Star of Ill-Omen Read online

  Unfortunately it had made its appearance during the siesta hours; so, of the house-party, only the painter Jorge Avila, who preferred to doze in the loggia rather than in his room, had seen it. Pedro Belasco, the young astrologer, was frankly sceptical and at first twitted Avila with having dreamt it; but a telephone enquiry to the offices of the atomic plant produced corroboration, as a dozen or more workers lounging in the shade had also seen and excitedly reported the strange visitant.

  Pressed to give details, Avila described it as a huge, round, gleaming disc, whitish in colour and not less than a hundred feet across. He said that it appeared to be spinning like a great top and flying at about three thousand feet, but showed no evidence of propulsion and was completely silent. He had opened his eyes from a doze at about a quarter to three to see it hovering right over the plant. It had remained stationary there for some four minutes, then suddenly and noiselessly streaked away in a westerly direction at a terrific speed, so that it was lost to sight in a matter of seconds.

  That tallied with the bulk of the reports which had been published about the sighting of such objects in the United States and elsewhere, but Belasco refused to be convinced.

  ‘I grant that you saw something,’ he conceded, with a shrug of his narrow shoulders, ‘but not what you suppose. It must have been a thing called a sea-hook, which is a form of balloon used to gather meteorological information.’

  ‘Nonsense!’ retorted Avila sharply. ‘Such wind as there is comes from the north-east, so how could a balloon travel against it? And at such a speed! I give you my word this thing made off faster than any jet: it was doing at least a thousand miles an hour. It could only have been a space ship.’

  Again Belasco shrugged. ‘You admit you were half asleep. It was a sea-hook that you saw, then you dozed off again and only dreamt its swift disappearance.’

  His was the type of argument which had been adopted the world over by natural sceptics of the normally inexplicable after the official board of enquiry known as ‘Project Saucer’ had been closed down by the United States Government, and the statement giving sea-hooks as the explanation of these strange appearances had been issued; but Kem thought it very far from being fully convincing.

  As a secret agent, whose special business it was to keep abreast with the development of all new types of weapons, he had followed the Flying Saucers’ controversy with considerable interest. It had started in June 1947 with a level-headed American business man named Arnold, when flying his own aircraft in Washington State, sighting nine discs in close formation weaving in and out among the peaks of the Rocky Mountains. Within a month scores of people in Portland, Oregon, and Seattle reported seeing similar discs, including such trained observers as the captain and crew of a United States airliner, all of whom vouched for having watched a flight of them manœuvre for ten minutes.

  At about the same time had occurred the strange case of Maury Island. An official of the Port of Tacoma, named Dahl, had been near the island in a patrol boat with a crew of two men and his son, when they had all suddenly sighted six great discs flying silently about 2,000 feet above them. Five of the discs were circling round the sixth, which seemed to be in trouble, as, although it was moving too, it was swiftly losing height. After a few minutes it was down to within 500 feet of the sea. There it hovered: there came a dull boom and it let fall what appeared to be some metal objects that must have been intensely hot, as they raised a cloud of steam on plunging into the water. The disc then rose again, and with its five companions streaked away across the Pacific.

  In the following January had come the high-spot of the saga. At three o’clock on the afternoon of the 7th, State Police at Fort Knox, where the greater part of the available gold in the world was now buried, had alerted the military authorities that they were receiving telephone calls from scores of people about a Flying Saucer which was overhead and making in the direction of Godman Air Base. Colonel Hix, the Commandant at the Base, had immediately ordered up three fighter aircraft and gone with his staff to the control tower. Within a few minutes Colonel Hix and his companions all picked up the Flying Saucer through their binoculars. It was far bigger than any previously reported and estimated to be a good 500 feet in diameter. Also unlike its predecessors this colossal airship—the floor space of which must have exceeded that of St. Peter’s in Rome—was belching blasts of red flame as it proceeded at quite a moderate pace through a sky only partially obscured by thin cloud. The three fighter pilots also saw it, reported by radio to their base and gave chase. Soon, apparently taking alarm, it began to climb at 400 miles an hour. Two of the pilots lost sight of it almost at once, but their senior, Captain Mantell, kept it in view. His last words, spoken to Base, were that he thought he could stand an altitude of 20,000 feet and meant to go to that in the hope of getting a closer view of his quarry. How close he got no one will ever know, or the exact cause of his death, but later the wreckage of his aircraft was picked up scattered over a wide area.

  To reject the unprejudiced testimony of such highly qualified observers as Colonel Hix and his staff seemed arbitary in the extreme, and fifteen months after the tragedy at Godman Air Base it had been supported by evidence of an unquestionable scientific nature.

  At White Sands, New Mexico, the United States Government had established an experimental station for the development of long-range rockets. On the firing of each rocket the expert in charge, Commander R. B. McLaughlin, was responsible for recording its speed, direction and performance, this being made possible by a number of teams stationed several miles apart registering the flight of the rocket by means of theodolites. In April 1948 one such team was checking the flight of a weather balloon when into the field of view of the theodolite sailed a Flying Saucer. The instrument showed it to be sixty miles up and moving at the fantastic speed of 18,000 miles an hour. McLaughlin had not been present with the team, but a month later he and two officers with him saw the same or a similar disc, and a month after that another of his teams reported two very small discs that chased, circled and passed a rocket which was hurtling at enormous speed up into the stratosphere.

  Both before and since these outstanding episodes, the sighting of Flying Saucers had been reported, mostly in the United States, but also in several other countries, and the number of separate cases now totalled nearly eight hundred. Owing to the sensational publicity given to the early sightings, on December 30th, 1947, the U.S. Government had decided to set up ‘Project Saucer’—a committee composed of astro-physicists, specialists in electronics, meteorologists and other experts—to investigate all the available evidence. At first their reports had admitted that much of the phenomena described was incapable of explanation on any accepted scientific grounds, but later a U.S. Army Air Force spokesman declared that all cases submitted had been disposed of as having natural causes, and in September 1949 ‘Project Saucer’ was closed down.

  Like many other people, Kem had regarded the vague official attempts to explain away specific cases and the culminating bald announcement as at least suspicious. It seemed next to incredible that men like Colonel Hix and Commander McLaughlin, who had had a lifelong training in identifying aerial objects, could have mistaken weather balloons for giant space ships, of hitherto unknown design and performance, or, as it was suggested, that the unfortunate Captain Mantell had been deluded into chasing the planet Venus at three o’clock in the afternoon. It was, too, a little too much to insist that thousands of sane respectable citizens had suddenly become the victims of mass hysteria, and that groups of them at hundreds of different times and places had all been led to tell a tissue of lies as a result of hallucinations.

  With the superior air of a young don who has been somewhat spoilt by early academic successes, Belasco had been delivering a lecture to Avila upon the astro-physiological barriers which would make it next to impossible for any space ship, except in the form of a rocket, to accomplish the voyage from one world to another. Then Colonel Gonzales cut in to remark:

&
nbsp; ‘Because no satisfactory explanation has yet been offered to account for the appearance of these things, it does not follow that they are space ships. That is the opinion of many well-informed people. When I was on a mission to Spain last year I was shown a photograph of one over the Balearic Isles that had been taken at night by a newsreel cameraman named Enrique Muller. It looked like a plate of fire, with five great jets of flame swirling from its circumference as it revolved. The man who showed me the photograph at the Spanish War Office was convinced that it was a diabolical invention of the Russians.’

  Kem shook his head. ‘I find it hard to believe that the Russians are so far ahead of everyone else in aero-dynamics, Colonel.’

  ‘That none of us knows,’ the Colonel retorted, ‘and colour is lent to the theory that they are Russian by the fact that by far the greatest number of sightings so far have occurred over American air bases and experimental stations. If the Russians have such an aircraft, it follows that they would use it to spy out as many of the military secrets as possible of their potential enemies.’

  ‘Perhaps. But how, then, do you account for the sightings down in the Antarctic? Commander Orrego, who is in charge of the Chilean naval base there, has reported the appearance of quite a number of Flying Saucers and, it is said, secured good photographs of them. What possible interest could the Russians have in the South Pole?’

  ‘The Chilean Government refuses to release the photographs,’ Carmen remarked, ‘and what I cannot understand is why they, the American Government, should make such a mystery of the matter.’

  ‘That is easily explained, my dear,’ smiled the Colonel. ‘It is the duty of all governments to do their utmost to maintain the tranquillity of their people. The odds are that no one, apart from those responsible for their appearance, yet knows definitely what these things are or whence they come. But say they did, and an authoritative statement were issued, either that they are a new Soviet weapon, or possibly the forerunners of an invasion from another world: think of its effect. Either might cause widespread panic and in any case would have disastrous effects upon the world’s stock markets. Naturally the authorities will strive to prevent anything of that kind, as long as keeping secret what they do will enable them to.’

  For another hour these intriguing speculations about the Flying Saucers went on, and it was not until they were about to separate to change for dinner that Kem succeeded in getting a few words alone with Carmen.

  As the party broke up he had caught her eye and she had moved over to the far end of the loggia, ostensibly to admire the sunset with him. But Dona Julia was still collecting her work-things within twenty feet of them, and Belasco was helping her hunt for a missing needle.

  ‘Tonight,’ murmured Kem under his breath, ‘I’ll come to your room.’

  ‘No, Kem, no!’ she whispered back. ‘It would be too dangerous.’

  ‘On the contrary. With Estévan in Buenos Aires we have nothing to fear.’

  ‘No, no! I dare not let you.’

  ‘Please! Please, Carmen,’ he urged her. ‘This is a God-given opportunity, and our last chance of a few hours together. This morning I received a letter that I cannot possibly ignore, and I have to leave tomorrow.’

  She drew in a sharp little breath and he saw the knuckles of her hand go white as she clenched the balustrade. After a moment she whispered, ‘Must you… must you really go?’

  ‘Yes; and my company has ordered me to the United States. I shall always love you, but it will be months, perhaps years, before I can get back here. Surely you don’t deny me the memory of this last night together when the Gods have been so kind in making things easy for us?’

  Biting her scarlet lip, she hesitated, torn by conflicting emotions; then her low voice came again: ‘Darling, I want you so much. It crucifies me to say no, but the risk is so appalling. Estévan would kill me if he found out, and I’m sure that his creature, Belasco, already suspects us. I knew it from the look he gave me after he came upon us in the garden the day before yesterday. He’s watching us covertly now. He’s bound to realise that with Estévan away we shall attempt to seize on this, chance to deceive him. I feel sure he’ll stay up and spy on us. He’ll lie in wait somewhere between your room and mine. I dare not risk it. I simply dare not.’

  Kem gave her a steady, confident smile, as he whispered in reply: ‘I’ve thought of that. I saw the suspicious look he gave you, too, but I’ve thought of a way to fool him. At dinner I mean to pretend to be ill—a touch of the sun after my long ride today. That will be excuse enough for me to go to bed two or three hours before the rest of you. It will be one o’clock or so, as usual, before the party breaks up. At midnight I shall leave my room, lock the door and go to yours; so if he does wait up he’ll have his wait for nothing, because I’ll be in your suite. Then when dawn comes I’ll leave by your window. Carmen, you must let me do that. You must! I can’t bear to go away without holding you in my arms again.’

  Again she hesitated, then she gave a little gulp and breathed: ‘All right. It… it shall be as you wish. May the Holy Mother forgive and protect us.’

  Kem was a born actor. At dinner, instead of being his usual amusing self, he appeared distrait and poor company; then towards the end of the meal he gave an admirable rendering of a near faint and complained of a splitting headache. Everyone present showed much concern and he was packed off to bed with varying advice as to the best treatment for slight heatstroke.

  On his way upstairs he grinned to himself at the thought that he had pulled off the second step towards his great coup. Estévan Escobar was safely out of the way for the night and while overcoming Carmen’s scruples he had, in accordance with his carefully-thought-out plan, deftly secured for himself an uninterrupted hour in their private suite. She was so lovely and so lovable, and to use her in this unscrupulous way was hateful to his natural instincts. Yet he could not allow such a consideration to interfere with the accomplishment of his mission.

  There remained the worrying uncertainty about whether his skill as a locksmith would prove equal to cracking Escobar’s safe; and while he had seen no other way to get at it than by involving Carmen, he was aware that he might yet have to pay a price for that, for the most dangerous complications would arise should he not have completed his nefarious task by the time she arrived in her room.

  As he closed the door of his own room behind him he wondered a little grimly how the night would end.

  4

  A Thief in the Night

  In the Argentine the upper classes followed the Spanish custom of dining late, and even in the country rarely sat down to dinner before nine; so it was past ten before Kem reached his room. There, he at once undressed and got into bed, as a precaution against anyone coming up to enquire after his feigned indisposition, and he soon had cause to be thankful for his wariness. Within five minutes of his getting between the sheets there came a soft knock at the door and Dona Julia, an imposing figure in black lace and stiff satin, rustled in.

  With her the old lady brought well-proved remedies for heat-stroke, and proceeded to swathe his head in bandages soaked with some sweet-scented solution of herbs. She also produced a fearsome-looking draught of thick, blackish liquid; but having gracefully submitted to her other ministrations Kem, fearing that it contained a soporific sufficient to dull his wits dangerously, perhaps at some critical moment during the coming night, persuaded her to leave it for him to take only should he find difficulty in getting off to sleep.

  Once she had gone he felt that he had no need to fear a second visit, as after dinner every night the house-party at the estancia always settled down to a game of baccarat, and Dona Julia apparently found no difficulty in reconciling her passion for gambling with a most exemplary piety.

  He had already done most of his packing before dinner, but he now got up and completed it. Then, with his head still bandaged and wearing his dressing-gown, he carried his two suitcases down the back stairs and out to the garage. As he had foreseen m
ight be the case, some stable hands and chauffeurs were lounging in the yard, enjoying the cool of the evening. To one of the latter he explained that he had a touch of the sun, but in spite of that he must start for Buenos Aires first thing in the morning. Then he tipped the man lavishly to stow his baggage in a car that he had hired before leaving the capital, and to service it with air, water, oil and petrol. Having waited to see that the job was done properly, he returned to his room, and wrote a brief note describing the state and place in which he had left Escobar, then propped it up on the dressing-table, where it was certain to be found in the morning.

  When packing he had left out with his day-things a dark lounge suit, and he now dressed himself in it for three good reasons. Should he hear anyone approaching when he made his way stealthily to Carmen’s room he would, against a dark background, stand a better chance of remaining unseen than he would have had in a gaily-coloured dressing-gown; if he were unlucky enough to run slap into anyone his being fully dressed would be much less likely to suggest that he was on his way to an amorous rendezvous with the beautiful mistress of the house; and, lastly, he was far too old a hand to risk having to make a quick getaway without his trousers, should some unforeseen event cause matters to go seriously wrong.

  By the time he had dressed and removed the bandage from his head it was a quarter past eleven; but anxious as he was to get to work he felt that he dared not do so yet. At the estancia the servants, like their masters, kept late hours, so it was possible that Carmen’s maid might not yet have come up to prepare her mistress’s room for the night. He felt confident she would have done so within the next half-hour, but it was better to sacrifice that than risk disaster by walking in on her.

  Controlling his impatience as best he could, he took up a book, but after a few moments found that he could not concentrate on it. For a little he thought with joyful anticipation of the hours he planned to spend with Carmen, then his mind drifted back to Flying Saucers.