“I can’t imagine,” Dev replied, “but the whole business puts me in mind of a story my grandfather used to tell. One day, back in India, he was offered the chance to buy an old but functioning Ambassador sedan for several thousands of rupees. In his whole life, my grandfather had never owned a car. So he bought it. It ran fine—for two weeks. Needless to say, he never saw either the seller or his money again.” He eyed Reed evenly.

“What if we trade for technology that fails in two weeks? Or two years? Would we have any idea how to fix it? My grandfather didn’t know anything about cars and eventually sold the Ambassador for parts.”

“A fair point,” Reed conceded as they approached the innocuous entrance to the Space Center’s underground transport system. “Almost as important as wondering if they’ll trade something different, and more dangerous, to the Russians or the Chinese.”

“Our overseas friends know no more about alien technology and how to keep it functioning than we do,” Zimmer pointed out.

Pavesi had been relatively quiet up until then. “One more thing, as long as we’re taking about ‘old cars.’” She paused. “They can crash and burn just as lethally as new ones. Especially if the owner has little or no understanding of how they work. We could receive in trade a device that controls the weather. That would be truly wonderful—as long as we are capable of controlling the device. The same holds true for anything that could be used as a weapon. Even modern weapons can backfire or blow up and kill their user. I had an old colleague of mine who was preparing to deliver—let’s call it a ‘gift package.’ It went off prematurely. He lost two fingers. Imagine the consequences if the same thing happened with an alien device of unknown potential.”

Katou-Zimmer turned philosophical. “Well noted, Diana. Or to put it another possible way, we should most assuredly beware of aliens bearing gifts. Even if they come with extensive instruction sheets.”

The president, his council, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, together with their respective adjutants and advisors, were all waiting to debrief the contact team via video upon their return from the second meeting with the aliens. In contrast to the first such encounter, when Dev had been more than a little overawed and enthused by his audience of political and military movers and shakers, the second time around he found himself oddly indifferent to the proceedings. Significant as they were, he found his thoughts drifting, away from the president, the generals and admirals, and their intent, well-meaning, but somehow distant queries.

Even as he listened to the anxious questions that were being asked and to the calm, carefully considered replies of his fellow team members, he was thinking about that last, fleeting, almost furtive glance from one of the tall alien bodyguards.