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Journals: Book 3, Entry 08 “Skywatchers” Quatrain 28, Century 3. "Tainted streams flow into fields of stone / As the vanguard rises from hope / On the path of least obstruction / The evil one is crowned."  An operative for the Raven Nation, Alana MacAfee, disappeared while investigating an anonymous posting to the Web site. It claimed that the aliens were active in the small mining town of Hope, Montana. Could've been the "hope" mentioned in the quatrain. Always wanted to see Big Sky country. Alana was one of Jordan's soldiers, so she was taking this personally. We decided to make the infiltration a team effort. Jordan set off to check out a local motel, questioned the clerk there, a woman named Sheryl Nelson. Told Sheryl we were a couple and were supposed to be hooking up with Alana to drive to Bozeman together later that day. Sheryl told us Alana had already checked out. Jordan was antsy, hadn't heard from Alana in three days but knew her agent had been onto something when they last talked. I told her how a cop had tailed me into town — these days I call attention to anything we do. Didn't want to leave Jordan behind but figured I might not have a choice. That's when a sergeant named Cobb tracked me to the motel. Some shaving cream and glasses made it impossible for Cobb to make a positive I.D. He seemed to buy our story but we weren't out of the woods yet. Best lead we had so far was to search for Alana's car, Sheryl provided us with the make and model. At the towing company we met Jim, a weathered townie who claimed he'd never seen Alana or her vehicle. Hope seemed like a nice enough place but so far I had no idea what the Gua would want with it. Jordan knew Alana, trusted her, and if a Raven Nation op said this was worth checking out, then as far as Jordan was concerned we'd find something. 
The quatrain mentioned a "vanguard," troops that move at the head of an army. Having met the citizens of Hope, it just didn't add up. These were simple people, not soldiers, and definitely not aliens. The cops found Alana's car pitched into a ravine. While Cobb was distracted, Jordan checked out the body. It was Alana — her face nearly burned off. Car hadn't caught fire, no skid marks on the pavement. The entire accident site seemed staged. Eddie checked out a roll of film I lifted from Alana's car. Far as he could tell, the prints had been exposed right through their protective canister by some kind of radiation or x-rays. And they'd all been exposed at once from some kind of blast. We figured that was how Alana's face got burned. The pictures looked like fragments of a whole, turns out that's exactly what we had. Put the prints together and they made what looked like a monster. Something large, looming. Something not human. Hope's main business was the HMC. Hope Mining Corporation. Jordan and I broke in, but it was too easy. There was no one working there in the middle of the day. The place was practically deserted. Investigation of the files showed no major production at the facility since 1988. We were stumped. No tourists, no exports. How were people in Hope surviving? Cops showed up and we were on the move until we ran into Jim. He held a gun on us and bagged our heads. He knew about my alleged crimes, told him I was innocent. He didn't care, just wanted us to get out of town. But we wanted answers. Turned Jim's gun on him and told him to start talking.  He confessed to putting Alana's car in the ditch, said she was already dead when he found her. Then he said what was going on in Hope was wrong, and that nobody there wanted anyone else to know about it. Jordan put it together, realized Jim put the anonymous tip on the Web site. He admitted that too. Said Alana had been snooping around the "watcher's fields." We wanted to know what happened there. Jim said "they" were forming some kind of army, getting ready, and then he was cut off by a shot in the back. We were under fire, took cover. And Jim was dead. But right before he passed he told us we shouldn't be looking under, but rather over. Jim was gone. But he didn't dissolve. We still hadn't seen any aliens in Hope but we knew they were there. Or maybe this was something more? Something we hadn't seen before? Were the people of hope working with the aliens? And if they were, did they know what they were sacrificing? Felt like this was gonna be a different fight. This time it wasn't man vs. alien, it looked like it was man vs. man. And I'm not about to tolerate any traitors in this fight. “Skywatchers” Writer: Michael Thoma Director: Randy Cheveldave Executive Producers: Francis Ford Coppola, Larry Sugar Created by: Chris Brancato |
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