He walked over to one of the old planes in the hangar, crouched under it, positioning his feet under the fuselage as best he could. He then grasped one of the reinforced arms that went from the bottom of the plane to about halfway along the wing, and placed his other hand under the plane’s fuselage. Without strain or much in the way of obvious effort, he then lifted the plane from underneath, raising it entirely over his head in one smooth movement.

They all stared. He smiled, and a moment passed while he looked at each of them in turn to see if there were any other takers.

“In fairness, that was a very reasonable question, Captain Toranssen,” said the Agent, gently placing the plane back on the floor of the hangar, “and I am glad you asked it. It gets any doubts you might have out of the way.”

He walked back to the group, seemed to reconsider something, and then with a sidelong glance at Neal, he said to Martin Sobleski, “I know Neal wants to see this again, and maybe this will interest you too, Doctor.” and without further ceremony, his left eye slid down, exposing his weapons system. The doctor’s head jerked away instinctively, then the scientist in him reacted and he peered closer.

Neal came to stand next to Martin and they both stared at John’s transformed eye socket for a moment, “Awesome, isn’t it?” said Neal and Martin nodded, equally agog. John smiled at the two, then Neal gathered himself, remembered that there were other people present and said, “Yes. Thank you, John. Someday we’ll have to have another demo of what it can do. But for now, if everyone is … comfortable with John’s credentials, we have a lot to cover and not much time.”

Neal looked around the room getting nods from everyone, most of them still astonished by the nonchalant hefting of a plane into the air like so many sacks of potatoes. Neal merely smiled as he looked at each of them in turn, until his eyes returned to rest on John, who also nodded.

“Yes,” said the Agent, “If I may, I would like to get an update from each of you on how things are moving along, and maybe I can go over any plans, schematics, or theories you are ready to discuss as well. Then I have some important updates I need to give you while we have time.” He looked around the group, “Well, who would like to start?”