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"Neither approach will be easy," Adam replies

"Can’t you just nuke the our i man, but there are still people down there Nuclear warfare is off the table here in America I can’t say the sah to blow up those giant ships over the cities," Daniela ardless of what approach we take, the cloaking devices re with an incredibly small stockpile e need one per ship or one perthem into the hands of our allies" Lawson pauses for breath "How long will it take to have enough on hand to mount an attack on the warships?"

"All of them?" I ask "At once?"

"That’s how this operations plays out, John We hit theethe element of surprise If we let them knoe can break their shields too early, the paraht now, they’ve got a boot on our necks; they think we’re pinned, out of the fight They don’t knoe’ve still got a knife up our sleeve But we need that tech And we’re up against a ticking clock Unless you kno long Setrákus Ra will be in this vat of his?" he asks, looking at Ella

Ella shakes her head

"Then you understand how precarious our situation is," Lawson concludes "We’ll likely get one shot at this, and it needs to be soon"

I take all this in, a little on my heels Lawson doesn’t paint a very rosy picture Maybe I’ht mind-set to help coordinate an international counterattack Luckily, I’ve got backup

Six peers down the table at Ella "There are new Loralite stones growing across the Earth, right?"

"Yes," Ella says "I can sense theo We use those to deliver the cloaking devices around the world"

Lawson looks at me "These are the stones you , yes?"

I nod