CHAPTER IX

THREE DAYS after my meeting with Steve Barrett, I was on a Mainliner
300, starting, a new phase of the saucer investigation. By the time I
returned, I hoped to know the truth about Project "Saucer."

As the ship droned westward, fourteen thousand feet above the
Alleghenies, I thought of what Steve had told me. I believed, that he
had told me about the radar tracking. And I was fairly sure he
believed the Air Institute story. But I wasn't so certain the story
itself was true.

It would hardly be a gag; Steve wasn't easily taken in. It was more
likely that one Institute officer, or perhaps several, believed the
saucers were space craft and aired their personal opinions. The
Institute wasn't likely to give an official answer to something that
Project "Saucer" still declared unsolved.

If it were possible to get an inside look at Project "Saucer"
operations, I could soon tell whether it was an actual investigation
or a deliberate cover-up for something else. Whichever it was, the
wall of official. secrecy still hid it.

As a formality, I had called the Pentagon again and asked to talk with
some of the Project officers. As I expected, I was turned down. The
only alternative was to dig out the story by talking with pilots and
others who had been. quizzed by Project teams. I had several leads,