Jethro rolls up his sleeve and puts out his arm. "Well, I'm always up fer somethin' interestin', so I'll oblige. Who wants t' give it a try?"

"I-I-I will, sir." Richard touches Jethro's arm.

John replies "Yeah, about a thousand, but it doesn't sound like it'll matter what the answers are. Looks like we are screwed no matter what happens. Get wiped out or be lab rats. Something tells me that even if we manage to save the human race it aint gonna do us any good anyway. I don't imagine that a lab rat who has found out he's a lab rat is good for experiments after that. You might wanna keep that in your thoughts Mr. Hardass." he says with a pointed look at Williams. "Personally I think you guys are in the same boat." He rolls up his shirt sleeve and puts his arm out in case anyone wants to duplicate the test Jethro and Richard are making. "You know the communists are gonna screw this up so we better get it right to counteract them." he says and waits to see what happens during the skin contact test.

"Yeah, let's talk about the Commies." says Cecil."We've got a city wiped out here, with mo warning and next to no survivors. If the Commies could do this, I bet they would. I see no reason to imagine that we're under attack by little green men; a more terrestrial enemy with a recently completed weapons program would be more likely. We just happened to be immune to whatever it was for some reason." Cecil glares at the nearest black-dressed man, and reaches out to slap John on the arm. "I bet this won't do anyth-"

Upon contact, Jethro and Richard, and Cecil and John, begin to glow. It is faint at first, but soon all four men are shining a bright blue that dazzles the others. Dottie and Jason can still see the men within the glow, but all the g-men see are four columns of blue light.

Meanwhile, to the men in the light everything around them looks more clear, colors sharper. The light of the sun no longer colors the world, however, and each man can see the stars as if dawn never broke. And somehow, they now know the names of these stars. Not the English or scientific names, but other names that feel more right. And they know the names of stars that are not stars at all. They are planets. Or great intragalactic ships.

And as they wonder at the sight, the men notice that while glowing, surface thoughts can be shared between the marked. No one can plumb the depths of any man's mind, but a casual observance is heard as if spoken aloud.

"We have been told that with practice, this response can be created at will," Lee called to the glowing men. "And that more knowledge can come to you over time. Of course, that is if you live long enough to be able to practice."

Engulfed in the light, John marvels at his enhanced awareness. He notices in the midst of all this that he can hear Cecil's thoughts or at least some of them and notices his skepticism despite what John considers clear proof. If anyone is listening they will hear John say "My God, the stars, the planets, there's so much more out there than I thought. It's like the stories in Amazing Stories come to life." When Cecil let's go of his arm and the light fades the wonder he has felt fades but some remains. Then a serious looks comes over his face "It's true." he says. "I have seen things I barely imagined. The aliens are out there. We have to get this right even if we die doing it. Even if they kill us when we finish." He looks up at the sky. "We have to do this so that someday, we as a species, can reach out and touch what I have just seen." He then put's his head down and tries to absorb everything he has seen and to fix it in his mind.

After a few moments, Cecil releases John's arm. "That... felt real." he admits. "And if it was real, then it's all plausible. But it's... unbelievable." And more than a little scary. he thinks. "If it's not real... then it's likely not aliens. Then we're back to the Commies. But... if the Commies could have faked that, they'd have won the war by now. So we can seriously consider that it might be aliens."

Cecil steps smartly to one side, grabbing the nearest G-man by the bare skin of his neck, to see if anything happens.

The G-man happens to be O'Brien, a red/black bruise now appearing on his cheek. He flinches back when Cecil grabs him. A minute passes by. There is no effect on Cecil or O'Brien.

As the blue light engulfs Jethro, he inhales sharply and seems to hold it for ages. His lip quivers and his eyes go wide, with what could be said to be much more than a thousand-mile stare. He sees and hears and feels, and one look at him shows it to be rather overwhelming experience. As the light fades, he lets out his breath and gasps a few times. He returns to normal, except for the faraway look in his eyes.

"It's true," he says quietly. His tone is somewhat absent, awestruck, as though his mind is still coming down from orbit. "It's all true. Them crazies talkin' about abductions 'n' crop circles 'n' cattle mutilation 'n' probin'... it's all true. Which means..." and here he looks at the others as he begins to roll down his sleeve. "...one o' ya ain't what ya seem."

He visibly shakes himself as if to force his mind back onto Earth, and looks at the G-men. "Well, abductions 'n' probin' is true at least, from what you guys said. Do they really make crop circles, mutilate cattle 'n' all that?" He laughs, sort of nervously.

"Aw, enough of this BS!" Williams waves away Jethro's question. "We've got a catatonic woman, a man standing around like a dumbass (and don't think I didn't hear about you shoving a rifle in my man's face, Dubois!) and four men feelin' each other up! And YOU Mr. Skeptical," he said pointing at Cecil. "Let go of my agent! WE are not your enemy, understand? We are here as observers." His face went dark. "And enforcers."

He snapped his fingers. O'Brien pushed Cecil away. Williams's men encircled the six Marked. Williams lit another cigarette.

"I don't want to be the bad guy," he said. He took a puff, blew out smoke. "This situation is more than I bargained for when I joined the Feds. I thought I'd be bustin' gangster heads, not watching women and children die. But I have orders to make sure one of you dies every day at noon. If you don't decide amongst yourselves, then I decide for you. And you only have a few hours. So I suggest you begin discussing amongst yourselves."

"Alright, keep your hair on." says Cecil, making no attempt to hold onto O'Brian. "This is rather a lot for us to deal with. Do you know of any tests that can find a Controlled?" He thinks about this for a bit. "You say there's one Controlled now and there'll be a new one every night? So if we don't guess right today we inevitably lose?"

"Well, I'd say that it'd probably be worth each of us doin' that shiny blue light thing with each other for a while. I could hear this feller's mind just now. He was thinkin' pretty much the same thing as me, somethin' along the lines of 'Holy smokes, look at all them stars!' But his thoughts..." Jethro gestures in the air, searching for the word. "...they tasted differ'nt. I could tell they weren't mine. If we got more accustomed to it, we might hear somethin' more interestin'. Somethin' that might tell us who ain't battin' for our team no more. I dunno, it's the only thing I can think of if the gub'mint folks here don't got better ideas."

"That's a good start," says Cecil, "but it's not the only possibility. First off, Controlled how? If there are radio waves, gamma ray lasers, or any method of communication known to man involved, then we can gain an advantage by immediately moving this meeting into a nice, well-built nuclear bomb shelter. The lead-lined walls will cut off any mode of communication I can think of, and may therefore release this Control."

"Does anyone know where a nuclear bomb shelter can be found?"

"I'm up for more testing" says John holding out his arm. "If anyone wants to try. It's as good an idea as any. I don't know if anyone has a bomb shelter in town. In case anyone has forgotten, up until yesterday no one in town would even talk to me."

Jason had been deep in thought ever since Williams had announced that the fate of humanity had been left on the shoulders of the six survivors, and the subsequent lightshow. But he snaps back to reality when Williams continues.

"Your man Agnes was breaking and entering, Williams. Legally, I coulda shot him right there, but I'm willing to over look that right now."

Jason turns to the rest of the group.

"As for someone being controlled, I got a few ideas. Back in the war, the Commies would try to slip soldiers past us along with the refugees. We had orders to shoot 'em, but one of the medics had a real bright idea. You feel the pulse of each refugee crossing the checkpoint, and ask him a few questions like his name and how old he is, things he would be truthful about, and then you ask him if he was a communist soldier. If he said no and his pulse stayed even, he was telling the truth. If his pulse went up, he was lying about it, and you detained him for further questioning. For us, the only way the plant would be able to get past it would be if he didn't know he was the plant to begin with. And that's just about impossible to do. Trust me I know. I spent three months in a Chinese re-education camp before I managed to escape, and brainwashing is a brutal business, let me tell you."