Robert walked over to the balloon to examine it more closely. It was a large aluminum envelope, fourteen feet in diameter, with serrated edges where it had ripped open when it crashed to earth. All the instruments had been removed, just as General Hilliard had told him. “I can’t stress enough the importance of what was in that balloon.”
Robert circled the deflated balloon, his shoes squishing in the wet grass, looking for anything that might give him the slightest clue. Nothing. It was identical to a dozen other weather balloons he had seen over the years.
The old man still would not give up, filled with Germanic stubbornness. “Those alien things…They made it look like this. They can do anything, you know.”
There’s nothing more to be done here, Robert decided. His socks had gotten wet walking through the tall grass. He started to turn away, then hesitated, struck by a thought. He walked back to the balloon. “Lift up a corner of this, will you?”
Beckerman looked at him a moment, surprised. “You wish me to raise it up?”
“Bitte.”
Beckerman shrugged. He picked up a corner of the lightweight material and lifted it while Robert raised another corner. Robert held the piece of aluminum over his head while he walked underneath the balloon toward the center. His feet sank into the grass. “It’s wet under here,” Robert called out.
“Of course.” The Dummkopf was left unsaid. “It rained all yesterday. The whole ground is wet.”
Robert crawled out from under the balloon. “It should be dry.” “Crazy weather,” the pilot said. “Sunny here Sunday.” The day the balloon crashed. “Rainy all day today and clearing tonight. You don’t need a watch here. What you really need is a barometer.”
“What?”
“What was the weather like when you saw the UFO?”
Beckerman thought for a moment. “It was a nice afternoon.”
“Sunny?”
“Ja. Sunny.”
“But it rained all day yesterday?”
Beckerman was looking at him, puzzled. “So?”
“So if the balloon was here all night, the ground under it should be dry—or damp, at the most, through osmosis. But it’s soaking wet, like the rest of this area.”
Beckerman was staring. “I don’t understand. What does that mean?”
“It could mean,” Robert said carefully, “that someone placed this balloon here yesterday after the rain started and took away what you saw.” Or was there some saner explanation he had not thought of?
“Who would do such a crazy thing?”
Not so crazy, Robert thought. The Swiss government could have planted this to deceive any curious visitors. The first stratagem of a cover-up is disinformation. Robert walked through the wet grass scanning the ground, cursing himself for being a gullible idiot.
Hans Beckerman was watching Robert suspiciously. “What magazine did you say you write for, mister?”
“Travel and Leisure.”
Hans Beckerman brightened. “Oh. Then I suppose you will want to take a picture of me, like the other fellow did.”
“What?”
“That photographer who took pictures of us.”
Robert froze. “Who are you talking about?”
“That photographer fellow. The one who took pictures of us at the wreck. He said he would send us each a print. Some of the passengers had cameras, too.”
Robert said slowly, “Just a moment. Are you saying that someone took a picture of the passengers here in front of the UFO?”
“That’s what I am trying to tell you.”
“And he promised to send you each a print?”
“That’s right.”
“Then he must have taken your names and addresses.”
“Well, sure. Otherwise, how would he know where to send them?”
Robert stood still, a feeling of euphoria sweeping over him. Serendipity, Robert, you lucky sonofabitch! An impossible mission had suddenly become a piece of cake. He was no longer looking for seven unknown passengers. All he had to do was find one photographer. “Why didn’t you mention him before, Mr. Beckerman?”
“You asked me about passengers.”
“You mean he wasn’t a passenger?”
Hans Beckerman shook his head. “Nein.” He pointed. “His car was stalled across the highway. A tow truck was starting to haul it away, and then there was this loud crash, and he ran across the road to see what was happening. When he saw what it was, the fellow ran back to his car, grabbed his cameras, and came back. Then he asked us all to pose in front of the saucer thing.”