Dr. Mazuko began speaking in French, saying a few words, then stopping for Evelyn to repeat it in English. Jack had always assumed water torture required water; here was proof that he was wrong.
After his interminable stop-and-go preamble, Professor Mazuko asked that the lights be turned down so he could show slides of recent photos of UFOs over Tokyo.
A progression of images of blurry blobs of light flashed on the screen, with the audience oohing and aahing at each one. Jack wondered why, if UFOs were supposed to be such a secret, they were always lit up like the Fuji blimp?
When one particularly strange-looking glowing object appeared, the woman on Jack's right began to clap and others joined her.
"Incredible!" she said in a voice hushed with awe.
Jack wholeheartedly agreed: Incredible was just the word for it. Even eight-year-old Vicky would see that it was a kite. Or pie in the sky—literally.
Like Abe had said the other day…believing is seeing. Yes, sir.
"Shit, shit, shit!" Suddenly someone was shouting. "That does it! Turn on the lights! Turn on the goddamn lights!"
Jack thought the voice sounded familiar, and when the lights came up, he spotted James Zaleski striding toward the front of the room.
"What's the matter with you people!" he shouted. "These are the goddamn phoniest looking photos I've ever seen!"
Jack heard groans around him and muttered variations on the theme of "Oh, no, Jimmy's on a tear again."
Obviously this wasn't the first time he'd made a stink at a UFO panel.
"Dammit," Zaleski yelled, "you've got to be more discriminating! You've got to be critical! We know they're here, but are we so desperate for proof we'll accept anything, even these poorly doctored fakes, as real? We demand the truth from the government, but how are we ever going to be taken seriously if we don't demand honesty within our own ranks? We come off like a bunch of gullible cranks!"
Members of the audience had started rising to their feet during his impassioned plea and now they were shouting at him to be quiet and return to his seat and let Professor Mazuko finish.
Jack remembered Gia taking him and Vicky to the revival of 1776 when it had played at the Roundabout. This reminded him of the booming opening number when the entire cast rose and sang "Sit Down, John!" to John Adams.
Jack used the uproar to cover his exit. On the way out he saw Miles Kenway standing ramrod straight against the rear wall, staring at him. Jack felt like a school kid caught playing hooky. He matched Kenway stare for stare.
How do I get to talk to Kenway? he wondered as he reached the common area. At least he and Zaleski were still around. If someone was knocking off the top people in SESOUP, they hadn't reached the men yet. But was it just a matter of time before they did?
Just then two dowdy, silver-haired members of Professor Mazuko's audience emerged from the room, in heated discussion.
"You don't believe that, do you?" said the one wearing the MK-Ultra Stole My Brain! T-shirt.
Her friend nodded vigorously. "Of course I do."
"No," said the first, as they wandered away. "You can't really believe that."
I believe I'll have a beer, Jack thought.
He headed for the bar.
17
"He is our enemy, I tell you." Mauricio's voice grew louder with each word. "Just look at what he has done to the Farina woman! That man is out to destroy us!"
"Hush, please. You do not know that."
They stood in the bathroom of Roma's suite where Olive's mutilated corpse lay stretched out in the tub. They had partially covered it with ice to keep it from stinking.
"I do! I saw him in the hall outside her room!"
"And you also saw one of the Twins at the same time."
"And they both fled together."
"Or he chased the Twin."
"If he did, he's crazy."
"Have you ever known the Twins to work with anyone but each other?"
Mauricio looked away. "No," he said sullenly. "Not directly."
They had run down the hall after the stranger and the Twin had disappeared into the stairwell, found Olive's corpse, and quickly moved her here.
"I think there is another explanation. I believe he discovered Olive, saw the Twin, and gave chase."
"Then why didn't he report the body?"
"Perhaps he is a thief and broke into her room to steal. Or perhaps he has a criminal record and was afraid he would be blamed. It does not matter. As far as I am concerned, the very fact that he did not report the body proves that he is not working with the Twins."
"I don't follow."
"Think, Mauricio: Why was Olive Farina mutilated in that fashion? Look at those wounds. Obviously meant to call to mind cattle mutilations and spread panic among our attendees. A discovery like that would disperse them, send them fleeing to the safety of their little homes all over the country."
Mauricio's dark monkey eyes widened. "Do you think the Twins know what we're doing?"
"No. Undoubtedly they know somebody is up to something, but they do not know who, what, or why. Under those circumstances, their best course is to break up the party. They tried, but failed."
"Only by the merest chance. If I hadn't stepped out into the hallway at that moment…" Mauricio let the rest of the sentence hang.
"True," Roma said, nodding. "But were we lucky…or guided?"
"We can speculate all day. The question is, what do we do about the stranger?"
"We watch him," Roma said.
"In other words, nothing!" Mauricio said, scorn ripe in his voice as he expanded to true form. He rose on his thicker, stronger legs, showing his fangs and fixing Roma with the ripe strawberries of his eyes. "The stranger calls the tune?"
"Watching is not 'nothing.'"
"And what of tonight's delivery? Do we to let that fall into his hands as well?"
"Do we have a choice?" Roma said. "The Otherness is in charge, do not forget. If the stranger received the shipment, it was not in error. I sense another purpose at work here, one that is compatible with our own."
"I do not," Mauricio said, his voice rising as he banged a large knotty fist on the black-furred barrel of his chest. "Something went wrong last night. I do not intend to allow that to happen a second time."
"Mauricio!" Roma said as the creature slouched toward the door.
"I know of only one way to settle this."
"Wait!"
But Mauricio ignored him. He reached up and turned the doorknob, then shrank again to capuchin form before stepping out into the hall.
"Do not do anything—!"
The door slammed, cutting him off. He hurried to the door and pulled it open, but Mauricio was nowhere in sight.
What was that creature thinking? He hoped he was not planning anything rash.
18
Jack felt better halfway through his second pint of Sam Adams. He was ready to polish it off and head for his room when he sensed someone behind him. He turned and found Roma.
"Learn anything in Monroe?" Roma said.
Jeez, Jack thought, annoyed and chagrined, did someone follow me out there? Am I being watched?
"What makes you think I was in Monroe?"
Roma grinned. "I have contacts there. It's a small town, as you know. And when an outsider starts asking about 1968, it doesn't take long for word to get around."
Canfield had probably heard about his visit, and told Roma. That made Jack feel a little better…he preferred being on the Monroe grapevine to being shadowed.