The President lowered his voice to a hoarse hush. "Before Rust was dragged off, he was talking about men in black."
"That term is not one I am familiar with," Smith admitted.
"Men in black are these mysterious guys who go around confiscating UFO evidence. Some say they're CIA. Others that they're Air Force." The Chief Executive's voice dropped lower. "A lot of people think they're really space aliens."
"I trust you do not believe the latter theory," Smith said thinly.
"A smart President doesn't rule anything in or out when dealing with national-security issues. Especially one who watches 'The X -Files' faithfully."
"I will look into the Russian aspects of this," Smith said unhappily.
"How?"
"If necessary, I will send my people to Russia."
"I can't believe the Russians would attack us like this. And why advertise themselves?"
"I do not know, but I take some of their recent space activity as very suggestive."
"You mean that shuttle launch last month?"
"Yes. It was strange that they reactivated their shuttle program. Buran 1 was retired after one unmanned orbital flight in 1988. Buran 2 orbiter was placed in storage years ago and never flown until now."
"It was a colossal joke. The thing's so unsafe they don't dare send up cosmonauts in it."
"To the contrary, Mr. President. The fact that the Buran could be launched and returned to Earth safely by robot is an advantage over U.S. shuttle technology."
"None of this computes, Smith. Russians or Martians. Why would Martians attack us? We never attacked them."
"I will get back to you," said Harold Smith, disconnecting.
AT FOLCROFT, Smith searched the net for some link or database that would enable him to fix space station Mir's orbital position at the time of the Reliant disaster. He had a fling it wasn't going to be an easy task, so he called up his best brute-force search engine, set it to autosearch U.S. military data banks and moved on to other tasks.
The phone rang not an hour into this process.
It was Remo.
"Smith. We're at a Holiday Inn near Kennedy. Looks like the same thing zapped the Reliant that popped the BioBubble. But there's no telling what it is except very, very hot. It turned the shuttle's tiles to tar."
"It may be a Russian operation," Smith said.
"Where do you get that?"
"A photographer captured the Cyrillic word for 'peace' in the sky the instant before the explosion. That is the name of the Russian space station circling up there."
"Isn't it a peaceful research station?" said Remo.
"That is the story. But remember that Mir was launched under the old Soviet system. And it recently attempted to dock with the Russian version of the shuttle."
"Last time that thing went up, they deployed a doomsday device."
"Yes. The Sword of Damocles. You and Chiun dealt with that. There is reason to believe the Buran carried a new doomsday device to Mir."
"They'd have to be crazy to attack us."
"Facts do not fit the circumstances completely. I want you and Chiun to stand by."
"Okay. But I have a hot date."
"Excuse me?"
"A date. You know, dinner and-"
"With whom?"
"Her name's Kinga Zongar. She's a reporter with the Orlando Sentinel."
"I disapprove," said Smith.
"Disapprove afterward. I don't think I'm going to get anywhere with her."
"Allow me to run a background check."
"On my date?"
"It is a wise precaution."
"Save it. I like surprises," said Remo, who then hung up.
Smith returned to his multitasking. It was going to be a long night, and he expected nothing to make sense until dawn at the earliest.
Chapter 20
"It's the Russians," said Remo, hanging up.
"I told you she was a Russian," spat Chiun.
"I am Hungarian," Kinga said, an edge creeping into her cultured voice.
"Not her. I just finished talking to Smith. Someone snapped a photo of the shuttle just before it blew. The Russian letters for Mir were up in the sky."
"What is this!" Kinga flared.
"It's on TV, according to our boss," Remo told her.
Kinga turned on the Holiday Inn TV without asking and flipped the channels until she got a report that held her attention.