“What’re they going to do, shoot us?”

  “Maybe. But even if they don’t, they’ll know someone is snooping around.”

  “Hmph.” Nat sulked for a moment, then brightened up. “What about going invisible?”

  “Uh, Sheldon wasn’t sure how well that would work for us.”

  “Yeah, well, let’s test it. Sheldon, you said it wouldn’t be dangerous, right?”

  “That is correct. And if the effect is less than total, I might be able to adjust the device.”

  “Cool.” Without waiting for a vote, Nat jumped up and grabbed the belt off the bench and wrapped it around her waist. However, Gen were not just taller; they were also somewhat broader than your average human, and Nat was what most people would describe as petite.

  “Aw, crud,” she said. “Here’s an adjustment … ” She played with the belt for several minutes, but it couldn’t be made small enough to stay on. It fell around her feet with a thump several times before she gave up.

  “Fine.” She flicked the belt toward me with a toe. “Your turn.”

  I put the belt around my waist. At the tightest adjustment, it was still loose, but at least it wouldn’t fall right off me. “Sheldon, how do I turn this on?”

  “The button on the left activates or deactivates the device.”

  “What does the one on the right do?”

  “It is a force-shield of sorts. It will protect you from minor levels of harm.”

  “What? Why wasn’t Alaric using it? It might have saved his life.”

  “The force-shield takes significant power. You can run the cloak for about ten hours without a recharge, but only five minutes for the shield. And they run off the same power source, so those times are in total.”

  “Ah. So if I’ve been invisible for five hours, I will only have two and a half minutes of shield available.”

  “More or less. But essentially correct. I should also mention that the shield creates some resistance to movement. You will feel like you are walking through water. Running will be impossible.”

  “Okay. Well, here goes.”

  I pressed the left button, and Nat screamed and jumped back, then slapped both hands over her mouth. “Mmpf,” she said, her eyes wide with fear.

  I held up my hand to examine it. “Oh, that’s just … disgusting.”

  The effect was certainly incomplete. My clothes were invisible, which in and of itself should normally be traumatic enough. But in addition, my skin was almost invisible, and things became progressively more visible farther in, until my skeleton was maybe fifty percent there. I reached down and pressed the button again to deactivate the device. “I’m going to call that a fail.”

  “Oh, I disagree,” Sheldon said. “That was comedy gold. Natalie’s face—I admit I’m not an expert at reading human expressions, but the mmpf really sold it.”

  Nat gritted her teeth. “Asshole.”

  “Not part of the design, sorry.”

  I had to laugh. “Can you fix it?”

  “I can try. One moment … All right, try now.”

  “Wait, what? You didn’t do anything,” Nat said.

  “I adjusted the device, Natalie. Everything is software. Even with human technology, and I use that term loosely, the hardware only provides the basic functionality. Software provides most of the features and operating parameters.”

  I nodded in agreement. “He’s right. My 360 camera, for instance, has had several features added to it just by downloading new firmware from their website. The camera itself hasn’t changed.”

  “Huh. Okay, I’ll take your word for it. So press the button, and let’s see what happens.”

  I pressed the left button again.

  Nat’s eyes again went wide, but this time without the accompanying fear. “My God, Jack, it works. You’re invisible.”

  I smiled to myself and stepped around her to her left. To my consternation, she turned her head to follow me.

  “I thought I was invisible.” I held up my arm to confirm. Yep. Not there.

  “But you’re not inaudible, dum-dum. Try not dragging your feet.”

  “Oh.” I pushed the left button and watched as my arm reappeared. “Good point, though. Being invisible doesn’t help with noise, or walking through tall grass, or fog, or rain … ”

  “Yeah,” Nat said. “We really have to pick our times.”

  “Also, leave your phone behind when playing spy,” Sheldon said. “The radio transmissions are easily detected.”

  “I changed my mind.” I removed the belt and held it out to Nat. “You do it.”

  Chapter Fifteen: The Spy Game

  Day 10. Sunday

  After much discussion, we decided that the investigation of the field had to happen today. After all, we reasoned, maybe on a weekend the putative watchers would be less on alert.

  As rationalizations went, it wasn’t great, but it was all we had.

  We piled into Patrick’s car with me, already invisible, in the middle. Patrick drove out to the Tate Industrial Park, keeping his speed down to avoid attracting any kind of attention.

  He pulled up in front of the Harris offices, and Nat got out. She turned and had a brief conversation with Patrick, during which time I slid out of the car. Any observer would just see two people chatting for a few moments.

  Nat headed for the doors. Her story was that she had to check on something at her desk. Since the Harris Institute wasn’t a high-security military installation, the guard at the door should have no objection once he’d checked her ID.

  Meanwhile, I made a beeline for the field, moving as fast as I could without getting out of breath and starting to pant. I also did my best to stay on rocky ground, or packed dirt, or short scrub. If I found myself having to push my way through a wheat field, I’d likely just abort.

  That proved to be unnecessary, though. The foliage around the field turned out to be short, scrubby, and patchy. It occurred to me that the Loranna probably didn’t want people seeing footprints appearing out of thin air either, so this area was probably deliberately groomed.

  In a short time, I was in the field, more or less where I’d seen the landing traces. I couldn’t be positive without the GPS tracking in my phone, but the landmarks looked about right. Adopting the zombie position, I began slowly staggering around the area.

  I’d been at it for more than ten minutes when my hand felt something. A brief patting down determined that it was a landing strut of some kind, although it didn’t feel like the same shape as Sheldon’s struts. I felt down to ground level, then around the foot of the strut. It was definitely bigger than Sheldon’s, maybe five feet in diameter. I reached upward but didn’t make contact with anything. I was about to leave when there was a flash of light; then a staircase lowered out of thin air. As silently as I could, I moved around to the far side of the landing strut. It would be just my luck if someone came out and walked right into me.

  After a few moments, the airlock rose into the air and disappeared. There was a distinct sound of footsteps and a slight disturbance in the dust, heading for the industrial park.

  Shit.

  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.”

  “A picture is worth eight kilobytes,” Sheldon replied, and up popped an image on a monitor.

  Sheldon had helpfully included an image of me and, presumably, Alaric for scale. The Lorann was humanoid, in fact much closer to human than Alaric was. A little shorter, a little stockier, with a slightly reptilian look. We’d all been referring to the Loranna as reptilian or lizard-like, but it had been a metaphor. It was funny to realize it was literally true.

  The most surprising feature was its distinctly orange color.

  “No way that’s going to pass for human,” I said.

  The skin faded to white around the eyes, forming a sort of reverse-raccoon effect. And there was a tuft of what might or might not have been hair on the Lorann’s head, in a somewhat more muted shade.

  “Actually, they very likely will have an easy time of it,” Sheldon replied. “They are the right size and proportions, more or less. Even the right number of digits. The cloaking field takes care of the rest.”

  “Uh, excuse me?” I said.

  “Hmm. I realize I have neglected to mention this. A device that can make individuals invisible can also make individuals look different. Changing the skin color and texture is trivial, at least visually. If you were to shake hands, you might notice something odd.”

  “How so?” I asked.

  “I can’t say, Jack. I have no experience with the nuances of touch and texture. But Lorannic integument is objectively different from human skin, so I’m certain there would be a noticeable difference.” Sheldon paused, then continued, “A Gen would have more trouble, because of their height. They could project a shorter presence, but that would break down as soon as they interacted with their surroundings—for instance, having to duck to go through entrances that were visually more than high enough for them. And the fur obviously wouldn’t pass muster the first time they were touched.”

  I looked at Patrick and Nat, but neither seemed to want to take over. “Okay, so the point is that the Loranna could be physically interacting with people. Under cover, so to speak.”

  “Correct. Although simple prudence would dictate that they keep it to a minimum. They would do as much as possible through human proxies.”

  “Human proxies?” I repeated. “You mean there are people cooperating with them?”

  “Some unknowingly. Others with full knowledge. Collaborationists are a fact of life, and not just in your own history. There will always be those who can be bought with promises of power and privilege in the new reality.”

  Now Nat rejoined the conversation. “And you know this how? A day ago you didn’t even know if they were here!”

  “I do not know it, Natalie. But so far, Alaric’s suspicions are turning out to be right. Assuming he is correct in most aspects, then one can infer certain likely facts by examining history. In the case of you humans, there were many in occupied countries who cooperated willingly with Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan during World War II. There are similar examples in Gen history, Ka’alag history, Nir-k-hi history, and so on.”

  “So even with the cloaking detector, we might detect nothing at all?” Patrick asked. “And other than knowing that there are ships in that field that are probably Lorannic, we might still have squat?”

  Nat nodded. “I guess I’m just going to have to play spy at work this week.”

  Chapter Sixteen: Investigations

  Day 11. Monday

  “You’ll need to pick up the truck this morning,” Dad said at the breakfast table.

  I stopped with fork halfway to mouth. “It’s ready?”

  “That’s what Duke says. He’ll bill us. You could go get it when he opens. If you can get a ride to Duke’s with Patrick, I can head to the store early.”

  “I’ll give him a call.” I pulled out my phone and rattled off a text. The reply came back within a minute: No prob. See you in a bit.

  “Done,” I said to my father. “Oh, and if it’s okay with you, Patrick was going to pick me up for lunch today. So I’ll need to take an extended break.”

  He waved a hand in casual agreement. “You’re back on deliveries this afternoon. Up to you if you’re done early or late. By the way, how’s your top-secret project going? I’m not fishing for details, just wondering if it still looks promising.”

  “Making progress, Dad. No dead ends in sight yet. Oh, and I’ve received a couple of application packages for alternative engineering colleges. At least so far, my name hasn’t triggered an instant rejection.” I gave Dad a weak smile and received a tired sigh in reply. I looked at my watch. “Patrick will be here in two minutes. I’d better get ready. See you at the store.”

  I headed up to my room and grabbed my stuff. I glanced at my backpack, which had all the gadgets except the cloaking detector, which was in Nat’s possession. Leaving the backpack lying around in my room gave me an uneasy feeling. And I wasn’t going to leave it in the barn after the incident with the video, although I admitted to myself that I might be overreacting a little.

  Feeling slightly foolish, I took the gadgets out of the pack and jammed them into the crack behind the seat cushion of my old La-Z-Boy recliner.

  There was a honk outside and I looked out my window to see Patrick’s car idling there. I headed out quickly, and Nat scooted over for me.

  “Today’s the big day,” I said, smiling at her.

  Nat rolled her eyes. “I’m not 007, Jack. I’m just going to walk around. No snooping, no ambushing people, no questions. I’ll see you guys at lunch.”

  Patrick laughed and punched the gas.

  Patrick picked me up from the grocery at precisely 11:45. That got us to the industrial park with five minutes to spare. Nat showed up a minute or two later.

  “Where shall we eat today?” Patrick asked.

  “Food truck.” Nat gestured with her chin. “The Mexican one is really good.”

  We made our way to the street in front of the industrial park. There were already lines in front of each truck. Patrick and I got in the queue for Mexican while Nat walked back and forth, ostensibly checking out the menus.

  As we sat on a nearby planter wall with our meals, I said to Nat, “Any reaction?”

  “Nothing. I’m not really surprised, though. I don’t see the Loranna eating tacos or souvlaki out in the open.”

  “Nothing in the office?”

  “Nope. But based on what Sheldon told us, the frontline workers wouldn’t be Loranna. Or collaborators. I kept waiting for someone to come downstairs from three, but no such luck.”

  “That’s probably true of every business in this park,” Patrick added. “So we’re still at square one, really.”

  “Yup.” Nat stood. “Let’s go for a walk.”

  The walk produced no results either. I ground my teeth in frustration. I’d have to talk to Sheldon about how the detector worked and whether it could be made more sensitive.

  “Look, Nat,” I said, “just keep the detector with you. If it goes off, we can figure out what to do from there. Otherwise, go about your normal day.”

  “Yeah, okay. It would be great if we had one for each of us.”

  I stopped dead. Patrick face-palmed. “Of course Sheldon would have more. Or can print more.”

  “We’re a bunch of fucking geniuses, that’s what we are,” I added.

  “And what about the other stuff?” Nat said. “The remote? Disruptor?”

  “And anything else Sheldon might have that could be handy,” Patrick said.

  “Yeahhhh … ” I shook my head in disgust. “We’re still going about this piecemeal.”

  Chapter Seventeen: Break-In

  I parked the delivery truck behind the barn and walked to the house to get the gadgets from my room. “Hi Mom,” I called out as I entered through the kitchen door. Barkley looked up from his dog bed and rushed over to circle me several times, tail wagging frantically. A few pats and he returned to his bed to continue his siesta, satisfied that the protocols had been followed.

  As I was starting up the stairs, Mom called back, “I just saw the delivery truck go by. Was that you? I thought you were already home.”

  I stopped dead, then turned around. I found her sitting in the TV room. “What? Why?”