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“Twisted. Explosive. The best thriller of the year!” New York Times bestselling author Faith Hunter A novel based on actual events From the imagination of With New York Times bestselling author SEKRET MACHINES From the imagination of TOM DELONGE with New York Times bestselling author A.J. HARTLEY BOOK 1 CHASING SHADOWS Sekret Machines Book 1: Chasing Shadows Copyright © 2016 by Tom DeLonge All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any fashion, print, facsimile, or electronic, or by any method yet to be developed, without express written permission of the publisher. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events, are unintended and entirely coincidental. To The Stars, Inc. 1051 S. Coast Hwy 101 Suite B, Encinitas, CA 92024 ToTheStars.Media To The Stars… and Sekret Machines is a trademark of To the Stars, Inc. Cover Design by Jesse Reed Book Design by Lamp Post Managing Editor: Kari DeLonge Manufactured in the United States of America ISBN 978-1-943272-15-0 (Hard Cover trade) ISBN 978-1-943272-16-7 (eBook) ISBN 978-1-943272-17-4 (Hard Cover Limited Edition) Distributed worldwide by Simon & Schuster This book is dedicated to my children, Ava and Jonas, as we are all trying to build a better world for the next generation. TOM’S ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: I would not be here presenting this huge work of art if it wasn’t for my beautiful wife Jennifer supporting me and believing in my infinite madness— To our adventure together and beyond. VII 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 couldn’t have done it without a lot of expert opinion from the armed services and intelligence com- munity, some of which, for obvious reasons, must remain anonymous. I can thank Marine pilots Janine Spendlove and “Timmy” Hurst; Gray Rinehart on spaceflight engi- neering; 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 can’t 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. IX 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 emerg- ing as family and businesses and hobbies. But I found no challenge for that which was understood—I 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. UFOs—a vision consistent in mankind’s 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 mankind’s amazing creations—harnessing science and XI SEKRET MACHINES technology to advance health, productivity, comfort, con- venience, and security—to make answers that fall short of complete. And then there are the others that complicate the question—fame hounds, lunatics, and intellectuals pollut- ing 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 understand- ing. It is like trying to understand the description of a color we have never seen. As my search grew, opportunities arose—some 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 don't 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 wasn't 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 XII CHASING SHADOWS 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 other’s 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, unfortu- nately, 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 . con- spiracy stuff?” I tried to dodge the question (knowing I'd 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, XIII SEKRET MACHINES 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 there's never been any evidence whatsoever that this stuff even exists.” I thought: Holy shit, I’m in trouble. Were they monitoring my stress level? Did they know I was shitting my pants? I hadn’t even pleaded my case yet. The only thing I could think to say at that exact moment was this: “If Edgar Allan Mitchell—the sixth man to walk on the moon—is out telling every kid in the world that this topic is real, then we have a problem. But that's okay, we don't 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 conver- sation 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 one’s 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 unex- plained and infamous myth—a Legend—IT’S ALL TRUE. XIV CHASING SHADOWS 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.

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