Sidney Sheldon - The Doomsday Conspiracy

“Wait! I’m being sent a picture by some fellow who saw the thing.” But Johnny had already hung up.

And that was that.

Wayne almost wished that there would be an invasion of aliens. Maybe they would kill off his damned creditors. He heard the sound of a car coming up the drive and rose and walked over to the window. Looked like an easterner.

Probably another creditor. These days they were coming out of the woodwork.

Dan Wayne opened the front door.

“Howdy.”

“Daniel Wayne?”

“My friends call me Dan. What can I do for you?”

Dan Wayne was not at all what Robert had expected. He had envisioned a stereotype of a burly Texan. Dan Wayne was slight and aristocratic-looking, with an almost shy manner. The only thing that gave away his heritage was his accent.

“I wonder if I might have a few minutes of your time?”

“That’s about all I’ve got left,” Wayne said. “By the way, you’re not a creditor, are you?”

“A creditor? No.”

“Good. Come on in.”

The two men walked into the living room. It was large and comfortably furnished with western-style furniture.

“This is a nice place you have here,” Robert said.

“Yeah. I was born in this house. Can I offer you anything? A cold drink, maybe?”

“No, thanks. I’m fine.”

“Have a seat.”

Robert sat down on a soft leather couch.

“What did you want to see me about?”

“I believe you took a bus tour in Switzerland last week?”

“That’s right. Is my ex-wife having me followed? You don’t work for her, do you?”

“No, sir.”

“Oh.” He suddenly understood. “You’re interested in that UFO thing. Damnedest thing I ever saw. It kept changing colours. And those dead aliens!” He shuddered. “I keep dreaming about it.”

“Mr Wayne, can you tell me anything about the other passengers who were on that bus?”

“Sorry, I can’t help you out there. I was travelling alone.”

“I know, but you spoke to some of the other passengers, didn’t you?”

“To tell you the truth, I had a lot on my mind. I wasn’t paying much attention to anyone else.”

“Do you remember anything about any of them?”

Dan Wayne was silent for a moment. “Well, there was an Italian priest. I talked to him quite a bit. He seemed like a nice fellow. I want to tell you something, that flying saucer thing really shook him up. He kept talking about the devil.”

“Did you speak to anyone else?”

Dan Wayne shrugged. “Not really … wait a minute. I talked a little bit to some fellow who owns a bank in Canada.” He ran his tongue across his lips. “To tell you the truth, I’m having a little financial problem here with the ranch. It looks as though I might lose it. I hate goddamn bankers. They’re all blood-suckers. Anyway, I thought this fellow might be different. When I found out he was a banker, I talked to him about trying to work out some kind of loan arrangement here. But he was just like all the rest of them. He couldn’t have been less interested.”

“You said he was from Canada.”

“Yeah, Fort Smith, up in the Northwest Territories. I’m afraid that’s about all I can tell you.”

Robert tried to conceal his excitement. “Thank you, Mr Wayne, you’ve been very helpful.” Robert rose.

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

“Would you like to stay for supper?”

“No, thanks. I have to be on my way. Good luck with the ranch.”

“Thanks.”

Fort Smith, Canada, Northwest Territories.

Robert waited until General Hilliard came on the line.

“Yes, Commander?”

“I found another witness. Dan Wayne. He owns The Ponderosa, a ranch outside of Waco, Texas.”

“Very good. I’ll have our office in Dallas speak to him.”

FLASH MESSAGE

TOP SECRET ULTRA

NSA TO DEPUTY DIRECTOR DCI

EYES ONLY

COPY ONE OF (ONE) COPIES

SUBJECT: OPERATION DOOMSDAY

6. DANIEL WAYNE – WACO

END OF MESSAGE

In Langley, Virginia, the Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency studied the transmission thoughtfully. Number six. Things were going well. Commander Bellamy was doing an extraordinary job. The decision to select him had been a wise one. Janus had been right. The man was always right. And he had the power to have his wishes carried out. So much power … The Director looked at the message again. Make it look like an accident, he thought. That shouldn’t be difficult. He pressed a buzzer.

The two men arrived at the ranch in a dark blue van. They parked in the courtyard and got out of the car, carefully looking around. Dan Wayne’s first thought was that they had come to take possession of the ranch. He opened the door for them.

“Dan Wayne?”

“Yes. What can I …?”

That was as far as he got.

The second man had stepped behind him and hit him hard across the skull with a blackjack.

The larger of the two men slung the unconscious rancher over his shoulder and carried him outside to the barn. There were eight horses in the barn. The men ignored them and walked to the last stall at the back. Inside was a beautiful black stallion.

The large man said, “This is the one.” He put Wayne’s body down.

The second man picked up a cattle prod from the ground, stepped up to the stall door, and hit the stallion with the electric prod. The stallion whinnied and reared up. The man hit him again hard across the nose. The stallion was bucking wildly now, confined in the small space, smashing against the walls of the stall, his teeth bared and the whites of his eyes flashing.

“Now,” the smaller man said. His companion lifted the body of Dan Wayne and tossed it over the half door into the stall. They watched the bloody scene for several moments, then, satisfied, turned and left.

FLASH MESSAGE

TOP SECRET ULTRA

DCI TO DEPUTY DIRECTOR NSA

EYES ONLY

COPY ONE OF (ONE) COPIES

SUBJECT: OPERATION DOOMSDAY

6. DANIEL WAYNE – WACO – TERMINATED

END OF MESSAGE

Day Nine

Fort Smith, Canada

Fort Smith, in the Northwest Territories, is a prosperous town of two thousand people, most of them farmers and cattle ranchers, with a sprinkling of merchants. The climate itself is demanding, with long and rigorous winters, and the town is living proof of Darwin’s theory of the survival of the fittest.

William Mann was one of the fit ones, a survivor. He had been born in Michigan, but in his early thirties he had passed through Fort Smith on a fishing trip and had decided that the community needed another good bank. He had seized the opportunity. There was only one other bank there, and it took William Mann less than two years to put his competitor out of business. Mann ran his bank the way a bank should be run. His god was mathematics, and he saw to it that the numbers always came out to his benefit. His favourite story was the joke about the man who went to a banker pleading for a loan so that his young son could have an immediate operation to save his life. When the applicant said he had no security, the banker told him to get out of his office.

“I’ll go,” the man said, “but I want to tell you that in all my years, I’ve never met anyone as coldhearted as you are.”

“Wait a minute,” the banker replied. “I’ll make you a sporting proposition. One of my eyes is a glass eye. If you can tell me which one it is, I’ll give you the loan.”

Instantly, the man said, “Your left one.”

The banker was amazed. “No one knows that. How could you tell?”

The man said, “That’s easy. For a moment, I thought I detected a gleam of sympathy in your left eye, so I knew it must be your glass eye.”