V - The Original Miniseries Read Online Free PDF Page A

will be unable to survive without immediate assistance. There are certain chemicals and compounds which we need to manufacture which alone can save our struggling civilization. You can help us manufacture these. And in return, we'll gladly share with you the fruits of all our knowledge." The fruits of all our knowledge ... Who the hell have they got for a speechwriter?
    "Now that contact is established, we would like to meet with individual governments so that we may present requests for certain operating plants around the world to be retooled for manufacture of the compound we need ..."
    Donovan thought fleetingly of his stepfather's plant, could visualize his mother, Eleanor, goading that poor SOB Arthur to try and land a Visitor contract. Wonder what kind of compound they're talking about?
    "And we'll reward your generosity, as I have said, by educating your industrial and scientific complex to the limits of our knowledge-helping solve your environmental, agricultural, and health dilemmas-then we'll leave you, as we came, in peace."
Talk about offering us heaven on a silver platter-what would they do if we told them to stick it in their non-pointed ears?
    "I know that if circumstances were reversed, and you had come to visit us, I'd feel a burning curiosity to see the inside of your spacecraft right away. With that in mind, we'd like to have the secretary general and five of your journalists accompany us back aboard our Mother Ship, for what will be the first of many opportunities to get to know us better."
    Donovan felt a tap on his shoulder, and looked up from his camera's viewfinder to see one of the secretary general's aides at his side. "Your card came up, Mr. Donovan," the man said in accented English.
"Hot damn!" Hastily Donovan checked his equipment, then ducked under the rope at the man's signal. As he began walking toward the ship, Kristine and Tony fell in beside him.
     
"What'd he mean, my card came up?" Donovan asked them in a low voice as they crossed the rooftop.
    "They chose the journalists by lot," Kristine explained. "Sam Egan and Jeri Taylor got it too." "We really got the luck!"
"Yeah," Tony agreed dryly. Donovan turned to ask him what he meant, but Leonetti was already mounting the ramp. Donovan hastened after him.
    The Visitor leader, "John," was waiting for them at the top of the ramp. Donovan was the last to climb it as he hung back to get a good shot of the other journalists meeting and shaking hands with the alien. Then he sprinted up the ramp for his own turn, hastily resting his camera on his left shoulder so he could free his right hand. God, he thought, impressed in spite of himself, I'm getting to shake the hand of someone born under a different sun ... even though he looks human, he's not...
John's hand was markedly cool, the skin firm and smooth. He nodded pleasantly. "Mr. Donovan. I saw your films of the underside of our Mother Ship. Most impressive ... and quite daring." Donovan felt like a kid receiving a chuckle and a pat on the shoulder from an adult. "That's right, you said you monitored our television. How long have you been doing that?"
    Behind the Visitor's dark glasses Donovan could see the man's blue eyes appraise him coolly. John smiled. "For several of your solar years, now. I promise you we'll satisfy your curiosity, Mike. We'll have lots of time to communicate during our visit here."
"I'm glad to hear it." Donovan moved along. He stepped into the shuttle, grabbing a closeup of John's face as the man smiled graciously at Kristine, before sitting down beside the newswoman. The guy wears authority like a shroud, Donovan thought, wrenching his eyes away from the leader with an almost physical effort.
    The interior of the craft was disappointing. It looked like a cross between the Learjet and one of those shuttle vehicles that transport passengers to planes. Seats lined the walls, cushioned seats covered in what appeared to be (and probably was) very ordinary dark brown fabric-A