One year after the events in this book. Or not. Washington, D.C., Pentagon. Mike Stanton waits in the debriefing room for Major John P. Jasper. Paperback! / Kindle!
Come on. I don’t have all day, I thought as I sat alone in the meeting room, tapping my fingernails on the mahogany tabletop. I looked at the assortment of clocks on the wall and shook my head. Does anybody really care what time it is in Bombay? Eight clocks when one will do.
“Hello, Mr. Stanton,” Major Jasper startled me. I stood to welcome him.
“Shall we get down to business?” Major Jasper took a seat at the table, so I did too. “I read your brief. This is an incredible story.”
“Yeah. It happened that way. It did. Freaks. Fireballs. Explosions. And the love of my life. I couldn’t make any of this up.”
“Sorry, but I’ll need your eyewitness account. Can you also please fill in any gaps with information you have learned since those three days?” Jasper was cold as a fish.
“Yeah, okay. I’ll tell you what I learned from Meg, Carter, Brian, and Tomsic too. Then there’s those other parts I got from the news—interviews with Banks, RCK, Jade, that guy they call Caveman, even President Pavlich. Others too.”
Jasper just stared at me. I stared back until I realized how stupid this game had become. I looked past him at the clocks. I was suddenly curious. What time is it in Bombay anyway?
Jasper pulled a notepad and pen from his jacket pocket. “Shall we begin?”
“Okay. Here it goes. Write this down,” I said. He didn’t need to write anything. The notebook was a prop. The whole conversation was being recorded. I knew it. It will be transcribed by professionals. There’s probably six people listening right now. That’s okay. The bigger the audience, the better I guess.
“And don’t make your report so boring. You know, like you usually do.” That did it. By the coldness in his gaze, I knew we would never be fishing buddies.
“How did it start?”
“Well, it all started that April. Fred and I were lookin’ for freaks. Out by Dugway.”
He nodded. He was done talking. Okay. Show time. Here we go. “Then …”