Mine: The Arrival Read Online Free PDF Page B

to the floor and peered under the box. It was as flat and polished underneath as everywhere else. He stood back up. “And what did he tell you ?”
    “Unfortunately he, um, died before we were called in.”
    “Died?” Durant said, surprised.
    “Yes.”
    Durant waited but the captain didn’t elaborate, so he said, “Did he tell his wife anything else?”
    “Just where he found it.”
    “There must have been more than that. Have you asked her to be more specific? Maybe she—”
    “She died, too.”
    Durant took a step back from the object and looked at the captain. “Anybody else?”
    “The doctor who treated the hunter, the doctor’s wife, and the sheriff who went out to see if something was really where the hunter said it was.”
    “So you think this killed them?”
    “We were hoping you could help us figure that out.”
    Durant studied the machine again. “Start at the beginning.”
    Reece told him everything they had learned—about the hunter seeing the bright light, finding Venus (Durant hated that name), and bringing a part of it back to show his wife. Reece opened a crate sitting by one of the dividers. Inside was the broken rod the hunter had taken. He then finished the story.
    “Let me get this straight.” Durant pointed back at the crate. “All five people who came into contact with that died?”
    “Or near contact. There’s no indication that the doctor’s wife touched the rod.”
    “Fine. Near contact, then.”
    “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. But before you ask, we tested both the rod and Venus. They’re clean. No radioactivity. No viruses. No poison.”
    Durant looked at the box again to give himself a few moments to think. “Did you check with the local universities? Maybe this is part of an experiment.”
    “One of the first things we did, discreetly of course. No connections.” Reece hesitated. “The thing is, Doctor, I don’t think it’s man-made.”
    Though he knew he shouldn’t have, Durant snorted. “Is that so? And what qualifies you to make that determination? Read a lot of comics in your spare time?”
    The captain’s smile disappeared. “No, sir. I don’t.”
    “Then why do you think some space…person built this?”
    “Because it weighs fifty-four pounds.”
    Durant blinked. “What does? That piece you have in the crate?”
    “No, sir. Everything. Including the broken piece.”
    “I’m not in the mood for jokes, Captain. I’ve come a long way, and if you are just wasting my—”
    “Try to lift it.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “If you don’t believe me, grab the underside and lift it up.”
    Durant stared at Reece for a moment before turning back to the box. As big as it was, it had to weight a ton at least. Even if it was empty, it would still weigh several hundred pounds. He’d be lucky to raise it high enough for a strand of hair to pass under one of the feet.
    “All right, Captain. I’ll bite.”
    Durant approached one of the box’s shorter sides and put his hands underneath. Very carefully, he pulled upward, fully expecting the box not to move.
    Only it did move, and not just the width of a hair.
    The bottom of the thing’s legs was hovering two feet above the ground. And Durant could have easily raised it higher.
    As he set it back down, he became angry, sure now that this was another hoax. Maybe Reece and his army buddies had been fooled, but not Durant. On Halloween a few weeks before, many people had been in a panic over a broadcast of H.G. Wells’s War of the Worlds . Clearly someone had wanted to take advantage of that and had created Venus to scare people. It was nothing more than an elaborate sculpture, a box made of a thin layer of metal that held nothing more than air.
    He banged his glove against it, assuming he’d hear an echo through empty space inside.
    But no echo. And the metal didn’t flex at all.
    A solid surface, with something solid behind it.
    He moved around the box, tapping it at random points, but everywhere was