The Country Opera House

The tycoon grins as much as his unlit cigar will allow, the mercenary clutches his cell phone like a starting pistol, and the effeminate man applauds with excessive enthusiasm as the orchestra finishes. Outside, only the scarecrow, face frozen in idiot grin and shoulders in perpetual shrug, sees the meteor carrying the pre-prehistoric, Cydonian secrets of Mars blaze brilliantly for a split second and disappear.