“Have the papers caught it yet?” I asked Purdy.
“You mean its contradicting the Post?” He shook his head. “No, the Pentagon press release didn’t get much space. How many editors would wade through a six-thousand-word government report? Even if they did, they’d have to compare it, item for item, with the Post piece.”
“Who wrote the Post story?”
Purdy lit a cigarette and frowned out again at the skyscrapers.
“Sidney Shallett—and he’s careful. He had Forrestal’s backing. The Air Force flew him around, arranged interviews, supposedly gave him inside stuff. He spent two months on it. They O.K.’d his script, which practically says the saucers are bunk. Then they reneged on it.”
“Maybe some top brass suddenly decided it was the wrong policy to brush it off,” I suggested.
“Why the quick change?” demanded Purdy. “Let’s say they sold the Post on covering up the truth, in the interests of security. It’s possible, though I don’t believe it. Or they could simply have fed them a fake story. Either way, why did they rush this contradiction the minute the Post hit the stands?”
“Something serious happened,” I said, “after the Post went to press.”
“Yes, but what?” Purdy said impatiently. “That’s what we’ve got to find out.”
“Does Shallett’s first piece mention Mantell’s death?”