“You’re very busy, lately Jack,” she continued. “But it doesn’t seem to be about engineering. And I’ve prodded your father a few times, but he seems unwilling to bring it up anymore. Are you going to do anything—”

I held up a finger to interrupt. “Actually, Mom, it is about engineering, but not about finding a new college. I am working on that as well, I promise, but it’s kind of on the back burner right now. Look, the three of us are working on a project. It’ll probably be over by the end of the summer, and it’ll very likely go on my résumé. And it should greatly improve my chances of getting into a good school.”

Mom’s eyebrows went up, but she seemed mollified by my reassurances.

I felt a little ashamed. My statements weren’t strictly false, but they weren’t, strictly speaking, true either. Oh well. On the scale of things I was hiding from my parents, this barely registered on the Lie-O-Meter.

“Speaking of which,” I continued, “we’re going to be doing an overnighter this weekend, so I’ll be gone at least Friday night, and possibly Saturday night as well.”

“Can you tell us about this project?” Dad asked.

“Uh, I’d rather not. We’ve signed an NDA, and the other people involved really don’t want publicity right now. And it might still come to nothing.”

I left my parents looking perplexed but pleased—and maybe a little relieved—and hurried out to the barn, my laptop under my arm.

Nat and Patrick arrived less than ten minutes later. They waved as they walked into the barn. Each carried a laptop of their own. It took only moments to get them logged onto my Wi-Fi, and soon everyone was seated, with a working internet connection.

“All right, guys,” Nat said. “First order of business is to see if we can find something about Taft County that would make Alaric want to land here, of all places.”

“I’d imagine it’s because he knew the Loranna were set up here. As to why they did so, we might never know,” I replied. “After all, if they need to set up on Earth at all, one place is as good as another.”

“Within limits. I doubt setting up in Outer Mongolia makes sense.”

“Unless they need privacy,” said Patrick.

I gave Patrick a nod, then turned to Nat. “But why Ohio?”

“Close enough to Washington to keep an eye on things, far enough away not to attract attention?”

“Yeah, fair enough. It’s probably a compromise of some kind, anyway. Now, on the first item.” I paused. “Business registry. Find every business in the county. Cross off the obvious things like gas stations, corner stores, restaurants, then see if what’s left rings any alarms.”

“Not just businesses,” Nat said. “Anything, including charities, clubs, or any other organization.”

“Good point,” I said. “What else?”