Robert frowned. “When all of you returned to the bus, was she with you?”
“Come to think of it, I don’t remember seeing her after that. But I was so excited by that UFO thing, I wasn’t paying much attention.”
There was something here that did not fit. Could there have been eleven witnesses instead of ten? I’ll have to check that out, Robert thought. “Thank you, Mr. Bushfekete,” he said.
“My pleasure.”
“Good luck.”
Bushfekete grinned. “Thanks.” He didn’t need luck. Not anymore. Not with the hand of a real genuine alien in his possession.
That night Robert Bellamy made his final report to General Hilliard. “I have his name. It’s Laslo Bushfekete. He runs a carnival outside of Sopron, Hungary.”
“That’s the last of the witnesses?”
Robert hesitated an instant. “Yes, sir.” He had started to mention the eighth passenger, but he decided to wait until he had verified it. It seemed too improbable.
“Thank you, Commander. Well done.”
FLASH MESSAGE
TOP SECRET ULTRA
NSA TO DEPUTY DIRECTOR HRQ
EYES ONLY
COPY ONE OF (ONE) COPIES
SUBJECT: OPERATION DOOMSDAY
10. LASLO BUSHFEKETE—SOPRON
END OF MESSAGE
They arrived in the middle of the night, when the carnival was shut down. They left fifteen minutes later, as silently as they had come.
Laslo Bushfekete dreamed he was standing at the entrance to the large white tent, watching the huge crowd lined up at the box office to buy their five-hundred-forint tickets.
“Come right this way, folks. See the genuine body part of an alien from outer space. Not a drawing, not a photograph, but an actual part of an actual ET. Only five hundred forints for the thrill of a lifetime, a sight you will never forget.”
And then he was in bed with Marika, and they were both naked, and he could feel her nipples pressing against his chest and her tongue slithering across his body and she was crawling all over him, and he got an erection,and he reached for her and his hands closed over something cold and slimy, and he woke up and opened his eyes and screamed, and that was when the cobra struck.
They found his body in the morning. The cage for the poisonous snake was empty.
FLASH MESSAGE
TOP SECRET ULTRA
HRQ TO DEPUTY DIRECTOR NSA
EYES ONLY
COPY ONE OF (ONE) COPIES
SUBJECT: OPERATION DOOMSDAY
10. LASLO BUSHFEKETE—SOPRON—TERMINATED
END OF MESSAGE
General Hilliard made a call on the red phone. “Janus, I’ve received the final report from Commander Bellamy. He’s found the last of the witnesses. They’ve all been taken care of.”
“Excellent. I’ll inform the others. I want you to proceed at once with the rest of our plan.”
“Immediately.”
FLASH MESSAGE
TOP SECRET ULTRA
NSA TO DEPUTY DIRECTORS:
SIFAR, M16, GRU, CIA, COMSEC, DCI, CGHQ, BFV EYES ONLY
COPY ONE OF (ONE) COPIES
SUBJECT: OPERATION DOOMSDAY
11. COMMANDER ROBERT BELLAMY—TERMINATE
END OF MESSAGE
BOOK TWO
THE HUNTED
Chapter Thirty-five
Day Fifteen
Robert Bellamy was in a dilemma. Could there be an eleventh witness? And if there was, why didn’t any of the others mention her before? The clerk who sold the bus tickets had told him there were only seven passengers. Robert was convinced that the Hungarian carnival owner had made a mistake. It would have been easy to ignore it, to assume that it was untrue, but Robert’s training would not permit it. He had been too well disciplined. Bushfekete’s story had to be checked out. How? Robert thought about it. Hans Beckerman. The bus driver will know.
He placed a call to Sunshine Tours. The office was closed. There was no listing in Kappel for a Hans Beckerman. I’m going to have to go back to Switzerland and settle this, Robert thought. I can’t leave any loose ends.
It was late at night when Robert arrived in Zurich. The air was cold and crisp, and there was a full moon. Robert rented a car and took the now-familiar drive to the little village of Kappel. He drove past the church and pulled up in front of Hans Beckerman’s home, convinced that he was on a wild-goose chase. The house was dark. Robert knocked on the door and waited. He knocked again, shivering in the cold night air.