“How did you know that?” Nick asked, his eyes wide and his mouth hanging open.

  “Been studying the stars, dude. What else you think I’ve been doing here? You see, aliens can’t break the laws of physics. They’re bound to the same rules we are. I got into some of SETI’s databases—don’t ask how—and started tracking energy bursts beyond the galaxy.”

  “So, you saw something that nobody else did.” Reno chuckled. “Not SETI, not NASA, not Homeland Security. The smartest, most brilliant minds in the world missed something that you didn’t. Yeah, right.”

  “That’s right,” Clark said. “That’s because they were looking for evidence of alien activity, but I was looking for the waste generated by them.”

  “You found alien shit? I’d say that’s about right.”

  Maya laughed at Reno’s comment, but it didn’t faze Clark. Not at all.

  “Yep. I searched the energy spectrum for evidence of energy distribution. Let’s say I was looking for their exhaust, which they couldn’t hide the way they could cloak their ships. You can’t find what you’re not looking for.”

  “Then why are they here?” Reno asked, his questions having moved from sarcastic to legitimate.

  “Nobody knows that for sure. But some of the dudes in the chat seem to think it’s a mining mission. The Earth has energy they need. We’re simply in the way.”

  “Maybe they want to abduct us? Study us?” Nick asked.

  Clark laughed and slapped the table with his right hand. “No evidence of that. We’re like ants to them. They have no interest. I’m not saying they’re not beaming people up and anally probing them, but that doesn’t seem to be happening on a wide scale.”

  “Are you okay?” Nick asked. “Your face is pale.”

  Maya blinked and looked up at him. It took her a moment to process what Clark had said, but then she nodded.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. This is a lot to take in right now.”

  Reno took hold of her arm. “You need some fresh air. Let’s go outside for a minute.”

  Maya didn’t argue with him. She stood up and Reno told the others they’d be right back as he helped her down the stairs. They went out the front door and Maya drew a deep breath before she put her hands on her knees and doubled-over. Before she could prepare herself, she was vomiting on the ground.

  Reno rushed up behind her and put his hand on her back, but Maya waved him off.

  “The dreams,” she said. “They’re real. They’re telling me what’s going to happen.”

  “You don’t know that for sure. How do you know any similarities aren’t a coincidence?”

  “How could it be a coincidence?” Maya looked around. “This place, it’s almost exactly like it was in the dream. It’s somewhat different, but not by much. And then, in my dream, I was back at the stadium surrounded by aliens. And more than that, I think I might have seen that ship from those pictures. It destroyed the stadium. The aliens killed—”

  “Hold up,” Reno said, cutting her off. “There’s no doubt that all of that is crazy and coincidental. But it doesn’t mean that it’s really going to happen. You need to keep your head on straight.”

  Maya narrowed her eyes as she stared into his. “Keep my head on straight?” She turned away.

  “You know what I mean. God only knows what those alien fuckers are planning. Why would they warn you? We’re almost there. If we can —”

  “Almost where?” Maya turned around to face him. “The world is never going back to the way it was, Reno. Never. We can’t keep pretending like it’s going to or that anything we can do will change that.”

  “You’re giving up hope?”

  “I’m being realistic.”

  Reno shook his head. “What’s the point of any of this if you’ve given up? Why are we even here?”

  It was a valid question, and one Maya wasn’t sure she could answer. In that moment, all she really wanted to do was be back at the stadium. If all of this was true and her dreams had been premonitions, then she wanted to be with her children and spend her last moments with them.

  As they walked back into the observatory in silence, Nick called them back upstairs. He sat next to Clark, who’d waved them over.

  “I didn’t show you all of my pictures.”

  Maya and Reno both looked at Nick, who shrugged as if to recognize that they had nothing to lose at this point.

  “You might find these quite interesting.”

  Reno sat next to Maya. “Okay. So, what do you have?”

  “Before I show you these, I want to know exactly how you took down the dome.”

  Reno explained everything he had learned from Jack. Reno told Clark about how the National Guard and cops had gone to Centennial Park and taken down the obelisk with explosives which had destroyed the geothermal engine powering the dome. His eyes lit up as Reno explained this, and Maya watched as Clark leaned in closer.

  Once Reno finished, Clark sat in silence for several moments.

  “That has to be it. They want whatever energy is trapped beneath the Earth’s surface. The obelisks are like cosmic oil rigs and the domes are there to get us out of the way.”

  Then, Clark spread out six new photos on the table. “Check out this shit.”

  Maya stared down at them. Her eyes grew as she realized she was looking at another alien spacecraft—one that had crashed.

  “How did you get these?” Reno asked.

  “I was lying in bed early one morning, unable to sleep, when I heard a crash,” Clark said. “I walked outside and saw smoke billowing up about a half mile away. So, I grabbed my camera and ran for it. It was still dark outside, and if I’m honest, it probably wasn’t the smartest thing for me to do. But the aliens have stayed pretty clear of this area, so I felt mostly safe.

  “Anyway, I ran with so much adrenaline that I didn’t stop. When I reached the smoke, this is what I saw. That ship that you see in the photos. It had crashed, but there was no alien inside of it. I don’t know if it was a drone, or if the pilot ejected at some point.”

  Maya picked up one of the pictures. The ship in the photo appeared to be one of the scouting ships that she had seen. Many of the aliens wore gear that allowed them to fly, but some flew in small crafts such as this one. She had never gotten the chance to see a ship in person, nor as close as it was shown in this photo.

  “It was stupid for me to go there in the first place, so I don’t think it’s a good idea to go there now. Besides, there’s no guarantee that it’s still there. But the good news is that we don’t have to.”

  He reached into a folder sitting on the table and pulled out one more photo. He threw it down on top of the others.

  Maya leaned in to look at it. It had obviously been taken inside of the aircraft, and it showed what looked like a graphical interface for a computer—but like none she’d ever seen before.

  “What is that?” Reno asked.

  Clark tapped his finger on the photo. “When I climbed into the ship to check it out, I saw lights flashing on this board. At that time, the ship still seemed to be running—lights flashing, gauges with changing symbols, the engine making a whirring sound. But only moments later, this little guy here powered off.” On the photo, he held his finger beneath a small box with a bright, green-lit border. “This is the battery, or core, or whatever you want to call it, that powers these ships.”

  “How do you know?” Reno asked.

  “Done some recon on a few ships that went down. It would make sense that the mothership has the same type of propulsion, but with bigger engines.”

  He looked around and continued. “And if we can destroy that battery box, then—”

  “We can bring down the mothership.”

  Clark shuffled a few papers and raised his finger. “But that’s not all. This one guy outside of Sheboygan was messaging me a few weeks before the Nashville dome dropped. He claimed to have used an algorithm to steal and decode an alien message. Nobody in our chat believed him, but I found him credible. He said he thought that the mothership worked like an internet router—that if we could take it down, then we’d break their central communications system.”

  “And if the mothership is directing the other ships, and it can’t communicate orders, the others won’t know what to do or where to go.” Maya didn’t even take a breath before she finished, “With no central directives from the mothership, those things might leave. E.T., go home.”

  Clark smiled. “Precisely.”

  “And how are we going to do that?” Reno asked.

  “The same way you took down that dome in Nashville. You don’t have to destroy the entire ship. Just its power source.”

  Maya’s brow furrowed. “But to do that, we’d have to…”

  Board the ship.

  27

  “That’s fucking crazy, man,” Reno said to Clark.

  “No doubt, but it might be the only way that we can stop this.”

  “We?” Reno pointed at Clark. “Are you going up there, too?”

  “Well, no. I need to be here on the ground. I think I can communicate with you and get you to a point where the mothership might be right above you.”

  “Exactly. So, it’s no risk for you. Who do you think we are, man? I’m a fucking EMT. I ain’t no hero. You don’t really believe that I can get on that ship and take it down? You’re insane.”

  Maya listened to the two men argue back and forth. She put her hands on her head, feeling her veins pulse as an intense headache rattled her skull. Instead of listening to any more bickering, she stood up and walked down the stairs. She stepped out the front door, glad to be in the fresh air again.

  Before she could gather her thoughts, however, the door opened behind her. She didn’t have to look. Maya knew it was Reno.

  “What was that?”

  “I needed some time to think without the shouting,” Maya said, snapping back at him.

  There was a moment of silence, and Maya heard Reno’s hands slap the sides of his legs. She heard his feet shuffle in the dirt before walking away. She let out a sigh.

  “Hold on.”

  Reno stopped and Maya turned around.

  “I’m sorry I came out here after you,” he said. “You’re right.”

  “No, it’s okay. It’s best that you and I talk about this.”

  Reno shrugged. “I don’t know what there is to talk about. His plan is fucking crazy.”

  Maya tilted her head. “Is it?”

  “You can’t be serious.”

  “Let’s assume for a minute that these dreams I’m having really are premonitions. This could be the only way to stop that ship from blowing up the stadium and from destroying the rest of the world.”

  “Maya, do you know how crazy that sounds? Not only are you assuming that we can do something about this, but you’re basing it off what you’ve seen in your dreams.”

  “Why is it so crazy? You took down the dome in Nashville. Jack showed you their vulnerability, and you—one guy with a small team—managed to free Nashville. You didn’t need the Air Force or ground troops, did you?”

  “Okay, so let’s assume for a minute that I should do this. How am I supposed to get on that ship in the first place? And if I do, how am I supposed to stay alive? Why wouldn’t they kill me as soon as I board?”

  Maya put her hands on her hips. “Why are you assuming you’d have to board that ship alone?”

  “You mean take Nick?”

  “He’s not experienced enough. Hasn’t seen what we have out there.”

  Reno tilted his head as he stared at her. Then he waved his finger and shook his head.

  “No way.”

  “No way, what?”

  “This isn’t a discussion we’re going to have.”

  Maya crossed her arms across her chest. “That’s not for you to decide.”

  “Let’s take a second and lay out the situation. First off, you might never see your kids again. In fact, chances are that you won’t if you board that ship.”

  Of course, this had crossed Maya’s mind. But hearing it out loud was something else altogether.

  “This is out of the question,” Reno said. “I can’t let you do this.”

  “We have to at least talk about it.”

  “No, we don’t. You weren’t there with me when we took down the dome in Nashville. I know what it’s going to take to get this done, and I don’t want to risk both of our lives to do it.” Reno shook his head. “I couldn’t handle it if something happened to you. Your kids have already lost their father. They can’t…”

  Reno stopped. He clearly couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence. Lowering his head, he rubbed his eyes. When he looked back up again, he drew in a deep breath and exhaled. Maya looked into his tired eyes for several moments before he turned away.

  “I need to go in and start talking with Nick and Clark about what a plan would even look like here. I’ll leave you to yourself. It’s what you wanted.”

  Reno walked away, and Maya didn’t stop him. And he didn’t look back as he passed through the doorway and then pulled the door shut.

  Maya drew a deep breath as she turned around again, putting her back to the observatory. She looked out over the barren landscape, the wind pushing at nearby bushes and whirling dust into the air. She stepped farther away from the building, pacing as she thought about everything she and Reno had talked about.

  It was true that going on this mission could mean that Maya would never see her children again. But not going could mean the end of the world, and they’d all die anyway. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Reno, but she knew what was on the line.

  And it was in this moment that she had to decide.

  Would she let Reno go alone, or would she go with him and risk never seeing her children again?

  28

  Maya opened the door to the observatory and tiptoed inside. Above her, she could hear the three men talking. Their voices echoed through the space as they discussed exactly how they would execute Clark’s insane plan.

  Before heading back upstairs, Maya stopped at the coffee machine, the digital readout showing that the coffee had been sitting there for 107 minutes. She didn’t care—stale coffee was better than no coffee, and she needed the caffeine flowing through her veins before she confronted the others.

  As she poured powdered creamer into a cup, Maya listened to them talk.

  “Don’t you think this is a little insane?” Reno asked.

  “I don’t really see any other options,” Nick said. “Do you have any ideas?”

  There were several moments of silence before Clark spoke.

  “This seems to be the only way. We know that the government isn’t doing a damn thing, if they even exist anymore. And no one wanted to listen to Reno at Fort Campbell.”

  “Alright,” Nick said with a sigh. “So, what’s the plan?”

  More silence followed. Maya took a sip of her coffee before climbing up the stairs. Again, she found herself looking at the walls. She saw the vines again in her mind’s eye, picturing the way the walls had looked in her nightmare. She closed her eyes for a brief moment, and when she opened them again, the walls were back to normal—bricks with mortar intact.

  When she reached the top of the stairs, Nick and Clark were still at the table, the pictures of the ship spread out in front of them. Reno stood nearby with his hands on his hips. He’d been looking down at the table, but his gaze shifted toward Maya as she entered the top level of the observatory.

  He met her eyes quickly before refocusing on the pictures. Leaning over the table, he put his finger on one of the pictures and looked at Clark.

  “You think you can get me on there?”

  Clark shifted. “Probably not. What I can do is get you to a place where I know the mothership will see you. They might want to destroy you instead of capturing you, but I can get you there.”

  “That’s comforting,” said Reno.

  “I’ve got the chemical make-up of the ship’s exhaust, and so I can use an algorithm to predict where the ship is headed. That’s the best I can do.”

  “And I’m supposed to stand there and hope they’ll beam me up?” Reno asked.

  “I don’t see how that’ll work,” Nick said.

  Clark scoffed. “I don’t either. Just spit-ballin’ here.”

  “They laser-beam first and ask questions later,” Reno said.

  “True.” Clark shrugged. “All of this is a guessing game. I’ve studied these bastards for years. I’ve learned how the mothership moves and can predict with about ninety percent accuracy where it’ll be at any given time, but I can still only guess on what will happen when they see you.”

  “And if he gets inside the ship?” Nick asked. “Do you have a plan then?”

  “Yes.” Clark looked at Reno. “But it’s up to you to get inside.”

  “What’s your plan?” Reno asked.

  “C4, bitch!” Clark pointed to a shelf with several blocks of the explosive.

  “I’m an EMT, man.”

  “C4 is stable and it’s easy to wire. I can show you.”

  “How do you know how to wire C4?” Nick asked.

  “YouTube.”

  Reno rolled his eyes, but Clark continued.

  “The core will likely be somewhere in the center of the ship. I’ve got maps of some of the smaller ships which seem to have the same layout as the larger ones, but at a different scale. The tricky part will be getting there. Especially assuming they’re going to capture you as soon as you get on the ship, and likely take your backpack, which will have the C4 in it. Chances are, though, they’re not going to know what that shit is. Their weaponry is far more advanced than ours, so I don’t think they’ll think anything of it.”

  Nick hit Reno on the arm. “This is crazy, man. Let’s assume for a minute that they let you into the ship without killing you. They’re going to be waiting for you as soon as you get up there!”

  “As soon as we get up there.”

  All three men turned to look at Maya as she said it. Reno stood up straight, staring at her and shaking his head.