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Dr Brown, Professor of Astronomy at the Arabian University, telephoned his counterpart at the Gulf University. “See anything unusual last night?” he asked.
“I saw a meteorite making landfall,” replied Dr Blair.
“Did you get a bearing?”
“I certainly did.”
“Me, too,” said Brown.
With two bearings required to locate where a meteorite made landfall, each professor held half the key to discovering where the space rock had fallen. Such a rare find would be the culmination of a lifetime’s work.
The professors rendezvoused on the edge of the Empty Quarter, the world’s largest sand desert. After flipping a coin, they agreed to search for the meteorite using Brown’s Land Cruiser. Blair would retain control of the compass.
Eventually the men arrived where their two bearings intersected. Inside a circular crater was the iron core of the meteorite.
Blair stumbled ecstatically into the crater, fell to his knees, and hugged the chunk of extraterrestrial metal. Then, hearing a revolver being cocked, and he spun round.
“Did you really think I would share this discovery?” said Brown, and shot Blair through the heart.
Bending over Blair’s body, Brown searched for the compass. The dead man’s trouser pockets were empty though, so he searched inside the Land Cruiser. Again, nothing.
Returning to the murdered professor’s body, Brown searched Blair’s breast pocket. When he withdrew his hand, the blood-spattered remains of the compass lay in his palm.
Meanwhile, wind-blown sand was fast filling the Land Cruiser’s tyre tracks.
Readers can contact Paul via GW’s Newsdesk (gwnewsdesk@tradearabia.net) or directly on kimpaulkat@yahoo.co.uk
