Part 6
The Colonel opened a door into a room filled with men and women sitting at computer terminals. Except - at least half of them were not men or women. They were grey, with large heads, huge eyes and small mouths - they were my aliens of the Third Kind.
I froze for a moment in shock. What the hell was going on? I looked across at the Colonel but he seemed oblivious. His eyes had gone straight to a huge screen which occupied one entire wall. It was showing what appeared to be a live, aerial view of central Sydney. I saw three tall aliens moving down George Street, in the direction of the Opera House. The camera kept panning up and down - operated by someone in a helicopter, judging by the accompanying noise.
"Well, can you see any aliens, then?" asked the Colonel in a flat tone.
I turned to him in confusion. I was almost certain he didn't know he was surrounded by them. Evidently the Third Kind were still successfully maintaining their camouflage -hardly surprising in the circumstances - now was hardly the best time to reveal their existence! Was I going to turn them in? It was true they seemed harmless enough - in all my years of watching, I had never seen one of them make an aggressive move, until they fought back against the invaders, that is. They appeared to have adapted themselves to our world.
I couldn't help my eyes flicking over those hunched at their desks. One of them turned and smiled. Then it winked, I swear.
I cleared my throat. "Just those three, there," I answered, pointing to the screen, uncertain exactly what sort of a test this was.
He frowned and pursed his lips. "Bring the grid up," he directed one of his staff, a human as it happened.
Seconds later a graph-like grid appeared, superimposed on the screen.
"Give me the co-ordinates." This time he was speaking to me. I saw then that there were letters across the top and numbers down the sides, rather like a game of 'Battleships.'
"C12, C13 and C14." I replied. "They are moving up towards the top right of the picture," I added. Was this some sort of trick? As we both watched the screen, the Colonel gave a brief order to the computer operator next to him. A few seconds later, the three aliens collapsed in flames.
I swear the Colonel's jaw dropped open in surprised disbelief. I realised then that he hadn't believed me. Hadn't believed I could really see them.
"Thank god!" he breathed. "Now we have a fighting chance!"
I blame the knockout drugs for why I was so slow to catch on. My brain was still fuzzy, but I realised then that I had made the right decision. If I had accused those who looked like people to everyone else, no-one would have listened to me, any more than they had before. I would have been bundled out of the room immediately, without a chance to help fight the invaders.
Evidently, I was still the only human who could see aliens.