I looked away from the image for a moment to address Sheldon. “Remember, not close enough to cause any danger. But be as obvious as possible.”

“I have flown a spaceship before. Let’s see what they have to say.”

The voice of an air-traffic controller came out of midair. “514 Heavy, you have an unidentified object in your airspace, coming up from bearing two ten. Please respond.”

The Halo pulled up to the 747’s starboard and matched speed, positioned so that the ship was clearly visible from the cockpit.

Another voice, presumably from the cockpit crew, responded, “Holy shit. Ground, we’ve got an actual flying saucer. I mean, it’s circular and saucer shaped. Nice colors, though. Not the usual gray or silver.”

“514 Heavy, are you reporting a UFO?”

“For the official report, yes. But it’s … I think it wants to be seen. It’s just cruising along beside us.”

“Can you get pictures?”

“I’m betting every phone in the passenger cabin is working overtime right now. We won’t have any problem there.”

I grinned at the others. “Let’s give the passengers on the other side some quality time.”

“Acknowledged.” Sheldon looped over the aircraft to the port side, holding the same relative position just aft of the cockpit. “I have detected approaching military craft. ETA about three minutes.”

“Damn, that’s fast.” Patrick shook his head. “That’s not from a standing start. I think they might have rotating patrols in the air. That means we’re having an effect, even if not publicly.”

“Sheldon, you can stay ahead of them, right?” I said.

“Seriously?”

“I had to ask. Okay, let’s play some cat and mouse. You’re in charge. Make it interesting.”

Sheldon immediately started circling the aircraft in a corkscrew pattern, moving forward and back along the plane’s axis. It guaranteed that every window seat would get at least one good shot of the spaceship. After a couple of cycles, a window popped up on the bridge monitor showing four approaching fighter jets.

“Time to go,” said Sheldon. We flew off at a tangent that would allow the aircraft passengers to see the flying saucer and pursuing military planes, and get some more good shots.

We were all watching the chase, when puffs of flame suddenly erupted from under the fighter jets.

“They’re firing on us,” Patrick said. “That is not normal. Especially with no challenge, and so close to a civilian aircraft.”

I reacted immediately. “Sheldon, get us out of here.”

The Halo did a right-angle turn and hurtled straight up, fast enough for ionization to show up in the external view. “As a bonus,” Sheldon said, “the ionization will make our radar image that much more pronounced.”

“Is that actually a good thing?” Nat asked.