Diane Duane - X-COM - UFO Defense

“No one involved in such an operation would want to be noticed if they could avoid it,” Jonelle said. “Any increase in local awareness means the supply of cows will decrease.”

“Now here,” said Matt, “are the rest of the combination kidnappings and mutilations. Some cows were lifted; others were lifted, dissected, and dumped. Like Ueli’s case, the other night, from the Urserenwald Alp. That one too was surprisingly close to a large conurbation. Then another one over by Vieler, between Gurtnellen and Göschenen. Over on the other side of the Furka Pass, one at Unterwasser, and another outside a town called Münster, at a place called Schlapf. And, interestingly, one down here in Valle Leventina, at a place called Quinto. A much better populated area—nearly two thousand people living around there. But again, the valley is narrow there, and the peaks so close together that there are at least a couple of places where someone could quite easily take cows and not be seen from the town, even though it’s only half a mile away as the crow flies.”

“All right,” Jonelle said. “Matt, that’s quite a lot, for one day’s work.”

“There are incidents we heard about secondhand but haven’t yet had time to verify with the people who actually own the cows or the land involved,” Matt said. “What you see here is only firsthand info. We’ll doubtless pick up another ten or fifteen incidents tomorrow, if the stories we heard today are true. One blip, by the way: we have a place that was hit twice. Munster.”

“Twice,” Ueli said, shaking his head. “That is news. I hadn’t heard about it.”

“All right.” Jonelle turned to Ueli. “But I just want to be clear about this. If Matts data is correct, these mutilations and cownappings have been going on as close to you as Oberwald and Münster, just the other side of the Furka Pass, not ten miles away—and you didn’t know anything about it?”

“Well,” Ueli said, and shrugged and spread his hands. “That’s the Goms Valley over there, that’s another canton: it’s Valais over there. We’re in Uri. We don’t exchange official information—that’s private. And we don’t socialize much with the Gomsers. They’re a long way away…it’s hard to get there in the winter, the pass is closed, you have to put your car on the train and take it through the tunnel…. Then in summer, we’re busy. The tourists, and the cows…. And local news, you see, it mostly stays local…you don’t want other people, strangers, prying into your business.”

Jonelle raised her eyebrows, remembering the word waelisch, “foreigner,” used, to her initial amusement, for someone twenty miles away. But in the old days, when the local mindsets were first formed, twenty miles over the pass might as well have been two countries over. It was difficult to reach, the other side didn’t really have anything you wanted, anyway—why go? Why talk to those people? Why think about them?

“I heard a story,” Jonelle said. “Tell me if it’s true—that some people in a village up in these mountains built a gallows to execute criminals on, and when a neighboring village asked to borrow it to hang a thief of theirs, the people in the other village said, ‘No—these gallows are for us and our children.’”

Ueli nodded, wearing a slightly rueful look. Jonelle smiled at him and said gently, “You’re really going to have to change your habits and start talking to each other, even if the people over the other side of the mountain are just from Valais, or Vaud.”

She rubbed her head and looked at the map. “We’ll have another run at this tomorrow. I’ve got some other things to take care of.” Matt looked down, decorously, busying himself with his papers; the others looked in other directions, their expressions studiedly blank. “But Ueli, do me a favor. When my people go back to do more investigations tomorrow, I’m going to have them ask not just about cows that have gone missing, but strange occurrences. If people have seen odd lights, strange things they can’t account for in the mountains around here, I’d like to know about it. I’d like you to talk to the locals here tonight too, if you would, and just take sort of a straw poll for me. Have people seen odd things, heard weird noises? I mean, if all these mutilations and cownappings have been the work of UFOs, of aliens, well, you know how people can be about such things. Often they don’t want to talk about them. Well, maybe you don’t know how they are about such things,” Jonelle amended hastily, “and come to think of it, neither do I, but…see if you can draw people out a little bit. You’ll probably have a little more luck than we waelisch.” She put a slight twist on the word.

Ueli gave her a look that was ironic, but slightly impressed. “Well,” he said. “I have to warn you, you may get more than you bargained for. This is not one of the most normal parts of the world.”

Jonelle gave him back his ironic expression, with interest. “No,” Ueli said, earnestly, “you really don’t know what I mean. This part of the Alps, there are a lot of strange stories…people have been seeing odd lights and strange creatures in these mountains since they settled here, almost two millennia ago. You’re going to have to be careful how you ask your questions. Otherwise, people are going to start thinking you want to hear folktales, local monster stories, about things like the dwarves or the buttatsch—”

“Buttatsch?”

“It’s a cow belly with eyes,” Ueli said, straight-faced. “A flayed cow skin, with the udders flapping. It glows in the dark. The thing comes rolling downhill at you when you’re on some lonely mountain track, moaning and howling and speaking in tongues—”

“Check, please,” said Matt, standing up hurriedly. “If we leave now, we can be at the train station before nightfall.”

Jonelle laughed. “This is not something I want to meet. But—heavens, Ueli, it sounds like some kind of—alien—”

“Don’t ask me,” Ueli said. “I’ve never seen one, and I’m not sure I believe in it. But if you do see what looks like a glow-in-the-dark cowhide coming at you, I would take myself elsewhere. Consider it a public safety announcement from the local government.”

“Believe me,” Jonelle said, “if I see anything like that, I’ll call for backup right away.”

They broke up for that evening. As Jonelle strolled back to the train station with her people, one of them said, “Cow bellies!”

“I don’t know,” Jonelle said softly. They were on the sidewalk that ran through the middle of the park, and well away from listening ears. “Could it be that the aliens have been hanging around here for some time?…But let’s find out some more about these strange creatures Ueli’s been talking about—it might do us some good. Think about how long people reported skinny little, big-headed aliens being involved in their own abductions, and then we found out they had been dealing with Sectoids.” “All right, Boss…we’ll look into it.”

“The rest of you, keep on the mutilation and abduction end of things. I had no idea there were so many of them down here. I’ve never heard of such a concentration of events. I may have to go back down to Irhil tonight or tomorrow, but I want to keep this rolling. These people have been very helpful to us in a lot of ways…and I want to try to return the favor, just a little, even if it’s only covertly.”

She did indeed go back to Irhil M’Goun that evening. Repairs were coming along well on the various craft that needed them, and DeLonghi looked almost glad to see her. He at least had had a chance to get some rest and some planning done regarding his next strategies for what to do should the pace of interceptions speed up again. Jonelle, in turn, told him about the cow situation in Switzerland.