Kelly left the office and nearly bumped into Izzy, who stood in the hallway holding a mug in her hand.

"Hey, watch the coffee," Izzy said. "Come here, I want to show you something. It's a scream!"

She turned and Kelly followed hen "Hey, Izzy, I thought you were getting off early today to go do a shoot."

"I am. I haven't left yet."

"What happened to your boots?"

Izzy turned around to see Kelly pointing down at her shoes. She was wearing the red and green high tops.

"I like these. Actually, my feet like them. I have you to thank for this," she grinned.

"I can't believe I've Influenced your fashion statement. You've gone from hooker to elf."

"Well, I've got to be the biggest elf there ever was," Izzy said absently. She bent over her desk, set the mug down and picked up a newspaper.

"Attack of the Six Foot Elf," Kelly said, then, "Hey, what's this? A tabloid? I told you to quit reading this crap! What, are you on the cover? 'Giant Elf spotted in Boulder, Colorado.'"

Her voice changed as she took the paper and saw the cover, "Oh, my God..."

Splashed across the front page, in full color, were the pictures she had taken of the pod. Above it, in bold black letters, was the heading, "Space Ship Crashes In Colorado!"

"Can you believe this?" Izzy giggled, as Kelly quickly tore the pages open.

Inside were the rest of her photos, Including the one of the strange book with the hieroglyphic writing, and the picture of the sun coming up over the canyon. Captions read, "Mass Military Cover-Up!" and "Invasion From Another Planet?"

Kelly's knees suddenly felt weak. "Oh, my God!" she said again, and sat heavily down in her chair.

"Kelly, take It easy!" Izzy said, laughing. "It Isn't true! I was there! Jeez, you look like you've seen a ghost!"

"No, Izzy! It Is true!" Kelly whispered.

"What?"

"It's true! Oh my God, Izzy! That's why he died! They killed him!"

"What on earth are you talking about?"

"Joe! He stole my pictures! That's how he got all the money for the drugs! He sold my pictures to this rag! And now he's dead! Somebody saw me up there! What if they're after me, too?"

Izzy stared at her friend. "Kelly, have you completely lost your mind?"

"I wish I had! Izzy! I took these pictures!"

"Come on, Kel, stop it. Joke's over, okay?"

"What am I gonna do?" Kelly ran her fingers through her hair.

Izzy watched in silence as Kelly skimmed over the article. Kelly smothered a laugh, and pointed at the photo of the sunrise. "Izzy, you see this picture?"

"Yeah," Izzy said hesitantly.

"It says, 'Shot of spaceship hurtling toward the ground.' Izzy, this is the sun! It's just a pretty picture of the sun coming up. Of course, it looked a lot better in person. On here, it's just an orange spot In the sky. It was the first photo on that roll."

"Kelly. You're not kidding, are you?"

Kelly looked up at her friend. "I stopped to take some pictures of the sunrise on my way down the canyon that morning. That thing crashed about a hundred feet from where I was standing."

"But Kelly, Edgar and I were there. We stopped up at the crash site. There was nothing."

"What time were you there?"

"Oh, I don't know. We had to get through all the military red tape, you know? It was afternoon."

Kelly sat back, folded the paper up, and with it. "Doesn't that tell you something?"

"You mean it really is a cover up?" Izzy said, leaning forward. Her eyes began to dance with excitement.

"This Is scary, Izzy. They've killed somebody,"

"Oh, come on. Joe was high. It was an accident."

'"Don't you find it just a little bit coincidental?"

"What, you mean with the pictures coming out right after he got killed?"

"Yes! Izzy, I was chased away from the site by two military thugs. I don't know what they would have done If they had caught me. There was nobody else up there," Kelly said. She glanced around nervously.

"How did you get away?"

"I basically just ran like hell! I managed to give them the slip, because the woods were pretty thick. Then I sneaked back to your car and took off. And because I was so scared, I never told anyone. Except Joe. And he took my pictures.

"Izzy," she continued. "There's something else."

"What?"

Kelly glanced around again to make doubly sure no one was listening. She leaned toward her friend, and said, "I picked something up. A piece of it. There were pieces lying around on the ground, and I took one."

"No kidding!" Izzy was literally hopping from one foot to the other, her six foot frame bobbing up and down like an ungainly jack rabbit. "Where is it?"

"I have It right here. I always keep it on me." She reached into her pocket and pulled out the shard, lying it carefully into Izzy's eagerly outstretched hand.

"I don't believe this! Kelly!" She held the shard up to the light, examining it. The shard glowed softly, like mother-of-pearl with a bluish cast, beautiful in its alien simplicity.

"This is too bizarre. Does anyone else know about this?" Izzy asked as she gave the shard back.

"No. I just haven't mentioned it. Joe didn't know, or I'm sure this would be history, too. It's probably worth a zillion dollars. I'm not sure if it's even legal for me to have it. That's why I didn't even tell you." Kelly tucked the shard back into her pocket.

Isabel looked around, and then, lowering her voice, said, "You probably had the right Idea. I mean, I don't blame you. But, Kelly, my gosh! What a scoop this Is! Do you know what this means?"

"Yeah. I know. There's life out there. You know, and I know, and the government knows. But nobody else ever will."

As if by silent communication, they looked down again, at the photos. "I'm getting chills," Izzy said. "This Is too weird for me. I've gotta go."

Kelly watched as Izzy reached under her desk and pulled out a huge black leather purse. She slung the strap over her shoulder, and said, "I'll see you tonight."

Then she strode off, a tall scarecrow, jewelry clinking on her like a pocketful of loose change. Kelly watched her through the window, walking outside across the parking lot. Izzy looked back over her shoulder, gave that toothy grin, and waved.

Suddenly, Izzy was flung backward Into the air, her long arms and legs splayed out like a rag doll. In that moment, Kelly heard a loud pop as Izzy hit the ground and lay there. Tires screeched, and a car roared off alone.

Kelly jumped up and ran through the door. It seemed to take her minutes to run across the parking lot, as though her legs were miles long and made of heavy rubber. Every effort to move them faster was useless. She seemed to struggle with them, like In a dream. Before her, her friend lay crumpled on the pavement, purse beside her with the contents scattered and blowing in the soft breeze.

Kelly's head pounded with such a loud rhythm that she could hear nothing. She felt the screams catch in her throat.

She flung herself down next to her friend, grabbing one outstretched, bracelet-laden hand. "IZZY!"

Izzy lay sprawled beside her, unmoving. The plaid shirt was open to reveal the silk camisole underneath, where a dark stain spread slowly. Kelly was suddenly aware of a swirl of activity as people gathered around them, and voices saying, "Oh, my god! Call an ambulance! She's been shot!"