Eric watched the YouTube video his seatmate was playing across her iPad for the umpteenth time. It seemed it was the only thing worth watching on the flight from Virginia Beach to New York City.

  The video showed rolling hills with the New York City iconic skyline barely visible on the horizon. Then the camera tilted up to reveal what shouldn’t be there: an enormous obsidian vessel suspended in the sky, blocking out the clouds. Yet even this otherworldly vessel paled compared to what happened below it—a solitary human figure suspended mid-air, his body illuminated by an eerie emerald glow as he ascended toward the ship’s underbelly. After the man disappeared inside, the ship suddenly rocketed away in a blur of speed.

  The owner of the iPad pushed the playback button to watch it yet again. “Do you think they will take anyone else?” A girl of maybe ten or eleven asked her mother, who was sitting on the other side of the child and near the airplane’s porthole window.

  “I don’t know, Honey,” the mother sighed. It wasn’t the first time she’d answered that question in the last hour and twelve minutes. She also had to field a lot of other questions like Where did the aliens come from? Why were they here? Who was the guy they took? And Eric’s personal favorite: Do you think they’d like pizza?

  Most were legitimate questions, and he suspected they were on a lot of people’s minds since yesterday. He hadn’t heard about the ship’s arrival or the abduction until after the ship had left. He had been training with his team for the new mission coming up, a mission that he was going to miss.

  He hadn’t been sure his CO would approve his emergency leave, but surprisingly, the approval came through just before breakfast this morning. Then it had just been a matter of filling in his replacement on some of the important details of the mission, packing a light bag, and hopping on a plane.

  His only choices were to wait until tomorrow to catch a C-21 up to New York, or book a seat on a civilian flight. And the only civilian flight leaving in the time frame he wanted just had economy seats available. Eric preferred traveling first class when he flew civilian or, better yet, using the New Horizons’ Gulfstream when it was available, but apparently, Melody, the third partner at New Horizons, had taken it to Tokyo at the beginning of the week.

  John Delaney had been apologetic when Eric called him after getting news of his leave approval. It was a brief and frustrating conversation. After he’d gotten the news that the Gulfstream wasn’t available, Eric had immediately probed the man to find out what exactly had happened to Dad, and even the whereabouts of Michael. But John responded to each question with a firm statement that Eric would have to talk to his mother about everything when he got back to the city. It wasn’t like John to be so cryptic, but Eric had resigned himself to the fact that he wasn’t going to get any solid answers until he got home.

  So, the slightly under an hour and a half plane ride so far had been unbearable, especially with the young girl beside him asking her mother a million questions about the alien ship that had suddenly shown up and then disappeared just as abruptly. The questions clearly put the child’s mother on edge, which only mirrored the overall mood on the plane. Everyone appeared to be tense and irritable, with some individuals downright unpleasant.

  The flight attendant’s voice crackled over the intercom, announcing their initial descent into LaGuardia. Eric checked his watch—fifteen more minutes of this tension-filled cabin before he could finally get some answers.

  “Do you think the aliens will come to our school?” the girl beside him asked yet another question.

  “Becky, for the hundredth time, I don’t know. Why don’t you watch something else for a little while and give that a break?” Her mother asked with exasperation.

  The girl sighed in her own frustration. “Fine.”

  She typed something in the search bar, and up popped a list of Digital Circus episodes. Eric watched the mother out of the corner of his eye. The woman opened her mouth as if to say something, then shook her head, and went back to looking out the window. Eric was glad she hadn’t said anything. At least now they might get a few minutes of peace and quiet.

  Exactly twenty-two minutes later, the plane reached the terminal and the flight attendant gave the go-ahead to disembark. Eric stood up eagerly and fished out his small bag with a United States Navy patch on the side. He helped the mother get her two bags as well. And after a slow, bustling journey through the plane, Eric finally stepped into LaGuardia with a sigh of relief.

  He had no baggage to claim, so he swept right through the airport in a swift walk with his bag tossed over his shoulder. He was nearly at the taxi stand when he heard someone call his name.

  “Lieutenant Layton.”

  Eric stopped as he saw the man in uniform standing a short distance away. He was a short fellow in an Air Force uniform with the rank of Airman First Class. Eric waited for the man to close the gap between them, which wasn’t easy with the mass of people swarming around them.

  “Yes?” Eric asked the man. He noticed the name on the Airman man’s uniform was Harper.

  “I have a car here to pick you up. Follow me, Sir.” The Airman replied as he made for the front entrance of the airport.

  Eric hesitated for a moment. He wasn’t aware that anyone was supposed to be picking him up and certainly not someone from the Air Force. He’d taken emergency leave, which meant he was temporarily off duty. But he wasn’t going to turn away a ride. Eric hadn’t been looking forward to trying to get a taxi out of here. He knew how much of a madhouse getting in and out of the airport could be, especially at this time of day.

  Eric caught up with the Airman and fell into step with him. “Who sent you?” he asked.

  “The General will explain everything. He’s in the car,” the man replied as they walked through the glass doors.

  They stepped into the somewhat organized chaos just outside the airport and carefully made their way through the crowd of hurried travelers and temporarily parked cars. The Airman was a step ahead and ended up leading them to a black SUV parked in an emergency vehicle only spot.

  “May I take your bag?” The Airman asked as he opened the back door.

  Eric handed it to him as he peered inside, but it was the voice that called out that told him more of who was occupying the back seat before his eyes could do the job.

  “Come on in, Lieutenant.”

  Eric hesitated again, but blew out a breath as he stepped into the car and pulled the door closed. An older gentleman decked out in an Air Force dress uniform offered him a fat cigar, but Eric declined as usual.

  “Suit yourself,” the General replied as he pulled out a v-cutter and snipped off the tip. “It’s good to see you again, though I wish it were under better circumstances.”

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Likewise,” was all Eric said as his mind started to puzzle out why General Rikker was here at the airport, picking up Eric.

  Certainly, the General had been a long-time acquaintance of the Layton family, first through business dealings he had with New Horizons on behalf of the Department of Defense, but eventually, he’d come somewhat of a friend to the entire family. It was the General that had convinced Eric to join the military after college, in fact, with Eric choosing the Navy and eventually becoming part of Seal Team 4. Rikker had been in Pararescue himself “back in the day” as he would often say when reminiscing about his exploits to anyone who would listen.

  Eric had listened and decided that he wanted stories of his own. Though now that he was a team leader of his own squad, it didn’t seem nearly as romantic as the General had led him to believe. But Eric was doing important work for his country, and that mattered to him. It mattered to him a lot.

  “So how do you like being in command of your own team?” The General said as he rolled down his window halfway and lit his cigar.

  Thick puffs of smoke filled the backseat despite the window being open, and Eric leaned away to get away from most of it. He’d never taken to smoking or even vaping, and he most definitely hated secondhand smoke.

  “It has its moments,” Eric replied. It was only recently that he’d been given the command of a squad of eight men. The mission he would be missing would have been his fifth as a squad leader.

  “But you didn’t make a trip all the way up from Washington to talk to me about that, did you?” Eric said, trying to hurry the conversation along.

  The General took a long puff of his cigar before speaking. “No, I suppose not. I’ve actually been up here since yesterday. I’m sure you’ve seen videos of that abduction?”

  Eric nodded. He didn’t need to know which abduction he was talking about. It was pretty much the only thing people were talking about, that and the aliens, since it happened. “Yes, sir. Hard to miss it. The video was playing on loop during my entire flight,” Eric said, gesturing back toward the airport. “The little girl next to me had at least a million questions about it.”

  General Rikker chuckled without humor, tapping his cigar against a small ashtray built into the car’s armrest. “Everyone has questions, Lieutenant. Unfortunately, answers are in short supply. That’s why I’m up here, son, to get answers.”

  The SUV pulled away from the curb, merging into the steady flow of airport traffic. Eric watched the General’s face carefully, noting the deep lines of concern that weren’t usually there. Eric wasn’t sure what any of this had to do with him, or even why the General was involved.

  “Sir, what does this have to do with my family emergency?” Eric finally asked, unable to contain his curiosity any longer.

  The General fixed him with a penetrating stare, cigar smoke curling around his weathered face. “Have you really taken a look at that video? A close one?”

  Eric blinked at the other man. The General took his phone out of his pocket, tapped at it a moment, and then handed it to Eric. There was the same video that the little girl had been playing on the plane, only this one was magnified significantly. It was still impossible to tell the identity of the man being beamed up, but the landscape near the man was much clearer.

  “We’ve had some of our best people at the Pentagon analyze that thing, and do you know what the results were?”

  It was then that a nearby rooftop caught Eric’s eye. It was a white metal roof attached to an old red barn, but it was the weather vane with a black metal horse perched on top that captured his full attention. It had been Emmaline’s idea to put it up there. She loved horses even though she could never quite bring herself to actually ride one. So she’d settled for talking Dad into replacing the weather vane and putting up a plethora of horse pictures in her room.

  “That’s near the farm,” Eric said incredulously.

  “Yep, and I have a lot of technical data to back that up too. The boys and girls in the Pentagon’s digital forensics unit could tell you exactly how many feet away from your family’s property that incident took place.” The General took another long drag from his cigar.

  Eric felt his mouth go dry. Surely, it wasn’t anyone he knew. “The man in the video…”

  “Not even we can get a clear ID from the footage. Timothy Radcliffe, also known as TotallyRad24 on YouTube, was too far away when he captured that video.”

  Eric knew Timothy. He and his family lived a few miles down the road from the farm. Timothy was into extreme sports and doing as little as possible with his life. It didn’t surprise Eric in the least that Tim was home in the middle of a work week and had caught the video on his phone.

  “Have you talked to your mother recently?” The General quickly switched the subject.

  “Yeah, but she hasn’t been very forthcoming with information. I think she’s too upset about Dad.”

  The General nodded. “Sorry to hear about Arnold. Strokes are a nasty business. You know stroke got my Maggie a few years back. Doc says she died before she hit the floor. I suppose that was a mercy considering how life-altering they can be. But Arnold’s a tough son of a bitch. I’m sure he’ll pull through.”

  “Mom says they are still running tests, but he’s been unconscious since it happened.” Eric didn’t like the sound of that last part. He was pretty sure that wasn’t normal.

  The General puffed out another swirling cloud of smoke. “Did you know Arnold was at the farm near the time that ship showed up?”

  “What?” Eric asked, not sure he’d heard right. What was he doing out there in the middle of a work week?

  Rikker nodded. “After the forensic techs figured out where the ship had made the abduction, we started checking satellite feeds. Unfortunately, there was no coverage in that area until right after the ship left, but we did an excellent shot of the ambulance racing up the farm driveway and then a little later loading poor Arnold into the back.”

  “Shit,” Eric breathed.

  “My sentiments exactly.”

  Eric’s mind fumbled to make sense of this new information. Mom had said nothing about Dad taking a trip out to the farm, and there was no reason that Eric could think of that would compel him to go out there. The farm was usually only a place they visited on the occasional weekend and for a few long weeks during the summer when Emmaline was out of school.

  “So what are you saying?” Eric asked, though he was already starting to connect dots he didn’t want to connect.

  The General tapped his ashtray again, his expression grim. “I’m saying that the timing is mighty suspicious. Arnold at the farm. Alien ship appears. Man gets beamed up. It would be nice if I could have a conversation with Arnold.”

  Eric swallowed the lump that was forming in his throat. “That’s going to be a kind of hard to do considering...” But Eric couldn’t quite finish that thought. He wasn’t sure he wanted to.

  “Well, I’m going to drop you off at the hospital. I have it on good authority that your mother and sister are already there. Maybe you can ask your mother if she knows anything about that.”

  “You could ask her yourself,” Eric offered.

  “You think I haven’t tried to call her?” The General gave him a pointed look through the swirling smoke.

  Eric snorted. “Yeah, I had a hell of a time getting in touch with her yesterday.”

  “I know what she's going through right now. It’s a hell of a thing to lose a spouse like that. Not saying your dad won’t recover, but it’s still a hell of a thing. I figured I would try you first and see what I came up with.”

  Realization suddenly filled Eric. “You pushed through my emergency leave. I was wondering how it got approved so fast.”

  “What’s the point of having friends in high places if you never use them?” The General chuckled.

  “Thank you,” Eric said. “If you hadn’t stepped in, I was pretty sure I would have had to wait until after my deployment. My CO was not happy to have me leaving.”

  The General waved his hand with the cigar in it, and Eric had to move his head not to get smoke and ash in his face. “He’ll get over it. Family is important. I wish I’d spent more time with Maggie before she went, but I had it in my head that more time at work meant I was achieving some-sort of greatness. All I really did was miss out on time I could have had with my wife. Hindsight is twenty-twenty and all that.”

  They both lapsed into silent thoughts as the Airman continued to drive through the city. The General most likely on his dead wife and Eric wondering why his father had been at the farm and if he would even be able to talk to him again.

  Before Eric knew it, the SUV had stopped outside the front entrance of the hospital Mom said Dad had been admitted to. Eric reached for the door handle and turned to Rikker.

  “Thanks for the ride, General, and the nudge on the emergency leave. I appreciate it.”

  “Of course. Just do me a favor, son. You find anything out that might help me understand why these aliens came here or who the person they took might be, you’ll give me a call?”

  Eric nodded. “I will.”

  “Good. Don’t forget your bag.”

  Eric stepped out of the SUV and moved to the back where he saw the Airman stow his bag, but Airman Harper was already there. He’d leapt out of the driver's seat and rushed around to open the back. He now stood there holding out the bag to Eric.

  “Here you go, sir.”

  Eric took the offering. “Thank you, Airman.”

  “I hope your dad makes a speedy recovery.”

  “Me too,” Eric replied as he slung the pack over his shoulder, then quickly stepped toward the front entrance. And as he pushed through the revolving doors into the hospital, Eric felt quite certain that he had just been ambushed by the General.