"Miss Ealand." Peter Fitzpatrick gave a cursory nod as he passed through the outer office and took his seat behind the desk. A moment to savour. After months of preparation and planning, he was here at last and no-one would get rid of him. He opened the cigarette box, cleared his throat. "Fitzpatrick."

"Voice print Identification Positive. Commander Fitzpatrick."

And that was all he needed to hear. He leaned back with a sigh of relief. Straker was gone, and Freeman would be next. Then he – General Peter Anthony Fitzpatrick, SHADO Commander – would finally be able to get SHADO running the way he needed. For one brief moment he thought about Straker, wondered where he was and how things were going. He'd asked Ford to find out Straker's current address but for some inexplicable reason, the communications officer hadn't been able to come up with a definitive location. It was the one thing that annoyed him about the whole sequence of events. The fact that Straker had managed to get out of the country without anyone finding out was irksome but it wouldn't matter in the long run; there was no way he'd allow Ed Straker to simply disappear like that.

The corridors leading from his office to the Control Room were quiet, and he took his time, enjoying the silence and the sense of power. Had Straker felt like this? The absolute power that came with such responsibility? He turned the corner, stood there for a moment, watching, then stepped inside. "Freeman? I'm pleased you made it back in time, Colonel."

Alec Freeman was standing next to Lt Harper on the sensors. "You asked to see me as a matter of urgency, General, so I'm here, as ordered."

"I can see that. I'm about to hold a meeting for all available command staff to discuss SHADO's future plans and attendance is mandatory, hence your recall from FarSight. My office in five minutes."

Freeman turned on his heel and stalked away. Fitzpatrick merely shrugged. It was only a matter of time now. He looked around the Control Room, the operatives uncomfortable at the exchange between Fitzpatrick and Freeman. "Back to work, everyone. Lt Ford, I require a full update on all current mobile positions and crews across the globe. Lt Harper, the same but for all airborne units. Lt Johnson, get me a rundown of Skydiver activity for the last year. You have two hours, everyone." An impossible task. But it would keep them busy while he held his meeting.

Fitzpatrick gestured to the conference table. "Colonel Foster. Just in time. Take a seat."

"Alec?" Foster raised an eyebrow at the sight of the older man. "What are you doing back here? I was under the impression that you were needed at FarSight."

Freeman shrugged. "I was just told to get back here on the first flight so I came straight here. Didn't even pack."

"Enough chatter, gentlemen. This is a serious meeting not a playtime. If you wish to behave like children then you can leave now." Fitzpatrick handed out folders. "We're here to discuss how SHADO can be made more effective."

"I thought we doing a good job? I know there was a rough patch recently, but things have settled down now. Statistically we had a success level of seventy-three per cent over last year, which is an eight percent increase from the year before." Freeman rifled through the papers. "None of this is relevant to our current situation. You can't compare one month with another – the parameters are too disparate. Like here – " He pointed to a chart. "Skydiver's success rate over one month in mid-Atlantic during hurricane season, compared with Four's rate with the following month in the Indian Ocean. It's like comparing apples with cheese." He tossed the folder aside. "And I know Colonel Lake would say the same if she was here."

"That's your opinion, Colonel. The reality is that SHADO has been ineffective for far too long. The last five months have shown a marked decrease in the organisation's ability to apprehend any alien craft or destroy them compared to the number of craft entering our system. It's not good enough. Therefore, in my role as SHADO Commander, I have decided that, from this moment on, there needs to be rigid and transparent accountability for all active operations."

"Which means what, General?" Foster's hands were clenched together.

"I will be introducing several new initiatives to start within the next twenty-four hours. Firstly; all Interceptor and Skydiver activity will require my authorisation, including practise flights. There have been far too many unnecessary launches in the last few months and SHADO needs to tighten up its efficiency. Secondly; all work on the FarSight Installation is, as of this minute, on hold. As is the development of the two new Skydivers. And finally; as from tomorrow flights to Moonbase will be restricted to one return trip each week." Fitzpatrick leaned back in his chair, waiting for the explosion that he anticipated. And he was not disappointed.

"What the– "

"General, you can't – "

"Be silent, both of you, or each of you will hand in your resignation and leave now." He glared at them. "There has been far too slack a hand at the helm of SHADO for the past few years. I intend getting this base to operate with the maximum efficiency and the minimum cost. Straker wasted billions of dollars in unnecessary research and development, not to mention hundreds of hours on fruitless patrols and searches. It's obvious to anyone who looks at recent charts that the alien incursions are decreasing, in fact may even be ending in the near future. There've been no attacks in the last three weeks, and I see no reason to believe they'll start up again. You have your orders. I'll be speaking to all staff later today."

"So what happens now?"

"As of this moment, Colonel Freeman, you are reassigned back here. Colonel Foster, you report to Skydiver 1 tomorrow morning at oh six hundred hours to take over command for the next month, while Captain Waterman is on furlough. That's all gentlemen. You are excused." He nodded a brusque dismissal to them, opened one of the folders and began making notes.

"What the hell happened back there, Alec?" Foster leaned against one of the buttresses. "Was he serious?"

"Don't say anything, just come with me." Freeman led the way through the Control Room, pausing once to touch Keith Ford on the shoulder before heading to the Staff Lounge.

"Colonel?" Ford shook his head. "We can't talk here. Follow me." He led them out of the base and onto the Studio lots to Sound Stage 4. "In here. It's unused at the moment so we won't be disturbed."

"Good thinking, Keith." It was soundproof, secure and – like all the sound stages – regularly tested for listening devices in an attempt to thwart industrial espionage by the studio's competitors. Freeman locked the door. "We've got problems."

Ford grimaced. "I know, I was listening in to the meeting." He held up a hand. "Yes, I know I could be court-martialled and end up in military prison, but I have my orders."

"Orders, Keith? From whom?"

Ford shook his head. "I'm not at liberty to say, Colonel. Those orders supersede any order you or Colonel Foster might give me, but other than that I'm not allowed to say more. However, I can tell you that General Fitzpatrick has given me a direct order to find the whereabouts of Commander Straker. I'm holding off on giving him the information for as long as I can, but sooner or later I'll have to tell him."

"What else have you been doing, Keith." Freeman lowered his voice. "And how far can we trust you?"

"You do what you think is right, Colonel. Same as I'm doing. But I have recordings of phone calls I wasn't supposed to hear, and copies of messages I shouldn't have seen, and you're right to be worried. Things are happening that I can't explain right now and I'm keeping my head down. I suggest you both do the same if you want to protect SHADO and Ed Straker."

SHADO HQ was a proverbial grave; computer chatter minimal, operative chatter non-existent. Everyone too afraid to talk, too scared to say anything that might incur the wrath of the new Commander. Five hours after his meeting with Freeman and Foster, the general had held a full staff meeting, complete with video-conferencing to all other SHADO bases, where he announced his plans to curtail SHADO's defences. There had been an uproar. He had stood there, arms folded, waiting until they were silent, and then, lips white with rage, repeated his instructions regarding FarSight and the Skydiver submarine fleet. Enough of the delay and the prevaricating. He flicked the comm switch. "Lieutenant Ford?"

"Commander?"

"You have one final chance, Lieutenant. Either get me Straker's location in the next five minutes, or I will have you charged with failure to obey a direct order."

Ford grimaced. "I was in the process of confirming the details, Commander, before bringing you the information. Mr Straker is in Italy at the moment – Sorrento. Do you want the address?"

"GPS co-ordinates and the frequency for his transponder. Now."

The communications officer adjusted his headphones, and then, unseen by any other operatives, listened in to the transmission that Commander Peter Fitzpatrick was broadcasting on a specific, tight wave band. And afterwards, he left his post and went up-top to Sound Stage 4, where he made a very short phone call on his own personal mobile.

Straker sat on his balcony watching the stars and naming them like the old friends that they were, whispering to them softly as one would say the name of a lover. The moon was full. It hung there gleaming and silvered, moving across the dark sky as if to remind him of the implacable passage of time. He could make out Mare Imbrium and Plato at the north of the shape. There was Copernicus, seen as a brighter smudge at the bottom of the darker sea. Mare Imbrium. Moonbase.

The Lunar shuttle would be just about… He calculated for a moment and put his finger up to mark the point. There on its regular supply run to Moonbase. He imagined seeing the white domes of Moonbase from Earth, but that was ridiculous – a fantasy from his breakdown – but in his mind's eye he could see them and the thought was comforting, and he allowed himself to think about Alec and wonder how he was coping, out of sight of Earth, and out of touch of anyone back home.

It would have been good to see the complex completed, to see it track oncoming UFOs and to visit the new telescope once completed, but it was not to be. Fitzpatrick would have that pleasure now. Still, if Earth was safe, it didn't matter who was in charge of SHADO, did it?

He sipped chilled soda from a glass held in tight fingers, a little too tight, and thought back over the evening. It had been something of a surprise. He hadn't had a meal with a woman who wasn't involved in SHADO for more years than he could remember, and she had been a perfect companion. Chatty, interesting, knowledgeable and, above all, made it clear that she did not view him in any other way than a companion who enjoyed the history of Italy as much as she did herself.

It was a relief to spend time with a woman who had no designs on him, who did not see him as someone to be conquered, a trophy male. He had no desire for any relationship with a woman right now. That might happen one day in the future, he had to admit, but at the moment, he just wanted to get his life back on track. Helen had been good company, someone to talk to, and that was sufficient; no uncomfortable questions to answer, no request for explanations, no need for him to lie about his work. But then, he hadn't been exactly prying into her life either.

If this had been SHADO – if he had still been its commander – he would have had a G6 trace done on her and would have known everything by now and a lot that maybe he didn't need – or want – to know. So they had enjoyed the meal, talked about Herculaneum and her interest in drawing and ended the evening with a couple of drinks in the hotel bar.

But it was late now, and he really should be asleep. After all, he had agreed to take her to Pompeii tomorrow so that she could sketch the amphitheatre. And maybe Etna later in the week. He didn't have anything important waiting for him in England, did he? Not any longer, anyway.

Thunder woke Straker from a deep dreamless sleep. The storm was overhead from the sound of it and he pushed aside the thin cotton sheet, opened the shutters and stood on the balcony, revelling in cool air on suntanned skin, but sheltered from the torrential rain that drenched the landscape and cratered the swimming pool with huge splashes. And then the noise was interrupted by a familiar sound; one he had heard many times before. He froze with horror, then stepped to the edge of the balcony, eyes searching the dark sky, heedless of the rain soaking him.

Here. They were here. He could see them in the dark sky, brilliantly lit as they spun and descended towards the town and with a sudden heart-stopping rush of understanding, he knew why they had come to this place, now. They had come for him. He had to get out, to get away from the hotel – not to be safe; nowhere would be safe now – but to protect everyone here.

If the UFOs he had just seen had managed to evade SHADO's airborne defences, then there was not a chance in a million any mobile would be able to get here on time. Not here, not to the middle of a busy tourist town. The UFOs would search him out, destroying everything in their path in an effort to capture the SHADO Commander. Even if that was no longer who he was. Obviously, he thought to himself with a somewhat hopeless grin, no one in SHADO had bothered to notify the aliens about the change of command. He dressed quickly, dark clothes, not wanting to make it any easier for them although he had no intention at all of making it anything but very difficult. He slipped his penknife, useless though it would be, into his pocket and opened the door. And stopped.

She was standing there. Almost as if she had been waiting for him. He tried to brush past her, but she put out her hand and stopped him.

"Helen. Let me go." He hissed at her, furious at her attempt to delay him. "I have to get out. It's too dangerous to be here. Innocent people are going to get hurt if I don't get away."

"Here, Commander. You'll need this." She handed him a gun.

He stared at her, perplexed for a moment, but then shrugged. He didn't even bother asking her how she knew his name. Nothing could surprise him anymore, after what he had seen up there in the dark sky.

"They're here for you, aren't they?" She looked at him. "The aliens? You're the prize they've always wanted to capture. This way." She hurried over to the fire exit, pushing open the door and running down the metal steps to the rain drenched patio area, Straker close behind, gun in hand.

He was faster than she was, but she clearly knew where she was heading and, despite her earlier deception, he sensed she was trustworthy. So he followed, hoping his instincts were right, that she was not going to lead him straight to them.

The roads were empty now, everyone indoors and sheltering from the rain that continued to fall, the cracking and tearing sound of overhead lightning ripping with deafening cracks through the silence at random intervals and illuminating everywhere with strobes of cold blue light. It was hard to maintain his night vision with the lightning breaking up the darkness, but he could see the road ahead, unlit, as he followed her out of the town into the wooded hinterland.

Eventually she left the road and headed into the darker shadows of the trees. It would be harder for the aliens to track them in here he knew, and he followed her, moving more cautiously now. It would not help if he twisted an ankle on the rutted ground. She slowed down to walk beside him, a small flashlight now in her hand, casting a thin beam of light ahead.

"Time to talk." His footsteps were as soft and cautious as his voice. "Who are you, and how the hell do you know my name?"

"Colonel Helen Peters. Military Intelligence. I'm under orders to protect you, sir. We've had you under constant protective watch for the last fortnight. That's why you were moved from Mayland. Direct orders from my boss."

And your boss is...?" He tilted his head to stare at her, her face flushed with exertion, her hair plastered to her skull by the rain.

She gave him a quick smile, though there was nothing much to smile about. "The President of the United States. I'm one of the president's senior advisers."

"So is this all Fitzpatrick's doing? Did he set this up?" He'd been wrong about her. The sense of betrayal was painful like a sharp blow to his chest, but he put the thought of her treachery aside until later – if there was a later.

She snorted with disgust. "Him? No. He's the reason I'm here, though. My boss thinks Fitzpatrick has an ulterior motive. We're pretty sure he arranged things so Colonel Lake would have an accident, and Alec Freeman in FarSight – "

"How the hell do you know about FarSight?"

"I know a lot more than you think, Commander. I know all about SHADO, about aliens and UFOs and General Peter Fitzpatrick. I know that you were deliberately put under impossible demands which resulted in your collapse and that Fitzpatrick forced you to resign. And I know that there are serious doubts as to Peter Fitzpatrick's loyalty to SHADO and to Earth." She paused for a moment, taking deep breaths and letting the rain that worked its way down through the heavy tree canopy pour over her and cool her flushed skin.

The ache of treachery was fading as he listened to her words, and realised the truth. She hadn't betrayed him. It was the only good thing about what what he was about to face. "You know what's going to happen, don't you? The aliens? They want me, most likely. They'll do anything to get hold of me. To get the Command codes. I won't go easily, though. Even if they kill me, which I doubt. The codes are too important to them." He grimaced as he thought of what they would do once they caught up with him. "It would be better if you left now, before they get here."

"I can't do that, sir, My orders are to protect you. And I intend doing just that. I can look after myself."

He grunted with disgust. "I suppose you thought it amusing to make a fool of me. Well, fair enough, you've made your point. But please, leave. Before they get here. Because they will get here. I have no doubts about that. I don't want anyone else to die because of me."

"Ed." She put her hand on his shoulder, but he brushed it away and turned his back on her, standing motionless in the rain, his navy blue shirt a darker shade in the heavy rain, pale hair gleaming in the occasional flashes of lightning.

"Go. Please. There's nothing you can do here. Even with a gun, I couldn't stop them. Not three UFOs. And as many as nine aliens." He flinched, eyes closed tight with pain, as if anticipating what was going to happen when they traced him, when they caught up with him.

"You can't mean that. You know what they will do to you?"

He turned to face her. "Yes, but all they really want are my authorisation codes, so they can access the SHADO defence systems through the computers and shut them down. It doesn't matter now. My codes will have been purged from the systems. Fitzpatrick will have set up his own protocols. If they manage to take me alive, eventually I'll end up telling them what they want to know. It won't do them a scrap of good though, and then when they kill me…" His voice was bitter with suppressed emotion. "Well, I didn't have much of a life ahead of me anyway, now."

"Commander?" She turned to him, her eyes wide with sudden, terrible understanding. She put one trembling hand on his arm. "Ed. Keith Ford passed a message to the president a short time ago and she passed the information on to me. We didn't understand all of it, but now it makes sense. He said…" She paused, unsure how to tell him. "He told her that Fitzpatrick knows where you are and he's sent a message to them. He hasn't cancelled the codes and yours are still active." She shivered. "Commander, Fitzpatrick set this all up. He wants you to be taken, so you will give the aliens access to SHADO. He plans to let SHADO fall. And he will blame it all on you."

He stared at her, the horror of the situation becoming clear to him. He would be responsible for Earth's invasion. He would be the one who would enable the aliens to get through the defences and wreak havoc on an unsuspecting population. His name would be reviled for eternity. Or for as long as the human race survived. He heard a slurring sound behind. Footsteps in the dark, footsteps on wet fallen leaves, a glimpse of red and silver. "This way, hurry!" He moved a with quick, quiet steps into a denser part of the wood.

It was her turn to follow as he ducked and swerved between tree trunks, moving away from the horror that was tracking them. His transponder must still be active, he realised with a shock, but it was too late to get rid of it, and he knew then that it was hopeless, that they would be able to find him wherever he went. He stood still, trying to work out how to save her. "Helen, take cover over there. Wait until they've gone past before shooting. I'll try to draw them out this way. We stand a better chance if we separate."

She nodded, moved to position herself behind the smooth water-blackened trunk of a thick beech tree. There was silence.

Straker, his breaths shallow and even, watched and listened for the slightest sound, the slightest glint of light reflected from a helmet or chain or weapon. Nothing. Just the rain, the lightning, the creak of stressed wood moving in the storm. And then…

There they were. Three of them, just visible in the distance as the last dying flashes of the storm lit the world around them. Straker fired and with grim satisfaction watched as one stumbled, staggered, fell. One down. How many still to go?

Splinters of oak flew like tiny arrows as the aliens fired at him, but he was safe for now, behind the sanctuary of the ancient tree. But it was a false sense of security. There would doubtless be others already in the vicinity, already waiting here. With a flash of insight, he spun around as the three aliens who had been tracking him from the other direction raised their weapons and fired. A beam of emerald light wrapped around him and he froze for one instant before they fired again.

Helen stepped out unseen and aimed at the group, but it was too late. Straker jerked backwards, crashing into the tree, sliding down to lie in a crumpled heap at the base. "Damn you!" She managed to fire once before light surrounded her and she too fell, unable to move, unable to scream even though she felt her body was being consumed by flames. She was beaten, they had won and with her last conscious thoughts, she hoped that Straker was dead and she prayed for death to take her.

***

SHADO Command could only watch as the three missing UFO's hidden for nearly a month in the Mediterranean Sea, reappeared on the radar screens on a trajectory that took them straight up, through the atmosphere, before accelerating to speeds that were impossible to match. The Skydiver jet sent to intercept had no hope of catching them.

Keith Ford turned to Lt. Johnson. "Commander Straker was in that area. I've been monitoring his transponder for the last few hours and it's no longer being picked up by Earth trackers. They've got him, Ayshea, and now they'll get the authorisation codes, one way or another." He paused for a moment as if the enormity of what he had said had just hit him. "SHADO is finished."