Sarge stood and walked over to the desk. He placed his hands on the desk and looked down at his boss. “It’s an asteroid.”

“We need some drinks.” Lee met Sarge’s eyes but broke off. He pushed his seat back, stood, and headed towards the drink cabinet. “Gavin Sargent, you’re the best sergeant I’ve ever had.”

The boss was close to being drunk, and it was still morning. Obviously a coping mechanism. He rarely called Sarge by his proper name. That, combined with the drinking, concerned him. They’d spent the last few hours going over strategies and needed to focus.

“Best you back off the drink for now. Some other members will be visiting soon.”

“You’re right. In fact, you’re always right. I should appoint you The Great Leader.” He buzzed his intercom. “Brett, could you organise some strong coffee for us.”

“Will do.”

“That could be a good idea, making you The Great Leader. It would take away the complexity involved with your surname: Sargent versus sergeant.”

The alcohol was talking, and Sarge hoped the coffee would deal with it.

“No, you do a good job.” The Great Leader wouldn’t pick up Sarge’s sarcasm. “We just need to get things underway. Get our visitors to use their influencers to pump out stories about doctored images and aliens to their millions of followers.”

“Yep. And get the bots into action. Whatever that action is.”

Sarge had a vague idea how the bots would work. They would automate fake news and opinions about the asteroid through social media channels, influencing what the fraternity wanted people to believe. Once again, the Christians and their beliefs would cop a pasting.

A tap on the door, and Brett wheeled in a trolley with a coffee pod machine and cups.

“What can I get you, sir?” He plugged in the coffee machine.

“Long black for me,” Lee said.

“I’ll have the same, thank you.”

Brett pushed a button, and the high-pressure pump kicked in. Thick and creamy coffee poured into a cup. After starting the process for the second cup, he carried the cup over to Lee. “Your other guests are here, sir. Would you like me to bring them in?”

“Yes, thanks, Brett.”

The aroma escaping from the coffee pod filled the room. Sarge hoped the smell pepped up the mood.

Brett placed Sarge’s coffee on the table and left to get the other guests. The boss took a sip of his coffee, sighed in pleasure, and sat on the couch facing Sarge.

Another gentle tap, and Brett led the visitors into the room, a tall man in cream chinos and an untucked light blue shirt, and an attractive younger woman wearing a businesslike checked grey knee-length dress.

“Welcome, Mr Bruce and Ms Jones. Good to see you both.”

Sarge stood and greeted them. They were both tanned and looked fit.

“What can I get you to drink?” Brett asked. They both chose water.

Bruce sat down beside Sarge while Ms Jones took a seat next to the boss, who tapped on the top of her leg. Her expression conveyed how much she hated that.

“How is Noosa, Mr Bruce? Much damage?”

Bruce sat forward. “Pockets, but not as bad as the news outlets are making out.”

“And are you making progress with the other task?”

“Yes. Things are falling into place nicely. Attended a disaster emergency meeting last night and was able to get solid information on drones.”

“Good. I hope you didn’t raise any suspicions. Your enthusiasm can get you into trouble at times. I say that in a positive way.”

Sarge wasn’t sure about that.

“Getting back to some news Sarge and I were discussing which is timely for our meeting. We know how news outlets work, don’t we? Journos have egos and like attention.”

Lee stood and headed toward the coffee cart. He dropped a pod in, placed his cup on the cup holder and pressed the button. The sound of the coffee machine’s pump and motor vibrated through the room.

“Journos … which is a good lead into what I want to chat about.”

The alcohol was still impacting the conversation.

“There are stories starting to circulate about the thing in the sky. For example, I’ve heard it’s being referred to as an alien spacecraft in some circles.” Lee sat down.

“That wouldn’t be out of the norm,” Jones said. “Aliens are a popular topic with most news organisations and why not? The solar system is so vast it’s hard to deny there must be other intelligent lifeforms out there.”

“Is that so? Wonder why we haven’t encountered any yet.” Lee rubbed his chin. “But these alien stories are normally jammed in with all the other news and don’t seem to remain of interest for long.”

“That’s true. I like reading about such things. But they don’t hang around for long,” Bruce said. “There was an object discovered some years back that they believed could have been part of an alien craft, but the object passed us by, and the news soon died off. There was no panic.”

Lee nodded. “But—and this is a big but—the world can see this thing. Normally alien stories or asteroids don’t have any connection with the people—out of sight, out of mind. This thing reminds everybody, every day. ‘Hey, I’m up here’”

“So is it an alien ship?’ Jones asked.

The boss took a large sip of his coffee and coughed. "Apparently, there are pictures circulating that show an outline of some kind of infrastructure inside the asteroid.”

“Where have they come from?” Jones asked.

“The aliens or the pictures?” Bruce grinned.

Sarge took a deep breath. Bruce better keep his thoughts to himself or else rumblings would come, as Lee had little time for flippant behaviour.

“Thank you, Bruce, for lightening the mood in the room.” The words came through tight lips. “The pictures apparently came from NASA.” Lee looked at each of them. The energy in the room didn’t change, which seemed to please him. “Now, let’s discuss strategy.”

“Pictures can easily be refuted. We can circulate stories easy enough,” Jones said. “But if it remains in the sky or even gets closer, then it could be difficult to control the message.”

“NASA will be able to do something. They must have the technology to deal with it,” Bruce said.

“Then we need to push that out there too. It would be good if someone from NASA could refute the pictures and also discuss their strategies for dealing with such.”

Jones nodded. “I have contacts that can help me there.”

They discussed strategies for a good hour, sometimes going over the same things. Jones left the room to make some calls and returned with a smug look. This lady had a firm belief in herself.