Saucer: Savage Planet by Stephen Coonts Read Free Book Online Page B

eyes.
    When Solo had finished and put the instrument on his lap and was again inspecting the bow, Stephens said, “Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, Third Movement.”
    “Yes.”
    “I have never in my life heard the artificial harmonics played better. Or Tchaikovsky, for that matter.”
    “This,” Solo said, gesturing to the violin, “is a quality instrument. I once played an instrument much like this, a Stainer, for several years. It is a rare privilege to touch one again. To have it in my hands. To play it.”
    “When? With what orchestra?” Muriel pressed.
    “Ah, it was long ago. When I was very young.” Solo flipped his fingers dismissively. “Drive on,” he said to Abe. “As I told you, I am a traveler.”

 
    4
    When Egg saw the story on Fox News about the Atlantic Queen ’s stolen saucer being in orbit, he mentioned it to Rip and Charley, igniting a freewheeling discussion.
    “In orbit?” Rip asked, incredulous.
    “Since the day before yesterday. Apparently it’s still up there.”
    “Could Solo be an alien,” Charley asked, “waiting for a mother ship?”
    Egg shrugged. “Anything’s possible,” he murmured.
    Rip said thoughtfully, “We know the saucer’s computer is also an autopilot. What if Solo programmed it to take the saucer into space so it wouldn’t be found or confiscated here on earth?”
    “You mean he might not even be in it?” Charley suggested.
    “I thought about sending the Sahara saucer into space,” Rip admitted, “to keep the feds and Roger Hedrick from laying hands upon it. Put it up there for a year or two, then have it programmed to come down in a secret place.”
    “You have a devious streak I didn’t know about,” Egg said appreciatively. “Why didn’t you do it?”
    “Because I didn’t know if the saucer could pick up my brain waves while in orbit, so I would have to meet it at the rendezvous point, or else.”
    “Could Solo have done that?” Charley asked Egg.
    “Of course.”
    “Who is Adam Solo?” Charley asked rhetorically.
    “Better question,” Rip responded, “ what is Adam Solo?”
    *   *   *
    The news that the stolen saucer was probably in orbit caused a sensation in the media, but when there was no follow-up, the story went onto the back burner. The Roswell saucer, if that was what it was, was up there circling the earth, but until it came down, the media had column inches and broadcast minutes to fill. Try as they might, enterprising reporters and producers could find nothing on Adam Solo, so he became the Mystery Man. Yet even that angle soon lost its zip. Crime, earthquakes, terrorism, financial shenanigans, sports and politics resumed their normal place in the newspapers and airwaves of the planet.
    The FBI report on the interview with Harrison Douglas caused the president more discomfort. World Pharmaceuticals salvaging a flying saucer from the floor of the Atlantic “on speculation”? Douglas used those words to the agents. Obviously, the company was after information that might be in the saucer’s computer database—information about drugs.
    What secrets could there be? the president wondered, then forgot about the question as he went on dealing with the usual political theater, obstreperous congressmen and senators, and big meetings about serious hot important things that filled his waking moments, all day, every day.
    Other people noted the presence of Harrison Douglas and World Pharmaceuticals in the latest saucer crisis and, adding them together, got the same answer that Johnny Murkowsky had. One of them was a fellow named Glenn Beck, a gadfly with a syndicated radio talk show.
    “Drugs from an alien civilization, developed after hundreds of thousands of years of research and investment, could be a huge windfall for World Pharmaceuticals, if the company could get the drugs approved by the government,” Beck intoned. “Perhaps the drug information in the Roswell saucer’s computer could cure the common cold, cure