But it was not necessary. Lana was leashed, for now, and Madeline would be allowed to savor her small victory. Limiting her phenomenal strength, Lana simply pulled Madeline’s hands off her shirt, stared at the human for a moment, and then turned and left.

Madeline stood there in the Agent’s wake, the door ajar, her heart racing, sweat beading her forehead, and butt naked except for a shower cap and a threadbare pink towel. She smiled and thought about what she had just said to the alien assassin. Her adrenaline soaked fear slowly turning to relief. She tried to contain a sudden urge to laugh. That was fucking awesome, she thought. Then she closed the apartment door.

As she went to get dressed, she stopped, changing her mind. Taking the towel into the bathroom, she removed the shower cap and climbed into the shower to rinse away the stress that she could feel permeating every part of her. The heat was a sweet release; it washed over her. There was so much to do, so many hurdles, and she knew that would not be the last time she faced death so closely, not by far. The worst was no doubt yet to come.

But the littlest victories resounded all the more in a war as hopeless as theirs. Taking a deep breath, she allowed herself to relish this one.

Part 4

Chapter 45: Raising Glasses

The sun was setting on Pearl Harbor Naval Base in Hawaii. On the side of a large storage hangar on a wide pier, a small door opened, casting a long shadow along its aluminium walls and the concrete surface of the pier. The newly promoted Major Jack Toranssen stepped out of it, bidding a final good night to the forty or so officers and enlisted men that made up his new team. He was leaving them to finish cataloging the shipment of modified tactical missile casings that they had been busy putting together in Hanscom. As he closed the door, he turned to stroll pensively toward the pier’s edge, squinting into the sunset as he went. The sun’s reflective sparkle danced on the diamond surface of the water as his gaze wandered out over the harbor’s breakwater and out to sea, blinking into the blood orange glow of the setting sun. Slipping on his sunglasses, he surveyed the storied harbor.