"See the guy they had plastered all over the walls? He's the whole reason for this business."

"Local strongman?"

"No, pre-Collapse political figure. Used to rule the whole area from Humboldt down to San Diego, and inland to Tahoe."

"One kingdom that big?"

"They called it a 'State.' Had elected leaders. So the Greys just grew this clone from biotweaked DNA, the lab-perfect politician. Sent him in and had him take the whole thing over. Just like that." I nodded as though I believed him. Like Humboldt even knows S-D exists! Bunch of treehugging tribals ... "You know, they didn't even give him a proper name. Just tagged him with the affiliation and lab location he came from. 'Gray Davis!' That's how stupid they think we are. They may have tech, but their complacency does them in."

"Complacency. So you just walked in and nailed them?"

"Not so easy. Sure, we got close to them, but they had some of their brainwashed humans out screening the perimeter ... Hell, this was first contact. They hit those two APCs from a building. My mates got the shooters, but those greasy hippies aced us pretty good."

"Hippies?"

"Yeah, Davis was a little hippie town off near Sacramento. Supposed to be abandoned and dangerous now, so folks stay away. It was dangerous all right, but only 'cause it wasn't abandoned."

He stopped long enough to order us both another round. He tried to pay the waitress with a "Lil Bow Wow,"* which is a big denomination in these parts. She said she'd have to wake up the owner if he wanted change, so he dug out a fistful of more common ones and made it good. Crazy or no, I wouldn't mind a little of the action these guys seem to have going.

"Like the dough? This is my cut of what we got from the tunnels. They had a whole rabbit warren down there. This old theater was one of the entrance points."

"Why'd aliens have money?" I could have asked him why cows play bridge, but he hadn't claimed he'd seen any cows.

"Money is power. And that's what the aliens want, that's why they're here. Power over us. That was the big deal with this Gray Davis clone. The old 'State' was rich, once. Government had more money than it knew what to do with. Everyone did. But after Davis it's all gone, and can't nobody figure out where it went. He even went so far as to seize the energy grid and swipe the electricity. We found a whole rack of ten-terawatt-hour batteries in a locked room. Alien tech, just as fresh as the day they were charged. 'Course, money goes bad, but apparently they'd changed it to newer currencies as the old ones started to collapse."

"How'd they dig all those tunnels," I asked, "with an old-reckoning town all around them?" I suppose I was hassling him, trying to see where his story would break down, and it was the beer telling on me. I normally don't go in for hassling people too much, especially scary-psycho political muscle guys - and guys that buy me beer. Fortunately he was able to field this question too.

"They'd mind-controlled half the town before they even moved in. Got the city council to run up a construction project as a front for what they were really doing. They called it the 'Davis Toad Tunnel.' Supposed to be so toads could cross underneath the road."

"That's ..." the stupidest thing I've ever heard? "pretty amazing."

"It was different times back then. Anyway, they really did have toads down in those tunnels. Look at this monster that we had to deal with."

Well, I can say I was a little shocked. I hear that in the Old Reckoning they could "photo edit" and make pictures of all sorts of impossible stuff, but this was clearly shot long after that talent went the way of the Special Sauce and the Ancient Colonel's chicken recipie. Aliens or no, this guy had obviously seen - and survived - the largest toad I have ever heard of, thought of, or even had nightmares about.

"Yep," he said, eyes far off, "that was the best run of my life. Probably always will be."

"Well, here's to no more big frogs, at least."

"And aliens. Oh, but I didn't show you. I wasn't on the tunnel squad, but I got this one pic after we flushed them out."

It took me a moment to see them, maybe because they're quite a bit more white than grey. But there they were, to the right by the radio building. No mistaking those big-eye possum faces. I shook my head a bit to try to clear the funny feeling. "I'll ... be damned!"

"Sight to remember, isn't it?"

I nodded. Then, "Another round, friend? I buy this time."