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“They’re going to fight hard,” Shane said. He was sipping a Diet Coke since he considered himself “on duty.” Even if duty was watching the world end, live. “Everybody disses the French military. And, okay, their generals and politicians are fucked. But the troops are good and the junior officers are first rate. The good ones just can’t get promoted past colonel.”

The producer had set up a shot with the Eiffel Tower in the background. The reporter was yammering about defense plans and evacuation plans, just to fill the dead air. But he paused and turned as dots came into view over his shoulder.

“There appears to be something happening…” Campbell said as a Mirage jet thundered overhead, distorting his voice again. The cameraman swiveled to catch the jet just as it fired an air-to-air missile. The jet followed the missile in and as it passed over the tower it seemed to be swarmed by dots. More were descending on the tower, and in the background there was a wash of dust as a large building appeared to collapse.

“I’m not sure what’s happening,” the reporter said nervously, then looked up and blanched. The screen suddenly went dark.

“We’re experiencing technical difficulties with our feed from France,” the anchorwoman in Atlanta said, looking up into the teleprompter. “We’ll try to get Bob Campbell back with his live report in a moment. We’ll go temporarily to our expert military analyst retired Colonel…”

“That was quick,” Roger said, frowning as he picked up the remote and lowered the sound. “And somehow I don’t think we’ll be hearing from Bob any time soon.”

“Were those things all over the Tower like it looked?” Cady asked. “And I never saw the missile impact.”

“No, I didn’t either,” Roger said. “We were recording so we’ll run it through some filters and tighten up the images as much as we can. But I’m not sure what we’ll get. They were all over that Mirage like stink on a hog, though.”

“There’s a Stryker brigade deploying out of Le Havre in a day or two,” Shane said musingly.

“You want to go have a close up look?” Roger asked, askance. “I mean, we don’t know if anybody in France is alive or dead at the moment. I don’t even know if we’re in contact with the Stryker brigade. And I definitely don’t know how long they’ll last.”

“Yeah, I want to go look,” Shane said. “If I can get a good look at what they’re doing, that’s going to help, right?”

“If you can get the word back,” Roger pointed out. “We don’t know if these things are eating people or what. I mean, that one report is as good as it’s gotten. Nobody has gotten more word out than that.”

“I wouldn’t mind going, sir,” Cady said, setting down his beer. “But I’d like to get back, too. I don’t want to die in France if you know what I mean.”

“How high a priority can you get us?” Shane asked.

“For a Neighborhood Watch observer?” Roger replied. “Pretty damned high. Why?”

“I think we should go,” Shane said. “But I agree with the master sergeant. We definitely want to get back if there’s a chance.”

“I’ll make some calls,” Roger said.

* * *

United States Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Matthew “Bull” Ridley had only been assigned to the multinational NATO-Euro F-16 “Fighting Falcons” squadron as an instructor/observer. His main objective in soliciting the assignment had been to reach “full bull” colonel; the multinational position was a good resume builder. As an instructor, it also meant that he’d get plenty of cockpit time, which was a nice bennie. But promotion was the last thing on his mind at the moment; his present mission made survival a much higher priority.

When the alien threat entered European airspace the NATO “unified defense” protocols were automatically activated. NATO had been toying with a combined force ever since the failure of the “EU Deployment Group.” The EUDG had never really gotten beyond a very expensive headquarters and some garrison troops but the concept still remained. Accepting the inevitable, the European Union, virtually all of whose members were also members of NATO, revamped the concept as a NATO force. The division-sized “deployment force” was designed around the “pull-and-pick” scheme; when a mission was assigned it would pull available ground and support forces from the supporting countries.

However, the force intended to have some dedicated units, notably support and air forces. After an exhaustive testing program, the “EU” unit chose, of all things, the American F-16 as their primary strike and air-to-air fighter.