There's a character who as a teenager is a prisoner of war in Germany, and he sees the Germans working on something in a mine. That's a real mine, they were working on something, and they really did smuggle it out after World War II and continued to work on it long after the war. [Ed. note: He's referring to Die Glocke, or The Bell, a rumored Nazi "Wonder Weapon" with supernatural capabilities.] There's another interlude where these UFOs show up over a nuclear weapons facility and turn off the missiles. Before they turned off, they turned them on and the missiles started getting ready to launch one by one. That's a true story. I was told straight to my face by somebody about that event and the ramifications of it and what the intent was when those missiles started turning on.

We're dealing with what most people think is science fiction and paranormal and fringe stuff dreamed up by people in tinfoil hats. But that's not what this is. It's very real. It's a part of the workings of the universe. It's no different from us building a jet plane and flying over the ocean. It's just somebody else building something different, somebody who has a ways and means to an end that we're still trying to understand.

Why did you decide to start with a fiction novel?

The enormity of what's being told might hit people in a weird way if it was just laid on their lap all at once. It's better to go step by step to understand how we found these things and dealt with them. Years ago I watched Thirteen Days, that Kevin Costner movie about the Cuban Missile Crisis, and at the time the enormity of what had happened blew my mind. In school you learn that we almost went to nuclear war and the stakes were so big and we all almost died. Then the bell rings and you go to lunch. It didn't seem like that big of a deal back then. But when I watched the film I was like, My God this really was a big deal. It made me want to go to the bookstore and to buy the tapes of J.F.K. in the Oval Office to hear him going through that period of time, arguing and debating and fearfully trying to come up with a plan to stop a very real nuclear war. In many ways, that's what this project is doing. It's meant to show you how things unfolded so it hits you harder and makes you want to engage with the non-fiction material to really understand what you're being told.

You wrote in the introduction that you've always sought answers. What is it that drives your quest for answers? Do you want closure? Is it curiosity? Or do you want accountability?

That's a really good question. I like that you said accountability. No one has ever said that to me. Wow, maybe that's what it is.

Like you were saying, the Cuban Missile Crisis had massive ramifications for everyone in country, if not the world. I think Bob Dylan said that during the time he thought it was the Apocalypse.

Yeah, I mean, imagine. People really thought it was the end of the world. Accountability is such an interesting word to bring up. I've always been obsessed with what the world is and why we're here and what's the larger picture. We're going to work and school every day. I mean, God, it's so boring. What's the point? So I always looked up and thought, There's got to be more to this. But when I looked up and tried to figure that out, it kind of throws you into these topics that are ridiculed. And they always led to a dead end. You could never get enough information. Then you throw in accountability. There's a huge part of me that believes that this topic deals with the government and people in power who are accountable for who we are, for the people. This is a government by the people, for the people kind of idea. It seems like somewhere along the way we lost that. Let me tell you, what I found out could not be further from the truth. I’ve had discussions with the highest ranking people in the military, the highest—I mean you can count the stars on their shoulders—who physically pointed out which law they operate under. Every conversation I had with them was always about the betterment of “The Republic.” I can't tell you how many conversations I've had with these guys about what's best for our republic. I was like, Wow no one knows how thoughtful these guys actually are about what they do. And then I started figuring out the right questions to ask. When I got answers about why these secrets are kept, the ongoing issues, the enormity of the task at hand, I realized that it's heroic. It would make everyone feel very patriotic, but it will also bring the world together. It would really cut down the differences between people because so much of this has to do with religion and cosmology and how we're working with other countries that no one would believe we actually have relationships with. That's also what I found exciting. There are some positives within something that I think is frankly pretty fucking scary.