Copyright 1999, Lyta. All rights reserved. No part of this story may be re-posted in part or in full without written permission from me.
Disclaimer: Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict is copyright 1998, Tribune Entertainment Co. Its characters are used without permission, no infringement is intended.
Rating: PG
Title: Crosshairs
Author:  Lyta
Lyta_1028@yahoo.com

Summary: Mitch learns of Julia's arrest

"Crosshairs"

    The color leached from Mitch's face and he nearly staggered when he saw Julia Cook being led away in handcuffs by two heavily armed guards on the evening news. The part of his brain that somehow still managed to remain focused on the images he was seeing noted that Julia was rather dressed up, which was unusual for the nature girl, and that Liam was also visible wearing a worried expression. Mitch shook his head, trying to get his emotions back on track; he would do nobody any good if he went to pieces now when he didn't even have the whole story. He always tried to avoid jumping to conclusions prematurely as those conclusions were usually inaccurate.
   He remembered the concerned expression on Julia's face when he had been abruptly jarred out of his near death experience at Augur's. She had not approved of him taking such a risk for Be'lie, but Julia was not the type to let a friend go down without a fight. He could almost hear her screaming his name and shaking him in an effort to revive him.
    Sure Julia was a hothead, but she was no murderer. If she had been a killer that Volunteer, Amanda Haynes, would have been shipped home in a body bag after her squad conducted a raid on their Resistance cell.
    Mitch wondered just what Julia had been doing at the Presidential debate. He also was curious about how she had gotten a weapon past security. That place had to be locked down tighter than Fort Knox. Maybe Liam had helped or Augur forged the fake press pass the news anchor claimed she and the rest of her team had on them at the time they were arrested.
    He changed the channel. Sure enough another station had interrupted their regular programming to cover the same story, this one with the anchor still introducing the audience to the story. A minute later, they showed their footage of the assassination attempt at the debate. The look on Julia's face alone told Mitch that she had been set up, but that still left the question of why she had been carrying a gun. She had not been there to kill Thompson, assassination was not Julia's style, nor could he imagine Liam approving such an action.
    He flicked off the television in disgust as a panel of so-called "experts" discussed the so-called Resistance plot to kill President Thompson. Mitch had heard enough. He went into the bedroom of his small apartment and picked up his global from where he had left it on the night stand. There would be severe repercussions from this and he had to warn the rest of his cell to brace themselves for the hurricane sure to hit them soon. Mitch also intended to find out what had gone so terribly wrong. If he had to pry the information from Liam Kincaid himself, then so be it.