Rip Cantrell was also eating steak. Amazingly, the delivery driver was still on his feet in the bar when Rip returned the van. He had apparently been drinking beer all day.
'Here, mate,' the driver said. 'Sit and I'll buy you one.'
Rip insisted on buying the driver dinner after he returned the van to the market's parking lot. Now the two of them were eating kangaroo steak.
'Lucky day for me when you came along,' the driver said. He had graduated from beer to whiskey.
'Are you married?'
'Oh, yeah. Little woman at home.'
'Want to call her? Ask her to come down and I'll buy her dinner too.'
'Here? In here? Oooh, no, mate. This is no place for her.'
'Looks respectable enough.'
'It's me reputation, mate. Me reputation. The mates would never let me live it down. Oh, no. The little woman stays at home. I provide for her and she takes care o' me, and that's the way it should be between men and women.' He wiggled a finger solemnly. 'You Americans are far too friendly with your women. That makes it hard for everyone, you see.'
'You're a philosopher, Fred. I can see that.'
'I like you, kid.'
'How about letting me ride along with you tomorrow when you go to Hedrick's?'
'Oh, can't do that, laddie. Against company rules. No passengers, they say. Firing offense.'
'It's worth five hundred American.'
'How much is that in Australian?'
'About eight hundred.'
'Sometimes exceptions can be made, mate.'
'The high bid in the sixth and final round of the first day of bidding was sixty-two point six
'Who?'
'The Japanese.'
'Anyone drop out?'
'No, sir. All four parties are still in it.'
The president looked at the illuminated hands of the clock on his bedstand. 4:54 a.m. 'When is the hypersonic plane going to do its photo flyby?'
'A few minutes after true sunrise in Australia, sir, about two this afternoon here.'
'And the radar images?'
'Those are coming in now, sir.'
'Have General De Laurio and the national security adviser come to the White House for breakfast. We'll look at the images then.' 'Yes, sir.'
Chapter Seventeen
Rip Cantrell was amazed when he saw what the soldiers had accomplished at Hedrick's station overnight. Foxholes and bunkers had appeared everywhere, as if a giant groundhog were in a digging frenzy. A half dozen tanks were arranged around the main station building complex.
'I haven't seen this many soldiers since I got out of the army,' the delivery driver said.
'Looks like an army base, doesn't it?'
'What In the world are these people doing here?'
'Maybe Hedrick is entertaining some foreign big shot.'
'Yeah. Maybe so.'
The driver backed in to the kitchen loading dock. 'How about helping me unload.'
'Sure,' Rip said. 'But remember, this is a one-way trip for me. Just drive out of here innocent as all get-out and go on back to town. No one will be the wiser.'
'Man, I don't like this. All these soldiers…'
'You want to give me my money back?'
'It's your ass, kid. Not mine.'
With that the driver opened his door and stepped down. Rip got out on his side of the vehicle. Inside the kitchen the cook and head housekeeper were nowhere in sight, although two members of the kitchen staff were busy making tea.
Rip made a couple of trips into the food locker carrying bags of groceries while two waiters went back and forth to the main dining room carrying pots of tea. When the kitchen workers turned away and the waiters bustled out, Rip looked through the door glass into the dining room. About twenty people were still eating breakfast. Charley was at one of the tables with her back to the kitchen door: He would recognize that ponytail anywhere. And, of course, there was the Air Force flight suit.
He helped the driver carry one more load into the food locker, then jumped down from the loading dock and walked along the side of the house to a servants' entrance he had spotted the previous day. He tried the door.
Unlocked.
He slipped inside and pulled the door shut behind him.
The hallway where he found himself was long and narrow, a passageway designed to keep the domestic staff out of the main portion of the house. No telling when he was going to meet someone, so he hurried along the passage.
On his left was a door. He opened it a few inches and looked into the kitchen, then let the door close.
Another passage ran off to the right. He took it. Fifty feet ahead was a stairway. At the foot of the stairs were two doors. He opened one: the laundry. The other was the furnace room, and it was empty. Rip slipped in and closed the door behind him.
Two windows high up in the wall allowed daylight to filter in here. He would have had a view of the yard and hangar if the windows had clear glass in them instead of the frosted kind.
Rip went across the hall into the laundry. Sure enough, he found green trousers and a shirt that could only belong to a gardener. The knees of the trousers were faded from kneeling on damp earth.
He skinned out of his clothes and pulled on the trousers. The waist was a bit large, but not too much so.
The shirt was okay as long as he left the sleeves unbuttoned. He put his jacket back on, left it unzipped.
In the furnace room he found a toolbox containing a meager assortment of hand tools. These would have to do.
When Hedrick came into the dining room for breakfast, two of the bidding parties approached him. They wanted more time in the saucer. Charley Pine was sipping on a cup of coffee at the next table. She half turned in her chair to watch the discussion.
Hedrick eyed the Chinese and European team leaders without enthusiasm. 'Everyone has had ample opportunity to examine the saucer. Further examination will merely delay the resumption of bidding, which by mutual consent is scheduled to resume at eleven o'clock…' Hedrick consulted his watch. 'Twenty-seven minutes from now.'
Pieraut spoke first. 'My government has raised questions, Mr. Hedrick, that I must attempt to answer. I merely serve my nation.'
The Chinese delegation leader echoed Pieraut. He also had no choice, he said.
Hedrick had to agree to their request and did so without further argument. He asked Charley Pine to escort the bidders, and she agreed.
On the way to the hangar she passed someone kneeling on the sidewalk working on a junction box. She and her male companions paid the workman no attention. After she passed him, however, he watched her and the four men she was with until they disappeared into the hangar. Then Rip Cantrell went back to messing with the junction
