Read Online Saucer: Savage Planet by Stephen Coonts - Free Book Online
Authors: Stephen Coonts
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faithfully.
* * *
Egg Cantrell was on the telephone with Dr. Deborah Deehring discussing the latest media speculations on what the government might know about the information on the Roswell saucer’s computer. He liked the sound of her voice and the speed with which her mind worked. Although he hadn’t said so to anyone and probably never would, Egg thought smart women very attractive. He was thinking about that as he listened to her talk when he glimpsed through a window Rip and Charley and a bunch of other people climbing the hill path toward the house.
“Uh-oh,” he told Deborah. “Gotta go. Looks as if the crisis has found us.” Even as the words were leaving his mouth, he saw a person at the window aiming a television camera at him. “Turn on your television. I’ll try to call you later.” He hung up.
He glanced across the hallway at the kitchen. Someone was at the window there too, with a cameraman and microphone.
Before he could sort it out, Rip and Charley came blasting into the house trailed by a small army. “Uncle Egg,” Rip began, then saw the cameras and faces in the windows.
It was Harrison Douglas who first lost his grip on the situation. He pulled his pistol from his pocket, aimed at the nearest window and pulled the trigger.
The report nearly deafened the people in the house. The window exploded outward; cameramen and reporters and sound engineers ran for their lives.
Douglas was so bucked up by the sight of people running that he pointed the pistol at another window and put a bullet through it.
“Stop!” Egg roared. He was an outraged pillar of quivering flesh, such a large amount of quivering flesh that Douglas had second thoughts about the wisdom of shooting at television people through windows. Douglas engaged the safety on his shooter and put the thing away.
“If you want to shoot at them,” Egg told Douglas, “go outside and do it.”
“Maybe later.”
Adam Solo grinned at Charley and went into the kitchen. He opened the refrigerator, snagged a soft drink from the interior, popped the top and took a swig.
* * *
The president was summoned from an Important Meeting by P. J. O’Reilly to watch the unfolding drama on Fox News.
“These TV people invaded the Cantrell farm, apparently, just before the drug company moguls arrived. Adam Solo was already there.”
The president watched the chaos in silence. He saw Harrison Douglas wave his pistol around, and he heard Solo tell Douglas the saucer was in orbit. Up there.
Inside the Cantrell farmhouse, Douglas and Johnny Murkowsky cornered Egg Cantrell and bombarded him with questions about an antiaging drug.
“Isn’t it true that Newton Chadwick found the formula for a Fountain of Youth drug on the Roswell saucer computer,” Douglas demanded savagely, “the same saucer that I salvaged from the Atlantic and this son of a bitch, Adam Solo, stole?”
A television camera was back at the window again, the broken one. You must have large gonads to operate one of those.
“You aren’t going to give the formula to this bastard Douglas, are you?” Murkowsky demanded of Egg. “Deprive mankind of the benefits of the most important pharmaceutical advance since the invention of antibiotics?”
“I don’t have a formula, so I can’t give it to anybody,” Egg replied, trying to keep his temper.
“What kind of man are you, to make a moral judgment that the American people—hell, everyone on earth—should be deprived of the benefits of antiaging technology?” Murkowsky was belligerent. “Tell us, how is this drug administered? A pill, a cream, an injection?”
“It’s a suppository,” Egg shot back.
“Then you admit it? The drug does exist?”
“You people get the hell out of my house! Out! Now! Rip, call the sheriff! I want all these people out of here or I will prefer charges and the whole damned lot of them can go to jail.”
* * *
“Well, that’s plain enough,” the president
* * *
Egg Cantrell was on the telephone with Dr. Deborah Deehring discussing the latest media speculations on what the government might know about the information on the Roswell saucer’s computer. He liked the sound of her voice and the speed with which her mind worked. Although he hadn’t said so to anyone and probably never would, Egg thought smart women very attractive. He was thinking about that as he listened to her talk when he glimpsed through a window Rip and Charley and a bunch of other people climbing the hill path toward the house.
“Uh-oh,” he told Deborah. “Gotta go. Looks as if the crisis has found us.” Even as the words were leaving his mouth, he saw a person at the window aiming a television camera at him. “Turn on your television. I’ll try to call you later.” He hung up.
He glanced across the hallway at the kitchen. Someone was at the window there too, with a cameraman and microphone.
Before he could sort it out, Rip and Charley came blasting into the house trailed by a small army. “Uncle Egg,” Rip began, then saw the cameras and faces in the windows.
It was Harrison Douglas who first lost his grip on the situation. He pulled his pistol from his pocket, aimed at the nearest window and pulled the trigger.
The report nearly deafened the people in the house. The window exploded outward; cameramen and reporters and sound engineers ran for their lives.
Douglas was so bucked up by the sight of people running that he pointed the pistol at another window and put a bullet through it.
“Stop!” Egg roared. He was an outraged pillar of quivering flesh, such a large amount of quivering flesh that Douglas had second thoughts about the wisdom of shooting at television people through windows. Douglas engaged the safety on his shooter and put the thing away.
“If you want to shoot at them,” Egg told Douglas, “go outside and do it.”
“Maybe later.”
Adam Solo grinned at Charley and went into the kitchen. He opened the refrigerator, snagged a soft drink from the interior, popped the top and took a swig.
* * *
The president was summoned from an Important Meeting by P. J. O’Reilly to watch the unfolding drama on Fox News.
“These TV people invaded the Cantrell farm, apparently, just before the drug company moguls arrived. Adam Solo was already there.”
The president watched the chaos in silence. He saw Harrison Douglas wave his pistol around, and he heard Solo tell Douglas the saucer was in orbit. Up there.
Inside the Cantrell farmhouse, Douglas and Johnny Murkowsky cornered Egg Cantrell and bombarded him with questions about an antiaging drug.
“Isn’t it true that Newton Chadwick found the formula for a Fountain of Youth drug on the Roswell saucer computer,” Douglas demanded savagely, “the same saucer that I salvaged from the Atlantic and this son of a bitch, Adam Solo, stole?”
A television camera was back at the window again, the broken one. You must have large gonads to operate one of those.
“You aren’t going to give the formula to this bastard Douglas, are you?” Murkowsky demanded of Egg. “Deprive mankind of the benefits of the most important pharmaceutical advance since the invention of antibiotics?”
“I don’t have a formula, so I can’t give it to anybody,” Egg replied, trying to keep his temper.
“What kind of man are you, to make a moral judgment that the American people—hell, everyone on earth—should be deprived of the benefits of antiaging technology?” Murkowsky was belligerent. “Tell us, how is this drug administered? A pill, a cream, an injection?”
“It’s a suppository,” Egg shot back.
“Then you admit it? The drug does exist?”
“You people get the hell out of my house! Out! Now! Rip, call the sheriff! I want all these people out of here or I will prefer charges and the whole damned lot of them can go to jail.”
* * *
“Well, that’s plain enough,” the president
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