me. Found Carson right away, and he agreed to go with me. I had some good luck. I finally figured out what I want to do for the wedding to get peoples attention, and I found someone selling flower and vegetable seeds for a pretty reasonable price. I bought a whole bunch! Tomorrow I’ll have to spend some time cruising around town to find the right places, and then talk to Dallas to get his help!

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