Invasion

Tom turned off the tape. Jesse glanced at the Serotec workers. Since they had just watched the harrowing sequence again he would have expected some reaction. There wasn't any. They were all eerily detached from the whole affair.

Tom ejected the tape and was about to slip it into an evidence bag with an attached custody slip when Captain Hernandez took it.

"I'll take care of this," the captain said.

"But that's not ... "

"I'll take care of it," the captain repeated authoritatively.

"Okay," Tom said agreeably, even though he knew it was not accepted policy.

Jesse watched his captain walk out of the room with the tape in his hand. He looked at Tom.

"He's the captain," Tom said defensively.

Vince coughed explosively directly behind Jesse. Jesse turned and gave him a dirty look. "Jeez," he said. "You're going to get us all sick if you don't cover your mouth."

"Sorry," Vince said. "All of a sudden I feel terrible. Is it cold in here?"

"No it's not cold," Jesse said.

"Shit, I must have a fever," Vince said.

"Maybe we should just go out and get some mexican food," Pitt said.

"No, I want to cook," Cassy said. "It always calms me down."

They were walking beneath the bare lightbulbs strung on wires over the European-style outdoor market. The main commodities were fresh produce and fruit brought directly from outlying farms. But there were other stalls as well that sold everything from fish to antiques and objets d'art. It was a colorful, festive environment and popular. At that time in the early evening it was crowded with shoppers.

"Well, what do you want to make?" Pitt asked.

"Pasta," Cassy said. "Pasta primavera."

Pitt held the bag while Cassy made her selections. She was particularly choosy about the tomatoes.

"I don't know what I'm going to do when he does come back," Cassy said. "The way I feel right now, I don't even want to see him. At least not until I'm sure he's back to normal. This whole episode is frightening me more and more."

"I have access to an apartment," Pitt said.

"Really?" Cassy asked.

"It's over near Costa's," Pitt said. "The owner is a second cousin or something like that. He teaches in the chemistry department but is on a semester sabbatical in France. I go in to feed his fish and water his plants. He'd invited me to stay, but it was too much trouble to move at the time."

"You don't think he'd mind if I stayed there?" Cassy asked.

"Nope," Pitt said. "It's a big place. Three bedrooms. I'd stay too if you wanted."

"Do you think I'm overreacting?" Cassy asked.

"Not at all," Pitt said. "After his little demonstration at basketball I'm a bit leery of him myself."

"God! I can't believe we're talking this way about Beau," Cassy said with emotion.

Instinctively Pitt reached out and put his arms around Cassy. Just as instinctively she did the same. They clung to each other, momentarily oblivious to the other shoppers who swirled about them. After several moments Cassy glanced up into Pitt's dark eyes. Both felt a fleeting sense of what might have been. Then, suddenly embarrassed, they released each other and quickly went back to selecting tomatoes.

With their groceries purchased, including a bottle of dry Italian wine, they headed back to the car. The route took them through the flea market section. Pitt suddenly stopped in front of one of the stalls.

"Holy crap!" he exclaimed.

"What?" Cassy demanded. She was ready to flee. As keyed up as she was she expected the worst.

"Look!" Pitt said, pointing toward the stall's display.

Cassy's eyes swept over a bewildering collection of junk that a sign proclaimed to be antiques. There were mostly small items like ashtrays and ceramic animals, but there were a few larger things like plaster garden statues and bedside lamps. There were also several glass boxes of old, cheap costume jewelry.

"What am I supposed to be noticing?" Cassy asked impatiently.

"On the top of the shelf," Pitt said. "In between the beer mug and the pair of bookends."

They moved over to the stall. Cassy now saw what had caught Pitt's eye. "Isn't that interesting," she commented. Lined up in a perfect row were six of the black disc objects like the one Beau had found in the parking lot of Costa's Diner.

Cassy reached out to pick one up, but Pitt grabbed her hand. "Don't touch it!" he said.

"I wasn't going to hurt it," Cassy said. "I just wanted to see how heavy it was."

"I was worried about it hurting you!" Pitt said. "Not vice versa. Beau's stung him somehow. Or at least Beau thought so. What a coincidence seeing these things. I'd forgotten all about Beau's." He bent over and examined one of the discs more closely. He remembered that he and Beau had not been able to decide its composition.

"I saw the one Beau found just last night," Cassy said. "It was sitting in front of his computer when he was downloading a bunch of data from the Internet."

Pitt tried to get the attention of the owner to inquire about the discs, but he was busy with another customer.