He drove me across the tarmac to a waiting jet. No, not a passenger jet. And not a Learjet or anything like that. This was a fighter jet. I don’t know what kind. Like I said, I don’t know military stuff.

My guide hustled me up a ladder and into the seat behind the pilot. He gave me a pill and a little paper cup of water. “Take this.”

“What is it?”

“It’ll keep you from puking all over our nice, clean cockpit.”

“Okay.”

I swallowed the pill.

“And it’ll help you sleep.”

“What?”

Away he went, and the ground crew pulled away the ladder. The pilot didn’t say a word to me. Ten minutes later, we took off like a bat out of hell. I’d never felt acceleration like that in my life. The pill did its job. I definitely would have puked.

“Where are we going?” I asked through the headset.

“I’m sorry, sir. I’m not allowed to speak to you.”

“This is going to be a boring trip, then.”

“They usually are,” he said.

I don’t know exactly when I fell asleep but it was within minutes of taking off. Thirty-six hours of mad science plus whatever was in that pill put me right into dreamland regardless of the ridiculous jet-engine noise surrounding me.

I awoke in darkness to a jolt. We’d landed.

“Welcome to Hawaii, sir,” said the pilot.

“Hawaii? Why am I in Hawaii?”

“I wasn’t given that information.”

The jet taxied onto some side runway or whatever and a ground crew brought a ladder. I hadn’t gotten halfway down the ladder yet when I heard “Dr. Grace? This way, please!”

It was a man in a U. S. Navy uniform.

“Where the hell am I?!” I demanded.

“Naval Station Pearl Harbor,” said the officer. “But not for long. Please follow me.”

“Sure. Why not?”

They put me in another jet with another non-talkative pilot. The only difference was that this time it was a navy jet instead of an air force jet.

We flew for a long time. I lost track of the hours. Keeping track was meaningless anyway. I didn’t know how long we’d be in the air. Finally, I kid you not, we landed on an honest-to-God aircraft carrier.

Next thing I knew, I was on the flight deck looking like an idiot. They gave me earmuffs and a coat and shuffled me over to a helipad. A navy chopper was waiting for me.

“Will this trip… end? Like… ever?!” I asked.

They ignored me and got me strapped in. The chopper took off immediately. This time, the flight wasn’t nearly so long. Just an hour or so.

“This should be interesting,” said the pilot. It was the only thing he’d said the whole flight.

We descended and the landing gear deployed. Below us was another aircraft carrier. I squinted at it. Something looked different. What was it… oh, right. It had a big Chinese flag flying over it.

“Is that a Chinese aircraft carrier?!” I asked.