“Moment,” I said. “Thought you represented Eighth Novylen District?”
“Gospodin President! Am I to be permitted to put my questions? Or not?”
“He wasn’t asking question, was making speech. And I’m tired and want to go to bed.”
Prof said gently, “We are all tired, Manuel. But your point is well taken. Congressman, you represent only your district. As a member of the government you have been assigned certain duties in connection with certain professions.”
“It comes to the same thing.”
“Not quite. Please state your question.”
“Uh. . . very well, I shall! Is Field Marshal Davis aware that his bombardment plan has gone wrong completely and that thousands of lives have been pointlessly destroyed? And is he aware of the extremely serious view taken of this by the intelligentsia of this Republic? And can he explain why this rash–I repeat, rash!–bombardment was undertaken without consultation? And is he now prepared to modify his plans, or is he going blindly ahead? And is it true as charged that our missiles were of the nuclear sort outlawed by all civilized nations? And how does he expect Luna Free State ever to be welcomed into the councils of civilized nations in view of such actions?”
I looked at watch–hour and a half since first load hit. “Prof,” I said, “can you tell me what this is about?”
“Sorry, Manuel,” he said gently. “I intended–I should have–prefaced the meeting with an item from the news. But you seemed to feel that you had been bypassed and–well, I did not. The Minister refers to a news dispatch that came in just before I called you. Reuters in Toronto. If the flash is correct–then instead of taking our warnings it seems that thousands of sightseers crowded to the targets. There probably have been casualties. How many we do not know.”
“I see. What was I supposed to do? Take each one by hand and lead away? We warned them.”
Wright cut in with, “The intelligentsia feel that basic humanitarian considerations make it obligatory–”
I said, “Listen, yammerhead, you heard President say this news just came in–so how do you know how anybody feels about it?”
He turned red. “Gospodin President! Epithets! Personalities!”
“Don’t call the Minister names, Manuel.”
“Won’t if he won’t. He’s simply using fancier words. What’s that nonsense about nuclear bombs? We haven’t any and you all know it.”
Prof looked puzzled. “I am confused by that, too. This dispatch so alleged. But the thing that puzzled me is that we could actually see, by video, what certainly seemed to be atomic explosions.”
“Oh.” I turned to Wright. “Did your brainy friends tell you what happens when you release a few billion calories in a split second all at one spot? What temperature? How much radiance?”
“Then you admit that you did use atomic weapons!”
“Oh, Bog!” Head was aching. “Said nothing of sort. Hit anything hard enough, strike sparks. Elementary physics, known to everybody but intelligentsia. We just struck damnedest big sparks ever made by human agency, is all. Big flash. Heat, light, ultraviolet. Might even produce X-rays, couldn’t say. Gamma radiation I strongly doubt. Alpha and beta, impossible. Was sudden release of mechanical energy. But nuclear? Nonsense!”
Prof said, “Does that answer your questions, Mr. Minister?”
“It simply raises more questions. For example, this bombardment is far beyond anything the Cabinet authorized. You saw the shocked faces when those terrible lights appeared on the screen. Yet the Minister of Defense says that it is even now continuing, every twenty minutes. I think–”
Glanced at watch. “Another just hit Cheyenne Mountain.”
Wright said, “You hear that? You hear? He boasts of it. Gospodin President, this carnage must stop!”
I said, “Yammer– Minister, are you suggesting that their space defense HQ is not a military target? Which side are you on? Luna’s? Or F.N.?”
“Manuel!”
“Tired of this nonsense! Was told to do job, did it. Get this yammerhead off my back!”
Was shocked silence, then somebody said quietly, “May I make a suggestion?”
Prof looked around. “If anyone has a suggestion that will quiet this unseemliness, I will be most happy to hear it.”
“Apparently we don’t have very good information as to what these bombs are doing. It seems to me that we ought to slow up that twenty-minute schedule. Stretch it out, say to one every hour–and skip the next two hours while we get more news. Then we might want to postpone the attack on great China at least twenty-four hours.”