“I hope you are impressed,” said Brown. “There is another file about your personal life, if you’d like to see it.”
“Don’t bother,” said Eric, then very softly, “If you believe what’s in this file, then you know I could kill you in one second just because you’ve read it.”
“I believe that, Doctor Price, but I assure you it would be a bad experience for both of us. As I said before in a circuitous way, we feel we can trust you, and wish to join forces in removing the opposition to the star craft project. We can be a valuable information resource.”
“Ty sajchas govorisk bez aktcenta. Ato interesno!” said Eric. “Your accent has gone away. I find that interesting.”
“I’m fluent in several languages, including Russian and English, but I represent several countries, not one. My ethnicity isn’t important here. You’ll have to accept that, or we won’t be able to help you.”
“I can do that, but you’re trying to convince me your origins are in Eastern Europe. You’ve read my file, you know how much work I’ve done there, and I have a pretty good idea about what kind of technology those countries are capable of. The aircraft you brought to us doesn’t fit. I don’t think it comes from the east. You called it a star craft. What am I supposed to do, think you come from Alpha Centauri or something? Or maybe you’re just trying to oversell your product. I’m beginning to wonder about that.”
“No matter. The point is we have brought it here, where we think it has the best chance to be adapted for peaceful purposes. It is a star craft, Doctor Price, not an aircraft.”
“I’ve been told it can fly in space, but the material we’ve been given shows capabilities of Mach 4 and perhaps a hundred thousand feet. That doesn’t come close to technology we have right now, Mister Brown. We’ve either paid a lot of money for nothing, or you’re withholding information on us. Which is it?”
Brown reached up and removed his dark glasses. In the dim light his eyes glistened, seemed only a shade darker than his skin. “I hear your frustration, and admit there have been some communication problems. There have also been problems of trust. Some of your people have mixed agendas in this project, and look for ways to become wealthy from it. That is not acceptable. We feel it’s not a problem with you. There have also been deliberate lapses in communication we must take responsibility for. These are being corrected, but security requires sensitive information regarding star faring operations that cannot be conveyed in written form.”
“Star faring operations? Please. Just tell me when we can expect to get the information we need to use the technology we’ve paid for.”
“We have methods outside of the ordinary. One was tested on you, and worked nicely. You might think it was luck that gave you access to the interior of the star craft, Doctor Price, but it was not. You were told what to do, and you did it.”
Eric remembered the kind of vision he’d had of his hand playing over the switches in Sparrow’s cockpit. There had been no fumbling or hesitation in performing the proper sequence. “Are you saying I’ve had some kind of hypnotic experience without knowing it? I like to think I’m a little more aware than that.”
Brown smiled. “Your awareness cannot be questioned. Just be aware that revelations you have in the near future are not by your own doing. There will be many of them, Doctor Price. And believe me when I tell you we’re going to take you to the stars.”
“Sounds nice, but for now I’ll settle for a complete instruction manual that can get us above our atmosphere. The stars can come later.”
Brown leaned back in his chair, and laughed. “What else can I say, Doctor Price? You haven’t believed anything I just said, but more will be revealed. In return, you will do something for us. There is a man you’re in contact with. He calls himself John Coulter. We suspect this man is not a friend. We believe he’s working for the person we think is trying to sabotage the star craft project. We want you to encourage Coulter, and do whatever you can to meet his employer in person, to bring him out of the darkness, so to speak.”
“And then what?” asked Eric.
“We might ask you to do what you have done before. It’s an option your employer has given you to stop the sabotage. Your orders come from the highest levels of your agency; it’s all in the file.”
“And then you’ll take us to the stars,” said Eric.
“That’s the agreement. Your belief in what I say must come later. Revelations will appear, but you must write nothing down, and your life will be in extreme danger from this moment on. Our adversary has eyes everywhere. All progress you make with the star craft will be known instantly to him unless you work absolutely alone, and that doesn’t seem likely or even possible.”
“Seems to me it would be quicker to just tell me who you want killed, and let me kill him.”
Eric said it as a simple statement of fact, was unaware of the sound of menace in his own voice.
The slight smile on Brown’s face disappeared. He paused, looked away for a moment, then, “It’s a possibility, but I’ll have to consult with my colleagues. We’re fairly certain about our suspicions, but the man in question comes and goes, and the information you need to locate him is currently beyond what I’m authorized to tell you. I’ll contact you again later, Doctor Price, but it will not be here. This must be the last private meeting we have that others are aware of.”
“Okay, but Colonel Davis will want me to brief him about this meeting. What can I tell him?”
“Say nothing about Coulter. Davis thinks he’s an agent for industrial firms who promise a large retirement contribution for access to the star craft. For the moment you must allow people to think your breakthroughs are due to your own brilliance and luck. Tell Davis nothing about our input. You’re free to tell him everything we’ve talked about regarding sabotage and the elimination of those responsible for it. Embellish if you wish; you seem to have an adequate imagination.”
“Including murder?”
“Of course. It will be no surprise to him.” Brown retrieved Eric’s file, pulled a briefcase from beneath the table and snapped it open as he pushed back on his chair. He pressed down on the ellipsoid he’d placed on the table; picked it up, put it in the briefcase with the file.
“I assume you know where we are in understanding how to operate your aircraft,” said Eric.
“Star craft, yes. The field you’ve detected is only a standby signal, but you’re correct in thinking it’s related to the main power plant. Like I said, Doctor Price, more will be revealed.” Brown stood up.
Eric was surprised by the height of the man, well over six feet. “When?”
“Soon.” Brown extended a hand. “Very soon. Good hunting, Doctor Price, and be alert about protecting yourself. I’ll get back to you.”
Eric shook Brown’s gloved hand, and the grip was firm.
Brown turned and exited the room through a back door Eric hadn’t noticed before. Alan Nutt was waiting right by the hallway door.
“Hear anything?” asked Eric, and smiled.
“No sir, but I can’t say I didn’t try,” said Alan, and smiled back.
“Now take me to your leader, Sergeant Nutt.”
“Yes sir.” And Nutt led him down the hallway to Davis’ office.
Davis looked startled. He came around his desk, sat on the edge of it, and motioned for Eric to sit down. “That didn’t take long.”
Eric sat. “I think he was mainly looking me over. He had my entire file, and wanted me to know he had it. Any ideas about who gave it to him?”
“Not from me. What did he want from you?”
“He wants me to kill someone,” said Eric, and nearly laughed at Davis’ reaction: the darting of his eyes, the Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed hard.
“Who?”
“The guy responsible for the sabotage on the base, probably the same guy behind Johnson’s murder. He thinks it’s one of his own people.”
“Figured that,” said Davis. “I’ve only seen three of
them, including Brown. Shifty-eyed, never speak English when I’m around, heavy accents when they talk to me. Don’t trust any of them. Did he identify a target for you?”
“No. We have to draw the guy out into the open to get at him. Brown says he comes and goes, but didn’t explain how. Are there ways to get in and out of the base I don’t know about?”
Davis’ reaction was uncontrolled. His face flushed, and he looked over his shoulder as if to see if someone were watching him from behind. “There are two hundred miles of tunnels on this base, and lots of places to hide. If whoever you’re looking for is right here, it’ll be like trying to find him in Phoenix.”
“Brown said he’d help me. Seemed to think he knew how to find the guy. Any ideas?” Eric was watching Davis closely, now, looking for any reaction.
But Davis was calm again. “Might have. Let me think about it. Is that all you and Brown talked about?”
Nice recovery, thought Eric. “No. He was impressed by my luck getting inside Sparrow. There’s supposed to be more info in the manual that we got. He’s going to check on that, and correct it.”
“I’ve heard that before.”
“He said he’d get back to me soon.”
“You let me know when that happens, Price. I mean it.”
“Sure, and I mean it, too. If you withhold any information I need to nail your saboteur, my complaint will go directly to the Pentagon, and you can expect an early retirement.”
Davis snarled. “I’d expect that from you. I knew you were a killer from day one. Thought I might be your target. Still think it.”
“I never lied to you about my credentials, Colonel. I just left out a few things. And killing you has never been part of my assignment. I really do want this project to succeed.”
“So do I, Price, or I wouldn’t still be here. This is my last assignment; I know that. There’s no glory, the public will never know about it, I’m just trying to end a career successfully.”
And maybe put a lot of private money aside, thought Eric. “I understand, Colonel,” he said.
“So where do we go from here?” asked Davis.
“Nothing changes, except cooperation between you and me. I’ll work on Sparrow as before, but I want more time on the base to get around for any leads on our bad guy. If I find him, he’s dead, witness or not. From this day on I’ll be carrying, on and off the base. You need to authorize that with security. Without it, I’m out of here.”
“Done,” said Davis. “I’ll get back to you on expanding your base access. I have to talk to Brown first.”
“Checking up on what I just told you?”
“That, too. There are things you should know that Brown and his people will have to approve first. It has to do with how Sparrow was brought in, and how we get parts for it.”
Eric stood up. “Okay, talk to him. I want to know something today, and I’ll be in the test bay with Sparrow until evening.”
“I’ll call Sergeant Nutt when I have something.”
“Only in the test bay. I don’t want him shadowing me everywhere I go on the base. It draws attention to me.”
“I’ll talk to Brown, like I said. Right now, you stick to the test bay.”
Eric sighed. “You have one day to get me what I want. Otherwise I call my boss, and leave you to handle the mess by yourself.”
Davis nodded. “Fair enough.”
Nutt was waiting right by the door again when Eric exited the room. He grinned. “Listened for gunshots, but didn’t hear any.”
“My faithful companion,” said Eric. “You can now spend the day with me in the test bay, but be ready for a call from Davis. I’m sure you can find other things to do besides following me around and recording my profound thoughts.”
“Oh, I don’t know, sir. Interesting enough duty.”
Eric slapped him on the shoulder.
They took the elevator down to bay level. The light was low, and Sparrow was a dark shape in the center of the vast floor. A helicopter was near one wall, probably brought in through the massive, rolling door in the ceiling. A bright light beneath its belly looked like someone working with an arc welder there.
The little lamp was lit on the table next to Sparrow. The instruction manual was there, closed, a piece of paper protruding from it like a bookmark. Steward had left a one-page report for him on the field measurements. No electric or magnetic fields had been observed, all measurements made mechanically and crudely by looking at forces between closely spaced panes of cardboard. Steward’s estimated uniform energy density of three joules per cubic meter in the opened belly of Sparrow was large compared to quantum levels, but ridiculously low for powering a spacecraft.
Eric opened the manual where the piece of paper protruded. It had marked the section referring back to an apparently missing piece of the document. When he’d placed the paper there it had been blank. He was surprised to see writing on it, printed in a small, neat hand. He unfolded the paper, and read it.
‘If you have questions, ask the golden man, and the answers will be revealed to you.’
Oh, my, thought Eric.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
THE GOLDEN MAN
They ate Mexican uptown and went back to Nataly’s shop. Marie was working the counter when they entered, and smiled at what she thought was secret knowledge.
They went in the back and Nataly made green tea. Eric put her loaned book down on a table.
“Have you finished it already?”
“I’ve put myself to sleep with it the past three nights.”
“Oh, it bored you.”
“Not at all. Well written, and easy to read. Very interesting.”
“But you don’t believe any of it.”
“Sorry. I guess I have a bookkeeper’s mind. The distances between stars are just too huge. I doubt we’ll ever get together with other intelligent societies, even though I think it’s likely they exist. And if they were here, I don’t see why they’d pick on places like Sedona, or some guy’s front yard in Switzerland. It doesn’t make sense.”
“I don’t see why distance is important,” said Nataly, and poured tea. They sat down at a round, glass-topped table with a plate of cookies on it. “I mean, alien societies could be far advanced and have ships that travel much faster than ours.”
“Up to a fraction of light-speed, sure, but mass goes to infinity as you reach light speed. You can’t go beyond that.”
“I’ve heard of Einstein, Eric. I just think there are a lot of things scientists don’t know yet. It limits our thinking. What if we had a way to travel across a galaxy in the blink of an eye? Then we could all get together.”
“That’s why science fiction is so popular,” said Eric, and bit into a cookie. “No limits there, and good entertainment.”
“I think it’s fun to think about things like that,” said Nataly.
She leaned close, and munched a cookie between sips of tea. Her eyes fixed on his, flecks of emerald green swimming in dark brown. “You didn’t believe in auras either, until you saw mine. Didn’t that change you?”
Eric reached over and touched her cheek. “I don’t know what I saw, but I sure haven’t forgotten it.”
Her eyes widened. “You don’t need an explanation?”
“No.” He touched her chin with a finger, and she grabbed it. Her eyes seemed to darken, and flecks of green were enhanced by it. Eric felt a small ache in his chest.
“I don’t either,” she said, and kissed his finger. “When can you come over again?”
“I don’t know. The next few days look bad.”
“Oh.”
“I mean I’ll let you know in the morning. I might have to be out of town.”
“Okay.” She looked down at Eric’s fingers clenched in her hand. Eric wondered if she could feel his strong pulse in it.
“I’ll try, I promise. I want to come over. I like being with you, Nataly.” Oh, man, why did I say that?
Nataly brightened, squeezed his hand. “Th
at’s what I really wanted to hear.” She reached out and caressed his cheek. Eric felt blood rush to his face, and for an instant time seemed to disappear as he experienced a brief lapse of consciousness like a waking dream.
Eric blinked. “Sleep was tough last night. I couldn’t turn off.”
“Dreams?”
“Yeah, that too. Bizarre stuff. I was flying in one of them, arms stretched out like I was a sailplane. Then I was talking to a guy with gold skin. We were having what I thought was a deep, philosophical conversation about something, but when I woke up I couldn’t remember any of it. Had trouble getting back to sleep after that, kept hearing every pop and creak in the house.”
Nataly frowned, and fumbled in her purse. “I can give you something to help you sleep. I use it myself.”
“I don’t use sleeping pills,” said Eric.
“Oh it’s not that. More of a relaxant. Here, try it tonight, two tablets at bedtime. It’s herbal.” Nataly took two pink tablets from a vial in her purse, wrapped them in a piece of paper napkin and handed it to him.
“Okay,” said Eric, and put the little package in his shirt pocket to appease her. Inwardly, he had no intentions of taking any pills for sleep. Deep sleep made you vulnerable. Deep sleep could make you dead.
They finished their tea, and rinsed out the cups. “I’ll call,” said Eric, tilted her chin up and kissed her softly. Nataly leaned into the kiss, and then grinned at him. Marie gave him another grin at the front of the shop when he left.
There were four cars in the parking lot. A man sat behind the wheel of a silver Mercedes. He’d been looking at Eric, but looked down when Eric saw him.
John Coulter.
Eric walked straight to the Mercedes, and tapped on the driver’s side window. Coulter looked up, smiled, rolled down the window.
“Well, Eric, how are you?”
“Are you following me?”
“No. I went next door to get my glasses adjusted, but the parking lot there was full. I see you’re discovering our new-age shops. Have you met the owner of this one?”
Sedona Conspiracy Page 16
