"It's like someone took scrap metal and made somethin' with it. Then attached it to the launch pad." He opened up the file folder he'd been carrying and produced a grainy black and white photo.

Reinforcement bars, like the kind used when building concrete structures, were arranged haphazardly in a weird sigil-like pattern.

"There's no construction projects within ten miles of here," the guard said. "An' ain't nobody been around. We had to scrub the last launch to take one just like it down. Then after the launch it came back."