Now I was beginning to understand. Ray had spent the past six years of his life stuck with what soldiers referred to as a “shit detail.” Trapped behind the counter of a used videogame shop in a desolate suburban strip mall, with nothing to do but watch me play Armada, listen to all of my pointless adolescent bitching, or pass the time by ranting to me about alien abductions and government cover-ups—
All of his X-Files-inspired alien conspiracy rants over the years had probably been his own way of trying to psychologically prepare me for the truth, whenever the EDA finally decided that I deserved to hear it—which was right now, evidently. At the last possible fucking moment.
Of course, the truth—or at least some of it—had already been revealed to me years ago, back when I’d first read my father’s journal. I’d just been incapable of believing it.
That led me to finally ask the question I’d been working up the courage to ask ever since I’d first boarded the shuttle.
“Was my father ever recruited by the Earth Defense Alliance?”
He let out a sigh, as if he’d been waiting for this question—and dreading it.
“I honestly don’t know,” he said. Before I could call him a liar again, he went on. “I’m telling you the truth, so just hold on now and listen to me!” He took a deep breath. “This isn’t about your father, Zack. Try to understand what’s happening—what’s at stake. The entire future of the human race—”
“Just answer me! I read his journal—he knew about the EDA. He was starting to figure out what they were, and what they were up to, right before he died in some bizarre on-the-job accident. So what really happened? Did the EDA have him killed to keep him quiet?”
Ray was silent for what seemed like an eternity. But it may have only been a second.
“I told you, I don’t know what happened to your father,” he said. “I’m a lowly field agent, with equally low security clearance.” He held up a finger to keep me from interrupting him again. “Here’s what I do know: The EDA does have a file on him in their database. But it’s classified, and I’ve never been able to access it. So I don’t know what his connection was to the EDA, if there was one at all. But the EDA wasn’t created to murder people. It was formed to save them.”
I was hyperventilating now.
“Please, Ray,” I heard myself say. “You know how important this is to me. …”
“Yes, I do,” he said. “That’s why you need to pull yourself together right now and focus; otherwise you’ll ruin any chance to find out what they know about your father.”
“What do you mean? What chance?”
“You’re being transported to an enlistment briefing,” he said. “Afterward, you’ll be offered the opportunity to enlist in the Earth Defense Alliance.”
“But—”
“If you take it, you’ll be made a flight officer,” he said, continuing to talk over me. “And then you’ll outrank me.” He looked me directly in the eyes. “You’ll also have a higher security clearance than I do. You might be able to access your father’s file.”
Ray seemed about to say something more when a boom shook the entire shuttle. I felt a rush of panic, thinking we’d just come under attack. Then I realized we’d just broken the sound barrier.
“Hold onto your seat,” Ray said, taking his own advice. “We’re about to go suborbital.”
Dozens of questions were still ricocheting around in my head, but I managed to put them out of my mind, at least for the moment. Then I forced myself to sit back and try to enjoy the rest of this surreal ride I now found myself on.
This was a smart move, because I was about to make my first trip into space.
I clutched my jump seat’s armrests, watching anxiously as the cobalt blue sky outside the shuttle’s porthole windows darkened to a deep shade of indigo, then on to pitch black just a few heartbeats later.
We were at the edge of space. The boundary I’d dreamed of crossing my entire life. I’d never really believed I’d get the chance to do it during my lifetime—let alone today, when I should’ve been in my first-period civics class.
I strained against my safety harness and craned my neck toward the curved window, trying to take in the entire radiant blue curve of Earth now visible beyond it. The sight was overwhelming, and made the little kid inside me involuntarily whisper, “Wow!”
Unfortunately, he must have whispered it out loud, because Ray was now staring at me with the same amused smirk he gave me every time he schooled me in a Terra Firma death match. I nearly flipped him the bird out of force of habit. Some thick part of my brain still thought Ray was my boss and friend.