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woman driver who told him an elliptical red object had just pursued her car from Epping to Exeter. He calmed her but didn’t take the incident too seriously. After all, everyone knew that flying saucers were nonexistent, the product of hysteria and hallucination. A few hours later Officer Bertrand was called upon to investigate the report of an eighteen-year-old, Norman Muscarello, who had also seen something weird in the sky. Muscarello led him to a field near Exeter, and they both saw a large, dark object marked by a straight row of pulsating red lights lift above some nearby trees. It bore down on them and passed within 100 feet of their position. Bertrand started to draw his gun, thought better of it, and radioed for help instead. Another officer arrived shortly afterward, and the three of them watched the object as it silently moved away at treetop level. This was the beginning of the now- famous book Incident at Exeter, which was carefully and thoroughly investigated by reporter John Fuller. That same night two other police officers more than 1,000 miles from Exeter were also making an unexpected visit to the twilight zone. It was shortly before midnight, and Chief Deputy Sheriff William McCoy and Deputy Robert Goode were cruising along a highway in Brasoria County, Texas (south of Houston). Goode, who was driving, was complaining to his partner about a sore and swollen finger. Earlier in the evening he helped his son move a pet alligator, and the creature had nipped him on the left index finger. He had bandaged it, but now it was throbbing painfully, and he expressed fear that an infection was setting in. The two men were discussing the need to wake up a doctor at the end of their patrol and have the finger tended when they suddenly noticed a large purple glow in the west, moving horizontally across the nearby oil fields. At first they thought it was just a light from the oil fields. Then it turned and began to move toward them; a great rectangular glob of purple light about 50 feet in height. It was accompanied by a smaller blue light, the men said later. Goode had his window rolled down and was waving his aching digit in the breeze. As the objects rushed toward their car, he said he felt a definite wave of heat on his arm and hand. Whatever the globs were, neither man felt inclined to stop and investigate. Goode jabbed his foot on the accelerator, and when they were some distance away, McCoy looked back and watched the lights rise upward, flare brilliantly, and go out altogether. The two admittedly frightened men sped back to Damon, Texas, and when their excitement subsided, Deputy Goode noticed that his finger was no longer swelling or bleeding, and the pain was gone. He removed the bandage and discovered that his wound was almost healed! Had he, he 226 / Operation Trojan Horse