As they begin to enter the atmosphere proper, the eight objects start to glow and smolder under the first signs of air resistance. Slowly, inextricably, their outer shells start to burn away, disintegrating under the barrage of a quadrillion air molecules after surviving a quadrillion miles of vacuum to reach this point. As their entourage vanishes into a glowing haze, the eight resolve into cylinders ten feet long, perfectly black; matt black as midnight in the densest forest, utterly and profoundly unreflective in a way no natural substance could be.

They continue to arc apart ever so slightly, but at their oblique angle of entry these slight differences in trajectory will give them vastly different impact sites.

As the ever-thickening atmosphere cloaks them in fiery balls, they begin their final approach, and as one by one their short-lived orbits disintegrate, they each drop to their watery graves.

High above, hidden amongst the remaining body of the cluster, out of the atmosphere’s reach, four sinister pyramidal black objects begin to distance themselves. They are each forty feet across, and fifty feet in length and as they quietly and slowly separate themselves from the remains of the asteroid, they orient themselves toward Earth, with their peaks pointing down toward the spinning blue and green globe below them. As they slowly spread out around the equator their orientation presents no flat surface directly toward the planet, rendering them virtually invisible to any earthly radar. Each is the same pitch-black as their smaller counterparts fast approaching the ground, as black as the void that forms their backdrop, and slowly but surely over the next two weeks they will maneuver into geosynchronous retrograde orbits around the earth, equidistant from each other, encircling the waist of our world.

On the surfaces of each of the inverted pyramids several apertures smoothly irise open, and with phenomenally acute sight they begin to survey their prey for the first time. Despite the huge distances travelled by this cluster of rock and interstellar material, the globe below them appears massive and terribly beautiful as its surface flies by.

They look on, as across this canvas their eight smaller cousins blaze their meteoric fall to Earth.

Chapter 5: Blissfully Ignorant

The Waterloo Club in downtown Brussels is as well adorned as its frequent and honorable guests. Dressed in a tailor-made dark grey suit, crisp white shirt, and one of his trademark colorful bowties, François-Xavier Marchelier walked from his car to the back door, passing the familiar doorman of the club with a genial nod and smile. Two discreet armed guards stood to either side of the door, a series of cameras above it leading to a room where people identify which of the club’s guests the guards should, or should most certainly not search.

“Bonsoir, Monsieur Marchelier.” the footman said as he gently laid the club member’s white cashmere scarf and calfskin gloves over his left forearm.