Read Online Majestic by Whitley Strieber - Free Book Online

ache that made him fall silent.
    "They take the money of innocent kids," Gray intoned. "Nobody around here is ever going to look like she got within fifty miles of Richard Hudnut."
    "Give me one of those Fifth Avenue dames. I'd take her up to the Rainbow Room and dance her until she dropped. These New Mexico girls have sand between their teeth."
    "I wouldn't know. Jennine - "
    "Jennine, I dream of Lilac Time - ' "
    "Please, Lieutenant."
    "I thought it was your song. You and Jennine."
    "The way you sing it, it's nobody's song."
    They swept off the blacktop onto a dirt road. The Jeep dropped way back to avoid their dust cloud.
    They drove at a steady forty-five miles an hour, for three hot and dismal hours. When they stopped the shadows were long and the katydids were already singing.
    They were in Maricopa, a town that consisted of ten houses strung along the roadside, a store, a bar and a gas station.
    Everybody got down from the vehicles. Walters stretched his back, took off his sunglasses and began cleaning them with his handkerchief. His PFC driver whapped at his own uniform, bringing up clouds of dust.
    "I'll bet that bar is full of cold beer," Hesseltine said. Nobody acknowledged him, but I have no doubt that PFC
    Winter's eyes rolled.
    "I'll go in and confirm these instructions," Gray announced. Walters went with him.
    "You want a beer, Private?"
    "Yes, sir."
    "Our commanding officer will fail to realize this."
    "Yes, sir."
    "End of story, Private."
    "Yes, sir."
    Gray and Walters came hurrying back like men about to miss a train. "The road is about half a mile back toward Roswell," Gray said. "Then another thirty miles to the man's house. It's just a track."
    It was far worse than that. Hesseltine waited for the Chevy to break an axle.
    Amazingly, it didn't happen. This may have been because of the number of gates they had to open and close was so great that they never managed to get past twenty before they had to slow down again.
    "The cattleguard hasn't been invented yet in New Mexico."
    "Apparently not, Lieutenant."
    "This is gate number sixteen."
    "I haven't been counting."
    Soon they arrived at a miserable hovel that was distinguished only by a tiny flower garden in the front yard.
    The garden had sunflowers in it, and a few fat little cactuses with yellow flowers on them. Two kids, shy and afraid, cowered by the side of the house.
    "Look out," Hesseltine muttered to Gray. "They might be commie dwarfs disguised as scared kids."
    To Hesseltine's surprise, Gray stomped his foot against the floorboard of the car. He glared a moment at his junior officer.
    "Close your window, Lieutenant," he snapped as he wound up his own. "Breaches of security are always a serious business, especially in a sensitive area like Roswell. For all we know, those kids are Commies and ready to report our least move to their cell leader. The fact that we're here on this ranch could be common knowledge in Moscow inside of an hour!"
    Hesseltine was so taken aback by this outburst that he guffawed before he could stop himself. Gray glared at him. "You've got to take this seriously, Hesseltine."
    "I'm sorry, sir. It's just that I've blown a date, and - "
    "I understand perfectly. But we have to do this. And do it right."
    "I agree, sir."
    The porch had an old couch on it that was covered with a piece of canvas. The couch was sprung and there were places where animals had torn at the stuffing.
    Gray was not a large man, but he felt huge in this little adobe-brick house. He knocked, the sound echoing flatly in the dark room beyond the rusty screen door.
    Soon a shadow appeared moving forward from the back of the house, a woman gliding swiftly and crookedly along. She appeared behind the door, hesitant, her face clouding at the sight of the uniforms. She had a cigarette between her lips, which she took into her fingers. "Can I help you?" she asked, her voice soft.
    Gray felt pity for her until he saw the flashing strength in her eyes. As he had many