Read V - The Original Miniseries for Free Online

impossible to be sure), Donovan stretched, rubbing the muscles at the back of his neck.
    "What time is it?" he asked Tony, seeing his friend check his watch. The soundman grinned. "About nine thirty. The night is still embryonic, Mike old buddy."
Donovan fought back a yawn. "'Zat all? Christ, why am I so tired? I feel like I've been awake for days."
    "You have been. Unless you sacked out on the plane back from El Salvador." "Nope. I was too busy playing nursemaid to you."
"Bull. I saw those closeups of the Mother Ship. You were playing daredevil pilot and hotshot cameraman again."
     
"That's me." Donovan acknowledged the ribbing with a grin. He patted the camera. "I can hardly wait to get this on the air."
     
"What do you think it'll be worth?" Tony, the practical one in the partnership, wanted to know. "Just about anything we want to ask for it, old friend. I'll leave the extent of our greed up to you, as the business manager."
     
Tony nodded thoughtfully, then, taking out a pocket calculator, busied himself with the pleasant task of figuring out the profit margin this venture would net them.
    The five journalists and the secretary general were relatively sheltered from the press until they'd turned their tapes and films over to the networks. Donovan, Tony, and Kristine watched their story air in a "Special Bulletin" broadcast by satellite.
"Do you think we'll place first in the Nielsens?" Tony studied Donovan's films of the docking bay with a wide grin.
     
"Maybe ..." Kristine grinned back. "What about it, Mike? Do you think we managed to beat out Dallas?"
     
"I dunno." Donovan took a slightly tipsy swig from his third can of Coors. "You're talking about tough competition, lady. I mean, this is only the news event of the century."
    As soon as the broadcast was finished, somebody brought out bottles of champagne. The corks popped with almost the same frequency as the machine-gun bullets had justyesterday? The day before? Time seemed to Donovan to have swerved, looped, gone sidereal.
    He thought about traveling at the speed of light-what that might be like. What would it be like to pilot one of those big Mother Ships? Probably it would be such a group effort that you wouldn't get the thrill of handling the ship yourself.
"Mike?" He looked up a little blearily to see Kristine standing in front of him, realized he'd nearly dozed off.
    "What time is it?" He looked around. The party was in full swing. "Almost midnight. Want to come over to my place for a nightcap?"
He almost said no, that he'd better go find a hotel, that he was tired, but found himself agreeing. "Sure. You got a VCR?"
    "Of course. You bringing the tape?" "Of course!"
    It had been several months since he'd been up to Kristine's apartment. The view was breathtaking here on the Upper East Side. He looked out at the glimmer of the water, watching the play of headlights far below. And above, of course, there was the floodlit enormity of the Visitor ship. Donovan stood looking at it, hardly able to believe he'd actually been up there, just a few hours ago.
    Kristine emerged from the kitchen with several green bottles and two delicately stemmed glasses. Donovan grinned. "More champagne?" The cork went off with a pop, and wine foamed out. He hurried to get his glass under the bottle as they sat down together in her luxurious velour conversation pit.
Kristine laughed. "Sure! How often do we get to celebrate our coverage of the event of the century?" "Yeah." Donovan shook his head, then sipped carefully at the champagne. "I can't believe how the three of us just lucked into it!"
     
Kristine giggled. Mike had never seen her before when she'd had this much to drink. "Luck had nothing to do with it. I stacked the deck they drew from, so we'd get the pool!"
     
"Oh, come on!" He didn't know whether to believe her or not-or whether to hug her or give her a lecture. Stacked the deck?
     
"Yeah, I really did." She laughed, kicking off her shoes. She'd shed her businesslike