Free The Bergamese Sect by Alastair Gunn

outside our culture’s accepted range of delusions. Our organisation has lived with this revelation for a long time. It’s easy for us to overlook someone’s disbelief. I wish I could pull out a piece of paper and show you the truth. But I can’t. It’s a conviction gained from years of experience, both personal and collective, not something that can be shared over coffee.’
    Matt looked up at the vast sky, now turning azure with the approaching dawn. He suddenly felt an unfamiliar longing for the tedious drudgery of daily life; rising early, rushing through crowds of equally hurried workers, convincing people about this, about that, returning to a sullen but comfortable home. The weirdness of his situation suddenly hit him. A flutter spread through his stomach.
    ‘ So what’s really going on?’ he said.
    ‘ That’s a difficult question. It’s probably not simple. We know that some abductions are real; that they involve government collusion. Other than that, we don’t know much. But we hope to find out.’
    Matt frowned. ‘Why the hell would a civilisation develop the technology to cross the vast emptiness of space only to kidnap and manipulate a newly-discovered form of life?’
    ‘ I don’t know.’
    ‘ I mean, what would we do if we found intelligent life on some planet? Would we start abducting them? Would we collaborate with their leaders and keep our presence hidden?’
    Clara was shaking her head.
    ‘ No,’ Matt continued, ‘we’d make sure they weren’t hostile then introduce ourselves as fellow life-forms. It would be the greatest moment in our history.’
    ‘ There are many possibilities. Perhaps their culture is naturally predisposed to manipulation, even more so than ours. The truth could be hard to understand. Conspiracy theorists have claimed all sorts of weird reasons why the aliens and the government are in collusion. Hybrid breeding programs, promises of the secret of eternal life, exchange for military technology. I suspect most of them are far off the mark. But we try not to speculate; we accept the reality that they are here and we are doing our best to find the truth.’
    Matt shook his head and sighed, looked again at the unfathomable sky. ‘I still think this is a load of crap,’ he said.
    ‘ I’d expect you to,’ Clara answered. She flashed her blue eyes seductively and smiled. ‘Come, they should have finished refuelling.

 
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 6
     
     
    The orange sun was slipping gently below a line of poplars in the grounds of the mansion. It lit up the house like a huge, glowing pyre. The building had an oppressive splendour. A wide colonnade held three stories aloft, each with a row of huge sash windows. The eaves, window shutters and columns were a brilliant white, the brick a deep brown. Rising from the gravel courtyard, a broad semicircle of marble steps led up to an enormous oak door. The huge brass fittings glowed crimson. From a room within, a chink of light filtered out, casting dappled shadows through the bushes that skirted the lawns. The line of poplars descended gradually toward a wide, open space surrounded by sturdy oaks and elms.
    As the sky faded into a deep blue, a black limousine appeared at the gates of the house, headed up the tree-lined avenue and drew up by the marble steps. It stood for several minutes, the engine running, its lights washing over the groomed lawns. A door opened and a figure quickly exited. He was surrounded by stern-faced men who whisked him into the safety of the house.
    Dark figures pacing the roof watched him enter, laser-sighted weapons draped over their shoulders. Occasionally, they whispered into their lapels, fiddled with earpieces.
    North of Hartford, Connecticut, the house stood in an area populated by the state’s most wealthy men. It nestled among other sizeable estates, secure in its seclusion, its real purpose hidden. Unlike its neighbours, this house wasn’t a playground for the rich or the hideaway of a