Free Independence Day: Silent Zone by Stephen Molstad Page B

myself."
    "Brackish. The
name is Brackish."
    Freiling seemed to
blank out for a moment. "Now I forgot the damn joke! No, wait, I got
it.
Why did the newspaper editor call the lobster?"
    Brackish knew he was
supposed to ask why. The Y! "Oh my God," he burst out, "I didn't
tell you guys what I saw inside the ship!" He turned to Cibatutto.
    "You know that
yellowy shell instrument deal with all the little whatchamacallits
running
through it?"
    Cibatutto nodded.
    "When the energy
came through the ship, it had a picture on it, and—I don't want you guys to
think I'm a complete
weirdo for telling you this, but—it was giving off feelings, emotions.
Seriously, it was like the visual image was only one part of a larger
message.
There was another layer of communication going on, something meant to be felt —desperation, doom,
abandonment, something like that. Now that I think about it, it might
have been
some kind of SOS, a distress call."
    This announcement
dramatically changed the mood in the kitchen. "That would fit nicely
with
your second-ship theory," Dworkin pointed out, skeptical.
    "Did this image
look like anything in particular?" Lenel inquired.
    "You bet. It
looked like a Y. Like a big old honkin' letter Y standing out in the
middle of
nowhere." His audience reacted strangely to this last bit of
information,
exchanging wide-eyed looks. "What's the matter? Did I say something
wrong?"
    Before anyone could
answer, Radecker's footsteps came clacking down the hallway. Dworkin
looked
quickly across the table and put his index finger to his lips, telling
Okun to
keep this news quiet.
    "It took all
day, but I finally got Spelman on the phone," Radecker announced,
marching
straight to the fridge and fishing out a soda.
    "And?"
    "Well, I didn't
explain all the particulars. I just told him we'd proved beyond any
shadow of a
doubt that the ship can't fly."
    "And?"
    "I don't think
he believed me. He said, 'Your assignment is to get that ship
to fly.' So I said, 'I'm telling you it cannot and will not fly.' ' Well,
sir, I don't
know what to tell you. You're assigned to the project for a five-year
term or
until such time as blah blah blah.' So I asked him what he
would like for
me to be doing out here. And you know what the son of a female dog says
to me?
He goes, ' You've got four years, eleven months, and twenty-six
days to
figure that one out for yourselves. Stay in touch.' " Radecker
sat down with the others at the table and drowned his sorrows in a long
slug of
soda.
    "Did you happen
to mention the matter of our finances?" Dworkin inquired gingerly.
    "Not yet,"
he said, with a look which suggested he still might. Glancing over his
shoulder, he noticed Okun across the room, preoccupied with a
reexamination of
his burns. Radecker leaned in and whispered to the scientists, "I might
be
able to keep you guys off the hook. It didn't sound like Spelman plans
to come
out here for a visit anytime soon, so we might be able to just start
killing
off the other names on the payroll one by one. Every couple of months,
we'll
call the Treasury Department and say another one has died. By the way,
I saw
your life insurance policy. Cute trick naming one another
beneficiaries. How
did you ever get a policy like that?"
    "Our banking
friends in Las Vegas are very flexible."
    "Also, it sounds
like you guys can get everything you want in the way of materials and
equipment—as long as Boy Wonder over there approves it."
    "I don't
understand," Dworkin whispered back. "Our appropriations have to be
approved by Mr. Okun?"
    Radecker rolled his
eyes as if to agree that the idea was ludicrous. "Spelman was pretty
clear. Whatever Okun needs in the way of research materials will be
automatically OKed."
    Lenel asked, "So
why do you say we can get anything we want?"
    "Oh,
please," Radecker said dismissively. "Look at this punk. He'll do
whatever I tell him to, and if he doesn't obey, I'll make his life
miserable." An idea occurred to him. "Now, listen up. I respect