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The nextaround themy head in on lectures The attendance is substantial, at least two thousand people The crowd is pretty evenly divided between males and females, but other?wise the cross section is peculiar There are, for want of a better expression, a lot of nerds here Many are overweight and wear thick glasses These are true believers, no doubt about it The saucers are co and they are prepared In fact, they believe they are already here Eavesdropping on their jus in the vicinity, yet I don&039;t drop uard If this convention was inificant here If only I kneho Besides thoughts, I listen to heartbeats, trying to find physiologies thathere but pure huhtings that have about as much credibility as reports of Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny As I sit through one, yawning, I think about what I should have done withtoys and baking goodies, which I would deliver once a year to the needy At least then I could have given vampires a better name
Yet there is a lecture at the end of the day that catches my eye It is entitled: "Control Versus Anarchy--An Interstellar Dileist from Duke University He has a list of impressive academic credentials beside his name, but it is really the buzz of the crowd that draws uy I hear the to one another Dr Stoon is supposed to be brilliant, charis?matic, unorthodox It is the last lecture of the conven?tion, and I take a seat at the back of the audience and wait for Dr Stoon to enter
Beside me sits a pale blond woman, with a waist as small as my own, and clear blue eyes She has a kind soffice, and a husband who has just been laid off She appears to be in her early twenties but could be older Noticing htens
"Hello," she said with a southern accent "It&039;s been a fun convention, hasn&039;t it?"
"I haven&039;t been here for the whole thing I just caught today"
"Have you heard Dr Stoon speak before?&039;"
"This will be my first time What&039;s he like?"
"Very forceful, opinionated" She pauses "He&039;s interesting but to tell the truth he is awfully arro?gant"
"Why don&039;t you leave then?" I ask
She makes a face "Oh, I couldn&039;t do that I&039;" She pauses and studies me There is a sparkle in her eyes; she is far from stupid, but she doesn&039;t want people to know She offers her hand "I&039;m Stacy Baxter"
I shake "Alisa Perne Pleased to ive one ofto hide I want to draw the enemy out
"Very pleased to meet you," Stacy replies "I don&039;t think I&039;ve seen you around before?"
"This is my first UFO convention"
"So what do you think?"
"It&039;s all very interesting"
Stacy laughs "No, you don&039;t! You think we&039;re all crackers"
Crackers I haven&039;t heard that expression in twenty years
I have to smile "I don&039;t think you&039;re crackers, Stacy"
She&039;s pleased "Maybe we can have coffee together after Dr Stoon&039;s talk"
"I&039;d enjoy that," I reply
Dr Stoon enters a short ti burly e, like Stacy&039;s, is difficult to pinpoint He could be thirty-five, or ten years older He moves as if he owns the room, as if every eye should be on him After a brief introduction, he is at the podiu it with his bulk and attitude His voice, when he speaks, is gruff and unpleasant Yet he sounds s
And his words sound strikingly fas in this creation," he says "Those who strive for perfection and those who submit to chaos It is the same in outer space as it is on this world--there is no difference We either choose to be masters of our destinies, or we let the fates rule us I aht wonder what power has to do with a lecture on UFOs I tell you it has everything to do with our space brothers Each night we look to the heavens, waiting for them to arrive But why should they come if we haven&039;t made a choice in our own lives? But e do alactic sches, then they will know They will come to us at the most unexpected tiin to iine"
Stacy leans over and speaks in elist, doesn&039;t he?"
"Yeah He talks without saying anything specific"
Stacy nodded "But look at the people in this room They are spellbound Dr Stoon doesn&039;t have to say anything to have the effect he wants"
Stacy misunderstands me, but her point is well made Dr Stoon is one of those people who draws others in, s specific, he touches on issues Suzama--and that&039;s who she will always be to me--also explained Yet his bias is fro he says sounds intrinsically negative
He continues in a loud voice
"We have to open our minds fully to the truth that we control our own futures, while at the same time weto help us if we align our thinking with theirs Who are our space brothers? They are us a thousand years fro we must cut off all that weakens us as a people Here I have to speak on a matter that is almost considered a blaspheleour survi?val We are literally drowning in the shallow end of our gene pool Who is reproducing at the most rapid rate in our world? The uneducated and the foolish But how did our space brothers reach their exalted state? By casting out the foolish Our genes are our only treasure We must plan their use, and use the plan--the plan our brothers are waiting to give us"
Again Stacy leans over and whispers in my ear
"Sounds like Hitler toany specific group for mankind&039;s woes"
"Isn&039;t he?" Stacy asks, and her question is worth conte
Dr Stoon speaks for another half hour, and at the end of that time he doesn&039;t accept questions-- probably because no one would knohat to ask him I certainly wouldn&039;t Yet his words have affected me, not so much by their content, but by their resonance I don&039;t knoever, if the effect is a good one His lecture was divisive; nothing he said could be used to bring people together for the coht say that was not true Such was the strength and weakness of his talk
When he finishes I wander toward the front, where he stands chatting hat appear to be old friends But when his eyes meet mine, he momentarily freezes, and then quickly turns away He excuses hiroup and walks briskly toward the exit
I walk after hi lot he cli for the desert Naturally I follow hi him At this time of day, a half hour after dusk, we are the only ones on this narrow road that runs perpendicular to the hway Within twenty low on the horizon The stars co fast, but now it is possible he hts I don&039;t need them, of course, but maybe he doesn&039;t either
Ten minutes later he suddenly swerves off the road and drives across the sand toward a massive hill that is more reminiscent of Utah&039;s Zion National Park than Phoenix&039;s backyard The hill is more a stone cathedral, built around a syh terrain is hard on Dr Stoon&039;s BMW but e
He drives his car as close to the hill as he can, then stops and gets out
What do I do? I realize I could be walking into a trap If he has a matrix, as I have, he could incinerate my Jeep from a distance I have experie The way he fled from me, for no apparent reason, indicates he is more than he seems Yet his exit was obvious as well But I sense no one else in the area, and I can hear a snake slither at a distance of five miles in such a desert
I decide to risk direct confrontation
Dr Stoon stands with his arms at his sides as I drive up Slowly I climb from my Jeep, the matrix in hand I do not wish to waste ti to do so it Either way I believe he will die in this desert tonight I h I have not fed froe of death My hunger siesture with my weapon A million stars shine down on us I see them all, more than a mortal can see with a medium-size telescope "Move away from the car," I say "Put your hands in the air" He does as I command
"What do you want?" he asks in a much softer voice than he used at the convention
I step closer "I should ask you that question, Dr Stoon," I say
"What do you want?" He does not hesitate "We told you"
"You told htly, cocky bastard "Who do you think?"
"Extraterrestrials"
"You are partially right, and partially wrong We have been here a long ti?"
"Don&039;t you remember?"
His question disturbsto overpoweras Linda&039;s Try as I ht, I cannot pierce his aura to read hisof you Answer my question"
"Over a thousand years," he says
"Where did you coinally?"
"There is no simple answer to that question We h dimensions and distortions"
"Are you here to distort humanity?"
"We are here for the harvest"