He opened the door, stepped through into the semidarkened room, closed the door behind him, and locked it—and suddenly the lights went on.
He turned, startled, to see Jerry sitting at his desk.
“What the hell are you doing here?” said Bucky.
“I work here,” replied Jerry with a smile.
“I mean, in your office.”
“It’s your party. I thought I’d let you bask in the glow and answer all the questions. Besides, I don’t like mob scenes.”
“Well, since it’s your office, I can hardly throw you out,” said Bucky easily. “I hope you don’t mind a little company. I’ve had it with those . . . those . . .” He searched for the right word.
“Sycophants?” suggested Jerry.
“Yes. Except for the ones that plan to stab me in the back—figuratively, of course—as soon as they can.”
Jerry indicated a chair. “Have a seat.”
“I don’t mind if I do,” replied Bucky with a smile. He sat down and took a deep breath. “It’s cooler in here.”
“You’re not sharing the air-conditioning with ninety other bodies,” noted Jerry.
“And quieter.”
The phone on Jerry’s desk rang.
“Well, it was quieter,” said Bucky.
Jerry frowned. “Who the hell would be calling me at ten o’clock at night on a Sunday?”
Bucky smiled. “Why don’t you pick it up and find out?”
“Okay,” said Jerry, returning the smile. “But given the day and the hour, I may charge you overtime for this.” He picked up the receiver. “Hello?”
Bucky could tell someone replied, but Jerry merely frowned.
“Who is this?”
Another pause while the man at the other end answered.
“I don’t care what you think you know, I won’t speak to someone who won’t identify himself,” said Jerry curtly. Then he paused. “NASA? What part of NASA?”
Bucky gesticulated wildly, and Jerry said, “Hang on. I’m going to put you on hold for just a minute.”
He hit a button on the phone and turned to Bucky. “What is it?”
“This is a guy from NASA?”
Jerry nodded. “Probably.”
“Probably?” repeated Bucky.
“He says he’s a friend of NASA.”
“There could be a lot of reasons he won’t identify himself,” said Bucky. “Put it on speaker, so I can hear it, too. I won’t interrupt, but let’s find out what he wants.”
“A job, probably,” said Jerry.
Bucky just stared at him.
“Okay, okay, you’re the boss.” He put the phone on speaker and took it off hold. “Sorry for the delay. Now, what can I do for you?”
“Nothing,” said the voice. “But maybe I can do something for you, Mr. Culpepper.”
“But you won’t tell me your name?”
“Hear me out, and you’ll know why. As I told you, I’m a friend of NASA. I think it’s terrible the way they’ve treated the Agency—the way they turned their backs on the Moon half a century ago and even gave up the shuttle. Just terrible!”
“You’ll get no disagreement from me,” said Jerry. “Is that what this call is about?”
“That’s the reason for it,” said the man. “It’s not the gist of it.”
“I don’t want to be rude, but it’s after ten o’clock, and I was up half of the last two nights. I’m tired, and I don’t even know who I’m talking to, so can we get to the point, please?”
“I’m coming to it, Mr. Culpepper. You know what they found on the Moon, right?”
“Of course I do,” said Jerry in bored tones. “It’s in the next room.”
“Impressive, isn’t it?”
Jerry frowned. “Yeah, it’s impressive. So?”
“So do you know what it is?”
“Part of some kind of dome, probably,” answered Jerry, starting to get annoyed. “You got any other questions?”
“Just one. Do you know what it really is, and why it’s been kept secret all these years?”
Suddenly, Bucky leaned forward, and Jerry tensed.
“Why don’t you tell me?”
“That would be too easy for you and too dangerous for me,” said the voice. “But you can find the answer if you want it.”
“Of course I want it.”
“Good.”
“So where is it?” demanded Jerry.
“It’s well hidden,” said the voice.
“Okay, it’s well hidden,” said Jerry. “Where?”
“Just think about it, Mr. Culpepper. If you had something that valuable, where would you hide it?”
“In my safe-deposit box,” said Jerry.
“Don’t be a fool, Mr. Culpepper. This is a matter of worldwide importance. Just ask yourself—”
“I told you: I’d put it in a bank.”
“Let me finish,” said the voice. “Banks get robbed all the time.”
“Okay,” said Jerry. “What should I ask myself?”
“What would Sherlock Holmes do?”
“He’d solve the problem,” said Jerry irritably.
“Don’t be obtuse, Mr. Culpepper. You have your answer.”
“What answer, damn it!” snapped Jerry, but the click! at the other end of the line was audible even to Bucky.
Jerry hung up. “So what do you make of it?” asked Bucky. “Did you recognize the voice?”
Jerry shook his head. “No.” He paused. “But it didn’t sound like a crank call.”
“I agree. In any case, we’ve got to follow it up.”
“Follow it where?” asked Jerry in frustration.
“I don’t know,” admitted Bucky. “Yet.”
“I don’t know where the devil we can start.”
“With the clue,” said Bucky.
“What clue?” Jerry practically yelled.
“You heard him: What would Sherlock Holmes do?”
“And you heard my answer: He’d solve the damned problem!”
“Ah . . . but how?” said Bucky. “That was the clue.”
“I don’t understand you any more than I understood him.”
“It’s fascinating, Jerry. I don’t know what we’ve found, what we’ve brought back. A couple of curved metal panels, that’s all. But there’s an answer somewhere, and this phone call may be the key to it. In other words, it’s a two-step process. First, we figure out what the hell he was talking about, where this mysterious something is hidden. Then we find it, get our hands on it, and hopefully solve the mystery of what they’ve been hiding from us all these years.”
“You make it sound simple,” said Jerry.
“It can’t be simple, or someone would have figured it out in the past half century.”
“Not necessarily,” replied Jerry. “For most of that time, no one knew there was anything to be discovered, or that Myshko had landed on the Moon.”
“Then, since we know it, it shouldn’t be that difficult, should it?” said Bucky.
Jerry just stared at his employer. Now I know why you’re the billionaire, and I’m the employee, he thought. You love a challenge, you come alive with one, and I just want it to go away.
“Have you read much Holmes?” asked Bucky.
“A little.”
“And you didn’t recognize the voice?”
“No,” said Jerry, frowning. “Why?”
“Because if he doesn’t know you, he can’t assume you’re familiar with the canon, that you know all the stories inside out. So that has to be a simpler clue than we thought at first.”