”
“These are all German,” Frau Schreiber said stiffly. She shuffled the papers in her hand. “One of the lectures was on economics, one on chemistry and one on psychology.”
“May I see those?”
Reluctantly, she handed the reports to Robert.
He studied the sheets. Each one had a name written down with a home address and a telephone number.
“I can make a copy of these for you, if you wish.”
“No, thank you.” He had already memorized the names and numbers. “None of these is the man I’m looking for.”
Frau Schreiber gave a sigh of relief. “Well, thank God for that. Prostitution! We would never be involved in such a thing.”
“I’m sorry I troubled you for nothing.” Robert left and headed for a telephone booth in town.
The first telephone call was to Berlin. “Professor Streubel?”
“Ja.”
“This is the Sunshine Tours Bus Company. You left a pair of glasses on our bus last Sunday when you were touring with us in Switzerland and …”
“I do not know what you are speaking about.” He sounded annoyed.
“You were in Switzerland on the fourteenth, were you not, Professor?”
“No. On the fifteenth. To give a lecture at the University of Bern.”
“And you did not take our bus tour?”
“I have no time for such foolishness. I’m a busy man.” And the professor hung up.
The second call was to Hamburg. “Professor Heinrich?”
“This is Professor Heinrich.”
“This is the Sunshine Tours Bus Company. You were in Switzerland on the fourteenth of this month?”
“Why do you wish to know?”
“Because we found a briefcase of yours on one of our buses, Professor, and …”
“You have the wrong person. I have been on no tour buses.”
“You did not take a tour of ours to the Jungfrau?”
“I just told you, no.”
“I’m sorry to have bothered you.”
The third call was to Munich. “Professor Otto Schmidt?”
“Yes.”
“Professor Schmidt, this is the Sunshine Tours Bus Company. We have a pair of your glasses that you left on our bus a few days ago, and …”
“There must be some mistake.”
Robert’s heart sank. He had struck out. There was nowhere left to go.
The voice went on. “I have my glasses here. I have not lost them.”
Robert’s spirits soared. “Are you sure, Professor? You were on the Jungfrau trip on the fourteenth, were you not?”
“Yes, yes, but I told you, I have not lost anything.”
“Thank you very much, Professor.” Robert replaced the receiver. Jackpot!
Robert dialled another number and within two minutes he was speaking with General Hilliard.
“I have two things to report,” Robert said. “The witness in London I told you about?”
“Yes?”
“He died in a fire last night.”
“Really? Too bad.”
“Yes, sir. But I believe I’ve located another witness. I’ll let you know as soon as I check him out.”
“I’ll wait to hear from you, Commander.”
General Hilliard was reporting to Janus.
“Commander Bellamy has located another witness.”
“Good. The group is getting restless. Everyone is worried that this story will surface before SDI is operational.”
“I’ll have more information for you soon.”
“I don’t want information, I want results.”
“Yes, Janus.”
Plattenstrasse, in Munich, is a quiet residential street with drab brownstone buildings huddled together as though for protection. Number five was identical to its neighbours. Inside the vestibule was a row of mailboxes. A small card below one of them read “Professor Otto Schmidt”. Robert rang the bell.
The apartment door was opened by a tall, thin man with an untidy mop of white hair. He was wearing a tattered sweater and smoking a pipe. Robert wondered whether he had created the image of an archetypical college professor, or whether the image had created him.
“Professor Schmidt?”
“Yes?”
“I wonder if I might talk to you a moment. I’m with …”
“We have already talked,” Professor Schmidt said. “You are the man who telephoned me this morning. I am an expert at recognizing voices. Come in.”
“Thank you.” Robert entered the living room. The walls were crowded from floor to ceiling with bookcases filled with hundreds of volumes. Books were stacked everywhere; on tables, on the floor, on chairs. The sparse furniture in the room seemed to be an afterthought.
“You’re not with any Swiss tour bus company, are you?”
“Well, I …”
“You are American.”
“Yes.”
“And this visit has nothing to do with my lost glasses that were not lost.”
“Well … no, sir.”
“You are interested in the UFO I saw. It was a very upsetting experience. I always believed they might exist, but I never thought I would see one.”
“It must have been a terrible shock.”
“It was.”
“Can you tell me anything about it?”
“It was … it was almost alive. There was a kind of shimmering light around it. Blue. No, maybe more of a grey. I … I’m not sure.”
He remembered Mandel’s description: It kept changing colours. It looked blue … then green.
“It had broken open, and I could see two bodies inside. Small … big eyes. They were wearing some kind of silver suit.”
“Is there anything you can tell me about your fellow passengers?”
“My fellow passengers on the bus?”
“Yes.”
The professor shrugged. “I know nothing of them. They were all strangers. I was concentrating on a lecture I was going to give the next morning, and I paid very little attention to the other passengers.”
Robert watched his face, waiting.
“If it will help you any,” the professor said, “I can tell you what countries some of them came from. I teach chemistry, but the study of phonetics is my hobby.”
“Anything you can remember would be appreciated.”
“There was an Italian priest, a Hungarian, an American with a Texan accent, an Englishman, a Russian girl …”
“Russian?”
“Yes. But she was not from Moscow. From her accent, I would say Kiev, or very near there.”
Robert waited, but there was only silence. “You didn’t hear any of them mention their names or talk about their professions?”
“I’m sorry. I told you, I was thinking about my lecture: it was difficult to concentrate. The Texan and the priest sat together. The Texan never stopped talking. It was very distracting. I don’t know how much the priest even understood.”
“The priest …”
“He had a Roman accent.”
“Can you tell me anything more about any of them?”
The professor shrugged. “I’m afraid not.” He took another puff of his pipe. “I’m sorry I can’t be of any help to you.