Phantoms

theory had validity?”
    “Absolutely!” Flyte said. “I am right; or at least there’s an awfully good chance I am. History is filled with mysterious mass disappearances for which historians and archaeologists can provide no viable explanation.”
    The professor’s dreaming eyes became sharp and probing beneath his bushy white eyebrows. He leaned over the table, fixing Burt Sandler with a hypnotic stare.
    “On December 10, 1939,” Flyte said, “outside the hills of Nanking, an army of three thousand Chinese soldiers, on its way to the front lines to fight the Japanese, simply vanished without a trace before it got anywhere near the battle. Not a single body was ever found. Not one grave. Not one witness. The Japanese military historians have never found any record of having dealt with that particular Chinese force. In the countryside through which the missing soldiers passed, no peasants heard gunfire or other indications of conflict. An army evaporated into thin air. And in 1711, during the Spanish War of Succession, four thousand troops set out on an expedition into the Pyreness. Every last man disappeared on familiar and friendly ground, before the first night’s camp was established!”
    Flyte was still as gripped by his subject as he had been when he had written the book, seventeen years ago. His fruit and champagne were forgotten. He stared at Sandler as if daring him to challenge the infamous Flyte theories.
    “On a grander scale,” the professor continued, “consider the great Mayan cities of Copбn, Piedras Negras, Palenque, Menchй, Seibal, and several others which were abandoned overnight. Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of Mayans left their homes, approximately in A.D. 610, perhaps within a single week, even within one day . Some appear to have fled northward, to establish new cities, but there is evidence that countless thousands just disappeared. All within a shockingly brief span of time. They didn’t bother to take many of their pots, tools, cooking utensils… My learned colleagues say the land around those Mayan cities became infertile, thus making it essential that the people move north, where the land would be more productive. But if this great exodus was planned, why were belongings left behind? Why was precious seed corn left behind? Why didn’t a single survivor ever return to loot those cities of their abandoned treasures?” Flyte softly struck the table with one fist. “It’s irrational! Emigrants don’t set out on long, arduous journeys without preparation, without taking every tool that might assist them. Besides, in some of the homes in Piedras Negras and Seibal, there is evidence that families departed after preparing elaborate dinners— but before eating them . This would surely seem to indicate that their leaving was sudden. No current theories adequately answer these questions—except mine, bizarre as it is, odd as it is, impossible as it is.”
    “Frightening as it is,” Sandler added.
    “Exactly,” Flyte said.
    The professor sank back in his chair, breathless. He noticed his champagne glass, seized it, emptied it, and licked his lips.
    The waiter appeared and refilled their glasses.
    Flyte quickly consumed his fruit, as if afraid the waiter might spirit it away while the hothouse strawberries remained untouched.
    Sandler felt sorry for the old bird. Evidently, it had been quite some time since the professor had been treated to an expensive meal served in an elegant atmosphere.
    “I was accused of trying to explain every mysterious disappearance from the Mayans to Judge Crater and Amelia Earhart, all with a single theory. That was most unfair. I never mentioned the judge or the luckless aviatrix. I am interested only in unexplained mass disappearances of both humankind and animals, of which there have been literally hundreds throughout history.”
    The waiter brought croissants.
    Outside, lightning stepped quickly down the somber sky and put its spiked foot to the earth in another part of the city; its blazing descent was accompanied by a terrible crash and roar that echoed across the entire firmament.
    Sandler said, “If subsequent to the publication of your book, there had been a new, startling mass disappearance, it would have lent considerable credibility—”
    “Ah,” Flyte interrupted, tapping the table emphatically with one stiff finger, “but there have been such disappearances!”
    “But surely they would have been splashed all over