"I'm curious as to why Mr. Hicks is here," Forbes said. "I admire Trevor's work enormously, but . . ." He didn't finish his thought. Arthur looked at Hicks, and realized he genuinely liked and trusted the man. He could understand the President's choice. But that would cut no ice with McClennan and Rotterjack, who clearly wanted Hicks away from the center.

"He's here because he's as conversant on these subjects as anybody in the world," Crockerman said. "Even though we do not see eye to eye."

Rotterjack ineffectively masked his surprise, sitting up in his chair and then awkwardly leaning his elbow on the arm. Arthur watched him closely. They thought Hicks might be behind the President's attitude.

"I'm glad Trevor's here," Arthur said abruptly. "I welcome his insights."

"Fine with me," Forbes said, smiling broadly.

PERSPECTIVE

The New York Daily News,

October 12, 1996:

Sources in the State Department, on condition that they not be named, have confirmed that there is a connection between the disappearance and alleged government captivity of four people and the secret visit by President Crockerman to Death Valley earlier this week. Other informed sources have confirmed that both of these incidents are connected with the Australian extraterrestrials. In a related story, the Reverend Kyle McCabey of Edinburgh, Scotland, founder of the Satanic Invader's League, claims that his new religious sect now numbers its followers at a hundred thousand throughout the United Kingdom and the Irish Republic. The Satanic Invader's League believes that the Australian extraterrestrials are representatives of Satan sent to the Earth to, in the Reverend's words, "soften us up for Satan's conquest."

Chapter 23

23

October 13

On the Hollywood Freeway, neck and back stiff from the early morning flight into LAX, Arthur Gordon grimly steered the rental Lincoln, listening to a babble about national lottery results on the radio.

His mind was far away, and visions of the river outside his Oregon home kept intruding into his planning. Smooth, clear green water, steady and unaware, working its natural way, eroding banks. How did each particle of dirt stripped from its place feel about the process? How did the gazelle, caught in the slash of a lion's paws, feel about becoming a simple dinner, all its existence reduced to a week or so of sustenance for another creature? "Waste," he said. "Goddamn waste." Yet he wasn't sure what he meant, or what all his thoughts were pointing to.

Cat's paws. Playing with the prey.

Suddenly, Arthur missed Francine and Marty terribly. He had spoken with them briefly from Washington before leaving; he had told them very little, not even where he was or where he was going.

Did a gazelle, caught in the meshing gears of a lion's paws, worry about doe and fawn?