How did multiple people walk together when they were invisible, anyway? Hold hands? Maybe. The technology would certainly spawn its own social customs. Should I wait, and let the unknown individual get ahead of me? Certainly. But how long should I wait? What if they just dropped something off and then came back, and I ran headlong into them?

I couldn’t come up with any answers. At some point, you had to just go with what you knew. Being as silent as possible, I set off back toward the industrial park, trying to go slower than a normal walking pace.

I realized that with all the questions we had asked Sheldon, we never had asked him to describe the Loranna. I didn’t know if they were tall or short, thin or stocky, carnivorous or otherwise. Or how fast they walked.

Screw it. Too many unknowns.

As soon as I was on pavement again, I took a more circuitous route to the car, one designed not to be the path an invisible alien would take back to the ship. In minutes I was standing beside the Duster. Nat was still gone, which was good. If she’d gotten back before I did, she would have had to come up with reasons to keep opening the passenger door. Or just leave it open.

Eventually, Nat walked up to the car. I whispered, “I’m here,” as she reached for the door handle. Without breaking stride or acknowledging me in any way, she opened the door, then fumbled with her purse just long enough for me to slide in.

As soon as the door was closed, Patrick took off. “Everyone okay?” he said.

Nat and I both replied in the affirmative. “I ran into one of our management guys in the building,” she said. “Kind of a surprise for both of us. He gave me a bit of a grilling, but I think my cover story passed muster.”

“Did he seem like he’d been exercising?” I asked. “Because I followed an invisible person from the invisible ship in the field.”

Patrick’s eyebrows went up. “What?”

“You’re kidding!” said Nat.

“I am not kidding. I found something that had landing pads about five feet in diameter. I’ll check with Sheldon, but I bet that means fifty percent bigger. And someone came out of an airlock.”

“That tears it. I’ll need to take the Lorann detector to work tomorrow,” Nat said. “And in any case, whether it’s Harris or one of the hole-in-the-wall companies, I think we’ve found Lorann Central.”

Back at the barn, we settled in for a council of war.

“We need to ask Sheldon some questions,” Nat said. “Let’s do it in the Halo. Sheldon? Open an airlock, please.”

Once in the conference room, we picked chairs and settled in. I provided the first question. “First, we need a description of the Loranna.”