Page 107 of Aviatrix

Don’t cry, Kinley. It won’t change anything.

I force a small smile. “I’m fine.” A necessary lie.

“What do you want to do?” Gary asks.

I don’t know. I need to find the Legion. I need to make sure I'm at that Alien Warfare meeting tomorrow morning when Sasha presents. I need to know exactly what—or who—we're dealing with. Those gray ships… we need to find out if they’re human like I think they are.

And I need to know if Eli is…

“We need information on Calvin Shoemaker,” I begin. “He was—”

“Langdon’s commander before Jones,” Gary finishes.

“Did you know him well?”

Gary shakes his head. “No. I was only at Langdon six months before he resigned. That was about five years ago.”

“Do you know why?”

“Rumors,” he says with a shrug. “But nothing ever stuck.”

I turn to Thea. “Can you dig into him? Anything you can find.”

She nods. “Yes.”

My gaze lands on Scooter. “We need to make contact with the aliens.”

“We do?” His brow furrows.

“I believe I’m their new point of contact,” I admit as all three of their faces fill with dread. “And I want to speak with them.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

I shift my attention to the bigger picture. “We also need eyes on that warehouse in D.C. I want to know who’s coming and going. What cars are passing. Who’s walking by. We need boots on the ground.”

“I have a guy,” Scooter says. “Consider it done.”

Finally, I turn to Gary. “I need to see the wreckage site. Today.”

Gary nods slowly. “Jones will never let us off the premises.”

“That’s why we do it without him knowing,” I reply.

“Give me twenty minutes?”

I nod slowly. “Perfect.”

“You sure you’re okay?” Thea asks gently.

“I will be,” I say, standing. “When Atlas and I get back from the wreckage site, we’ll do a full briefing. Share everything we’ve got.”

“We have one more thing to discuss,” Scooter starts, but Gary cuts him off with a shake of his head. “We’ll discuss it when you return.”

I don’t have the energy or brain power to even guess what they want to talk about.

“Dismissed,” I say.

They rise and head out, one by one, leaving me alone in the room, wondering why the hell I wasted so much damn time.