Puzzle With August

His garage apartment was small, but it was pleasant enough. Tom had lived here for nearly twenty years. After his mother died, their house was taken over by his younger sister and her family. For that reason, he had to move out. Besides, he never made enough to buy it. The Hernandez's were family friends from way back, and lived off of Cortez Road for years. In twenty years, they only raised Tom's rent twice. 

Which was good, as Tom had trouble keeping jobs more than a couple of years. Somehow, his past always caught up with him, and he'd leave before the "weirdness" really began. There were times Tom wondered if it wasn't being orchestrated.

He had a desk against a window, really just a table, and managed to keep it somewhat straightened. 

The only problem was his cat, August. 

August was a brown tabby short hair, three years old. He found him as a stray along the road, a kitten. In three years, August had grown in be a good sized cat, and was convinced of his superiority. He was a house cat by choice, never wanting to go outside again. 

It was August's job to keep Tom on his toes, usually by knocking things off the desk. At least he left the bookshelves alone.

Tom arrived home just before sunset, trying to keep his mind on his work, not saying a word to anybody. Just before he clocked out for the day, he heard the Blackhawk helicopter leave, heading off to the south, right over the shop. Then, he noticed that no other aircraft could be heard for a long time. Not even business jets, which used the airport frequently. It was when he was headed home that he saw a Gulfstream swoop in. He was sure that the drop in activity was because of the little craft he had pictures of.

He wanted to know what it was. 

After putting the motorcycle away in the garage, he climbed the stairs to his place. While he fumbled with his keys, he could hear a hungry August crying through the door. 

"Hang on, big guy, I hear ya. I swear, all you do is eat and crap... okay, not just that..." he said unlocking the door. 

August did the usual weaving between Tom's legs as he walked in. 

"Let's get a look at your food situation," Tom said, as he walked over to August's dishes. "Look, you still have food, see? Just shake the dish... tada! It's full again! Amazing!"

He put the dish back down. August looked up at him.

"Okay, not buying it. Hang on."

After pouring out some more food and refilling the water, Tom sat at his desk. Nothing was knocked totally out of place today, though it was clear that August had been laying up here to look out the window. Even though there was another window next to the bed, the cat preferred this one.

The old tablet that Tom had might have been dated, but he had customized it significantly. Transferring the images from his phone to the tablet took seconds, and now Tom could see them in a bit more detail.

The strange little plane was definitely a lifting body, a wedge shaped craft that didn't rely on wings for lift. The body did most of the work, hence the name. This one was almost familiar to Tom. He noticed it lacked military markings, something he knew that even classified aircraft carried. It definitely had just returned from space, as there were scorch marks.

But he noticed something on the tail. 

NASA. 

At first he thought it was the old red NASA "worm" logo that was retired in the 1990's, but then he zoomed in.

It wasn't exactly the worm logo. It was more angular, lacking the flow of that logo. Both of the "A"'s were crossed as well, and there was a red slash above and below.

What it looked like was if someone had to create a NASA logo with nothing really to go on. It looked good, but was just... odd. 

Ahead of the two gray fins, on the upper body just behind the parafoil hatches, he could see a US flag. 

Nothing about this little aircraft said classified. 

There were commercial lifting bodies being developed, but none were flight ready, not for years yet. The shape of this one, though, started to look familiar. 

He went over to his bookshelf and found a book about the development us the space shuttle. The first few chapters were about the background research, and included lifting bodies. Tom scanned through it, and found what he was looking for. 

The Martin X-24A. 

He began to read. This rotund little lifting body program started in the mid-1960's, and officially ended in 1975. But the machine was modified into the X-24B, which looked nothing like this.

There was still a resemblance to the A model, a really great resemblance, right down to the fins. The only difference was the canopy, which was faired in and only had a clear wedged shaped windscreen, the rest being solid. It was also slightly larger, from what he could tell. 

Tom leaned back and put his hands behind his neck. 

"This makes no damned sense," he said.

August answered with a "brrrp."

"Yeah, Auggie, I don't get this. This thing... I mean, this is a serious 'what-the-hell' moment. Everything about it says civilian, yet... it doesn't exist. It shouldn't. Yet there it is. Damn."

He looked at the image again, and then something caught his eye, something he hadn't noticed. A small detail.

The flag. 

He zoomed in as much as possible. 

The blue field was larger, going down to the fifth red stripe. 

And there was an extra row of stars.