"Try now, Bobby," he said, attempting to keep calm.
The boy stood in the moonlight in front of the blind, very still, as if collecting the silence out of the night. Once he shook his head as though to clear it and started to say something. Then, for a long minute, he held his face toward the moon as if he were listening.
Suddenly, he giggled.
"What is it?" Ward snapped, unable to repress his impatience.
"I'm not sure. I thought it seemed something like a joke."
"Try to ask where they're from."
A moment later, the boy shook his head. "I guess I can't get anything," he said. "All I seem to get is that they're saying, 'We're here.' As if they didn't understand me."
"All right. Try to get anything."
A moment later, the ship turned on edge, or shifted its shape, and slid back into the sky. Ward picked up the phone and called Saucer Control.
"Got it," the bored voice said.