The official story was that a sleeper cell from a fringe terrorist faction had stolen a small plane at a nearby airport, loading it with explosives, in their attempt to fly the plane to the closest military base, where they would immolate themselves in kamikaze action.

They experienced technical difficulties since the small plane was not cleared for flight, crash landing safely on our farm, William was attempting to provide first aid and confirm for survivors when he was ambushed and killed for his kindness, not before he dispatched both of them.

I had asked Agent Steele to keep my involvement out of the official story since I wanted William to be remembered as a badass hero. It was the least I could do for him, and in my eyes, and the eyes of everyone in the family, Agent Steele, Madam Secretary, and even the ‘Big Chief’, he was.

The story again was used for political reasons by both parties, the ones supporting gun control claimed that if it wasn’t so easy to acquire small firearms and explosives, the attack would have never happened and a brave, valiant young American would still be alive, ready to lead our country into the future, gain a Nobel prize or colonize the moon.

The other side ran with the fact that if not for William carrying arms, he would not have so valiantly and selflessly protected not only his family, the lives of the first responders, and local authorities but also the lives and infrastructure of great Uncle Sam.

Some paid actors were used as the remains of the terrorist cell just a few days after the fact, and Gramps went on TV, along with Joe to talk about how grateful he was to the nation for the speedy resolution and to discuss William’s life and how heroic he had always been.

In the end, one group found enough support at Congress to bestow unto William the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor, while the other strong-armed the POTUS into bestowing the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Which was all a farce for the American public to chew on. But then again, what’s new?

And chew they would. Joe had caused a social media uproar, her beautiful face, her tomboyish attitude, her heartfelt tears, her Amazonian looks, for the past couple of days, she was all America was talking about. The beautiful decathlete from Minnesota. America’s new sweetheart.

Pieces of pink media were popping out of the net like popcorn. And then the paparazzi discovered the treasure trove.

Who were Joe’s beautiful friends? They would ask.

Pieces on the local town’s population talking about Maeve and Zoey started flooding the net.

It was chaos, if not for Agent Steele’s people we would be swimming in crazies at our farm.

So by the time we left Arlington Cemetery, the crowd looked more like one of those ‘free live concerts’ in Brazil or Russia.

Roger told me over one hundred thousand people were waiting to glimpse Joe and the girls.

The ‘Widowmaiden” they called her, a pun on the name of a famous female video game character, and everybody and their moms caught on the fact that she was helplessly in love with the deceased. Everyone but Joe herself that is. She hated the name.

In a way, we all welcomed the circus around her because she was distracted if nothing else.

Me? I was alright, Roger and Katherine had removed me from the narrative, almost uprooted me to be fair. And I was happy about it. Today I was passing as an agent from the DHS assigned to the family, which got me angry and resentful glances from real agents. The power of legs and a pretty face let me tell you.

Even Matthew, with his handsome looks, and tall and lean physique, was receiving interview offers into podcasts on every conceivable streaming platform. And a lot of fan mail, which made Zoey as mad as a cut snake.

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I was thinking all this as Roger escorted us out of Arlington, we all were going to be moved back home using a charter plane from a military installation, to which we would arrive on a state limo, where the five of us boys and girls, plus Roger and Katherine would be going together.

Because let me tell you, Katherine Mayorgas, despite being a decent human being who had earned the respect from pops and Gramps, with the old fogey even trying to create circumstances for Katherine and Dad to find themselves alone, -the old fox-, was still a grade-A politician through and through.

And she was milking her association with the family for all it was worth. She would be seen with Joe and the girls around town, going into our farm's compound, and even appearing with him at Congress, where he was called to give his account of the events.

“God dammit,” Joe said, “Look at all those signs, I hate it,” she added, once inside the Limo, that was crawling out of Arlington at a snail’s pace.

“I don’t know Joe, I think it’s endearing,” said Maeve, “it captures some part of you, don’t you guys think?” she added, asking everyone and no one in particular.

“You certainly look the part,” Zoey added, to the desperate eyes of Joe, “and we know better than anyone how deadly you are when you are angry,” Zoey continued.

“Yeah,” said Matt with a laugh,” You guys remember when she got mad at William for going into boxing? She went out to practice her javelin throws and caught some deer with it, only two hundred feet away,” he finished, full-on laughing now. So were Maeve and Zoey, and even Katherine dared to giggle a bit.

Roger looked at me in interrogation, I nodded to him, and he smirked while moving his head from left to right, in disbelief.

“Cut it out Matthew Murphy, or you will be next in my javelin’s sight,” said Joe, now also smiling.

“Oh noes! help me Zoey, big bad Joe is gonna whack me,” Matt said in a whimsical, spoiled little kid voice while trying to hide himself behind his girlfriend, to the delight of all present.

“Katherine,” Joe said, trying to take the conversation somewhere else, far away from her antics, “is the rumor I heard about you inviting Erik out to dinner last night true?” she went for the jugular, Katherine, despite being a seasoned politician showed some color on her cheeks now.

“Now, now, Josephine, not everything on the Internet is true you know? You should know that better than most.” Katherine retaliated.

“Hagen-Mayorgas has a nice ring to it,” said Maeve, the cavalry to Joe’s infantry.

“I think it was Mayorgas-Hagen, what Katherine was writing on a napkin earlier,” came ballistic strike, Zoey Jackson, with a thermonuclear payload, right on target.

“Ms. Mayorgas,” I said, seeing as how she was now beet red and about to capitulate, “my father is an honest and hard-working man, far removed from politics and public life, the past few days have been very difficult for him, and your support has not gone unnoticed, by any of us, if he, in his vulnerable state, has mentioned or insinuated anything, please rest assured, he means it.” I delivered the terms for capitulation.

Katherine was now holding her head in her hands, facing down, while Roger was smiling smugly, it was not easy to see her boss brought down like this. But she did not confirm, nor deny any of the allegations. To which I smiled, it had been over a decade since Mom had passed. A little fling would do his Dad well, as they said ‘It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good’. Katherine looked like she had at least, played with the idea.

We went on like that for a while, easy banter back and forth, already outside Arlington and well on our way to the charter plane.

When a little luminous crack in the air appeared in the middle of the limo.

At first, only Matt noticed it.

“Guys, what is that? Can you guys see what I am seeing?” he asked.

At first no one could, I could not see anything.

“What is that?” said Zoey and Joe, almost in unison.

“I have no clue,” Maeve added, fear on her face, clinging hard to my arm.

Roger took out his gun, placing his arm in a protective gesture over Katherine. Looking right at the disturbance, as he called for the motorcade to stop.

Then I saw it.

A faint crack, as if reality was being punctured from the other side, every passing moment you could see how more and more pressure was applied to the point where the little light was coming from.

Until it ruptured.

A bright light shone down from the little hole in reality, like a beam, and started carving something at the limo’s carpet.

By the time I understood what was going on, Joe was crying, with a huge smile on her face, and snot coming out of her nose, Matt and Roger were taking pictures and recording the event. While Zoey and Maeve were livid.

— “Raulin, you guys have two months, prepare Dad, we will come home. And Joe, don’t miss me too much, you know you will never get rid of me.” —

Katherine was the first one to talk, “Well I’ll be damned,” she said, “what does it say?”

“You can’t read it?” I asked her, “Absolutely not,” she replied, “All I can see is some kind of runes.”

I looked at Roger, who nodded back at me, he was unable to read it either.

“William is coming home,” said Maeve.

“Just like we told you,” said Zoey, with a triumphant smile. Matt was bringing out an iPad and a laptop.

“I’m face timing Papa Olaf, he needs to see this, and we can confirm if he can read it too,” he said.

“Madam Secretary,” I said to Katherine, “it’s a message, apparently from William, it does not say much, only that he will be back home in two months from now, and a personal note for Joe.”

“I understand,” she said. “How do you know it’s from William?” asked Roger.

“Because of who it is addressed to,” Matt said.

Roger looked at him, then back at me.

“It is addressed to me Roger, the first few runes, are my name.” No outsider knew about my involvement in the entire thing, so if this was a clever stunt by a foreign power, or the people who owned the craft and the device, they wouldn’t know my name. Only Joe’s, and she had been introduced to America as sweet dear Josephine.

“But who is ‘we’?” Maeve asked.

“I think it's pretty clear,” Zoey said. “It’s the angel.”

She had been going on for the past week about how, since the night everything went down, she had been having visions about a chained angel, and that William had something to do with it. A couple of nights ago, she had a dream about William kneeling to the angel, and something about wolves.

She kept this to the girls, Matt, Gramps, and myself, not wanting everyone else to think she was crazy, and to be honest, even I thought she had gone temporarily loopy from the shock of it all.

But how else were we to explain what was in front of us?

What was the saying? Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

“I’m sure a beam of light through the fabric of reality is evidence enough,” I said out loud, Katherine and Roger looking at me directly, like hawks.