Star Gift

Chapter Twenty-Nine

After several moments of silence, where everyone just looked at the new surprise guest, Kyah entered the room with an extra chair and put it at the table for William to join the group.

"The truth is, Blake, your father lives here on the premises," Mr. Lancolm stated this with emotion in his voice. "Out behind the house in a new Airstream trailer we bought for him when his old mobile unit was junked on the Navajo reservation."

"That's right'" William confirmed, graciously. "She's a real gem. And I invite you all to pay me a visit out there in it sometime before you leave."

The three smiled at his genuine offer of hospitality.

"The invitation is especially to you, Blake," he added. "Anytime. You now know where to find me."

Blake just nodded, still in a state of shock at what had just happened.

As William took his place at the table, and Mr. Lancolm and Kylah excused themselves to bring out the dinner which Kyah had prepared earlier. Dr. Berling took over officiating with what was still intended to be a meeting.

"We are truly grateful for William's outstanding work over so many years," he said. "He was decades ahead of our momentum. And it seems a true pioneer in amassing the kind of evidence it was going to take to convince the world of alien presence in our heavens. But also his work shows the real breadth and scope the military has used to foment its disinformation to the public for so long. His document collection, spanning some seventy years, is a treasure in itself!"

"Well, I want you all to know," William responded softly, and with some difficulty, "I'm not proud for leaving my family some twenty-five years ago. Beginning this quest for the truth. And I'm taking this time here tonight to personally apologize to you, Blake."

William was looking directly at his son across the table. And again, the room was heavy with emotion.

"Son, however you choose to treat me now or think of me in the future, I accept and deserve. But you all must understand something essential here. Taking on this role of truth finder and collector of evidence was something I felt I had to do. Especially after years of working myself . . . deep inside the darkest pockets of the military establishment. Having seen firsthand what was being done by so many in their efforts to cover things up."

Everyone looked down at their empty plates, frozen by the gravity and seriousness of the moment, and especially out of respect for both Blake and William.

"It's not something we'll dwell on tonight, folks," Dr. Berling said, tempering the immediate feelings in the room, "but William's assumed murder truly was a necessary act. Both to protect his life . . . and also to eliminate the growing chances of being taken hostage and possibly tortured for the whereabout of his life's work. Blake was just very fortunate to have found what it seems no one else could find."

Michael was the first to respond. "So who were the other players out there?"

"Michael, it's obvious certain assets of our own government, once they suspected what William was doing, would not have hesitated in silencing him. Our group was beginning to expect that was going to happen. But there were also foreign elements who were . . . and still are, actively trying to get as much information as they can on extra-terrestrials."

"That explains the break-in and trashing of your hotel room last night," Tuwa said. "And those drug mules who were hired to abduct me."

"OK, this is all obvious now," Michael answered. "The thugs with the Russian accent who offered us all that cash for what we discovered. Jesus!  How did they know what our own government already knew?"