A door slammed and I heard my father’s voice, cursing and yelling threats. Dad was mad, to judge from the tone, and a mad Dad was a force to be reckoned with. I had only seen my father furious a couple of times in my life, and one of those events had ended with a belligerent customer being carted away in an ambulance. “Dad must have heard the shot,” I said.

“I phoned him and requested help,” Sheldon said. “Nat is releasing more drones. I will try to locate any scanning devices.”

“It won’t do us any good. We won’t have time to clear them.”

“But your father will. I will inform him of their locations as I find them.”

My father now stood over the gunman, pointing his pistol at the man while speaking into his phone. From what I could overhear, he was talking to the police.

Dad lowered his phone and jabbed it with his thumb, presumably hanging up. Before he could pocket it, the phone rang. He put it to his ear, and then spent more than a minute just listening.

“Sheldon, is that you talking to my dad?”

“Yes. I am giving him the CliffsNotes version of our adventures. I will locate the detection devices on his property, and he will deactivate them. With a hammer, preferably. He asks if you are well.”

I choked up for a moment. This couldn’t have been easy for my parents. Or Patrick’s. Or Nat’s father and aunt. I walked up beside my father as he pocketed his phone. “Hi, Dad.”

He looked around wildly. “Jack?”

“Right here. I’m invisible, and for now I should stay that way. I’m okay. We all are. But we need to get our ship back into the barn.”

“Ship? What? You’re invis—” Dad shook his head before I could respond. “Never mind. You can explain later. Chief Rogers and his entire force are on their way. Mercenaries running around Dunnville attacking citizens isn’t going to sit well with Charlie.” He looked down at the sniper, who was still moaning. “This guy is probably not going to be processed quite as quickly as procedure would dictate. There’ll be some off-the-books questions first.”

“Yeah, I get it,” I said. “Things are going to get a lot more interesting soon, and they’ll stay that way for a while. Better buckle up.”

“They are getting interesting right now,” Sheldon said into my cling-on. “I sent one of the drones up for a high-level overview. There are a number of vehicles heading your way, moving fast.”

“Black SUVs?” I asked.

“Of course. I believe you mentioned that it’s a law.”

I turned to my father. “More thugs coming. Black SUVs. Probably the same group as this guy. Time to hit the safe room, Dad.”