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“Okay, man.” I could barely speak through my own laughter. “Seriously. You guys are killing me.” I swallowed a deep breath. “You just had to go there, right?” And then I finally managed to stifle a laugh. “Oh, fuck...” Another deep breath. “Whew!” I exhaled loudly. “Good one. Really....” When my vision cleared (after I wiped a tear from my left eye), I saw Silana sporting a tiny smirk. Not the big, toothy smile I’d expected. In contrast, Conrad had a look halfway between fatherly patience and amused uncle.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
Conrad looked down at his tablet and finger-scrolled on it again. “How many broken bones have you had?”
“Um...” I wiped my eyes then sat up straight on the couch. “None.”
“How many times have you had the flu? Or a cold?”
“Zero.”
“Chickenpox?”
“Nope.”
“Cavities?”
“None.”
“STDs?”
“Seriously?”
Conrad chuckled, and Silana covered her mouth.
“Have you ever been sick?” Conrad asked.
I had to consider that. “I get headaches occasionally.” That came out more defensive than I intended. “I’ve had a stomachache before.”
“But you’ve never, to the best of your knowledge, ever contracted a virus or bacteria-born illness.” Conrad wasn’t asking a question that time.
“You’ve got some of my medical records?” I asked.
“Yes. You have no medical history past the age of thirteen. And up to that point it’s all just routine pediatric exams.” He paused. “A very interesting side note. Your parents refused all vaccinations for you. I’m not sure if that really has anything to do with your...origins...or if it was just unusually informed parenting. But either way, I’m willing to bet it wouldn’t have mattered. We could inject you right now, with a dose of the Ebola virus, and it would affect you no more than orange juice.”
I shrugged. “Okay, so—I’ll play along, assuming what you’re telling me is true—even if I’m some mutant immune to disease, that hardly means I’m part alien.”
Conrad grinned at me but with a serious glint in his eye. “Assuming we are to believe you are the first human in recorded history to be immune to all disease, you mean?”
“We don’t know that! I just—haven’t gotten cancer yet! I’m young!” I realized I was yelling then, and I looked back over my left shoulder to see Fan, Dante, and Courtney staring at me, perplexed. I shook my head, gave them a half-smile, then a waved hand.
Silana spoke up. “We know this is a lot to take in.” She reached over and placed one hand on my knee.
And I calmed down. Just like that.
Two plus two equals... “What did you do?” I asked her. And not too gently.
Silana bit her lower lip, but her fingers remained lightly on my knee. “It’s a talent. A transference of energy,” she said.
It filled me with another sudden realization, and my knee jerked reflexively away from Silana’s touch. Her face waxed from a smile to shock and sadness all in a fraction of a second.
“I’m sorry. I am only trying to help you,” Silana said. “It is not harmful, I swear.”
But her touch wasn’t what had unnerved me— “You’re... You’re not human.”
A tiny grimace froze Silana’s face as she stared into my eyes from across the aisle. “Conrad. We should show him now.”
I was listening to my heartbeat in my ears by that point, but I’d said I was ready for the whole truth, hadn’t I? I took a deep breath, nodded at Silana and turned to Conrad. “What about you?”
“I’m like you. In some ways,” he said.
“Like me? Are we related?” The other ramification of ‘half-human’ hit me then, and I’m sure my face was a sight to see. “You’re not...” I couldn’t bring myself to finish the question.
Thankfully, Conrad didn’t leave me hanging. He laughed instead and told me, “No—I’m not your father, Lochlan. Whether or not we are related, that is a much more complex question, and I’m simply not sure. Not yet. However...”
“Oh, here we go,” I said sharply, and sat back on my couch.
“We do share the same rare blood type.”
Not an interrogation? “Blood type. Do you always dig this deeply into people?”
Conrad flinched. “Only when we come across someone like you. Like us.”
“I’m aware I’m AB negative. So it’s rare. That doesn’t mean I’m from Mars.”
“You’re definitely not from Mars. None of us are—if that’s what you’re really worried about. We aren’t going to turn into bug-eyed monsters or little green men. Everyone on this plane was born here on Earth.”
“What a relief,” I grumbled.
Silana was almost frowning now. “Conrad...”
“Right, right. Lochlan. Let’s go talk to the captain,” he offered.
I wasn’t sure who Conrad was talking about at first, but he moved toward the cockpit door. “If the pilot is crazy too, we could be in big trouble,” I quipped.
Conrad chuckled then knocked on the door. “Captain. Open up please. I’d like to introduce you to Lochlan Nohr.”
The door unlatched, and I saw one pilot as he opened the portal. To my relief he was an ordinary-looking guy. No horns, antenna, or bat wings!
“Thanks, Gabriel. How are you?” Conrad asked.
“Yes, sir. Good, sir.” Gabriel smiled up at me. He was blue-eyed, bald and in a familiar pilot uniform. “Hello.”
“Lochlan Nohr, meet Gabriel Perrault, our copilot.”
“Howdy,” I said, somewhat weakly. My mind was still whirling.
We shook hands, then Gabriel moved out of my way.
Silana followed us in last and greeted Gabriel. “Bonjour!”
“Bonjour, madame!” Evidently another French agent. As was so often the case, Silana hugged Gabriel briefly, and then he shuffled back into his copilot seat.
Silana turned toward the only other person on the plane I hadn’t met yet. The captain himself. “Salut, mon ami!” Silana patted the captain’s shoulder, and he stood when Gabriel took control of the jet.
The captain was a tall, handsome man—taller and outwardly older-looking than Conrad, if I were to judge by his graying hair. Despite his age, his skin was deeply suntanned, and I sensed he worked and played outdoors a lot when he wasn’t piloting the plane. “Bonjour à nouveau, madame,” he replied to Silana. His French was as native and perfect as hers.
Conrad shook the captain’s hand. “Captain Jean-Pierre Chomette, this is Lochlan Nohr.”
The captain’s English was fluent. “Ah, the man for whom we are piloting this bird today. A pleasure to finally meet you.”
“Ditto,” I replied, shaking his hand. “Captain Comet.” I couldn’t help but grin. “How much shit have you taken about that?”
He laughed, and Gabriel snickered. “Get in line,” the captain told me.
All the gadgets and lights around us caught my eye. “It’s been a long time since I’ve stood in a cockpit.” I distantly recalled visiting Air Force museums with my parents and standing inside a huge, old B-17 Flying Fortress. “A lot to keep track of.”
Captain Chomette shrugged. “It might look like that, but I have a good copilot. Usually.” Gabriel snorted. “And Sophie is often along for the ride. Though, admittedly, I’m still getting used to her.”
Conrad scoffed. “The captain is being humble. His flight hours are so high, I doubt he even keeps track anymore. Am I right?”
The captain grinned. “It’s only that I’m getting so old—I can’t remember.”
Silana and Conrad laughed together. I smiled crookedly. Conrad continued: “Lochlan and I are having a discussion I believe you could shine some wisdom upon, my friend. Especially from this vantage point.”
“From the skies,” the captain said. “Clearer thinking on a clear day?”
Outside the wide, high windows of the cockpit’s windshield, the sky was bright, light blue and layered with wispy clouds that our jet pushed its way through.
“It’s gorgeous outside,” I agreed.
The four of us stood behind the pilot chairs and I moved forward a little to get the best look I could through the windshield.
“Notice anything unusual about the clouds on the horizon?” Conrad asked.
I concentrated on the sky ahead, on the layers of clouds and the layered lines of varying shades of blue and white. “I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be looking for,” I admitted.
“Find the curvature of the Earth,” Conrad urged.
I glanced at him and then Captain Chomette and Silana. They all had expectant expressions. That irritated me enough to make me concentrate harder on the horizon the second time. I almost slapped myself when the obvious answer finally hit me.
“There is no curvature. The horizon is flat as Kansas,” I said.
Conrad prodded me. “As far as you can see?”
“To each extreme, as far as I can see. Yes.”
“Is he missing anything, Captain?” There was a tone of irony in Conrad’s voice.
“No. It does appear flat out there. These windows aren’t convex,” the captain replied.
“Why am I getting the impression there’s about to be some lesson here?” I asked.
“You’re having a difficult time accepting the truth of your heritage. So, I thought it would be easier for you to understand if we opened your eyes to a tremendous lie—one they have conditioned you your whole life to accept as truth,” Conrad replied. “If we can convince you of this, then we may convince you more easily about yourself.”
“Like a veil being pulled away,” Silana said.
I stared out at the flat horizon. “We should see curvature.” I looked intensely, almost straining my vision—better than twenty-twenty, by the way. “You probably know how good my eyes are, you seem to know everything else about me.” Though they hadn’t mentioned Marquis Hall. Some secrets were too secret. Even for these people.
“Oui,” Silana replied at the same time as Conrad said, “Yes.”
“This is a lesson about something else impossible,” I said, my mind galvanizing.
“Oui, oui,” Silana emphatically agreed again, her voice breathy and trembling.
Flat as Kansas. I leaned back when the realization of the lesson finally dawned on me.
“The world is flat,” I said. “The Goddamned world is flat! That’s what you’re saying?”
“What I—what we’re trying to tell you—is that the Earth is special. That it isn’t the random glob of mud spun into a ball.” Conrad reached out and gripped me firmly by the nape of my neck. “And like you, my boy, it’s no accident. You exist as part of a grander design, just as the Earth is the center of the Universe.”
My mouth hung slack as Conrad’s words slowly sunk into my havocked brain. But I wasn’t so easy to turn. “Why should I believe any of this?”
“You shouldn’t,” said Captain Chomette. “You should always question. But if you get answers...”
“You might awaken,” Silana said, which pulled my eyes to her deep-blue wells. She reached out a hand, but hesitated. “The world you know isn’t changing. You simply haven’t been allowed to see it.”
I stood up straight, and Conrad and Silana pulled their hands away from me, cautiously, probably expecting me to scream at them. But I’m not stupid. All of this effort forced me to rethink, to reevaluate just about everything I thought I knew.
“Next, you’re gonna tell me we never landed on the Moon...?”
“NASA was a Cold War construct. What do you think?” Conrad asked.
I grimaced. “You just ruined a lot of good sci-fi movies.” I nodded to myself. “I’m the only one on this fucking plane that doesn’t know what the fuck is going on, right?”
“Pretty much,” Conrad replied.
“Mm-hmm,” Captain Chomette hummed in the affirmative.
“And you two,” I said, as I waved a hand at Conrad and Silana, “I’m done dancing around.” I pushed out a snap of breath through my nose. “What the hell are you?”
Conrad deadpanned. “Besides being married for a very, very long time?”
Silana rolled her eyes then shook her head in mock disgust. “Forgive my husband, Lochlan. He enjoys these moments a little too much.”
“I’m not allowed to have fun?” Conrad protested.
Silana glared at him and Conrad relinquished. “Fine, fine. My boy, just know whether you’re married one year—or a thousand—it never pays to argue with the wife.”
I braced myself. But they disappointed me.
Conrad shook hands with our pilot. “Thank you, Captain.”
“Of course.”
Silana waved at Gabriel and Captain Chomette and walked out of the cockpit first. Conrad motioned for me to follow her. I took his cue, nodded at the pilots and proceeded back into the passenger’s cabin.
I was numb by that point. The past seventy-two hours had been a theme park ride full of ups and downs, twists and turns. I was believing I must be more than human—or less than—to even have the endurance to deal with it all.
And why did I care so much? A romance had never bloomed with Vicki back at North Texas. I’d reconciled that years ago—I thought—yet the moment I heard she was in danger, I mounted a Harley on my chivalrous crusade, Lochlan-to-the rescue, delivering pizza, bullets, and ready to burn a scorched path across the Nevada badlands.
Yeah. The Earth is flat? Why not? In a world that rarely made sense anyway, that somehow sounded reasonable.
Then a buried teenage memory weeviled its way back to consciousness, and I had a pang of guilt all over again.
Silana stared at me hard like she knew what I was about to say.
“I got a tattoo once,” I admitted.
“Oui?”
“Drunk for the first time. One of the only times. Sixteen. But looked older—tall and all that already, so nobody stopped me. I’d been missing Dad on his birthday and...” I gulped. “I sobered up quick while the artist did her thing. Got home with a Celtic cross, Dad’s name underneath it. Rory.” I breathed deeply through my nose and exhaled the painful memory. “Next morning it was gone.”
Silana’s eyes caught mine and her brow wrinkled as she tilted her head at me, the tiniest of frowns on her mouth. “Another sign.”
Opposite Silana, her husband smiled and nodded. “Not as unusual you might believe, Lochlan.”
I plopped myself on my couch and gave a surrendered shrug to everyone. I noticed the delicious smell of grilling meat wafting down the length of the plane from the galley. Lunch was on the way.
So, I sighed loudly. “I give the fuck up. Tell me if I need to drive a stake through my own heart—but can I get some lunch first? Those burgers are already killing me.”