"Do you believe me now?", Janet Ford asked her partner.

"OK, yes,", he replied, lowering the binoculars from his eyes. "That would definitely seem to indicate that the device has somehow found it's way into that high school. However, it also suggests that the person who found it is making some less than subtle use of it. I don't know what that object was made of, but it's traveling fast enough to burst through the roof - though clearly not near escape velocity as it has already started it's return trip to earth."

"So, we have to enact Contingency Plan Alpha.", Janet said with confidence.

"I hope not. Contingency Plan Alpha is a final solution. I believe Contingency Plan Gamma is called for in this situation."

Janet cursed under her breath. She liked Contingency Plan Alpha and in three incidents with the device so far had not been allowed to enact it. Her partner - the senior partner - had chosen a different option every time. And so far, it had always been Contingency Plan Gamma. Or, Retrieve, Silence and Return as the goal of the plan was to retrieve the device, silence any witnesses to it's use and return it to headquarters. Of course, it never seemed to occur to her partner that in 3 successful returns the device had always found it's way back out into the public. She preferred Contingency Plan Alpha - which involved destroying the device by overloading it's power supply.

Her partner, Dr. Fez knew the danger of Contingency Plan Alpha though, which she did not. He had been involved in 8 incidents with the device himself - and in one of those they had used Alpha - but they had not completed the overload quickly enough and had left the device supercharged. In the time it took to retrieve it ... well, he could do without repeating quakes that had almost dropped California into the ocean.