Heinlein, Robert A – Expanded Universe

precautions, when a dispatc came in announcing that a flight of E. U. bombei might

be expected before the day was out. Mannini wanted to see them arrive; we waited

around for for hours. When it was finally reported that our escort fighters had

picked them up at the Canadian borde Manning appeared to have grown fidgety and

state that he would watch them from the air. We took of gained altitude and waited.

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There were nine of them in the flight, cruising in co umn of echelons and looking so

huge that our littl fighters were hardly noticeable. They circled the fiel and I was

admiring the stately dignity of them whe Manning’s pilot, Lieutenant Rafferty,

exclaimed “What the devil! They are preparing to land dowi wind!”

I still did not tumble, but Manning shouted to ti copilot, “Get the field!”

He fiddled with his instruments and announced “Got ’em, sir!”

“General alarm! Armor!”

We could not hear the sirens, naturally, but I cou] see the white plumes

rise from the big steam whist on the roof of the Administration Building-three br

blasts, then three short ones. It seemed almost at tI same time that the first cloud

broke from the E. I planes.

Instead of landing, they passed low over the receiving station, jampacked

now with ships from all over the world. Each echelon picked one of three groups

centered around the three landing fields and streamers of heavy brown smoke poured

from the bellies of the E. U. ships. I saw a tiny black figure jump from a tractor

and run toward the nearest building. Then the smoke screen obscured the field.

“Do you still have the field?” demanded Manning. “Yes, sir.”

“Cross connect to the chief safety technician. Hurry!”

The copilot cut in the amplifier so that Manning could talk directly.

“Saunders? This is Manning. How about it?”

“Radioactive, chief. Intensity seven point four.” They had paralleled the

Karst-Obre research.

Manning cut him off and demanded that the communication office at the field

raise the Chief of Staff. There was nerve-stretching delay, for it had to be routed

over land wire to Kansas City, and some chief operator had to be convinced that she

should commandeer a trunk line that was in commercial use. But we got through at

last and Manning made his report. “It stands to reason,” I heard him say, “that

other flights are approaching the border by this time. New York, of course, and

Washington. Probably Detroit and Chicago as well. No way of knowing.”

The Chief of Staff cut off abruptly, without comment. I knew that the U.S.

air fleets, in a state of alert for weeks past, would have their orders in a few

seconds, and would be on their way to hunt out and down the attackers, if possible

before they could reach the cities.

I glanced back at the field. The formations were broken up. One of the E. U.

bombers was down, crashed, half a mile beyond the station. While I watched, one of

our midget dive bombers screamed down on a behemoth E. U. ship and unloaded his

eggs. It was a center hit, but the American pilot had cut it too fine, could not

pull out, and crashed before his vi tim.

There is no point in rehashing the newspaper storh of the Four-Days War. The

point is that we should ha’s lost it, and we would have, had it not been for an ui

likely combination of luck, foresight, and good mai agement. Apparently, the nuclear

physicists of tF Eurasian Union were almost as far along as Ridpath crew when the

destruction of Berlin gave them the ti they needed. But we had rushed them, forced

them 1 move before they were ready, because of the dea( line for disarmament set

forth in our Peace Proclam~ tion.

If the President had waited to fight it out with Co gress before issuing the

proclamation, there would n be any United States.

Manning never got credit for it, but it is evident me that he anticipated

the possibility of somethii like the Four-Days War and prepared for it in a doz

different devious ways. I don’t mean military prep ration; the Army and the Navy saw