LOGINThere was a light tap on her door, and Max poked his head into her office. He came in the rest of the way and closed the door behind him.“Am I interrupting anything? If I’m not, I can come back later when I am and bother you both,” Max said, smiling. Lindsay asked Max, “Why didn’t you tell me about the big furry thing that rolls around in a ball?” “For your information, Madam Sheriff, I told your husband, the illustrious Agent Gold, the morning after it happened. If you take a look at that, you will see that that particular thing introduced itself to me very early Saturday morning, and I didn’t want to ruin your weekend. That is why I told him, and I tried to ruin his. Of course, this all happened just before that compound was discovered, which ruined the weekend for all of us. Is there anything else you would like to know?” Max asked her. “I have a question,” Little Bob said to Max. “Why in the world are you here?” “I am going with Wren to the compound today. He wants to make su
Sheriff Lindsay Gold sat down at her desk and looked at the stack of files that had been left for her. Each one of them contained a report about the weirdness taking place in the county. She had thought that it was all due to the incident on the base, but now she knew it was far more than that. As she logged into her computer and picked up the first file on the stack, Little Bob came walking into her office carrying two cups of coffee. He balanced on one foot as he pushed her office door closed with the other. He walked over to her desk and set a cup in front of her before taking a seat in the chair across from her. “Be careful with that,” he said. “Max made a fresh pot of his night shift stuff before he left. He said he thought you could use it.” Lindsay smiled and replied, “Thanks, and remind me to thank Max for doing that.” “Has Wren said anything about what he’s found in that compound yet?” Little Bob asked. “Not really. He told me he’s planning to begin the first full sweep o
Cat Dyatlov was sitting at her kitchen table, staring at her computer screen. Agent Wren Gold had asked her to write another program to help process all of the information found in the newly discovered complex. She heard her front door open and looked up to see her sister Izzy coming in, carrying coffee and a bag of takeout for their dinner. “I can’t believe you are still working on that,” Izzy said to her as she set everything down on an empty corner of the table. “Did you even take a break while I was gone like you said you would?” “No, I didn’t. I want to get this done, and I am trying to decide how to do something,” Cat answered her. “Well, stop thinking for a few minutes, and we will eat. Maybe that will give your brain the break it needs to make the decision. If you still can’t make that choice after we finish eating, call Agent Gold. You can give him the options that you have and let him decide.” “You might be right. I may ask him which way he wants me to go with it anyway.
The others all stopped what they were doing and looked at Lindsay. She took the page and began to read it. It was James; there was no doubt. As she began to read it, she saw that it listed a different date of birth from the one she knew. Everything was different than what she knew it to be. The last line was the only thing that she knew to be true. It listed his status as deceased/killed.“I need some air,” Lindsay said as she stood and handed the page to Little Bob. Wren began to stand and follow her. “No, just no,” she told him. “Crook, you want to go outside?” Lindsay asked as she walked to the door. Crook hopped off the couch and followed her outside before she closed the door. She sat in her favorite chair and put her face in her hands.She was trying to breathe. It felt like someone had taken all the air from her lungs, and she could not pull any in, no matter how hard she tried. She fought a feeling she had never had before and had no idea how to explain it if someone asked her
Wren got up and went to the door, knowing the last thing they needed were visitors of any kind right now. When he opened the door, Little Bob and Big Bob were standing on the porch holding pizzas. “I don’t know what is going on here, but we thought you might be hungry. And before you ask, I found out that Yuri was covering for Max at Lindsay’s request,” Little Bob said as Big Bob pushed past Wren and into the house. “I’m starving,” Max said, taking the pizzas from Little Bob and placing them on the kitchen counter. “You two do not need to be involved in this,” Lindsay told them as they walked into the living room. “Too bad. We’re here, so we’re involved,” Big Bob said as he dropped into a chair. Lindsay let out a deep sigh, looked at Wren, and told him, “It’s up to you. You’re running this. It’s your call if these two are involved when they aren’t working.” “Fine, you two want to know what’s going on, I’ll tell you,” Wren said. “This will be the condensed version since you alrea
Wren was grinning when he walked into their house, followed by Izzy. He could not help showing how happy he was to have found the little alien called Blue. When Lindsay saw him, she started smiling, too. She was just glad that he looked truly happy for the first time in a long time. “Why are you so happy?” Max asked. “Did you go to the base, and they wiped your brain, so you forgot what you saw today?” “What? No,” Wren answered. “You have no idea how happy we all are that we have Blue back. When the explosion happened on the base, we all thought he had been killed the same as we thought Aaron White had been. The sad part is we were all far more upset about losing Blue than we were about losing White.” Max got up from where he was sitting and motioned for Wren to take his seat by Lindsay. Wren sat down as Max walked into the kitchen. He returned with a cup of coffee for Wren and handed it to him. “Is this your night shift secret formula?” Wren asked him as he took the cup from Max.
Lindsay did not stay asleep. She never did for long. She woke up just over an hour after they had gone back to bed. Her head hurt, and her thoughts were racing. She turned, looked at Wren asleep beside her, and smiled. The one thing she envied about him was his ability to sleep anytime, anywhere, a
They drove for several more minutes before they pulled into the parking lot at the sheriff’s department and saw that Little Bob and Viktor had made it back. They went in, and Wren turned to go to Lindsay’s office while Randy walked back to Little Bob’s desk, placing the small black case he had brou
Lindsay watched John leave the building. Wren waited for the door to chime before he said anything. “Did you call John to come here and look at the pictures?” Wren asked her. “No, I didn’t. I had no idea he was going to stop by here. I thought while he was here, I would ask him about those two,”
Wren had gotten home just after 1 a.m., and Lindsay was awake waiting for him. She had slept for about an hour before waking up and going to the living room to watch TV and wait for him to get home. “Why are you awake?” Wren asked her as he walked into the living room where she was. “I couldn’t







