“Yes, though it still doesn’t fit together. But I can tell you this: The saucers are real, or at least one of them.”
“Which one?”
“The thing Captain Mantell was chasing near Fort Knox, before he died.”
“Oh, that one.” Steele looked down at the roll he was buttering. “I thought that case was fully explained. Wasn’t he chasing a balloon?”
“The Air Force says it’s still unidentified.” I told him what I had learned. “Apparently you’re right—it’s either an American or a Soviet missile.”
“After what you’ve told me,” said Steele, “I can’t believe it’s ours. It must be Russian.”
“They’d be pretty stupid to test it over here.”
“You said it was probably out of control.”
“That particular one, maybe. But there have been several hundred seen over here. If they found their controls were haywire, they wouldn’t keep testing the things until they’d corrected that.”
The waiter came with the soup, and Steele was silent until he left.