Saucer

Chapter Four

'Who are you people?' Rip asked and pointed his own flashlight toward the voices. He saw a khaki uniform and a gray-green flight suit.

'U.S. Air Force. And just who are you?' A male voice with a flat Texas twang to it.

'Name's Rip Cantrell.'

'Did you fly this thing here?'

'Yeah, sure. I just park it under this tarp when we need to work on it. Don't want it to get rained on.'

'Who you work for, smart-ass?'

'Wellstar Petroleum. We're seismic surveyors.'

'Uh-huh.' They were standing just above him, near the edge of the rock ledge, looking under the flap of the tarp at the saucer. The man was in his thirties, maybe, and the woman was… well, with just the flashlight, it was hard to tell. Mid twenties. Late twenties, perhaps. Pretty, with her hair pulled back in a ponytail, wearing a flight suit and a flight jacket.

'You people got names?' Rip asked.

'I'm Major Stiborek and this is Captain Pine.' He gestured toward the woman.

'Not anymore,' the woman said. 'Now it's just plain ol' Charley Pine. I got out of the Air Force two weeks ago.'

'What are you doing hanging around with these flyboys?'

'Now I'm a civil servant. Same job.'

'Get acquainted later,' the major snarled at her.

'Easy, buddy,' Rip said. 'Don't be so touchy.'

'We didn't expect to find Americans here,' Charley remarked.

'Who did you expect to find?'

She didn't answer. The major merely played his flashlight back and forth across the saucer.

'Unbelievable,' he muttered to the woman, so softly that Rip almost missed it.

Rip cleared his throat. 'So,' he said as matter-of-factly as he could, 'did your camel break down near here, or are you just scoping out desert real estate?'

'Something like that.'

'Or are you out snooping around?'

The major was still running his flashlight back and forth over the saucer. After a moment or two he asked, 'Did your survey crew uncover this thing?'

Rip flipped off his flashlight and stuck it in his hip pocket. 'Tell you what, Tex,' he said. 'This isn't Uncle Sam's business. Why don't you folks just buzz off into the wild black yonder?'

'Sorry,' the woman said. She actually did sound sorry. 'This is government business.'

'Bullshit,' Rip shot back, feeling his face flush. He hated being talked down to. 'We're smack in the middle of the Sahara Desert. You people get back on your camels and fork 'em out of here.'

'There's six of our people down at the camp, kid,' the major said brusquely. 'You have two options. You can walk down like a gentleman to join your friends, or I can take you down there by the scruff of the neck.'

Rip took two steps toward the ledge. The major's ankles were within range, so he grabbed them and pulled. The major smacked down hard on his butt, and groaned.

'You've made your brag, buddy. You think you're man enough, you take me there.'

'Rip!' Dutch Haagen's shout split the night. 'Get down here. We got company.'

'Holy Jesus, Charley!' the major exclaimed. 'I think my left hip is broken.'

'Mr. Cantrell,' the woman said, exasperated. 'Would you please be so kind as to help me carry Major Big Mouth to the camp?'

'Just a minute,' Rip said and slipped under the saucer. He closed the hatch.

When he got back to the groaning major and the woman, he said, 'So your name is Charley?'

'Charlotte. Charley.'

'Who are you people?' Rip asked her as they hoisted the major. Rip had the major's left arm over his shoulders, Pine his right.

'I'm a test pilot,' she said. 'Major Macho is an aerospace engineer. Our boss, Colonel West, whom you will meet shortly, is head of the Air Force's UFO project.'

'UFOs! Oh, wow. Did someone around here call you about one?'

'Very funny. Our primary mission is to keep the public from panicking over unexplained phenomena.'

'Let's not talk out of school, Charley,' Major Stiborek muttered.

'How about I drop you again, Tex?'

'Please be nice, Mr. Cantrell,' Charley Pine said. 'We've had a very long day. We started out thirty-six hours ago in Nevada.'

'Charley!'

'Shut up, Mike.'

'Are you two married or something?' Rip asked.

'Or something. A mistake I made in one of my weaker moments.'

'Do you really like him or just need sex?'

Major Stiborek cussed; Charley laughed. Rip thought she had a good laugh.

'So you guys flew in from Cairo?'

'From Aswan. And then rode twenty miles across the desert at night in a hummer.'

Colonel West was talking when Rip and Charley Pine deposited the major by one of the lanterns that was brilliantly illuminating the camp area. The colonel and five enlisted men stood facing Bill, Dutch, and Professor Soldi. The Air Force people wore sweat-stained fatigues. The enlisted men carried rifles on straps over their shoulders. For the first time, Rip noticed that Major Stiborek and Charley Pine were wearing pistols in holsters, as was Colonel West. The vehicles the Air Force people had used were not in sight.

West was saying: '… are here by the direct order of the National Command Authority. By that I mean the president of the United States. I certainly hope you gentlemen are going to give the United States government your full and complete cooperation.'

'Well, of course, Colonel,' Dutch Haagen said, then looked curiously at the major, who was rubbing his hip and chewing savagely on his lower lip.

'He had an accident,' Rip explained. 'Fell.'

West had other things on his mind. 'I want to see this saucer shape. Will you please lead the way, Mr. Haagen?'

'Before we go anywhere, Colonel,' Professor Soldi put in, 'perhaps we should have an understanding. This is an archaeological site, as defined by the United States Code. The Air Force has no jurisdiction whatever over an archaeological site. As a professional archaeologist, as defined by the United States Code, I do. I am in charge here.'

'Don't go quoting law to me, Professor. We aren't in the United States, and I have my orders.'

'I don't care about your orders, Colonel. I know American and international law. As an archaeologist, I have a moral and legal obligation to protect that artifact. I promise you that if it's harmed in any way you're going to wind up in front of a federal judge.'

The colonel gave the professor a hard look.

The professor glared right back. Rip had thought the archaeologist something of an old fossil, but now he revised his opinion.

'Sergeant,' said Colonel West in a flinty voice, 'search these men and their gear for satellite telephones. Confiscate all the com gear you find.'

'Yes, sir.'

'This is my party, Professor,' West snarled. 'I intend to examine that thing. What happens after that depends on what I find.'