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Back Roadkill Save as PDF
Chapters (48)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Table of Contents
  4. Chapter One: Fender Bender
  5. Chapter Two: Bigfoot Burrito
  6. Chapter Three: Treasure Hunt
  7. Chapter Four: Open Sesame
  8. Chapter Five: Central Intelligence
  9. Chapter Six: First Flight
  10. Chapter Seven: Park It
  11. Chapter Eight: Next Steps
  12. Chapter Nine: Search Strategies
  13. Chapter Ten: Overflight
  14. Chapter Eleven: Barn Doors
  15. Chapter Twelve: Saturn Fly-By
  16. Chapter Thirteen: Getting a Clue
  17. Chapter Fourteen: Hacked
  18. Chapter Fifteen: The Spy Game
  19. Chapter Sixteen: Investigations
  20. Chapter Seventeen: Break-In
  21. Chapter Eighteen: Battening Down
  22. Chapter Nineteen: Shoring Up Defenses
  23. Chapter Twenty: Third Time’s the Charm
  24. Chapter Twenty-One: Proxy
  25. Chapter Twenty-Two: Rescue
  26. Chapter Twenty-Three: Chase
  27. Chapter Twenty-Four: Spies R Us
  28. Chapter Twenty-Five: Surveillance
  29. Chapter Twenty-Six: Making Plans
  30. Chapter Twenty-Seven: Going In
  31. Chapter Twenty-Eight: Infiltration
  32. Chapter Twenty-Nine: Accidental Captive
  33. Chapter Thirty: Interrogation
  34. Chapter Thirty-One: Reaction
  35. Chapter Thirty-Two: Kidnappings
  36. Chapter Thirty-Three: Reviewing Options
  37. Chapter Thirty-Four: Public Debut
  38. Chapter Thirty-Five: Distractions
  39. Chapter Thirty-Six: The Big Reveal
  40. Chapter Thirty-Seven: Regrouping
  41. Chapter Thirty-Eight: Waiting for Results
  42. Chapter Thirty-Nine: It Hits the Fan
  43. Chapter Forty: Disassembly
  44. Chapter Forty-One: Wrapping It Up
  45. Chapter Forty-Two: Negotiations
  46. Chapter Forty-Three: Coda
  47. About the Author
  48. About the Publisher

“I think so,” I replied. “Otherwise we’re working blind. Plus, it wouldn’t hurt to let her stew for a while.” Then I hesitated. “Actually, I’m thinking of maybe putting it off until tomorrow morning. I’m pretty bagged.”

Patrick grinned. “It has been an exciting day. I could use some sleepy time, too.” He looked up. “She can’t break out, right?”

“Stop worrying, you nervous ninny,” Sheldon replied. “I am constantly monitoring her activity. Or will be, once she wakes up. If by some miracle she found a weakness, I would call one of you for help.”

“I bet that would be embarrassing for you, having to call us,” Patrick said.

“Even lower life-forms have their uses.”

Chapter Thirty: Interrogation

Chapter Thirty: Interrogation

Day 23. Saturday

I woke up all at once. No drifting in and out, no sleepy huddling under the warm blankets. We had a captive alien invader to interrogate. The thought drove all the sleep fog out of my head, and my heart started hammering with two parts excitement and one part fear.

I sat up, looked around for my clothes, then leaped out of bed. I took just long enough putting my clothes on to make sure my pants weren’t on backward, then headed for the barn, typing furiously on my phone.

Already on our way, came back from Nat within seconds.

Well, good, I thought. No sense burning daylight. “Sheldon, any progress on those files?”

His answer came over my cling-on as a staircase lowered for me:

“Yes, and I think you’re going to find it interesting. Not good interesting, either.”

“Outstanding,” I muttered. A roar and skidding-on-gravel sound from outside told me that Patrick and Nat had arrived. “Gang’s all here,” I said. “Give us a few minutes to set up, then I guess we’ll be good to go.”

Nat and Patrick had done the drive-through on the way, so I was pleasantly surprised to receive a McMuffin meal with a large coffee. Nat almost threw the bag at me as she hurried to her favorite spot. Fortunately, she was a little more careful with the coffee.

“What do we have, Sheldon?” she said as she slid into her chair.

“A PowerPoint presentation.”

“Excuse me?”

“The thumb drive that Jack stole contained a PowerPoint presentation. It appears it was intended to be presented at whatever status meeting Karen was planning to attend. It is in fact a status report of sorts.”

“PowerPoint,” Patrick said with exaggerated weariness. “Invading alien lizard people use PowerPoint. Microsoft’s marketing team is really, really good.”

Nat waved to the display wall at the end of the room. “Can you put it up?”

“Coming up. I have clarified the text and labels, to the extent that I am able.”

A window popped up in the display wall, showing a surprisingly mundane PowerPoint title page. No images, just three lines of text:

Earth Conversion Project
Schedule, Timeline, Milestones
Prepared by Karen Ingram