Saucer: Savage Planet by Stephen Coonts Page A

party, Johnny-boy.”
    “Late?” Johnny Murkowsky asked incredulously. “Eight million bucks? What a skinflint you are! That kind of money is chicken feed, pocket change. Every single person on this whole round rock, all six or seven billion of ’em, will want a regular supply of those antiaging pills. We’ll be richer than Buffett and Gates combined. We’re not talking about a nice profit—we’re going to get all the money. All of it. Every last, dirty, solitary dollar.”
    Harrison Douglas stared at Murkowsky.
    “Man, if we work together and don’t try to sabotage each other, you and I can own this damn planet,” Johnny Murkowsky roared.
    The light began to dawn for Harrison Douglas. “You’re right,” he said softly. After all, somewhere along the way he could always double-cross Johnny Murk, and probably would have to, before Murk did it to him.
    “Of course I’m right! All we have to do is cooperate, get that formula one way or another. Any way we can. Then we will have to defend it, keep everyone else from ripping us off. If we can do that, we will have won the game. We’ll get all the marbles. All! ”
    Harrison Douglas had the same vision. “It’s possible,” he said. “A long shot, but possible.”
    Murkowsky swelled up like a toad as he contemplated the future. “Maybe we’ll change the name of this planet,” he said. “Name it after ourselves.”
    *   *   *
    The president was in his private compartment aboard Air Force One, somewhere over Illinois, when he opened the computer case that Egg had given him. He reached in to pull out the computer and realized that his hand was touching bits and pieces. He emptied the computer case onto the bunk.
    A pile of junk.
    He stirred through the shards as the realization came to him that Egg had somehow smashed the computer before he gave it to the president.
    Egg knew all along that he would eventually have to give the computer to someone, so he destroyed it before that moment arrived.
    Maybe the wizards could put it all back together and get something out of it.
    Even as that thought crossed his tricky mind, the president realized how forlorn that hope was. He cussed a while, really got into it, said every dirty word he knew, which was a staggering lot because he had been in politics for twenty-five years. He smacked the bulkhead with his fist, which made him wince.
    Damn and double damn!
    When he finally calmed down, he began to survey the size of the mess he was in. What had he said to the television people as he stood in front of Egg’s house? He remembered, all right. “I have in my hand a saucer computer that contains a formula for an antiaging drug, a Fountain of Youth drug, some call it.”
    Well, he didn’t have it. That was a hard fact.
    He was sitting down, trying to control his breathing, when there was a knock on the door.
    “Yes.”
    The door opened. It was O’Reilly.
    “The air force reports that a flying saucer went into orbit from central Missouri ten minutes ago.”
    The president lowered his face into his hands.
    O’Reilly’s eyes went to the junk strewn on the blanket of the bunk bed. “What’s that?”
    The president didn’t look up. “That pile of crap is the computer that Egg gave me. The bastard smashed it to bits.”
    A wave of self-pity swept over O’Reilly. He didn’t much care if anyone else got access to the Fountain of Youth drug, but as a very high government official, he knew he was fully entitled to a prescription and had let his hopes soar. Now they came crashing down. He sagged against a bulkhead.
    “So what are we going to do?”
    The president gestured futilely. “We’ve got to get our hands on that saucer. Somehow, some way.”
    O’Reilly had never seen the president so low. He kinda enjoyed that, but he felt pretty low too. “It’s gotta come down sometime, somewhere.”
    “Yeah,” the president said. Then he added, “Maybe.” A moment passed; then he asked, “Is that saucer Solo stole