"What?Clyde, what is it?"
"It's aperson.Ray, there's a person attached to those balloons."
"What?Are you sure?"
Clyde's hands were shaking enough that the telescope image wobbled.He steadied himself against the mount and looked again.There was no mistaking it now.A human figure hung suspended in some kind of harness, arms and legs dangling.The distance made it impossible to see any real detail, but the shape was unmistakably human.
"I'm sure.It's a person.They're just hanging there."
"Jesus Christ."Ray's professional calm cracked as panic seeped in."Okay.Okay, we need to get emergency services on this.Can you keep tracking them?We need to figure out where they're going to land."
"They're heading northeast over the coast.If they keep this trajectory, they'll be over the Santa Monica Mountains in maybe ten minutes."
"I'm calling 911 right now.Stay on the line."
Clyde heard Ray shouting to someone in his office, then the sound of another phone ringing.He kept his eye pressed to the telescope, tracking the figure as it drifted across the sky.The person wasn't moving.They hung completely limp in the harness, either unconscious or already dead.
"Clyde, I've got emergency services patching in.They want your coordinates and the object's heading."
Clyde repeated the information, his voice mechanical as he tried to process what he was witnessing.This was impossible.People didn't just float through the sky attached to weather balloons.This had to be some kind of accident or maybe a publicity stunt gone wrong.
"How high did you say they were?"Ray asked.
"Maybe forty thousand feet.Could be higher."
"That's high enough that they need oxygen.If they've been up there for any length of time without it..."Ray didn't finish the sentence.
Movement in the telescope caught Clyde's attention.One of the balloons was changing shape, bulging in a way that looked wrong.He opened his mouth to say something when the balloon burst.
The sound didn't reach him from that altitude, but he saw it happen.The balloon simply exploded, shredding into white fragments that scattered on the wind.The remaining balloons shifted position and the figure dropped several feet before the other balloons caught the weight.
"One of the balloons just popped," Clyde said.His voice sounded distant to his own ears.
"They're descending?"
"Yeah, but slowly.The other balloons are still holding them up."
Clyde watched as another balloon burst.Then another.The figure was falling now in a jerky descent as each balloon failed in sequence.The remaining balloons couldn't support the weight and they started to give way faster.
"Ray, they're falling.The balloons are all bursting and…Jesus...."
"Where?Clyde, where are they going to land?"
But Clyde couldn't answer.He was frozen, his eye still pressed to the telescope, watching as the last few balloons gave way and the figure began to drop in earnest.The harness and cables became a tumbling tangle as gravity took over.The person fell through the sky above the dark mountains, getting smaller and smaller until Clyde lost sight of them completely against the terrain below.
"Clyde?Clyde, are you there?"
"They fell."Clyde's voice came out as a whisper, little more than a gasp."I just watched someone fall from forty thousand feet."
CHAPTER FIVE
Deputy Carlos Martinez pulled his patrol vehicle off the dirt road and parked behind the pickup truck that belonged to the hiker who'd called in a gruesome discovery that had kicked off the morning.The man stood about fifty yards away, his back to Martinez, looking down at something on the ground.All around him, the Mojave Desert at dawn was painted in shades of pink and gold, the low sun casting long shadows across the sand and scrub brush.
Martinez grabbed his radio and water bottle before stepping out into the morning heat.It was already pushing eighty degrees, and the day had barely started.By noon, this place would be an oven.
"Sheriff's department," Martinez called out as he approached."You're the one who called about a body?"
The hiker turned around.He was in his forties with a weathered face and hiking gear that looked expensive.His hands were shaking slightly."Yeah.I was doing my morning walk and almost stepped on...on that."