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Earlier it had caused concern for hundreds of people, including watchers in hidden places. Coded warnings about it had flashed through a secret network of warrens and enclaves to places where decisions could be made, decisions that would put in motion terrible engines of destruction. But it had done the one thing that it could have done to avert such a response: it had hovered, rather than attacked. Then it had seemed to disappear. Now it drifted innocently on the water, not knowing the confusion it would create in the near future, the lives it would affect and change. Only minutes before, Laurie Wickens, age eighteen, had been driving his car along Highway 3, taking some of his friends home, laughing and carrying on with them. It was getting late, nearly 11:25 in the evening. They entered the village of Shag Harbor from the east and Laurie slowed down, worried that a policeman might be parked off the edge of the road anywhere through the village. Almost immediately he saw an object flying low in the sky, flashing four lights, one after the other, in a straight line. He called it to his passengers' attention. The girls looked up and had no trouble seeing it. It. appeared to be descending at about a forty-five- degree angle, but not with any great speed. Sometimes it would appear to stop its descent and hover, then continue downward again. From his vantage point Laurie figured its angle and direction would take it into the harbor if it didn't pull up. He did his best to keep it in sight, all the while taking care not to go off the narrow road winding through the sleeping fishing village. The waters of the harbor were a hundred feet away to his left. The wharf was surrounded with fishing boats, bobbing placidly at anchor. As he passed the fish plant on his left, Laurie was vaguely aware that he was now driving faster, but his goal was not to lose visual contact with the object, because he was sure beyond all doubt that this was an airplane that was going to hit the waters somewhere near the harbor. His passengers were excited now, sensing the seriousness on u wea a uu Laurie was doing his best, but the object wasn't making it easy for him. Neither was Shag Harbor, with all its little hills, winding roads, and houses and buildings clinging to the edge of the road. Now the object was so close that the slope of the car roof blocked their view. Laurie knew that if he could only keep it in sight, in a few moments the scenery would open up and the ocean would come right up to the edge of the road. He steered around a turn, risking a glance upward as he saw it disappearing behind the tree line between the highway and the waters. He thought he heard a whistling noise, then a whoosh and a bang. One of the girls also heard a whooshing sound. The car rounded a turn, climbing toward a small rise that brought them to a clear view of the waters of the sound. The object, whatever it was, had just impacted the surface of the ocean about two to three hundred yards offshore. For a few minutes the five of them watched the Dark Object drifting on the surface, showing a pale yellow light, bobbing about on the water. Then their curiosity and sense of wonder began to change to concern that the object might be a crashed airliner. They decided to report it to the police. Laurie got back in the car, pulled out onto the road, and sped down the road two miles to the village of Woods Harbor and the only pay phone in the area. of the situation, urging him to keep it in sight.