Saucer

'This whole thing is very troubling,' the president said. 'I don't know what our options are.'

'Mr. President,' Bombing Joe began, 'the CIA tells me that Qaddafi may have our UFO team in custody, and — ' 'Don't try to blame this on Qaddafi,' O'Reilly snarled, interrupting.

'I was trying to say that — '

'I know high-tech when I see it. That thing' — O'Reilly pointed at the video from Egypt — 'sure as hell looks high-tech to me.'

'Who knows what it is?' Bombing Joe sneered. 'You ought to go to the movies more often. It's absolutely amazing what the special effects crowd can do with computers these days.'

The national security adviser picked up a wad of computer printouts of wire service stories on the St. Louis boom and the Indiana appearance and fluttered them. 'Twenty-seven sane people in Indiana swore they saw a flying saucer in broad daylight from a range of less than a hundred yards. Four of those twenty-seven swore they touched it! Special effects?'

Bombing Joe tried earnestly to explain: 'I'm telling you that nothing in anybody's inventory looks like that thing on television or flies like that. Sure, we have some black projects, but they are airplanes, for God's sake. You know that! I resent the implication that the Air Force has developed some magic machine without the knowledge of the government.'

'What if it's really a flying saucer?' the president asked. The president was a politician because he enjoyed being in front of a crowd. He wanted to be liked, yet he hated making decisions. 'From somewhere out there? Do you realize the implications? Technically advanced beings from another world? Would I have to meet them in the Rose Garden, surrender the nation?'

Just then Dr. Jim Bob Cantwell, the famous evangelist, appeared on CNN. 'The events we are witnessing today herald the coming of the Antichrist,' he intoned.

Furious, P.J. O'Reilly grabbed the television remote control and shut off Cantwell. 'Cantwell is a fool,' he growled.

Another serious person pointed out, 'A sizable percentage of the voters are churchgoers. They are worried about the implications of this saucer mania on their faith.'

'I don't do religion,' the president said firmly. 'Other than a few platitudes on holidays — '

Bombing Joe excused himself and walked from the room, looking for a telephone. He should have retired years ago and got seriously into golf; he knew that now.

Chapter Ten

It was early evening when Rip and Egg Cantrell climbed the gentle grade to the small house nestled in the trees. Charley Pine was wearing her gray flight suit, now clean, and pacing back and forth in front of the television.

Both the men looked tired, she thought. 'The water cracker was full of mud,' Rip told her. 'Egg cleaned it out. We're ready to go.'

'Go where?'

'I don't know,' Rip said crossly. 'Somewhere that the Air Force and Qaddafi and those Aussie nuts can't find us.' The injustice of the pursuit bothered him. The saucer was his.

Charley gestured toward the television. 'Sit down, you two. Watch some of this. It's a media meltdown. Every channel has flying saucers continuously or is offering instant updates for breaking news.'

They sat. CNN was running the video of the saucer lifting off from the shore of Lake Nasser one more time. 'This has been on every channel on earth ten dozen times today,' Charley explained. 'The only saving grace is that the tape starts with the saucer lifting off, not with Rip and me pouring water into it or climbing aboard.'

'Humpf.'

'The West Coast… St Louis… Upshur, Indiana… the press has done it up brown. They've interviewed everyone who might have a pebble to contribute. Just for balance, they've also interviewed every UFO nutcase in the country who is willing to say something outrageous.'

She flipped through the channels to give them a taste of it.

Five minutes was enough. 'Turn it off,' Rip said. 'Let's go get something to eat. I'm starved.'

As Charley reached for the clicker, the talking head mentioned Clarksville, Missouri. Egg held up his hand. 'Wait,' he said. 'Clarksville is just east of here.'

A farmer appeared. 'I saw a saucer this morning, so I did,' he announced solemnly. 'Right over the treetops, flying along quiet as a prayer. Round it was, sorta dark, black-like in the mist and rain, sinister as all get-out. I was on the tractor, going down to plow the winter-wheat field, when it caught my eye…

'Wouldn't be talking about it now, you understand, but I called my minister. He said it was my Christian duty to tell what I know so the government can take steps, do what has to be done to protect us from them.''Them?' Egg asked.

'Them,' Charley said firmly and turned off the television. 'The hunters are close, Rip. Just a few miles from here. They'll be here soon.'

Egg swiveled to examine her face. 'The government is looking for the saucer?'

'Absolutely. Satellites photographed the saucer in the Sahara. My UFO team was sent to investigate.' She wasn't about to mention the hypersonic reconnaissance plane, the very existence of which was a top secret. 'The other members of the team were there when Rip and I flew it out. As soon as the U.S. government knows who we are, they'll find out where our parents live, where we grew up. They'll look for us by talking to all those people, checking every place we might be.'

'You're speculating,' Rip said, his face ominous.

'Bet on it, Rip,' Egg replied, not in the mood for argument. 'Go on, Ms. Pine. Tell us all of it.'

'The only reason the FBI isn't knocking on your door right now is that the Libyans probably are holding Rip's colleagues and mine — and the Aussies — incommunicado. As soon as the Air Force learns our identities from the UFO team, the FBI will be called in to find us.'

'The FBI will try to hold on to the information,' Egg mused. 'They won't want to get trampled by reporters.' 'It'll get out anyway,' Rip said, rubbing his chin. 'Of course it will,' Charley said. 'Someone will leak it or one of our relatives will talk to a friend, who will talk to a reporter or talk to someone who will. This is too hot. The press will find out. The FBI will be trying to stay a jump ahead.'

'How long do we have?' Rip asked. 'However long the Libyans give us. As soon as they release our crowd, all of them will dive for a phone. I think we'll know when it happens because Professor Soldi has to get on television as fast as he can. If he doesn't get the story out, the Air Force will scarf the saucer when they find it, and neither he nor you nor anyone else will ever see it again. It'll go straight to Area Fifty-one; no one in government will ever admit that it exists. Soldi's no fool. He knows what is at stake.'

'It sounds as if you have a little time,' Egg said to Rip. 'Uncle Egg,' said Charley Pine, 'people are out there looking this very minute. Space Command tracked the saucer as it came into the atmosphere. The Air Force will assume the object they saw on radar was the saucer or a meteor. They will use every law enforcement resource available to find where the thing came down: state police, county mounties, National Guard, everybody. Those people are out there right now beating the bushes, looking for little green men. Some of that has been on television.

There's an element of public hysteria in all this that television and government are both pandering to. The politicians get on camera and ask that everyone remain calm. It's ludicrous.'

'So just what is at stake, Ms. Pine?' Egg asked.

'You've seen the saucer,' Charley Pine shot back. 'You tell me.'

'I can cook here or we can go to town,' Egg told his guests. 'Town is twenty miles down the road.'

'I vote for town,' Rip said. 'I've been three months in the desert. I want a decent meal, and Charley and I need to buy some clothes.'

'Are you insulting my cooking?' Egg asked hotly, which made Rip laugh.

'Can Air Traffic Control see the saucer on their radar?' Rip asked Charley as they rode down the two-lane