The press conference, he thought, went extraordinarily well. The Florida Times-Union even sympathized with him. “I’m not supposed to do that,” Danny Link said, “at least not publicly. I’m assuming that, when you find out what it’s about, you’ll release the information.”
That will depend. “Of course, Dan. I mean, anything fifty years old can’t possibly involve national security.”
—
Ray was happy with the outcome. “Considering what you had to deal with, you did about as well as you could, George. I suspect, though, that you won’t be getting many invitations to the annual ex-presidents’ barbecue.”
Cunningham grinned. “I love barbecue.”
Ray sat down. “Got a minute, George?”
“Sure. What’s going on?”
“We heard from Milt while you were in there.”
“Did he find out anything?”
“He says that, according to Martinez, they weren’t really there to bug the place.”
“Really?” That made no sense. “Then what was it about?”
“Cohen.”
“Say again, Ray.”
“Cohen had a briefcase with some notes in it. Apparently, part of it was in a foreign language. Anyhow, somehow or other, it got into the Democratic office at the Watergate. That’s what the burglary was about. They were trying to retrieve the briefcase.”
“Why?”
“He didn’t know. But if we can believe Martinez, the administration took the heat for trying to bug the DNC headquarters rather than tell the truth.”
Cunningham rubbed his head. “That would have been three years after the Myshko flight.”
Ray held up his palms in surrender. “I don’t see how it could possibly be connected.”
“I don’t either,” said the president.
32
“So what the hell is happening down there?” said Bucky impatiently.
“We won’t know for another few minutes, until we’ve gone a little farther around the back side,” said Gaines. “Can’t you just relax and spend a couple of minutes luxuriating over your performance? After all, you just called every president from Nixon to Cunningham a liar, and you did it in front of, I don’t know, maybe three billion people.” He smiled. “You want something to worry about? Forget what Marcia and Phil might find. Consider the fact that the U.S. and Russia may be in a race to shoot us down when we return. After all, Washington’s not the only city that hid this. They had a lot of help from Moscow.”
“I know,” said Bucky. “I’m just eager to find out why, and I have a feeling we’ll know as soon as we can contact Marcia and Phil again.”
“In the meantime, just lean back and enjoy your notoriety,” said Gaines. “I hate a nervous passenger.”
“You’re fired.”
“You fired me a few hours ago. You have to rehire me to fire me again.” Gaines looked at his instrument panel. “About five more minutes. We’re in no-man’s-land; can’t signal to Earth, can’t contact our people on the back side.”
“Why do you call it the back side?” asked Bucky. “I always thought of it as the dark side.”
Gaines shook his head. “It doesn’t show itself to Earth, but it’s not always dark. Now and then, the sun hits it.”
“I didn’t know that.”
Gaines stared at him and grinned.
“What’s so funny?” asked Bucky.
“I was about to say that we could probably fill a book with all the things you didn’t know about the Moon, but you’d just fire me again, and that’s getting tiresome.”
Bucky smiled, closed his eyes, tried to relax, failed miserably, and finally sat up and stared at the panel, which remained incomprehensible to him.
“So how long now?”
“Maybe another minute,” said Gaines.
“They’ve got to have found it!” said Bucky.
“Found what?”
Bucky shrugged helplessly. “Whatever it is. Whatever we’ve been hiding for half a century.”
“What do you really think’s down there?” asked Gaines.
“I don’t know, but I’d guess that, whatever it was, they knew about it for years. It was in the photos as far back as 1959. That’s why all those photos were doctored, and that’s why Myshko was sent up here with orders to land and get a close-up. And then Walker’s mission obliterated it.”
“Why?”
“If I can’t tell you what it is, I can’t tell you why they got rid of it.”
“Little green men?”
Bucky shook his head. “First, I think we’d welcome them, I really do, even back in 1969. And second, if we blew them away, don’t you think they’d have retaliated? They’ve had a half century to do so.”
“Yeah,” agreed Gaines, nodding. “Yeah, I suppose so.”
“If on the other hand, they were little blue men . . .” said Bucky, and Gaines doubled over with laughter.
“What’s so funny?” said Neimark’s static-riddled voice.
“Just telling dirty jokes to each other,” said Bucky. “What have you got?”
“We’re not exactly sure,” she said. “I sent Phil back for the video camera. I want you to see this close-up.”
“What is it?” Bucky demanded.
“Just be patient,” she said. “It’s difficult to describe.” A brief pause. “Ah! He’s coming this way. Shouldn’t be another minute. Hurry up, Phil!”
“Camera’s light as a feather,” said Bassinger’s voice. “But I’m still not used to walking across a rockpile in low gravity. Just want to be sure I don’t trip and bust the damned thing.”
“So where’s the image?” said Bucky.
“I haven’t turned the camera on yet,” said Bassinger. “Wait’ll we get to the spot.”
“What spot?”
“Just be a little patient, Bucky,” said Neimark. “It’ll make more sense if you can see it while we’re talking about it.”
“I’ve got a question,” said Gaines.
“Go ahead,” replied Neimark.
“Is it green and does it move?”
“No, it’s a very dull gray.”
Suddenly, the image of Neimark’s face appeared on the panel.
“Just focusing,” said Bassinger.
“How far are you from the descent stages?” asked Bucky.
“Maybe three-eighths of a mile,” said Neimark.
“They landed pretty damned close to it, given that they were a half century behind us in technology,” added Bassinger.
“Close to what?” Bucky exploded.
“Okay, I’m about to show you.” They pointed the camera down at the ground about ten feet away from him. “Do you see it?”
“I see a bunch of Moon rubble.”
“Now watch,” said Bassinger. “Okay, Marcia, give it a boost.”
Neimark bent down, wrapped her fingers around something, something gray, and straightened up.
“It’s some kind of alloy,” continued Bassinger. “Super-lightweight, or she couldn’t lift it, even in this gravity. But hard as steel and clearly part of a greater structure.”
“Structure?” repeated Bucky. “I don’t see any structure.”
“It’s mostly buried,” answered Neimark, laying the panel down. “I’d bet a year’s pay that this wasn’t manufactured on Earth.”
“But it was manufactured,” added Bassinger with absolute certainty.
“Oh, yes,” agreed Neimark. “This kind of thing doesn’t occur in nature.”
“So what is it?” asked Bucky.
“We can’t be sure yet,” answered Bassinger, “but it seems to have been some kind of construction. I’ve brought along a shovel strapped to my back, and I’ll start doing a little tentative digging.”