The villages seemed to race by, and the pristine beauty of the Alps belied all the bloodshed and terror that had started here. The car approached Thun, and Robert’s adrenaline began to flow. Ahead was the field where he and Beckerman had found the weather balloon, where the nightmare had begun. Robert pulled the car over to the side of the road and switched off the engine. He said a silent prayer. Then he got out of the car and crossed the highway and went into the field.
A thousand memories flashed through Robert’s mind. The phone call at four in the morning. “You are ordered to report to General Hilliard at National Security Agency Headquarters at Fort Meade at oh six hundred this morning. Is this message understood, Commander?”
How little he had understood it then. He recalled General Hilliard’s words: “You must find those witnesses. All of them.” And the search had led from Zurich to Bern, London, Munich, Rome, and Orvieto; from Waco to Fort Smith; from Kiev to Washington, and Budapest. Well, the bloody trail had finally come to an end, here where it had all begun.
She was waiting for him, as Robert had known she would be, and she looked exactly as she had appeared in his dream. They moved toward each other, and she seemed to be floating toward him, a radiant smile on her face.
“Thank you for coming, Robert.”
Had he actually heard her speak, or was he hearing her thoughts? How did one talk to an alien being?
“I had to come,” he said simply. There was a totally unreal quality to the scene. I’m standing here speaking with someone from another world! I should be terrified, but in my whole life, I’ve never felt more at peace. “I have to warn you,” Robert said. “Some men are coming here who want to harm you. It would be better if you left before they arrive.”
“I cannot leave.”
And Robert understood. He reached in his pocket with his left hand and pulled out the small piece of metal containing the crystal.
Her face lit up. “Thank you, Robert.”
He handed it to her and watched her fit it into the piece she held in her hand.
“What happens now?” Robert asked.
“Now I can communicate with my friends. They will be coming for me.”
Was there something ominous in that sentence? Robert recalled General Hilliard’s words: “They intend to take over this planet and make slaves of us.” What if General Hilliard was right? What if the aliens did intend to take over the earth? Who was going to stop them? Robert looked at his watch. It was almost time for General Hilliard and Janus to arrive, and even as Robert thought it, he heard the sound of a giant Huey helicopter approaching from the north.
“Your friends are here.”
Friends. They were his mortal enemies, and he was determined to expose them as murderers, to destroy them.
The grass and flowers in the field began to flutter wildly as the helicopter came to a landing.
He was about to come face to face with Janus. The thought of it filled him with a murderous rage. The door of the helicopter opened.
Susan stepped out.
Chapter Fifty-one
In the mothership, floating high above earth, there was great joy. All the lights on the panels were flashing green.
“We have found her!”
“We must hurry.”
The huge ship started to hurl itself toward the planet far below.
Chapter Fifty-two
For a single instant, time was frozen, and then it shattered into a thousand pieces. Robert watched, stunned, as Susan stepped out of the helicopter. She stood there for a second, and then started toward Robert, but Monte Banks, who was right behind her, grabbed her and held her back.
“Run, Robert! Run! They’re going to kill you!” Robert took a step toward her, and at that moment General Hilliard and Colonel Frank Johnson stepped out of the helicopter.
General Hilliard said, “I’m here, Commander. I’ve kept my part of the bargain.” He walked over to Robert and the woman in white. “I assume this is the eleventh witness. The missing alien. I’m sure we’ll find her very interesting. So it’s finally finished.”