Free Saucer by Stephen Coonts Page B

because you’ll have already been fried.”
    Stiborek tossed another pebble. “Anybody who tries to fly that thing has found a flashy way to commit suicide.”
    “Just thought I’d ask. A theoretical question.”
    “Go away, kid. Leave me alone.”
    “How come you and Charley are on the outs?”
    Stiborek frowned. “Did she say we are?”
    “Oh, come on! Give me a break. I’ve got a mother and a sister and have even had a couple girlfriends through the years.”
    Stiborek looked glum. “She’s going to move to Georgia, be a test pilot for Lockheed Martin. I tried to talk her out of it, but she’s made up her mind, she says.”
    “Does she have a reason?”
    “Says this UFO team is a career dead end.”
    “Maybe it used to be, but it isn’t anymore. You two are about to become famous.”
    Stiborek made a rude noise, then picked up another rock and threw it out into the desert.
    • • •
    In late afternoon Sharkey left his experts in the saucer and settled in to interrogate the Air Force officers in the sleeping tent. Colonel West was his first victim.
    West was still in there when the sun set. Dutch passed around cold food to his people and the Air Force crowd.
    The Aussie’s men ate food from a cooler they carried from one of the helicopters, which hadn’t moved all day.
    When Red Sharkey finished with Colonel West, he sent for Major Stiborek.
    Darkness came quickly in the desert. Rip went around lighting the lanterns, checking that they had enough propane.
    A small breeze came up, easing the heat of the day.
    Most of Sharkey’s troops were gathered around their choppers, eating and talking loudly and laughing, when Rip rooted in his bags for his passport and wallet. Then he made his usual pilgrimage to the portable outhouse. He kept the door cracked while he did his business, watched the two Aussies with guns across their laps sitting outside the tent. They weren’t looking in this direction.
    When he got his pants up, Rip eased the door open and slipped away into the darkness.
    He made his way to the Jeep. The glove compartment contained a roll of duct tape, which Rip pocketed.
    Two five-gallon plastic cans full of water were attached to the rear of the Jeep. Out here in this desert, water was life. Rip checked these cans every day, and both Dutch and Bill did too.
    He unfastened them both, lifted them down into the sand. They weighed about forty pounds apiece.
    After a last check around, he hefted both cans, one in each hand, and set off in the direction of the saucer, which was still illuminated by two spotlights. The other spotlights, at least six, had been turned off.
    Rip could hear Sharkey’s two experts talking inside the saucer. He made sure the water cans were out of sight, then stuck his head up into the thing. The two Aussie technicians had a battery-operated lantern going and were disassembling one of the computer displays. Maybe the whole computer.
    “Hey,” Rip said.
    “Yeah,” one of the men said, not looking around.
    “Sharkey said to tell you guys to go get some dinner.”
    “He did?” Now the man looked around.
    “Yep.”
    One of the men straightened up. “I could use something to eat. Come on, Harry.”
    “I’m not hungry,” Harry said. “You go. Bring me back a bite.”
    “Okay, mate.”
    As the first man climbed down off the ledge, Rip crawled up into the ship. Harry didn’t turn around.
    “What are you working on?”
    “A computer. Really extraordinary. Never saw anything like it.”
    “Did you guys take anything else apart?”
    “Not yet.” Harry sat back on his heels. “We really should disassemble that electrolysis unit.” He pointed with a thumb. “I think that thing separates water into hydrogen and oxygen. Ol man Hedrick could make a mint with a thing like that, believe me, mate. Put every oil company on earth out of business. The possibilities are mind-blowing, still, he said to examine the computers first.”
    Hedrick could only be Australian