I gazed down into the clamshell halves of the briefcase. “There are a couple of cargo straps down at the ends. Looks like about a foot of free space in there.” I looked around the table at expressions of slack-jawed amazement.

“Let’s put stuff in it,” Patrick said. A few minutes of frantic collection activity ended with food packages, computers, shoes, and other items of clothing piled on the table. Each person took an insert and started stuffing whatever they could into it. When we were done, I reversed the unfolding process, ending up with a closed briefcase sitting on the table.

I grabbed the handle, attempted to lift, and said, “Oof.” The briefcase refused to budge.

“I did mention that mass doesn’t disappear,” Sheldon commented.

“Yeah, and we didn’t really put that much in it. I just wasn’t prepared.” I lifted with a more concerted effort and managed to wrestle the briefcase down to my side. “Um, about sixty pounds, maybe?”

Everyone stared at the briefcase in my hand for a moment before Nat said, “I’m going to get my Cheetos back, right?”

“Eight briefcases.” Patrick shook his head. “They are very, very impressive, but that’s not enough. I had hoped we could scatter samples to a crowd like at a Mardi Gras parade, but we’d need a lot more than this.”

Nat frowned. “Then we need to go to the press.”

“Hopefully there aren’t any Loranna on staff,” I said.

“The actual Lorannic presence on Earth can’t be very high if they are just a single clan,” Sheldon said. “And they can’t be everywhere. Most of their activity is electronic in nature or through proxies, as I mentioned previously. And even with that, they would be concentrating on high-level targets with maximum influence.”

“So news outlets that tend to support the Lorannic agenda are probably the ones with collaborationists in control,” I replied.

“That would be reasonable. But please remember that I have few actual facts to go on. My assertions are based on historical precedent and extrapolation, plus what I was able to get from the files we managed to download.”

Patrick leaned over and looked into the depths of the briefcase, then straightened up, grinning. “Well, we have to do something. Let’s just try to prepare as much as possible.”

“Visiting the news outlets is something we should do tomorrow. For now, though, maybe we can do some setup,” Nat said. “Something dramatic.”

The 747 grew swiftly in the view window, cruising along at thirty-five thousand feet in the evening twilight. Given the airplane’s cruising speed of around six hundred miles per hour, the speed with which Sheldon was overtaking it was awe-inspiring. Since we were on a western heading, sunset would come slowly. Nevertheless, we had only a few minutes of good visibility.

“I will disengage cloaking in a moment, and we will appear on radar,” Sheldon said. “That should create some consternation.”