Saucer

chooses.'

'I see.'

'Only the strong survive,' Hedrick continued. 'The saucer will make some nation very strong.'

'… A beautiful woman,' the Russian was saying, 'should never sleep alone.'

Charley Pine turned to him with a start. 'What makes you think I sleep alone?'

The senior Chinese official did not speak English, so Hedrick's translator adroitly appeared at his elbow as Hedrick approached, with Charley Pine and her entourage a few paces behind.

'Mr. Wu, it is a great honor having the vice premier of the People's Republic here as my guest.'

Wu nodded and puffed furiously on his cigar.

Hedrick steamed on. 'I hope you are as impressed with the saucer as I have been these last few days.'

'Yes, yes,' said Wu between puffs, according to the translator.

'Perhaps the hour has finally come for China to surpass Japan as the superpower in Asia.'

Wu looked at his watch.

A bit nonplussed, Hedrick continued, 'With a billion and a half people, China needs the nuclear technology contained in this machine.' He laid a manicured hand on the saucer. 'Freedom from oil, a clean, safe fuel, computer technology fifty years ahead of its time — the saucer will give some nation a huge technological lift. In the right hands, it might allow a national economy to leapfrog decades of development.'

'Perhaps it confers too large an advantage,' Wu muttered and appeared to lose himself in thought and tobacco smoke.

'I have had much experience with matters romantic,' the Russian test pilot said softly to Charley Pine, who had missed the last sixty seconds of his pickup spiel.

Ten feet away, Roger Hedrick gazed at the saucer as if it were a holy relic for a few more seconds, then moved off toward the small knot of people surrounding the senior European.

Charley looked up into her Russian's warm blue eyes, smiled distractedly, then launched off after Hedrick.

Hedrick made an oblique approach to Pieraut, who was in conference with the German and Italian, as usual. 'Here, gentlemen,' he said, sweeping his hand at the saucer, 'is the catalyst to allow the European economy to catch and surpass the United States. Think what the technology you have seen today could do for the European aerospace industry! Gentlemen, the time has come to expand our horizons, to realize that there are no limits. None at all.'

'Unfortunately,' the German said, 'there are always limits, Mr. Hedrick. The saucer has to be paid for, one way or another. But we were wondering, Why are the Americans not here? The British?'

'I did not invite the Americans or the British,' Hedrick said. 'I suspect they might be tempted to try to take the saucer from me by force or legal process.' 'Have they a legal claim?'

'Of course not. The saucer was discovered by an employee of a company of mine. I own the saucer and have the right to do with it what I will. My intention is to sell it to the highest bidder.'

The Italian looked skeptical, Charley Pine thought. After handshakes with every member of the delegation, Hedrick moved on.

The senior Russian was a fiery young man named Krasnoyarsk. The Russian translator hovered at Hedrick's elbow. 'An extraordinary device, is it not, Mr. Krasnoyarsk?'

'Quite extraordinary.'

'The nation that mines the technology embodied in the saucer will gain a large competitive advantage,' Hedrick murmured. 'Here is the catalyst that will enable Russia once again to become a superpower.'

'Russia is a poor nation, Mr. Hedrick,' said Krasnoyarsk with sadness in his voice. 'I am wondering why a man who wants so much money would invite my government to participate in this auction. Surely you don't think we have the foreign exchange to pay twenty, thirty, forty billion dollars or more for this?' He gestured with his left hand.

'Can Russia afford not to own this technology?'

Charley missed Krasnoyarsk's reply because the Russian test pilot moved in front of her. She blew smoke in his face and stepped around him.

Krasnoyarsk was saying, 'Mr. Hedrick, if you were selling tickets to heaven for a hundred dollars each, very few Russians could afford to purchase one. Instead, we would jump up and down outside on the sidewalk, shouting, 'Isn't that cheap? Isn't that cheap?''

'I understand Russia lacks the foreign exchange to make an outright purchase.'

'At least this trip offered us a nice airplane ride and some fine cognac and cigars,' said Krasnoyarsk after he listened to the translation. 'After the collapse of communism, we could no longer afford Mr. Castro's fine cigars.'

Hedrick pursed his lips while he considered what to say. 'Perhaps your government should consider selling something of great value, something more capital intensive than the saucer.'

'More capital intensive? The saucer's technology will soak up capital like a sponge. It will require new raw materials, new manufacturing techniques, new insights in chemistry, physics, mathematics, new factories, new everything. Believe me, Mr. Hedrick, we Russians know all about investing for tomorrow. We did that for seventy years.'

Hedrick nodded. He half turned so that he and

Krasnoyarsk were both facing the saucer. 'still,' the Australian said, 'I can think of something that would require more capital than the development of the technology in the saucer.'

With a cigar between his teeth, Krasnoyarsk placed both hands on the smooth, dark, curved surface of the saucer and caressed it sensuously. 'What?' he asked,

'Siberia,' said Hedrick and took another tiny sip of cognac.

Charley Pine took a drag on her cigar and scrutinized Hedrick with new respect. The bastard thinks big.

The Russian test pilot whispered in her ear, 'So, we sleep together, yes?'

Charley Pine almost gagged on cigar smoke. She exhaled explosively and coughed. When that subsided, she whispered to Ivan the Russian Romeo, 'If only we could, but I have a social disease. It's a pesky little bug, and with medical help so iffy in Russia… '

When the Cantrells returned to the Higginbotham Building in Dallas for their second appointment, Mrs. Higginbotham had with her a gentleman about her age with white hair and ruddy skin, a lawyer named Rufus Howell.

After she introduced Howell, Mrs. Higginbotham said as she settled into her chair, 'Tell me, Arthur, what is your interest in this matter?'

Egg looked a bit embarrassed. This was only the second time that he had worn a suit in five years. Yesterday was the first.

'Rip has spent every summer at my place in Missouri since his father died ten years ago. I got him interested in engineering. He's like a son to me, a son I never had.'

'And you brought your brother into this?'

'That's correct. I wanted legal advice.'

'I will be blunt with you, gentlemen. How much money is the saucer worth?'

Egg took a deep breath as he thought about that question. 'In the short run it's worth whatever a seller could induce a buyer to pay. In the long run, I think it will be the catalyst for much of the technological progress of our species in the twenty-first century. What is it worth? It's priceless. It's the Wright Brothers' first airplane, Bell's telephone, and Edison's lightbulb, all in one object.'

Mrs. Higginbotham's face glowed. 'Have you seen the saucer?'

Egg nodded. 'And flown in it. The experience of a lifetime, I'm telling you.' He lowered his voice conspiratorially and leaned forward in his chair. 'I was in the saucer when we flew over Coors Field in Denver.'

Mrs. Higginbotham laughed. Even the lawyer grinned.

'How extraordinary,' she said after a bit. 'We are imprisoned in this place and time, and yet… ' She fell silent.