It was a moonless night and rather late.   As a consequence we slipped down the silent streets without seeing anyone.   That is we didn't see anyone until we were almost to the Peachtree residence.   Almost there we saw two figures in silhouette standing under one of the trees in the side yard.   They appeared to be watching the house.   We came to a halt and held a quiet, hurried conference.   After much whispering we decided that Perki would appear right behind them after Weslee had sneaked up beside them and had created a distraction to divert their attention. We watched the two shadowy figures for several minutes until Weslee and I decided the time was right and then he slipped off into the night.   When he was almost beside them Perki disappeared.

   It was an interesting several seconds.   Weslee said something I couldn't quite catch, the figures appeared riveted on him, Perki appeared right behind the two figures and Weslee joined her as she threw herself on them.   I saw a tangle of bodies and arms go down in the yard, heard a surprised yelp from several voices and then went running.   When I got to the "dogpile" the participants were already untangling themselves and I didn't know which I wanted to do first: Laugh at the lucridity, apologize or tell everyone to be quiet before some one heard us.   I opted, first, for shushing everyone.   It was Roliti and Kalana!   They had slipped out of the house (they said) while the slipping was good and had been waiting to see if we were going to come afterall.

   Then when everyone was -- finally! -- standing there quietly I couldn't help it.   I looked at Perki and Roliti and started chuckling -- albeit quietly.

   "What do so humorous be, Doc?" Roliti asked, a bit too casually, I thought.

   That did it.   I started laughing a bit harder, holding my hand over my mouth to stifle my guffaws.   Weslee and Perki just stood there looking at me like they were wondering if I had gone insane.   Kalana alternated between giving me indignant looks and looking at Roliti in sympathy.   And Roliti looked at me with a mixture of belligerence and sheepishness.   When we had left the parsonage Perki had insisted that since it was a really dark night and since we were going to be skulking about in the shadows anyway that she might as well go naked.   She had further argued that her nude state might come in handy (And why bother with putting on clothes just to take them back off?) when we got to the site of the shrine -- surely she might use it as a distraction, she'd insisted.   When she she and Weslee had jumped the two figues it was pure happenstance, but she'd landed mostly on Roliti.   When I came up on the melee, Roliti had been alternating bewtween apologizing profusely for where his hands had gone and giving Perki wistful looks.   When I trusted myself to speak without laughing anymore I apologized to Roliti and Kalana and told them why.   "Do you forgive me?   In fact, do you forive all of us?"

   Weslee and Perki both started to say something then saw what I meant with my last comment and saw the wisdom of keeping quiet.

   After a few more moments Kalana took the spokesperson's role.   (I figured that Roliti was glad to let her do so.   It took the spotlight off him, if nothing else.)   Carefully ignoring Perki she spoke, "An honest mistake it were.   For all and all Father Logis men could the house have stationed to observe.   Should we not now about our purpose be?"

   It was a good point.   The "fun" was over.   But I had to apprise them of one fact.   "Speaking of Father Logis and having men stationed here and all, well, I don't know how much he suspects or even how much he might know, but we do believe that he is more than suspicious of us all.   He said he had some business to attend to and before we left the house we, I mean Perki, checked and he has left the parsonage.   Now that might not have any direct bearing upon tonight's business, but I think we would be wise to act as if it did.   So when we get to Edgar I'm going to need you to direct him to a place close to the shrine, but at the same time far enough away that we can sneak up and check out the lay of the land before proceeding.   Do you know if there is such a place close by?   I mean how open is the land around that area?"

   "Upon a hillock the shrine be placed.   As to the terrain, there be wooded areas close by.   But it only be an hour's journey from whence we stand.   Think you it be wise Edgar to employ such a meager distance?"

   I didn't even have to think about it.   "Yes for a few reasons.   There are things on board we might want, we might need to beat a hasty retreat -- OR we might even have to go somewhere else.   Are you sure you still want to go through with this -- despite what I just said?"

   That stopped her.   But only for a few moments while she considered the last thing I had said.   Then she gave me a brave, determined look and replied, "Of a surety this I am overly burdened with.   What then shall we see, but an end to the matter upon any fortune?"   And Roliti nodded wisely at her words.

   It was settled then.   We WERE "going in"!   We all left the yard, heading for Edgar.

   This time as we fought our way through the dense underbrush to the place we had left Edgar Weslee made no comment about being too civilized to have to endure it.   I assumed he was so caught with the idea of finally being able to engage in some real action (there was a limit, even, to Weslee's laziness!) that he was thinking of nothing else.   I was only partly right.   Weslee was the first one to Edgar and by the time the rest of us had joined him and the doors were closed Weslee was sporting a new T shirt.   This one read: You know what burns my ass?   A fiery chariot about three feet from the ground!   "So this was what he was so quickly braving the wilds for?" I thought.   But I made no comment to him out loud.   I knew Weslee wouldn't care.   He was his own best audience when it came to his T shirts.   And anyway Weslee was now girded for battle.   So instead I addressed Edgar.   "Old man, we're taking a short journey.   We'll go as usual with the directions of our friends here."

   Edgar only had one question.   In his usual impeccable manner he asked, "Whom shall I address for directions and whither away?"   I stood back and let Kalana and Roliti work it out amongst themselves.   It didn't matter to me who guided us there but I figured one of them might have a preference.   This time Kalana indicated that she would do the honors.   Edgar lifted us up and we were off.

   Kalana was right.   It was a short ride to a fairly close destination.   And during that short ride I worried over what we'd do if we got there and found the Anunnaki there after all.   But then as we landed, at Kalana's direction, in a small, but dense copse of trees several long yards away from the hillock, coming down with Edgar's usual finesse, just like a smooth elevator ride, I decided that there was no use worrying.   If the Anunnaki were there we were probably finished anyway -- unless I could pull a miracle from the Ringmaster's hat I was once again wearing.   If, however, Father Logis was there alone, I thought I knew a way we could finesse that.   So, again, no use worrying.

   When we were all out, I had everything from Edgar that we would need and Edgar had closed his doors, I insisted that we hold a quick conference.   "As I see it we have two possible outcomes.   Either we are going to get to the shrine and the Anunnaki will be there or they won't.   If we get lucky and the Anunnaki AND Father Logis are nowhere around then it will be simple.   We'll simply see if Edgar can help us get it running.   IF however, Father Logis is there -- BUT without the Anunnaki -- I say we go for it anyway.   And here's my plan."   I then clued everyone in on what I wanted them to say and do and passed out the various objects I had collected from Edgar.   When I was sure everyone understood their part -- if we got the chance! -- and was sure that Kalana was OK with her part, I motioned for Kalana and Roliti to take the lead positions.   After all they knew the area best -- better probably than they wanted to -- and they would surely know the best angle of approach.   They did take the lead positions and the rest of us followed.

   Sneaking through the dark we came to the base of the hillock.   Kalana whispered that this was the back side of the hillock -- relative to the shrine -- and that there was a little used trail leading down towards we stood.   She suggested that we link hands with her and Roliti because that way everyone would be able to follow them in the dark without stepping off the trail and geting lost or possibly making some kind of sound that would alert any potential guards to our presence. I agreed it was an admirable plan.   We all linked hands, with Weslee bringing up the rear and hanging onto Perki's hand.   (It wasn't really needful for Perki and Weslee and I to hold onto their hands since we could all see in the dark, but I thought I would go along with her plan anyway since this way we'd all be close together and if they didn't see any danger then we would and have time to warn them.)   In that way we proceeded up the hill.   And I was willing to bet that had anyone seen us that they would have thought they were seeing some kind of weird, mutant snake.

   When we had almost attained the crest Kalana came to a halt.   She motioned for Weslee to join her.   This was Weslee's first part.   Since it was considered taboo (and I could well imagine why -- the Anunnaki might want to operate under the cover of darkness sometimes) no one ever went to the shrine at night, consequently the shrine had no lights.   And even if the shrine had been well lit, it was obvious that there would be no lights that night -- not if they were planning a trap.   And no one would necessarily be too suspcious, after all lights were known to fail.   In any case there were NO lights.   That was where Weslee came in.   Since his night vision was even better than Perki's and mine, he was to go ahead and check out the lay of the land.   But I didn't want him doing anything on his own.   There might be a largish force and we wanted to catch them all off guard at once.   Then we could go into our routine.   So Weslee headed off into the darkness, climbing the rest of the way to the top.   And we waited.

   And we waited.   And waited some more.   At first I wished there had been a full moon so we didn't need Weslee.   He could be so irresponsible sometimes.   But then I realized that a full moon would've worked for and against us.   Then I was ready to go after him and damn the consequences.   But then I heard furtive footsteps coming our way.   Was it Weslee coming back at last?   Or was it someone else!   It was obvious everyone else heard those footsteps too and I am sure no one breathed for several long moments.   Just about the time I was ready to shriek like a banshee and abandon all pretenses at a plan, the footsteps passed me by and a large, dark figure went over to where Perki was standing.   Some whispered words were passed back and forth.   Then Perki lit up very briefly, but just long enough for us all to see that Weslee was back!   We all gathered close around Perki and Weslee and I whispered, "Nice theatrics!   But if someone saw that our asses are grasses!"   I wasn't even going to begin to think about blaming Perki -- it was obvious it was Weslee's idea!

   I couldn't see his face hardly at all, but I could tell by his tone of voice that he was hurt as he whispered back "Geez, Doc!   Give me SOME credit!   Everyone is over on the other side of the brow facing towards town.   And no one was wearing infrared goggles so --"

   "Wait a minute!" I whispered urgently. "When you say "everyone" how many and who everyone do you mean?"

   Weslee grinned sheepishly, right in my face so I couldn't help seeing it as he replied, ""Well Father Logis is there and about eight men from the town, but I didn't see any Anunnaki in evidence.   At least if they are here somewhere then they are not gathered with the group around Father Logis.   But I gotta tell ya, Doc. It was the weirdest thing.   Before I saw them clearly I stepped right out almost in front of them. And not an eye lash was batted in my direction.   Of course I quickly got out of sight anyway, but -- do you think they were maybe on some religious high and that's why they didn't notice me?   You know like they ate some magic mushrooms?"

   Right at that moment something hit me like a thunderbolt! It was something that should have occurred to me and I couldn't see why it hadn't a long time ago!   And because of that I doubted Weslee's explanation.   I could see Perki not attracting attention since when she was dresssed and not lit up she could easily pass for a normal girl.   But how had we gone through the town several times and NOT attracted attention with Weslee?   What was going on here?   Was it a matter of the illusion field only allowing the major players to see Weslee?   Or could the rest of the people in town not be real?   Or worse yet was Father Logis an Anunnaki in disguise --and as such did he have the power to cloud the minds of anyone whom he did not want in the know?   Did that include us?   Did he want us to think that he was just a human priest and nothing more?   But for what purpose?   Why would he be toying with us?   Did he want us to take the fiery chariot all along?   I could think of only one reason why that might be.   Because it wasn't working and he wanted help to get it to work so he could get off planet.   But that supposed that something had gone very wrong somewhere and he couldn't contact his fellow Anunnaki.   And that didn't really explain why no one but him and the Peachtree's had really noticed Weslee -- unless to drop the illusion field in Weslee's case would be to drop it in his?   I spoke my thoughts aloud, hoping some one had a better idea, something that would explain my paranoia away. And I hoped someone could explain it quickly since we were running out of time!

   Weslee answered first. "Wait a minute, Doc!   Waddya mean no one noticed me?   Didn't you see all those kids trailing along every time we went down main street?   Doc!   Please tell me you're joking!"

   I got chilly all over.   Was I losing my mind?   Was Weslee losing his?   At any rate I sudenly saw that our time here on this planet had not gone as easily as I had thought.   It HAD seemed too easy thus far, but I had chalked that up to no one but us knowing who we really were and no one knowing for sure what we were up to.   I now saw that I had been too blind.   Why had it not occurred to me that the illusion field could be deeper than I thought?   Perhaps, in my defense, the illusion field had been clouding my mind more than I knew.   And while I was thinking about perhaps -- could it be possible that the fiery chariot wasn't even here?   Or that it wasn't any kind of space going vessel after all?   Of course that would mean that my theory about Father Logis needing us didn't hold water!   I hoped that was true!   But then, what was the truth?   In any case I could get a clue or two about a more immediate mystery.   "Everyone tell me," I whispered, "If you saw the crowds of children trailing after Weslee?"

   It split right down the lines.   Kalana and Roliti had seen the children.   Perki and I had not.   Suddenly I had it -- I thought!   Perki and I were humans plain and simple (well in Perki's case more or less since she had been one of humanity's ancestors), but Weslee, Kalana and Roliti were not -- could not be! -- human at all!   It was obvious that the Peachtree's had to be something like Weslee in order for them to see what he saw, since the illusion field obviously effected different species in a different way.   The fact that they all saw something Perki and I didn't proved that. I knew what Weslee was.   He was an genetically enhanced bear.   But what did that make Kalana and Roliti?   And what did all this tell us about what was going on here?   For example it didn't tell us why the men with Father Logis didn't see Weslee!   Were they a different species altogether? (It later turned out they they were not men at all, but just one more part of the illusion field.   Father Logis was more tricky than he seemed!   We were in less danger than we thought and didn't even know it!   But that didn't mean we were in NO danger. Granted Father Logis had not confronted us openly, but it IS the quiet ones you have to worry about!)

   I didn't have any real clear cut answers about anything.   All I knew was that something unexplainable was going on.   And that I was tired of it.   All I could see to do was to bull ahead with my plan and see what happened.   In any case we would either fail or succeed.   And I sure couldn't see doing nothing.   That way we were sitting ducks for certain! BUT -- IF the fiery chariot worked and we could get it we would have more than we had now -- at the very least.   Otherwise all we had was a BUNCH of questions with NO answers.   The fiery chariot COULD be the sword that cut the Gordian Knot -- as it were.

   I gave everyone a very serious look as I told them what I had just been thinking and then I went on, "If anyone has any real, serious objections or a better plan I want to hear it now.   Otherwise we are going to go through with this and see what happens.   I waited for several moments until it became clear that no one could think of anything better to do and then I raised my hand in the air with clenched fist and as I brought my fist down I said, "Let's DOOOOO it!"