Tom DeLonge A.J. Hartley - Chasing Shadows

This book is dedicated to my children, Ava and Jonas, as we are all trying to build a better world for the next generation.

TOMS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

I WOULD NOT BE HERE PRESENTING THIS HUGE WORK OF art if it wasnt for my beautiful wife Jennifer supporting me and believing in my infinite madness

To our adventure together and beyond.

A.J.S ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND THANKS

THOUGH THIS IS A WORK OF FICTION IT IS GROUNDED AS much as possible in real places and events. As a result, a tremendous amount of research had to go into writing the book and I couldnt have done it without a lot of expert opinion from the armed services and intelligence community, some of which, for obvious reasons, must remain anonymous. I can thank Marine pilots Janine Spendlove and Timmy Hurst; Gray Rinehart on spaceflight engineering; Chris Hartley on satellites and other orbiting tech; and Peter Levenda on Operation Paperclip and Nazi research. Any errors of fact or judgment in the book are entirely mine. My thanks always to the team at To The Stars, to my editor Peter Nelson, to David Wilk, to my agent, Stacey Glick, and to my family who indulge my work beyond all reasonable expectations. I am deeply grateful to you all and to those whose names I cant reveal here. Lastly, a special thanks to Tom DeLonge without whom this book would not have been written, and whose creative vision and yearning for answers was the origin of this novel.

FOREWORD

FOR AS LONG AS I CAN REMEMBER, I HAVE SOUGHT ANSWERS. That search led me to the escape of music, expressing thoughts through my lyrics, voice, and guitar. But it was only one thread of the search. Time saw other paths emerging as family and businesses and hobbies. But I found no challenge for that which was understoodI had a need to find answers to the unexplainable, knowing that the odds of success were even less than that of a kid becoming a rock star. We humans are creation engines, both in thought and physical objects. When my thoughts are challenged by consistent unknowns, I need answers to allow me to see the effects of those unknowns, hoping one day to stumble upon a clue as to their source.

UFOs became one of those journeys. UFOsa vision consistent in mankinds journey from past to present while evading explanation. We have pondered, What are those things in the night sky whose movements defy gravity and explanation? Combine that with the physical world of mankinds amazing creationsharnessing science and technology to advance health, productivity, comfort, convenience, and securityto make answers that fall short of complete. And then there are the others that complicate the questionfame hounds, lunatics, and intellectuals polluting the search with distractions. I knew, and know, there has to be an answer. And it will be a simple answer once we hear it. But right now, that answer evades our understanding. It is like trying to understand the description of a color we have never seen.

As my search grew, opportunities arosesome as a result of that search, but others by fortunate circumstance. And so, it was an unusual summer morning in 2015 when I got the call from an old friend who worked at one of the largest and most elite defense contractors in United States. Even though he had recently retired, he told me for the first time his company was having an Open House: a day when relatives of employees can come and celebrate with their significant others (husbands, wives, mothers, fathers) in what they do on any given day under the guise of absolute secrecy. He asked me if I would be willing to introduce their Lead Executive, the head of their advanced programs division (The BossMan, as I call him to people who dont need to know the details of his identity) to the crowd. I instantly said yes, but said only if I can sit with him for a few minutes. I wasnt sure why I said that, I just knew that was an opportunity I needed to take advantage of.

When the meeting came, I took the bull by the horns, and I pitched him an idea, mostly about a benign idea I had for a project that could help the youth lose their cynical views of the Government and the Department of Defense. In many ways Sekret Machines was just that and a few other things as well.

The meeting went well to say the least, and he said I could come up and give him more details at a second meeting.

That next meeting was the time I entered four layers of security; Guns, electronic code entry systems, hallways with speakers lining nondescript ceilings (playing white noise so nobody could hear each others conversations), and a series of solid doors flanking my view, each with rotary locks and not a single window in sight. Maybe because all that was out there was nothing and that nothing was surrounding many miles of secret airspace directly above.

By the time I got into the half-assed pitch, I had way more than I bargained for, including two top engineering executives of the company, and another who, unfortunately, had done quite a bit of research on me. I talked about a lot of things, but I did NOT talk about UFOs. I was smarter than that. The issue was, that Exec knew that I was quite into that taboo subject. So she asked me point-blank: What are your intentions with the conspiracy stuff?

I tried to dodge the question (knowing Id just been caught long before ever leaving the damn runway), and by the grace of God I was saved by someone new walking in. The BossMan decided to attend. I thanked him for coming, he looked to the side, then back to my fish-out-of-water eyes and said, We cannot be involved in any type of project whatsoever that has this topic associated with it, specifically because theres never been any evidence whatsoever that this stuff even exists. I thought: Holy shit, Im in trouble. Were they monitoring my stress level? Did they know I was shitting my pants? I hadnt even pleaded my case yet.

The only thing I could think to say at that exact moment was this: If Edgar Allan Mitchellthe sixth man to walk on the moonis out telling every kid in the world that this topic is real, then we have a problem. But thats okay, we dont need to talk about this subject, or include this information, we just need to address these credibility issues at some point. But give me your time, please, to hear me out.

And then I went for a Hail Mary. Sir, can I speak to you alone for five minutes?

Everybody looked around at each other, baffled. Then, he said: Sure.

Now, I cannot tell you what I said to this man in that meeting, and I cannot tell you about the hour-long conversation I had with the other two executives right afterward. But I can say that over the next few months things started to go light-speed for this project. I was no longer alone to offer a vision, an inspiration, a piece of art to provoke ones mind with possibilities. After all, are these not the gifts of literature and film?

I am here to tell you that an entire history of an unexplained and infamous mytha LegendITS ALL TRUE.

It started to get very serious when I got an email by The BossMan a few weeks later to meet next to the Pentagon at a certain day, at a certain time. He was going to introduce me to somebody who was connected. You see, I grew some balls and sent him the prologue that Peter Levenda and I were working on for a series of nonfiction books, a thesis on certain elements within this project. And it seemed to have made quite the impression, because now I was on my way to meet others.

I was scared when I entered the dark room; I had no idea whatsoever what I was walking into. I had no reason to be doing these types of things, anyway. But I was ignited by a passion within that it was time to put myself out there a bit and accomplish something I believe is hugely important. I spoke for about forty-five minutes straight as a man stared across at me from a wooden table with squinty, learned eyes. He had a beard, a suit tired from a full days work, and a hand gripping his adjacent wrist: a posture that seemed full of confidence. He really did look straight out of a spy movie, if youve ever seen one.