Nephredana snorted. "He was just making it up to sweeten his book deal."
Gibson continued to stare at the saucer. It was fascinating to see one close up. It must have beeen about forty feet across and was hovering at about its own diameter above the roadway. The single wide beam of golden light streamed down from a source that Gibson couldn't see, somewhere on the underside, at a central point between the three spheres. It formed a circular pool of gold on the roadway that was like a spotlight on the stage at a Vegas casino. It only needed Frank Sinatra standing there singing "My Way" to complete the picture.
"I've seen saucers like this before."
Slide dismissed Gibson with a slight wave of his hand. "Yeah, I know, one buzzed your plane while you were on the way to London. It was a lot different from this one."
Gibson was angry at the curt dismissal. "I'm not talking about that one, I mean saucers exactly like this."
Three heads turned in unison.
"Where? When? What happened?"
"It was on the way to Luxor. After we'd left Gideon Windemere's house in Ladbroke Grove and taken a conventional road out of town."
Nephredana interrupted him. "We know that, we were following you."
"That's right, you were. Anyway, out in the country, near some ducky English village, we hooked into the laylines."
This time it was Slide who interrupted. "So that's where you vanished to."
"So we're lost in the ozone in this kind of layline fairyland and suddenly these UFO's started strafing us."
"Ones like that?"
Gibson shook his head. "No, it was another kind that were attacking us, ones that looked like white glowing disks with a kind of blue aura around them. I thought that we were going to be blown all to hell by these red fireballs they kept shooting at us, and then these other guys showed up like the goddamn cavalry, ones exactly like that one, and ran off the first bunch, seemingly saved our ass."
Slide was giving him a decidedly squint-eyed, Clint Eastwood look of suspicion. "They helped you and the streamheat?"
"Right."
"So they might have been saving you or they might have just been saving the streamheat."
"I guess so."
"Or they may have just been having a beef among themselves."
"I guess that's possible, too."
"It still sounds too much like they're getting into our business."
They were now just fifty yards from the silently floating craft, and Slide brought the car to a halt.
"If that thing doesn't get out of our way and fast, we're in a lot of trouble."
Nephredana blew a quick bubble and snapped the gum back into her mouth again. "Can't we go looking for an alternative soft spot?"
Yop Boy shook his head. "No time."
Slide opened the driver's door. "There's no point in sitting here like a bunch of idiots. I'm going to take a look at that thing."
Slide started walking toward the saucer. Gibson opened his door to follow but Nephredana quickly put a hand on his arm. "Don't be ridiculous. Anything could happen with that thing."
"Slide's going out there."
"He's Yancey Slide."
Gibson grinned at her as he slid out of the car. "Yeah, and I'm Joe Gibson. Don't forget that."
Yop Boy didn't say a word. He just climbed out of the car and followed with the ever-present assault rifle at the ready.
Nephredana's voice rasped after the three of them. "Damn you, you macho morons, wait for me!"
They walked until they were thirty feet or so from the saucer and then they stopped, standing side by side, well back from the pool of light. The saucer hung above them like a silent floating enigma. No hatches opening, no ladders extending to the ground, no octapoids rushing out to carry off Nephredana and no zapping death ray.
The other three stood and watched while Slide fumed. "At the very least the bastards could take the trouble to explain what they want."
Nephredana produced the silver flask. "I've never seen you too keen to explain yourself to strangers."
"That's not the point."
Nephredana spat out her gum, took a long pull on the flask and then passed it to Gibson. Gibson took a hit, wondering if the stuff could make a man go blind, and handed the flask to Yop Boy, but Yop Boy didn't drink any and passed it straight to Slide. Slide didn't hesitate. He put the flask to his mouth and tilted his head back, seemingly draining it. When he was through, he let out a satisfied gasp and looked up at the saucer.
"I'm going to have to do something about you. The question is what."
At that moment a flight of jets roared across the sky heading east. It was too dark to make out anything but the faint flare of their exhausts. Whatever the jets were and wherever they had come from, they were traveling without navigation lights.
Gibson looked at the dark sky in alarm. "Are those the enemy bombers?"
Slide was also looking at the sky. "Kamerian interceptors, but the Hind-Mancu wings can't be far away. We have to do something about this fucking saucer or we're going to find ourselves caught out in the firestorm."
Nephredana retrieved the flask and upended it. Slide had finished off the booze. "So what do you do about a flying saucer?"
Slide paced round in a small frustrated circle three times before he halted and slapped his fist into his palm.
"That's it, I can't fuck around any longer." He gestured to Yop Boy. "Fetch the doombeam."
Yop Boy looked at him doubtfully. "Are you sure about this, boss?"
"Just get the damned thing."
Yop Boy started back toward the car. Nephredana was also staring dubiously at Slide. She didn't even have to say anything for him to snarl angrily. "Don't you start."
"The last time you tried to use the doombeam you blew away half of that Mexican village and all but discorporated yourself."
"You have a better idea?"
Nephredana shook her head. "I'm not sure that the doombeam is an idea at all. What do you hope to do to the saucer with that thing? Blow it up?"
"At the very least, I'll annoy it."
Nephredana shook her head in disbelief, "Now we're annoying flying saucers."
Further argument was halted by the arrival of Yop Boy with the doombeam. Gibson could hardly believe what he was seeing. The thing looked like an antique, art-deco vacuum cleaner mounted on a telescopic steel tripod. It resembled something that might have been pressed into service as a prop in a 1930s Flash Gordon serial.
"Where the hell did you get that thing?"
"Don't ask."
Nephredana supplied the answer. "He built it. Yancey always wanted a genuine raygun. Some of it's made from stuff that the AEC had locked up in a vault at Oak Ridge until Yancey and some of his friends broke in and stole it. He matched that up with some black-market streamheat components and a few odds and ends that he got from this weird dimension where reptiles developed a civilization and eventually he created a weapon that's probably too dangerous to be fired."
Slide ignored her. He was bending over the tripod, carefully sighting the device. When he was satisfied, he stepped back. "You'd better all take cover."
Nephredana started walking quickly away.
"I'm taking cover all the way back to the car."
Yop Boy remained beside Slide, but Gibson turned and followed Nephredana. Being one of the boys was okay, but there were limits. The two of them had no sooner reached the car than a massive and blinding fireball filled the space beneath the saucer. At the same time a thunderclap of an explosion almost deafened them. Gibson's jaw dropped.
"Sweet Jesus Christ!"
It seemed impossible for Slide and Yop Boy to have survived the blast and conflagration. The doombeam had the desired effect, however, and the saucer flipped up as though it had been given a hot foot. The gold light narrowed down to a tight pencil beam and skittered over the ground as though it was searching for who or what was responsible, then the saucer went straight up and zigzagged away at high speed.