Saucer Read Online Free PDF

central Sahara, but no matter. His synthetic-aperture radar could see through darkness, clouds, or smoke. The digital signals would be encrypted and transmitted via satellite to NIMA for processing into extraordinarily detailed images.
    With its mission in the Sahara complete, the hypersonic spy plane would make another pass over the Mideast—this pilot made the Mideast run at least once a week—then turn and head for a second tanker rendezvous west of the Azores on the way back to Nevada.
    Just another day at the office, the pilot told himself, and tried to make himself comfortable in his padded seat.
    • • •
    When Bill Taggart got back to the circle of light from the propane lamp, the professor was explaining: “…Modern man appears in the archaeological record about one hundred thousand years ago, but the story is mixed, hard to decipher. At least two other species of hominids lived at the same time. All we know for a fact is that modern man survived and the other hominids became extinct.”
    Professor Soldi gestured into the larger darkness. “A hundred millennia ago this area was probably a lot like parts of Arizona are today, with wooded hills and mountains rising above the arid desert floor. People lived wherever there was a dependable source of water—didn’t have to be much, just a little, but steady. The desert encroached and retreated with variations in rainfall.”
    “How do you see what’s under the sand?”
    “We use radar. We look through the sand with radar, map the terrain, locate places that we think it likely that water might have been more plentiful than elsewhere. If these sites aren’t buried too deep, we dig.”
    “Any luck so far?”
    “Oh, yes,” Soldi said, and from a trouser pocket he removed a large flint blade. “This knife,” he said, cradling it in his hand, “may be fifty thousand years old.”
    “The saucer might be that old,” Rip said. “Or older.”
    “Extraordinary, isn’t it?” Soldi exclaimed, his voice vibrant and full of energy. “The technology in that saucer and the technology represented by this knife blade. They were found just thirty miles apart and are apparently so dissimilar. And yet…”
    • • •
    The sky was just beginning to lighten in the east when Rip Cantrell awoke. He was too excited to sleep. He could think of nothing except the saucer.
    He rolled off the cot, pounded his boots to make sure that they were empty, then put them on. He pulled on his shorts and a T-shirt he had worn only a couple of days, then slipped out of the tent.
    The air was invigorating, cool, and crisp. Actually, it was cold. He went back into the tent and rooted through his clothes for a sweatshirt. And a sweater.
    After a long, delicious drink of cool water and a couple of leftover rolls from last night’s dinner, Rip set off on foot for the saucer. Dutch and Bill and the professor could bring the Jeep later.
    As he walked he watched the first light of dawn chase away the shadows. This summer job was his first real experience with the desert, and he loved it.
    He was at least a mile away when he saw the saucer reflecting the dawn’s pink light. God, it looked… so… sublime! Mysterious and sublime.
    Today would be the day they got some answers. Yes. He could feel it.
    He climbed around on the rock, looking at the saucer from every angle. He put his hands on it, felt the cool, smooth, sensuous surface. When he lifted his hands, their outline remained in the surface dust.
    From the top of the stone ledge that had imprisoned the saucer, he watched the sun rise over the rim of the earth.
    Why here? Why had they landed here, in this place? Was it a desert then?
    When the sun was completely above the horizon, Rip got the shovel and began removing sandstone debris from under the saucer. He brushed loose sand and rubble away from the exposed landing gear skid with his fingers.
    He almost missed it in the darkness of the early morning light. There, in the stone!
    A