Lisa Petty drove slowly through the streets of downtown Cronus. At one in the afternoon, the traffic was not particularly thick, but she was not used to the downtown area. In fact, she did not come into the city very much at all, if she could avoid it. Lisa was from a small town in Missouri, and the stress and congestion of big cities did not suit her well.

Lisa pressed a button on the steering wheel, and brought up a city map on the small dashboard screen. She pulled up slowly to a red light and took some time to study it. Her destination was less than a block away.

The light turned green, and Lisa rolled off the line at a moderate pace, staring out of her window for where she was supposed to turn. An annoyed motorist overtook her and shouted something as he passed. Lisa shook her head ignoring him, then continued studying the map as she eyed the buildings passing on her right.

At the end of the block, she saw a dark gray structure some five stories in height. It was fairly large, taking up a quarter of the length of the block. It was built further away from the street, however, with a wide flight of stairs leading to the entrance, much like a courthouse. In front of the stairs, a flagpole was flying the American flag and just below it, a flag with a crest, depicting an eagle holding a scroll and a sword. On the front of the building, bold letters spelled the words Civil Defense and Investigations.

She had found the place at least. Lisa looked for somewhere to park, but saw no empty bays along the street. Next to the building, she spotted what looked like the entrance to a subterranean parking garage. As she drove closer, she quickly noticed there were men dressed in camouflage fatigues and wielding rifles posted in the guard booths around the entrance.

With a flick of the indicator and a slight tug on the wheel, Lisa turned the car into the entrance and pulled up before the guard booth. She rolled down her window as a young soldier approached her.

"Afternoon Ma'am," the soldier saluted.

"Good afternoon," Lisa saluted back. "I'm here to see Major Corbin."

"Could I see some ID please?"

"Sure." Lisa dug into her purse and pulled out her military identification. She smiled as she handed it to him.

"Okay, I'm just going to check this through," he said and returned to his booth.

Lisa waited a few moments, as the guard made a call on the phone. He studied her ID card carefully as he spoke into the receiver. Then nodding briefly, he hung up.

"I'm sorry ma'am," he approached her car again. "But we have no record of you having an appointment with the Major."

"He isn't expecting me," Lisa replied. "Can you call him for me? I'm sure he'd want to see me. Just tell him who I am."

"Okay..." The guard then pondered for a moment. "Well you see, Major Corbin isn't even here at the moment. He's out on a call."

"Oh I see." Lisa wasn't about to give up just yet. "Can't you contact him via radio or something?"

"Well we could I guess but-"

"Please," she urged. "It's quite important."

The guard stopped to mull it over, then finally, "okay, hold on a few minutes. I'll try to get him."

He returned to his booth and began to dial upon the phone again.

Lisa waited patiently. In the back of her head she tried to think of what she would say to the Major. She needed his help that was for sure, but she also knew that she couldn't just blurt out everything to him. It helped that she would be talking to him over the phone. Seeing him in person would have been much harder.

"Ma'am," the guard called to her, and gestured for her to come into the booth. She stepped out of her car and joined him.

"It's ringing," he told her and handed Lisa the phone.

**********

Eric leaned against the APC as the last of the hostages were given medical attention and then sent on their way. The medics told him the gunman would survive. That made him feel a little better at least. Most of Ahn's squad were already packed into the APC, and were waiting for her so they could return to base. He could not see where she was, but assumed she was still inside the bank, writing down details to add to her report. Ahn was immaculate when it came to paperwork, especially when it would be himself that would be reading it. He knew she wanted to get transferred from the ATU into his division. He would give her the chance in time; she had certainly proved herself. But right now she was needed more as a platoon leader than an investigator.

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One of the soldiers inside suddenly poked his head out the door. "Excuse me, Major. There is a call for you."

"A call?" Eric was a little surprised. "Who is it?"

"I don't know, sir," the soldier shrugged. "She said it was important though." "She?" Eric took the small cell phone from the soldier and placed it too his ear, then sighed expecting to hear Vanessa's voice.

"Hello?"

Eric heard a faint clattering over the phone and then a woman's voice was heard, but it certainly wasn't that of his fiancée's.

"Hello Major Corbin?"

"Yeah?"

"My name is Lieutenant Lisa Petty," she announced herself. "We met briefly before at the crash sight, I don't know if you remember me."

"Yeah I remember you." Eric then paused. "Hold on a minute."

Eric rested the phone on the bonnet of the APC. He looked around for Lance and saw he was still talking with the policemen by the van.

"Hey Decker," he called to the same soldier who handed him the phone. "Run and call Lieutenant Lance for me please."

Rising out of his seat, Decker nodded to him. "Yes sir."

He then trotted towards the police van.

"So what do you want, Lieutenant," Eric grabbed the phone again. "You said it was important?"

"Yes sir, it is," she replied. "I require your assistance."

"My assistance?" Eric grinned slightly.

"Yes," she continued. "I need any information you may have regarding that incident two nights ago."

"Oh really?" Eric taunted her. "Just what kind of information do you require, Lieutenant?"

"I want to know why you were already on the scene before we arrived," she demanded. "And also exactly what you saw there?"

"You want what?" Eric nearly laughed. "Look, like I told you before, we saw the crash and we were investigating."

"That's impossible," she told him.

"Oh and why is that?"

"Because the plane didn't crash."

That was news to him. "Is that right?"

"Major," she said finally. "I know you know more about what happened than you are telling me, and I also know you are interested in finding out what really happened." Decker returned with Lance walking next to him.

Eric raised his hand for both of them to wait.

"Alright, assuming that is true," he spoke into the phone. "What exactly did you call me for?"

"Like I said, I would like your assistance, Major."

"So you're requesting CDI assistance on an investigation then?" Eric nodded to Decker telling him it was okay to leave.

"No," she replied slowly. "Not exactly, sir."

"Then what?"

"I wish to request," she paused briefly. "Your personal assistance Major Corbin. I'm coming to you unofficially on this."

"Unofficially?" Eric was surprised yet again. "So you don't have permission from your superiors to get CDI cooperation?"

"No," she said. "In fact, I would rather you not even try to contact them about this." A bundle of excitement knotted in Eric's stomach. A mixture of curiosity and anxiety gripped him, in a familiar, and all too addictive, embrace.

"Alright, where and when can I meet you to discuss this more?"

"Anywhere is fine with me," she said. "But I am at your headquarters right now." "You are?" Eric looked at the semi chaos still surrounding him. "I won't be back there for a while though. Can you wait?"

"How long?" she asked. "I have to be back on base in an hour unfortunately. I thought you would have been here."

"Well, it's probably going to take longer than that." Eric looked at his watch. "How about later?"

"I can leave the base after 1900 tonight."

"Okay can we meet around eight o'clock then?"

"Fine," she said. "At your headquarters?"

"Yeah."

"Okay," she agreed. "Oh, one more thing sir."

"What?"

"Do you remember a Doctor Webber?" she asked. "He was there that night as well." She certainly didn't seem to trust his memory much. "Yes I remember him. Will he be coming as well?"

"Most likely," she told him. "Is that alright?"

"Certainly," Eric affirmed. "I'll see you then."

Eric switched off the phone.

Lance was still waiting patiently.

"So? Who was that?"

"Lisa Petty," Eric leaned against the APC. "That Lieutenant who was in charge the other night."

"She actually called you?"

"Scary I know," Eric grinned. "But there is more."

Lance cocked an eyebrow, "eh?"

"She wants to meet with me off the record," Eric told him. "Her and that guy Webber."

"Meet with you?" Lance leaned against the vehicle as well. "What the hell for?" "Don't know yet," he shrugged. "But there is a good chance they might have something really good on USSD. Hopefully we'll find out what that thing was that night."

"Sounds like it," Lance exhaled deeply. "So are you going to pick this up as a case?" "Not yet," Eric scratched his jaw. "Not officially at least. We'll see what they have to say and decide from there. I still can't believe it, a USSD agent coming to us for unofficial help."

Lance chuckled. "Maybe the world is gonna end soon."

"You free tonight at eight?" Eric glanced over to Lance.

"Sure," the bionid nodded. "Shouldn't take me too long to write this one up." "Good," Eric said. "We are meeting at HQ."

Lance grinned. "I can hardly wait."