“I doubt that. This is about a sensitive matter.”

Hansen pursed his lips and his face took on a more somber cast. “I know more than you think I do,” he said. “And I’m a friend. More than a friend, as I think you’ll soon discover. An ally. A comrade. I’ve been working with Drake even longer than you have.”

“Drake told you we were working together?” she asked, squinting in confusion, as though unable to fathom why Drake would lie about something like this.

“That’s right. And although I know you’ll see this as another betrayal, I know the exact nature of your collaboration. And that you’ve just made a major breakthrough.”

15

ERIN TOOK A long drink from a bottle of cold water and then bit into the turkey sandwich she had purchased, or Hansen had purchased for her, spending all of seven dollars. “Okay … Kyle,” she said. “Now that we’re settled in, I’m all ears.”

They were sitting at a small rectangular table and there was a cacophony of conversation from hundreds of locations in the massive open food court. There were several groups of students within earshot, but they were self-absorbed—laughing, debating, flirting, working on their Facebook accounts, playing or talking on their phones, or watching one of the many television screens that descended from the ceiling in a seemingly haphazard fashion, and Erin wasn’t worried in the slightest that anyone would listen in, or have any idea what they were hearing if they did.

So Drake had told this Kyle Hansen about work that could get her thrown in jail. After he had sworn he would never mention this to another soul. So what was another huge betrayal among friends? And this also begged the question, who else knew? Was there anyone who didn’t?

Hansen seemed famished, and had finished a large bag of chips while they were waiting in line and had almost finished half of his chicken-salad sandwich in the brief time they had been sitting. “There’s no easy way to start,” he said. “Let me just say that you won’t believe me at first. But I plan to prove everything I say. I’m not crazy. So if you could just pretend to believe me until the proof comes, that would be a big help.”

“Go on,” said Erin.

Hansen blew out a long breath. “Drake isn’t human,” he said simply, watching her face for a reaction as he did so.

Erin rolled her eyes. She must still be asleep in some kind of crazy, extended dream, she decided. Either she had entered the Twilight Zone, or she had used up her life’s quota of bizarre, surreal surprises in the past four days, during which her life had been turned upside down and twisted into a pretzel. “Come on, Kyle. I’m not in the mood.”

“Remember, I did tell you you wouldn’t believe me. Anyway, that’s why he didn’t come himself. He can pass as human for a time, but it’s a risk to do so for too long.”

“So what is he?” said Erin, deciding to play along. “An elf?”

Hansen actually laughed. “No. He’s from a planet about thirty-seven light years away from here he calls Suran.”

“Suran,” she repeated, as if testing the word out on her tongue. “What, like the wrap?” she said, rolling her eyes once again.

Hansen’s eyes widened. “Very good. Spelled with a u instead of an a, but it’s funny you should say that, Erin. Because that’s actually what I call Drake and his species. Wraps.” He grinned. “Beats the hell out of Suranians.”

Erin studied him for several long seconds, as if he were a science experiment, looking for some telltale sign that he had recently escaped from a mental institution. He returned her penetrating gaze with a relaxed patience, looking anything but crazy. Still, it was becoming obvious that he was, despite any appearances to the contrary. She looked at her wrist pointedly, even though she didn’t have a watch. “You know your ten minutes are about up.”

“I’m not wasting your time. And if you’d humor me as I asked, this would go a lot faster. I get it. This is crazy and you’re waiting for the curtain to fall. It isn’t, and it won’t. Humor me,” he repeated.

She tensed her muscles to rise from the chair and leave, but there was something about his eyes that stopped her. A confidence. An easy intelligence. A self-awareness of how insane he must sound to her, but also a deep courage of his convictions and a certainty that he would ultimately convince her. She blew out a long breath. “Okay, Kyle. It’s hard for me to imagine I’ll ever believe you, no matter what you tell me, but I’ll humor you just a little longer.”

“Thank you,” he said.

“So if Drake’s from this Suran, how can he pass for human for even a minute? All the aliens on Star Trek looked human, but that’s just because they didn’t have a big enough budget for more imaginative aliens.”

“Not entirely true. There is such a thing as convergent evolution. The Wraps are fairly close to us in appearance, yes. Close enough that the extensive plastic surgery and genetic engineering he underwent before he came here allows him to pass as human for a short time. But there are other alien species whose appearance couldn’t be any more, ah … alien … to us. Drake’s problem passing for human isn’t his appearance as much as his mannerisms. We’ve evolved to pick up on dozens of subtle cues regarding human expressions and appearance. That’s why it was such a challenge for Pixar and others in the early days to animate humans. If an animated animal is slightly off, it isn’t a problem. But make a human just a little bit wrong and we can sense this somehow, and it gets under our skin. Weirds us out. That’s one of the reasons he took the appearance of Hugh Raborn when you Skyped. That and to buy credibility when you Googled him.”

For the first time, Erin’s expression wasn’t one of complete skepticism, and Hansen seemed to pick up on this. “Drake told me when he explained how he had used software to transform his face into Raborn’s, you said it couldn’t be done. Not so convincingly, so seamlessly. Not in real time during a conversation. Well you’re right. It can’t be done. At least not with human technology.”

This gave Erin pause. It had been one hell of a magic trick, however he had pulled it off.

“When I’ve finished explaining everything,” continued Hansen, “I hope you’ll trust me enough to let me take you to Yuma to meet Drake in person. It’s the only way you’ll be absolutely convinced I’m telling you the truth. You’ll see for yourself he’s not human. A short time with him and you’ll have absolutely no doubt.”

Erin studied him once again. She was far from convinced he was telling the truth, but if his purpose had been to get her to come to Yuma with him, there were far simpler lies that could have done the trick. In fact, he had to have known that the approach he was taking was certain to make her more suspicious of him rather than less.

Hansen seemed to read the indecision in her eyes. “The ten minutes you agreed to give me are up. If you’d like, I’ll leave right now. Or you can. I won’t stop you. But I can’t believe that someone with your kind of curiosity, your passion for knowledge, would refuse to at least hear me out the rest of the way. Not unless you really think I’m certifiably insane. Which I don’t think you do.”

Erin sighed, realizing that he was right. “Go on,” she said in surrender.

“To be honest, Drake is trying to limit the number of people who know of his origins. For obvious reasons. And you weren’t supposed to be among them.”

“So why are you telling me this now?”

“He had no other choice. You saw the real Hugh Raborn and then, being understandably suspicious and feeling betrayed, you weren’t willing to give him the dosage combination for the cure. So he knew he had to come clean. He set up this meeting, knowing all along he was going to send me. Inviting you to Yuma to meet him and verify what I’m now telling you would have been the most direct route. But he knew you didn’t trust him enough to do that. You needed to be eased into what is an entirely new and earth-shattering reality for you. A two-step process, begun on your home turf, where you would feel reasonably comfortable.”