She had seen to it that fourteen steel chairs had been bolted to the floor in a long row, since we didn’t know how many hostiles we might net, and she had brought in three couches, four desk chairs, two steel tables, and two computers. Two large monitors were attached to the wall behind the row of chairs, which were now showing tiled feeds of the outside of my rental home and the warehouse we were in.
Tessa had also brought in a large patio bench, made of attractive gray-stained wood, with an enclosed rectangular base that doubled as a concealed, seventy-gallon storage locker. Removing the bench’s three seat cushions would reveal the lid to a storage space crammed with combat weapons fit for the harshest battle, including bulletproof combat vests, automatic weapons, spare clips, grenades, flash-bangs, and even two shoulder-holstered rocket launchers. She didn’t expect trouble, but it was always good to have a glass box to break in case of emergency.
Finally, and most importantly, she had made sure to have a fully stocked refrigerator on site.
Tessa sifted through the rucksack Dombkowski had brought, the one filled with everything taken from the hostiles. She paused several times to assess gadgets that even she didn’t recognize, but didn’t waste further time with them. She’d have plenty of opportunity to take a full inventory later. She also made sure to run the prisoners’ faces through the most comprehensive and secret facial recognition databases in the country, but not a single one of them returned a match.
One by one they began to stir while Tessa and I looked on. Dombkowski and Connelly were just outside the closed warehouse door, two sentries trying to look inconspicuous and failing miserably.
“Who are you people?” Tessa demanded of the group when they had come to. “And what do you want with Jason Ramsey?” she added, nodding in my direction.
All six blinked as though they hadn’t understood a single word.
“Really?” she said, shaking her head in disbelief. “You’re a crack team operating within the United States. With weaponry and tech fresh out of a black lab somewhere. And yet none of you speak English? Insulting my intelligence isn’t a great way to kick things off.”
I couldn’t help but smile, marveling at this woman who grew more remarkable in my eyes, more extraordinary, by the day. And not just because I was in love with her. Even her most hated enemies would be forced to agree.
“Then don’t insult our intelligence,” said a man on the far right, the shortest of the six, in flawless English. “You know very well why we came after him. Or are you really going to pretend that you weren’t expecting company?”
Tessa’s face broke out into a broad, self-deprecating grin, which lit up the entire room like a supernova. “You’ve got me there,” she admitted. “So what was your intent,” she asked simply. “To learn Jason’s secrets? Or to kill him?”
“To learn his secrets,” came the immediate reply.
Tessa frowned. “Yeah, dumb question. If you were trying to kill him, you wouldn’t exactly admit it while you’re at his mercy, would you?”
“Maybe not. But in this case, it happens to be the truth.”
“So you’re the man in charge here?”
He nodded.
“What’s your name?”
“Call me Ming,” he replied. “And you?”
“Call me Major,” said Tessa. “So now that we’re on a first-name basis,” she added wryly, “tell me, who do you work for? And I don’t mean the Chinese Communist Party. I mean specifically. And what is your mission? I want to know everything.”
“And I’ll tell you everything,” said the man calling himself Ming. “If Jason tells me what he knows first.”
I raised my eyebrows. “I take it, then, that you saw my appearance on the Mark Russell Podcast. Good to know I was able to reach an international audience. But here’s the thing. If you’re so all-consumed with learning the secrets of UFO visitations, you only had to wait a week or two for my next appearance. A lot simpler than raiding a private home, don’t you think?”
I hadn’t expected a response and didn’t get one. “Which makes me think you already know everything I plan to reveal,” I continued. “And you were here to make sure my lips remain sealed. Permanently.”
Ming eyed me with a shrewd, calculating look, sizing me up. “You want to know why we’re here and who we represent? Fine. Tell us what you plan to say on the next show, and we’ll answer any question you have. Why would you object? You plan on disclosing it all to the world, anyway. And as you said, you’d only be telling us what we already know.”
He shrugged. “We’re also your prisoners, with no way to communicate to the outside world. So who cares what secrets we learn?”
Tessa and I exchanged troubled glances. The man made a lot of sense. If I really did know anything special about UFOs, I’d have told him. Even if he was lying and didn’t cooperate afterward, he was right. We wouldn’t lose much. After all, they were at our mercy.
The problem was that if anyone in this room could explain what was going on with the UFOs in our skies, it sure as hell wasn’t me.
Tessa stared at Ming and shook her head in disgust. “No deal!” she snapped. “This isn’t a negotiation. It isn’t a sharing session. It’s an opportunity for you to tell us all about yourselves and hope we spare your lives. Something I suspect you wouldn’t do if the shoe was on the other foot.”
“If you want answers, Major, this is the only way you’ll get them,” reiterated Ming stubbornly.
“Your English is too good not to understand the meaning of the words, ‘no deal,’” said Tessa.
Ming took a deep, troubled breath. “Then you’ve forced me to issue an ultimatum,” he said, almost sadly. “I’m afraid you need to free us and surrender. If Jason tells us everything he knows about UFOs, along with his evidence, we’ll leave you in peace.”
He paused to let this sink in. “If not,” he continued, shaking his head. “Well, if not, you’ll both be dying horribly within the next few minutes.”
8