3m-pinneo-batwing

A young family vanishes in shallow water in front of Guy Bergmann; he's determined to understand how that could happen.  He saves a baby from the arms of the mother as she is drawn down in a sinking boat at a launch ramp.  How could three people "disappear" in front of him?  Bergmann, sailing in his baidarka after the disappearance, sees man-sized shadows over his boat from a cloudless sky, but is too preoccupied to focus on the second anomaly

.Bergman and the ranger are interviewed by two reporters.  Bergmann tests the recovered boat; it doesn't sink this time.  After a dinner discussion with the ranger and the reporters, Bergmann invites one of them, Juanita Jerez, to go sailing the next day.  They see shadows from a cloudless sky as they begin a romantic relationship.  After rejecting all the reasonable explanations of how 24 people could disappear near water; no blood, no bodies, no struggle, he decides extraterrestrials are collecting humans for some purpose.  With the ranger, an FBI agent, and Juanita, he visits the launch ramp to find flying ETs, Batwings, waiting for them.