I USED TO KNOW HIM

CHAPTER FOUR

     He shut off the thoughts of Margret as he reached the busy section of town

and concentrated on his driving. He could wait, he decided in closing

off the thoughts. Sooner or later she would be ready to accept the

truth and he would be right there waiting. He manoeuvred the Ford

around several other cars parked in the lot of the City Hall and found

the berth that bore his name. He killed the engine, got out and went

inside to his office.

    When he opened the door and saw the two men and the Chief sitting in his

office, he knew it was something big. After awhile, it was so you could

spot a Fed a mile away. Especially when they were sitting in your

office. Chief Daniels looked grouchy at him, but his tone was cordial.

"You finish with Peters?"

"Yes."

     Daniels nodded, his florid, moon face looking lumpy and important.

"Lieutenant Brice. This is JohnCartwell and SamMorgan. Secret Service.

I've promised to give them assistance in an important matter. They'll

brief you." He nodded an important good-by and left the three of them

alone.

     "What's the problem, gentlemen," Callum said and settled behind his desk.

Cartwell, a stocky looking thirty year old, with wavy blond hair, did

the talking, while his dark compleced friend puffed placidly on a

cigar.

"Lieutenant Brice," Cartwell said, "your boss seemed to think that you'd

be the best man to help us set up our plan of operation. We've already

contacted the Civil Air Patrol and the National Guard outfit here. We

have an air search under way and for the meanwhile that's all we can do.

We were hoping that you could help us get in touch with all the ground

observing corps' branches, we'll use this office as a headquarters for

operations."

Callum blinked, "What's up? An Air Force test plane down?"

Cartwell shook his head. "We got a UFO report..."

"A flying saucer?" Callum was stunned.

     Cartwell chuckled and his partner grinned. "An Unidentified Flying

Object does not necessarily constitute a spacecraft, Brice. But

something was spotted off the Grand Banks, early this morning, going

like hell and apparently out of control. We got our last sighting over

Auburn, New York. We checked the observation posts around Everett and

found that nothing was seen. We also checked Binghamton and Elmira, with

a negative report. Since the object was on a southerly heading, when

spotted near Auburn, we can only assume that it went down in the area

between Everett and Auburn, and Binghamton and Elmira."

Callum gave a long low whistle. "Not one of ours, huh?"

"No."

"Canadian?"

"Not at that speed."

"That leaves the big one, then. Russian?"

     Cartwell shrugged. "Could be. If it is, we want the wreckage. No matter

what it is, or whose it is, we are very interested in any aircraft that

travels at speeds of fifteen to nineteen thousand miles per hour."

Callum whistled again. "That's rolling," he grinned.

"Yeah," mused SamMorgan, "and we'd kind of like to know what makes it

roll like that."

"Okay. Let's go into a huddle," Callum said. "But I can tell you this. If

the thing went down in north central Pennsylvania, it's in some pretty

rugged country."

"Great," Cartwell snarled.