Charlene looked slightly irritated that she’d lost the initiative but was plainly curious enough not to balk. She snapped open the case and laid the two halves flat. In short order, she’d extracted a toaster, several sets of clothing, a loaf of bread, and a pillow. At one point, she lifted the case to look under it.

When she was done, she stared at the items on the table—almost five cubic feet of contents pulled out of a suitcase with less than one cubic foot of volume, at least from the outside. Charlene’s jaw worked a couple of times before she was able to talk. “Okay, that’s admittedly hard to fake. And I guess that’s the point?”

“Exactly right. I need to establish some credibility up front, so you don’t just back away slowly when I give you the whole story.”

Charlene grinned. “Because the blue-and-green flying saucer isn’t enough.”

“Well, some people might be able to rationalize it away.” I shrugged. “In any case, I figured a little overkill was better than the alternative.”

“Working so far. Tell you what. Since I have no idea what to ask at this point, why don’t you just give us a rundown of whatever you want to communicate, and we’ll do Q&A and edits on the back end? But let’s start with: are you human?”

I laughed. “Yes, we are. And how we ended up with the ship is a story all on its own, but that’s not the important part.” I handed Charlene a thumb drive. “This has some details, but here’s the high-altitude version … ” I gave a highly abbreviated account of our adventures and what we’d learned, while Charlene’s eyes grew wider and wider.

When I was done, Charlene asked, “So you guys are the group that’s supposed to have held up a 7-Eleven and killed everyone?”

I rolled my eyes. “Enemy of the State.”

“As a matter of fact, your father said something similar in an interview, if I remember right. So what can we—?”

A woman burst into the room holding a cell phone out like a talisman. “We’re being raided. Something like SWAT has broken in downstairs. They commandeered the elevators using firefighter keys. Anyone who challenges them gets cuffed or tasered. I don’t know if it’s your guests they’re after … ”

“Duh,” Charlene said. She turned to me. “That’s a pretty quick response. Any idea why? Or how?”

I pointed at the thumb drive, still in Charlene’s hand. “It’s all on there. The Loranna are apparently into everything, deep enough that they can move SWAT in at a moment’s notice. What’s your cell number?”

Charlene quickly rattled one off.

“Noted,” said Sheldon over my cling-on. “However, this quick action from law enforcement makes me think there may be a Lorannic ship on the way. I’m going to have to leave.”