ogey, now over the "Ready." Pacific far west of Panama. "Blowing hatch on three. One. Two. Three." Terrent slammed down the red lever and the exploding bolts on the Without Scheuler, Terrent had no idea what his altitude hatch at the other end of the cable blew. The hatch spun was. He'd pushed aside his own heads-up display when away and cold night air whistled in. he'd hooked up. The power was coming back, but very "Go!" Terrent screamed. slowly. Captain Scheuler unbuckled his shoulder straps and pushed, sliding up the cable, slamming against the roof of "Five thousand feet, continuing to decelerate," Quinn said. the disk. He got oriented and looked down at Terrent, still "How come I don't see the F-14's from the Abraham in his seat. Then he let go and was sucked out of the hatch, Lincoln on the display?" General Gullick asked. the nylon strap reaching its end and deploying the para- "I--uh--" Quinn's fingers flew over the keyboard and a cluster of small plane silhouettes appeared on the screen. chute that he had been sitting on. The disk was already They were heading toward an orange circle representing gone into the darkness below by the time the chute finished the spot where the previous foo fighter had gone into the opening. ocean. The symbols for the bogey and Aurora were also He watched but there was no other blossoming of white heading there. canopy below. 'I think I've got it!" Terrent yelled to himself. He had the Major Terrenes hands were on the releases for his shoulder altitude lever pulled up as high as it would go and could straps when his pilot's instincts took over one last time. He continue to feel power returning. "We'll make it, we'll--" reached down and grabbed the controls. There was some- thing--the slightest response. His focus came back inside She's down," Quinn said in a quiet voice. "Bouncer Three the craft as he wrestled with the controls. is down. All telemetry is cut." "Make sure Nightscape recovery has the exact position 224 ROBERT DOHERTY from the last readout," Gullick ordered. "Time to bogey 19 intercept for the Tomcats?" Quinn looked at General Gullick for a few seconds, then turned back to his terminal. "Six minutes." "I don't see what good intercept will do," Admiral Coakley protested. "We've already tried twice. It's over the ocean. Even if we down the bogey it won't--" "I am in charge here," General Gullick hissed. "Don't ever-- "Bogey's gone, sir," Quinn said. "She's gone under." The data was complex and much of it was not in the histor- ical record. It counted at least six different types of atmo- spheric craft, only two of which were listed. And it was not action of this type that had awoken it twice before. Never- theless, this new event was a threat because it was tied in to the place where the mothership was. Valuable energy was diverted, and the main processor was brought up to forty-percent capacity to ponder the bursts of input that had occurred in this past cycle of the planet around its star. There had been conflict, but that did not concern it. There were larger issues at stake here. 20 21 VICINITY, DULCE, NEW MEXICO WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, NEW MEXICO T-93 HOURS, 3O MINUTES T-93 HOURS, 30 MINUTES There was something stuck in both his arms and on the The first thing Colonel Dickerson did as his command-and- inside of each thigh. Johnny Simmons also sensed tubes control helicopter zeroed in on the personnel beacon from between his legs--a catheter, both fore and aft. There was Bouncer Three was have his aide, Captain Travers, remove also some sort of device hooked in the right side of his the silver eagles on his collar and replace them with two mouth, giving off a very light mist of moisture. Another stars. That was for any military personnel they might run tube ran into the left side of his mouth and that was how he into. The typical military mentality viewed generals as was breathing. There was something over his face, covering gods, and that was the way Dickerson wanted people re- it, pressing his eyes shut and blocking off his nose. Beyond that Simmons didn't have a clue as to his condition. And sponding to his orders this night. those discoveries had been made only in those few breaks "ETA to beacon two minutes," the pilot of the UH-60 between periods of excruciating pain. Blackhawk announced over the intercom. He assumed that at least one of whatever was stuck in Dickerson glanced out the window. Three other him was a nutritional IV. He had no clue as to the passage Blackhawks followed, spread out against the night sky, of time, but it felt as if his entire existence had been spent their running lights darkened. He hit the transmit button in this darkness. for his radio. "Roller, this is Hawk. Give me some good If it had not been for the needles and catheters, Johnny news. Over." believed he would have thought himself dead and his soul The response from his second-in-command at the main exiled to hell. But this was a living hell, a physical one. White Sands complex was immediate. "This is Roller. I've He felt a coppery taste in his mouth. He didn't even wait got people awake here. The duty officer is rounding us up for the pain now. His mouth contorted open and he silently some transport. They've got two lowboys we can use and a screamed. crane rated for what we need for recovery. Over." "How long before you can get them out to the range? Over." 228 ROBERT DOHERTY AREA 51 229 "An hour and a half max. Over." son calculated that it was buried at least twenty feet into "Roger. Out." the countryside. The pilot came on the intercom as soon as Dickerson "What about the beacon on the hatch?" he asked Cap- was finished. "There he is, sir." tain Travers. Dickerson leaned forward and looked out. "Pick him "Nightscape Two has it on screen and is closing on it. up," he ordered. About four miles to the southwest of our location," Travers The Blackhawk descended and landed. The man on the responded. ground sat on his parachute to prevent it from being in- They had to clean up every single piece of gear and flated by the groundwash of the rotor blades. Two men equipment. There was always the chance that someone jumped off the rear of Dickerson's aircraft, ran over to they had to recruit to help with the recovery--such as the Captain Scheuler, and escorted him back to the bird, secur- drivers of the lowboys or the bulldozer or crane operator-- ing the parachute. might talk, but as long as there was no physical evidence, Scheuler put on a headset as soon as he was on board. they were good to go. "Have you picked up Major Terrent's signal?" he asked. "Let's land," Dickerson ordered. Dickerson indicated for the pilot to take off. "No. We're going to the disk transponder." "Maybe his equipment got damaged when he was getting THE CUBE, AREA 51 out of the disk," Scheuler said. Dickerson glanced across at the pilot, who met the look General Gullick scanned the haggard faces around the briefly, then went back to flying. There wasn't time to tell conference table. There were two empty seats. Dr. Duncan Scheuler about the slight slowing in descent of Bouncer had not been informed of, or invited to, the night's activi- Three just before impact. ties, and Von Seeckt was, of course, absent. As recorder "ETA to disk transponder?" Dickerson asked. and data retriever, Major Quinn was seated away from the "Thirty seconds." table, at a computer console to Gullick's left. The pilot pointed. "There it is, sir." "Gentlemen," Gullick began, "we have a problem occur- "Shit," Dickerson heard the copilot mutter. And that ring at a most critical time. We have Bouncer Three down was a rather appropriate comment on the current condi- with one casualty at White Sands. We also have six aircrews tion of Bouncer Three. He keyed his radio. "Roller, we're currently being debriefed on the night's events. And all we going to need a dozer and probably a backhoe too. Over." have gained against those potential security breaches is a His aide back at main base was ready. "Roger." replay of the events of the other night. We have more pic- The pilot brought the aircraft to a hover, the searchlight tures of this foo fighter to add to our records and we have on the belly of the helicopter trained down and forward on almost the exact same location in the Pacific Ocean that it the crash site. Bouncer Three had hit at an angle. Only the disappeared into." trail edge was visible, sticking up out of the dirt ridge it had Gullick paused and leaned back in his chair, steepling his impacted into. Knowing the dimension of the disk, Dicker- fingers. "This thing, this craft, has beaten the best we could 230 ROBERT DOHERTY AREA 51 231 throw against it, including our appropriated technology Ten heads swiveled and looked at the one man who here." He looked at Dr. Underbill. "Any idea what it did didn't rate a leather seat. Major Quinn seemed to sink to Bouncer Three?" lower behind his portable computer. The representative from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory "Say again?" Gullick said in his deep voice. held a roll of telemetry paper in his hands. "Not until I get "Perhaps they are aliens, sir," Quinn said. a chance to look at the flight recorder and talk to the crew- "You mean the foo fighters are UFOs?" General Brown man who survived. All I can determine from this," he said, sniffed. shaking the paper, "is that there was a complete loss of "Of course they're UFOs," General Gullick cut in, sur- power on board Bouncer Three in conjunction with a near prising everyone in the room with the harshness of his collision with the foo fighter. The power loss lasted for one tone. "We don't know what the fuck they are, do we? That minute and forty-six seconds, then some power began re- makes them unidentified, right? And they fly, right? And turning, but too late for the pilot to compensate for the they're real objects, aren't they?" He slapped a palm down craft's terminal velocity." on the table top. "Gentlemen, as far as the rest of the Dr. Ferrel, the physicist, cleared his throat. "Since we world is concerned we're flying UFOs here every week. The don't understand the exact workings of the propulsion sys- question I want an answer to is who is flying the UFOs that tem of the disks, it makes it doubly hard for us to try to we aren't?" He swiveled his head to Quinn. "And you figure out what the foo fighter did to Bouncer Three to think it's aliens?" cause the crash." "We have no hint that anyone on Earth possesses the "What about something we do understand?" Gullick technology needed for these foo fighters, sir," Quinn said. asked. "We certainly understand how helicopters fly." "Yes, Major, but the Russians sure as shit don't think we Underhill nodded. "I've gone over the wreckage of the possess the technology to make the bouncers either. And AH-6 that crashed in Nebraska, and the only thing I have we don't," Gullick hissed. "My point is, has someone else been able to determine is that it suffered complete engine dug up some technology like we have here?" failure. There was no problem with either the transmission Kennedy, from CIA, leaned forward. "If I remember or hydraulics or else no one would have survived the crash. rightly from my inbriefing, there were other sites listed on The engine simply ceased functioning. Perhaps some sort the tablets that we never had a chance to look at." of electrical or magnetic interference. "Most of those sites were ancient ruins," Quinn said "The pilot is still in a coma and I have not been able to quickly, "but the thing is, there are more high runes at interview him. I have some theories, but until I can work those sites. Who knows what might be written there? We on them, I have no idea how the foo fighter caused the haven't been able to decipher the writing. We do know that engine on that aircraft to cease functioning." Germans deciphered some of the high runes, but that "Does anyone," Gullick said, with emphasis, "have any was lost in World War II." idea what these foo fighters are or who is behind them?" Lost to us," Gullick amended. "And it's not certain that A long silence descended on the conference table. Germans were able to read the high runes. They might "Aliens?" nave been working off of a map like we did when we went 232 ROBERT DOHERTY AREA 51 233 down to Antarctica and picked up the other seven bounc- Gullick turned to Kennedy. "Do you have any informa- ers. Remember," Gullick added, "that we just uncovered tion that might be connected to this?" what was at Jamiltepec eight months ago." Kennedy stroked his chin. "There's several things that That caught Major Quinn's attention. He had never might be of significance. We know they have been carrying heard of Jamiltepec or of a discovery having been made out secret test flights at their facility at Tyuratam in south- there related to the Majic-12 project. Now, though, was not ern Siberia for decades, and we've never been able to pen- the time to bring it up. etrate the security there. They do everything at night and Kennedy leaned forward. "We do have to remember that even with infrared overhead satellite imagery, we haven't the Russians picked up quite a bit of information at the been able to figure out what they've got. So they could be flying foo fighters." end of World War II. After all, they had a chance to go "But these things went down into the Pacific," General through all the records in Berlin. They also knew what they Brown noted. were doing when they conquered Germany. If people only "They could be launching and recovering off a subma- knew the fight that went on over the scientific corpse of the rine," Admiral Coakley said. "Hell, their Delta-class subs Third Reich between us and the Russians." are the largest submarines in the world. I'm sure they could The last comment earned the CIA representative a hard have modified one to handle this sort of thing." look from General Gullick, and Kennedy quickly moved "Any sign of Russian submarine activity from your peo- on. ple at the site?" General Gullick asked. "My point is," Kennedy said quickly, "that maybe the "Nothing so far. Last report I had was that our ships Russians found their own technology in the form of these were in position and they were preparing to send a sub- foo fighters. After all, we have no reports of Russian air- mersible down," Coakley replied. craft running into them during the war. And it is pretty Major Quinn had to grip the edge of his computer to suspicious that the Enola Gay was escorted on its way to remind himself that he was awake. He couldn't believe the Hiroshima. Truman did inform Stalin that the bomb was way the men around the conference table were talking. It going to be dropped. Maybe they wanted to see what was was as if they had all halved their IQ and added in a dose going on and try to learn as much as they could about the of paranoia. bomb." Gullick turned his attention back to Kennedy and indi- "And remember, they put Sputnik up in 1957." General cated for him to continue. "This might not have anything Brown was caught up in Kennedy's theory. "While we were to do with this situation, but it's the latest thing we've dicking around with the bouncers and not pursuing our picked up," Kennedy said. "We know the Russians are do- own space program as aggressively as we should have, ing work with linking human brains directly into computer maybe they were working on these foo fighters and re- hardware. We don't know where they got the technology verse-engineering them with a bit more success than we for that. It's way beyond anything worked on in the West. had. Hell, those damn Sputniks looked like these foo fight- These foo fighters are obviously too small to carry a per- ers." son, but perhaps the Russians might have put one of these AREA 51 234 ROBERT DOHERTY 235 biocomputers on board while using magnetic flight tech- Gullick gestured for him to continue. nology such as we have in the disks. Or they simply might "Surveillance in Phoenix has picked up Von Seeckt, be remotely controlled from a room such as we have here." Turcotte, and this female reporter, Reynolds." "We've picked up no discernible broadcast link to the "Phoenix?" Gullick asked. foo fighter," Major Quinn said, trying to edge the discus- "Yes, sir. I ordered surveillance on the apartment of the sion back to a commonsense footing. "Unless it was a very reporter who tried to infiltrate the other night once I found narrow-beam satellite laser link we would have caught it, out that Reynolds was asking about him. The surveillance and such a narrow beam would have been difficult to keep just settled in place this evening and they've spotted all on the foo fighter, given its speed and how quickly it ma- three targets at the apartment and are requesting further neuvered." instructions." "Could Von Seeckt have been turned?" Gullick suddenly "Have them pick up all three and take them to Dulce," asked. "I know he's been here from the very beginning, but Gullick ordered. remember where he came from. Maybe the Russians finally Quinn paused in sending the order. "There's something got to him, or maybe he's been working for them all else, sir. The men we sent to check out Von Seeckt's quar- along." ters have found a message on his answering service that Kennedy frowned. "I doubt that. We've had the tightest might be important. It was from a Professor Nabinger." security on all Majic-12 personnel." "What was the message?" General Gullick asked. "Well, what about this Turcotte fellow or this female re- Quinn read from the screen. " 'Professor Von Seeckt, my porter? Could either of them be working for the other name is Peter Nabinger. I work with the Egyptology De- side?" partment at the Brooklyn Museum. I would like to talk to Quinn started, remembering the intercept of Duncan's you about the Great Pyramid, which I believe we have a message to the White House chief of staff. Gullick mustn't mutual interest in. I just deciphered some of the writing in have gotten to it yet. Again, he decided to keep his peace, the lower chamber, which I believe you visited once upon a this time to avoid an ass-chewing. time, and it says: 'Power, sun. Forbidden. Home place, "I have my people checking on it," Kennedy said. "Noth- chariot, never again. Death to all living things.' Perhaps ing has turned up so far." you could help shed some light on my translation. Leave "Let's see what Admiral Coakley finds us in the Pacific. me a message how I can get hold of you at my voice-mail Maybe that will solve this mystery," Gullick said. "For now, box. My number is 212-555-1474.' " our priorities are sterilizing the crash site at White Sands "If this Nabinger knows about Von Seeckt and the pyra- and continuing our countdown for the mothership." mid-- " began Kennedy, but a wave of Gullick's hand Major Quinn had been working at his computer, reading stopped him. data from the various components of the project spread out across the United States and the globe. He was re- "I agree that is dangerous"--Gullick was excited--"but lieved when information began scrolling up. "Sir, we've got of more importance is the fact that it seems Nabinger can some news on Von Seeckt." decipher the high runes. If he can do that, then maybe we 236 ROBERT DOHERTY AREA 51 237 can . . ." Gullick paused. "Did our people check to see if "Oh, my God," Scheuler muttered. Von Seeckt has contacted Nabinger?" Blood and pieces of Major Terrent were scattered about Quinn nodded. "Yes, sir. Von Seeckt called Nabinger's everywhere inside. Dickerson sat down with his back to the service at eight twenty-six and left a message giving a loca- hatch, trying to control his breathing while Scheuler vom- tion for them to meet tomorrow, or actually this morning," ited. Dickerson had been a forward air controller during he amended, looking at the digital clock on the wall. Desert Storm and had seen the destruction wrought on the "The location?" highway north out of Kuwait near the end of the war. But "The apartment in Phoenix," Quinn answered. that was war and the bodies had been those of the enemy. Gullick smiled for the first time in twenty-four hours. Goddamn Gullick, he thought. Dickerson grabbed the "So we can bag all our little birds in one nest in a few edges of the hatch, and lowered himself in. "Let's go," he hours. Excellent. Get me a direct line to the Nightscape ordered Scheuler, who gingerly followed. leader on the ground in Phoenix." "See if it still works," Dickerson ordered. He'd sure as hell rather fly it back to Nevada than have to cover it up and take back roads by night. WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, NEW MEXICO Scheuler looked at the blood- and viscera-covered de- pression that Terrent had occupied. The engine on the crane whined in protest, but the earth "You can take a shower later," Dickerson forced himself gave before the cable, and inch by inch Bouncer Three was to say. "Right now I need to know whether we have power, pulled up out of its hole. As soon as it was clear, the crane and we don't have time to dean this thing up." operator rotated right, bringing the disk toward the flatbed "Sir, I--" that was waiting. In the glow of the hastily erected arc "Captain!" Dickerson snapped. lights, Colonel Dickerson could see that the outer skin of "Yes, sir." Scheuler slid into the seat, a grimace on his the disk appeared to be unscathed. As soon as Bouncer Three was down on the truck, Dick- face. His hands went over the control panel. Lights came erson grabbed hold of the side of the flatbed and clam- on briefly, then faded as the skin of the craft went clear and bered up onto the wood deck and then onto the sloping they could see by the arc lights set up outside. side of the craft itself. His aide and Captain Scheuler were "We have power." Scheuler stated the obvious. He right behind him. Balancing carefully, Dickerson edged up looked down at the altitude-control level and froze. Ter- until he was at the hatch that Scheuler had thrown himself rent's hand was still gripped tightly around it, the stub of out of two miles above their heads. his forearm ending in shattered bone and flesh. He cried The interior was dark with the power off. Taking a halo- out and turned away. gen flashlight off his belt, Dickerson shone it down on the Colonel Dickerson knelt down and gently pried the dead inside. Despite having fought in two wars and seen more object loose. Goddamn Gullick, Goddamn Gullick; it was a than his share of carnage, Dickerson flinched at the scene chant his brain was using to hold on to sanity. "See if you within. He sensed Scheuler coming up next to him. have flight control," he ordered in a softer voice. 238 ROBERT DOHERTY AREA 51 239 Scheuler grabbed the lever. Space appeared below their "But if they found out about Paperclip--" began Ken- feet. "We have flight control," he said in a rote voice. nedy. "All right," Dickerson said. "Captain Travers will fly with "We inherited Paperclip," Gullick cut in. "Just as we you back to Groom Lake. We'll have pursuit aircraft flying inherited Majic. And people know about Paperclip. It's not escort. Got that, Captain?" that big of a secret anymore." There was no answer. "Yeah, but we kept it going," Kennedy pointed out. "Do you understand?" "And what most people know is only the tip of the ice- "Yes, sir," Scheuler weakly said. berg." Dickerson climbed back out of the disk and gave the "Von Seeckt doesn't know Paperclip is still running, and appropriate orders. Finally done, he walked away from the he was only on the periphery of it all back in the forties." lights and behind the sandy ridge that the disk had crashed "He knows about Dulce," Kennedy countered. into. He knelt down in the sand and vomited. "He knows Dulce exists and that it's connected somehow with us here. But he was never given access to what has been going on there," Gullick said. "He doesn't have a clue what's going on there." The right side of Gullick's face THE CUBE, AREA 51 twitched and he put a hand up, pressing on the pain he felt The lights were dim in the conference room and Gullick in his skull. Even thinking about Dulce hurt. He didn't was completely in the shadows. The other members of want to speak about it anymore. There were more impor- Majic-12 were gone, trying to get some long-overdue sleep tant things to deal with. Gullick ticked off the problems on or checking in with their own agencies--except for Ken- his fingers. nedy, the deputy director of operations for the CIA. He "Tomorrow, or more accurately this morning, we take had waited as the others filed out. care of Von Seeckt and the others there in Phoenix. That "We're sitting on a fucking powder keg here," Kennedy will close that leak down. began. "By dawn we'll have the mess at White Sands all cleaned "I know that," Gullick said. He had the briefing book up and the aircrews involved debriefed and cleared. with Duncan's intercepted message in it. It confirmed that "We have the eight o'clock briefing by Slayden, which Turcotte had been a plant, but of more import was the should help get Duncan off our back for a little while. threat that Duncan would get the President to delay the Long enough. test flight. That simply couldn't be allowed. "Admiral Coakley should be giving us something on "The others--they don't know what Von Seeckt knows, these foo fighters soon. what you and I know, about the history of this project," "And last but not least, in ninety-three hours we fly the Kennedy said. mothership. That is the most important thing." General "They're in it too far now. Even if they knew, it's too late Gullick turned, facing away from Kennedy to end the dis- for all of them," Gullick said. "Just the Majestic-12 stuff is cussion. He heard Kennedy leave, then reached into his enough to sink every damn one of them." pocket and pulled out two more of the special pills Dr. 240 ROBERT DOHERTY AREA 51 241 Cruise had given him. He needed something to reduce the It was the way language worked. It also fit the diffusionist throbbing in his brain. theory of the evolution of civilization. The real problem for Nabinger--beyond the fact that the dialect made translation difficult--was that the content AIRSPACE, SOUTHERN UNITED STATES of the messages, once translated, was hard to comprehend. Most of the words and partial sentences he was translating Checking the few photos that he had not seen before referred to mythology or religion, gods and death and great helped Professor Nabinger's fledgling high rune vocabulary calamities. But there was very little specific information. grow by a phrase or two. The seats on either side of him Most of the high runes in the pictures seemed related to were empty and there were photos spread out all over the whatever form of worship existed in the locale they were row. He drank the third cup of coffee the stewardess had found in. brought him and smiled contentedly. The smile disap- There was no further information about the pyramids or peared just as quickly, though, when his mind came back to the existence or location of Atlantis. There were several the same problem. references to a great natural disaster sometime several How had the high rune language been distributed world- centuries before the birth of Christ, but that was nothing wide at such an early date in man's history, when even new. There was much emphasis on looking to the sky, but negotiating the Mediterranean Sea was an adventure Nabinger also knew that most religions looked to the sky, fraught with great hazard? Nabinger didn't know, but he whether to the sun, the stars, or the moon. People tended hoped that somewhere in the pictures an answer might be to look up when they thought of God. forthcoming. There were two problems, though. One was What was the connection? How had the high rune lan- that many of the pictures showed sites that had been dam- guage been spread? What had Von Seeckt found in the lower chamber of the Great Pyramid? Nabinger gathered aged in some way. Often the damage appeared to have up the photos and returned them to his battered backpack. been done deliberately, as in the water off Bimini. The Too many pieces with no connection. With no why. And second, and greater, problem was that many of the pictures Nabinger wanted the why. were of high runes that were, for lack of a better word, dialects. It was a problem that had frustrated Nabinger for years. There were enough subtle, and sometimes not-so-subtle, differences in the high rune writing from site to site to show that although they had very definitely grown from the same base, they had evolved differently in separate locales. It was as if the root language emerged in one place, been taken at a certain point to other locales, then evolved sepa- rately at each place. Which made sense, Nabinger allowed. AREA 51 243 22 "Don't do that." Turcotte's voice froze her hand on the knob. "Why?" Turcotte turned his gaze into the room. "If I have to explain everything I say, we're going to get our shit wasted when there's no time to explain. I'd appreciate it if you just do what I say when I say it." Kelly's clothes were wrinkled and she had not had the most comfortable night's sleep in the chair. "Are we in the middle of a crisis that you don't have time to explain?" PHOENIX, ARIZONA "Not this minute," Turcotte said. "But I'm preparing you T-87 HOURS, 15 MINUTES both for the minute when that's going to happen. Which," "You gave Nabinger this address?" Turcotte asked for the he said, jerking his thumb at the window, "is going to be third time. sometime this morning." "Yes," Von Seeckt replied from the comfort of the "Who's out there?" Von Seeckt asked, sitting up on the couch. The living room of the apartment was dark. couch and trying to pull his beard into some semblance of order. "You left it on his voice mail?" "Less than an hour ago a van pulled in across the street "Yes." and down that way"--Turcotte pointed to the left--"about "And he left the first message on your voice mail?" two hundred feet. For fifteen minutes no one got out. Then Turcotte persisted. a man exited, went over to our rent-a-car, and placed "Yes." something under the right rear quarter panel. He went "For God's sake," Kelly muttered from underneath a back and got in the van, and there's been no movement blanket on a large easy chair, "you sound like a cross-ex- since then. I assume they have surveillance on the back of amining attorney. We went through all that earlier today in this building also." the car. Is there a problem?" "What are they waiting for?" Kelly tossed aside the blan- Turcotte peered out the two-inch gap between the cur- ket, stood, and began gathering her few belongings. tain and the edge of the window. He'd been standing there "If they got the messages off Von Seeckt's answering for the past hour, unmoving while the other two slept, the service, probably the same thing we are. Waiting for Nab- only sign that he was conscious his eyeballs flickering as he inger to show." took in the view. Kelly paused, seeing that Turcotte was standing still. He had awakened them both a few minutes ago. It was 'Couldn't they just have had this place under surveillance still dark out and in the glow of the streetlights there was after kidnapping Johnny?" nothing moving on the street. "Yeah, there's a problem." "Maybe," Turcotte said. "But that van wasn't there when Kelly threw the blanket aside and reached for the lamp. we