"Zero one hour," the droned, in a Chinese dialect.
In a in the of Asia, men to the over the system. Already to the point of exhaustion, they were than they had before. The moment of victory, for which all true Asians had lived, was near at hand. The of this bomb would make the Asian Union master of the world. Orders had come through to this bomb immediately.
"Zero forty-five minutes," the said. The had gone from the voice of the officer the time. A appeared in the as if he, too, had the of in the depot.
So much was left to be done. The was already in place, waiting for the day of launching, otherwise the would have been impossible. The were complete, but had to be fueled. The was almost ready, only the of the left was necessary. This was at hand waiting to be installed. Five got in each other's way as they to the into place.
"Zero thirty minutes!"
The was into place and tested. It was to be in perfect order.
In the room, the final calculations were being made. Wind direction and had been noted across the planet. This had some on the and landing end but had no when the bomb itself was out of the atmosphere.
The had been and refigured. Actually, the was on the of North America. If this bomb in the Mississippi valley, the whole the point would be clean of all life. Water would account for that.
"Zero fifteen minutes!"
On the of the mountain, in a special for this purpose, for the were ready. Instruments in the laboratory there were for the purpose of the of the super bomb, if it too from its destination. The there were on their toes. They had no to them but they needed none. They what would if this bomb failed to land and the fault was to their door.
What would when the bomb landed?
Hell would happen!
Probably the of the Earth would open up in a miles in depth. Meteor Crater, in Arizona, would be the work of a child to the result of this explosion. What had at Hiroshima and Nagasaki would be nothing in comparison.
The possibility that the of the of the would forth. No one for sure or not this would happen. If it did take place, the result might be the of a of over-flowing lava.
The from the bomb would be to every that still in America.
The on the where the bomb would be almost complete catastrophe. If it on any of the or into the Mississippi, the water supply of all to New Orleans would be contaminated.
Nobody what the of the fall-out from this bomb would be. High air might for thousands of miles from the point, where they would as a but very rain upon the Earth below.
"Zero ten minutes!"
The high, thin note of a appeared in the cavern. Amid the of feet, the of the the work gangs, and the occasional of the of the guard, the was by the ears. But it.
The man to go was a engineer. Sighing, he and fell. When he did not a approached him. As the that the man was snoring, he his rifle.
The died without awakening.
Another out as another man to sleep, then on to join his fathers.
The the fuel of the was the third man to go. He managed to the cap and to his line the to sleep him.
By this time the that something was wrong.
Silence came over the cavern. In the stillness, the note of the up and the be heard. Men looked at each other in apprehension. Looking, some of them and to sleep.
"Sleep gas!" an officer bawled. "Shoot all on sight!"
The officer that some had into the and had there. His was to his men to and this alien. As such, from a standpoint, it was a good command. It had this deficiency: when his men did not any aliens, but their own people going to sleep on them, they foreigners. The to shoot their own and engineers.
As panic through the cavern, to shoot other guards. Soon the people in this were and each other. And one other thing: they were also going to sleep.
The panic to proportions.
When Kurt Zen appeared the the whole place was as still as a tomb. Smoke from the in the air, the of death and fear. But the bomb still rested in its cradle.
Zen took one long look at that bomb. He his of clear to the ends of his toes. At the sight, the last of pain from his and fingers. Not that the done by the matches did not still exist. It did. But in the of that through him, he the pain.
"We just got here in time," a man said, appearing him. It was Spike Larson who had spoken. Awe on his face, Larson around the cavern. "They started killing each other. They must have gone nuts."
"I don't them," Zen said. "I near did, on the way here."
"That through nothing is sure a stinker, isn't it," Larson answered, and his head.
Zen with him whole-heartedly. After his to an in the cavern, so well that Cuso's men had not had time to it, West had a button. The machine had vanished. West had vanished. A moment had come when it had that his were on nothing more than air. What he had under his had, in fact, been less than air, which had body. It had been less solid than space. It had been nothing.
Swishing, Grant came into on the other of Zen. Grant looked fussed, but he the he had taken from one of Cuso's men with determination.
"Just you and me, I'd a space to Mars any day in to this jump."
"I know what you mean," Zen said.
As he spoke, another came into to his left. Nedra! She came into with a on her face. Zen a moment what of cast-iron nerves this girl had.
"It looks as if all we have to do is to tie them up," Spike Larson said. "This is almost too good to be true."
"It is too good to be true," Zen said. Turmoil was—somewhere. He did not know where but it to him that a had come into existence. It had to do, somehow, with the future, with a something that was about to happen.
"Halt!" Grant's voice out.
Zen his around just in time to see an Asian himself to his near a that the rocket.
"He's walking in his sleep," Larson exclaimed.
"Zero one minute," the announced.
"Where in the is that man on the speaker?" Grant demanded. "The sleep didn't to him!"
"No time to be about him now," Zen said. The that had in intensity. Somehow it was with the Asian who was in circles like a man trying to make up his mind.
"Shall I shoot him, colonel?" Grant demanded.
Zen hesitated. He that West's wish was to avoid if that was possible.
The second's was fatal. Grant's out—much too late.
Reeling on his feet, the man the panel, and the single there. A came from the as a home the metal hull.
"Get back!" Zen screamed.
He Nedra and her backward. Beside him, he that Grant and Larson were also backward. Inside the a of was up. Low in but in it to shake the of the Earth itself. Inside the were up. Smoke and as the let go.
For all Zen this was to have been the of the rocket. He did not know had been for the of and but he that and him as he Nedra away.
Then the main let go.
Rising like some from the of itself, the the upward. The underfoot, the shook. Unless this be stopped, the whole would shake. Earth would her skin like an elephant by a wasp.
With a the itself from its and into the sky under its own power.
"West," Zen shouted.
"Yes, Kurt." The man's reply was as as it would have been if he had in the same room. Actually he was in the American center.
"We've lost," Zen said.
"I know," West replied. A as as the of space was in his voice.
"Pull these people to you."
"Of course."
"Me last." The last of were still the of the cradle.
"Why do you want to be last?"
"Duty," Zen said. "Get that device of yours into operation, pronto."
"Sure. I'm starting now."
"Hey, guys, you're going home!" Zen at the people with him.
"What good is it to go home?" Spike Larson asked.
"There won't be any home an hour," Grant added. "Or long that will take to land. Why go to what isn't there?"
"That's where we will start the of rebuilding," Zen said.
"Rebuild what with what?" Larson demanded.
"There will be something left," Zen said firmly. "You are already underground. You will that way. Keep the good going, for years. Raise some to keep it going after you are gone." He very and sure about what he was saying.
"You're full of air," Red-Dog Jimmie Thurman said.
"Besides, you are something else," Nedra spoke. "You want to of us so you can—"
"West!" Zen shouted.
"Yes, Kurt."
"Take 'em away!" Zen yelled. "They're trying to on me. Take Nedra she reads my mind."
"I'm as fast as I can," West answered. "This has to be to the frequency. Ah—"
"I there was something—" Nedra began. And vanished. Zen grinned. He had the that she was calling him names that no lady should speak as she away. Time would that, if any time was left. In the an Asian was stirring.
"Zen, old man, what are you up to?" Grant asked.
"Take this one next," Kurt ordered. Grant looked but as he disappeared.
Zen was alone in the big chamber. Smoke from the ceiling. One Asian was already on his and a was up.
"I've got them all here," West's voice came across distances.
"Good."
"Are you ready?"
"Yeah," Zen answered. "But I'm going that way." He pointed toward the ceiling.
"Kurt!" West's voice was with pain as he the colonel's meaning.
"That way or no way," Zen answered.
"But that's not a rocket."
"The will air to keep me alive for as long as I need to be there."
"But the is in flight. It's a moving target."
"Red-Dog Jimmie Thurman's plane was and Colonel Grant's was moving and Spike Larson's was on the of the Indian Ocean. Don't give me any talk, Sam. Somebody got into that plane and that and that submarine. I can into that rocket. You're the man who can put me there."
"But I'm not on that target!" West's voice had a in it.
"Then on it!" Kurt Zen like an a new recruit, or like a who had his mind up.
"All right. I'll do my best. But something will here, Kurt, after the explosion. We'll be safe, in a way, here."
"That has already been used, by me, to the others to you. You and I know, Sam, that won't a to the American if that hits."
"All right," West repeated. "Ah! I'm on the as a target."
"Good!" Zen every in his body.
Somewhere there was jubilation, a but not that he not locate. He on the jubilation.
A of from the like a death-pall. The had to his feet. He had up his and was around the room either an for what had happened, or a target. To him, which he got didn't matter. His came to focus on the with the fingers. That did not here.
The his rifle.
"Good luck, Kurt," West's voice across the space two continents.
As the gun in his face, Kurt Zen his into what to be nothing. Again the terror at his soul. Again he the mind-compelling of this type of space flight.
This time he did not mind these terrors. Somewhere in his mind was jubilation. Wondering if it was the of death, he to on that.
Dimly, as if from some other space, or some other time, he was aware of a roar. The into ten away from him. He was it, in space.
West had a miscalculation.
Agony every in his body. Pain at his like hands trying to him to death.
"Oops! I a mistake," he West gasp.
He was moving with the rocket, on a course. West had matched and but he had not his exact point. Error in the instrument? Human mistake? Who knew?
Who cared?
Click!
Like a of warm, pulsing, sure power, the mind came into Kurt Zen. It here in space, too! He had of that. In what little he had had time to do, he had it as a super special of which but which was limited to the surface of the planet.
Here in space, it life in him.
He did not know how this was done, this was one of the which must be left to the to solve—if there was a other than the flats. It to him as if a was into his body.
Click!
He was in the rocket!
The of oil his nose. As he to move, he his head. He was in a narrow passage. Ahead was a with devices. He to in that direction.
Noise was a in his ears. His whole as if it was about to shake to pieces. The passage was narrow. It had been for humans. Moving upward, Zen it was too narrow. He got stuck.
No how hard he he not move an forward. The was so close he on it but it not have been out of his if it had been on the other of the Moon.
Air was short. He and squirmed, like the devil, but his was into the narrow passage in such a way that he not move.
Something at his arms. Nedra was directly ahead of him. She was trying to him along the passage.
"You?" he whispered.
"Who has a right than I?" she answered. Sweat her face. Her was awry. Fiercely she at him.
The yawed, its turn in space. He himself forward. And came free.
Somehow he the to himself up in of the panel. He was on energy now and he it. No was left in his what he was into it.
"Send it out to space!" he muttered. "Send it out there!" He to his arm in an and his hand on the hull.
Light came through a port. He had a of the Earth below. The was very away. Blue and green land, the was also very beautiful.
He his way over the controls, trying to them. Somewhere were smoothly. He them. The were simple. He which way was up, and home the controls.
Nothing happened.
In the his had in it.
Nedra at him.
"What happened?"
"Nothing. Nothing happened. They're locked in place."
His very wide.
"These are only for the course. Once that is and the launched, they lock in place."
"Then we can't the course?"
"No."
Her and she looked like a small girl about to cry.
Another to the left his attention. It had a red on it. He the on it.
"By thunder!" the from his lips.
"What is it, Kurt?"
"They put a manual on the warhead. It's got to be that. It can't be anything else." He pointed to the red button. "Why do you they did that?"
"Test purposes, probably, to check the the was installed. What it make?" Nedra's voice was listless.
"Maybe we can go to heaven."
"What do you mean?"
He very what he meant.
"Explode the here in space?"
"Sure," he said. His of voice said this was nothing, that do it. West's voice in his mind again. He it. His hand moved toward the red button.
"There's one thing I want you to know," he said, pausing.
"What is that?"
"I love you," he said.
She came into his arms like a tired, child. "I that the minute I saw you," she said. He her close to him and she there, very content. "All right," she said. "I'm ready." Her his.
Kissing her, he her and the red button.
A thudded.
Darkness closed in.
Kurt Zen came out of that to himself into the of Sam West. There was something about that that was familiar, something that he should have long before. He to think what it was.
"How'd you to heaven?" he said.
"The had a on it," West explained. "It was about thirty seconds, as near as I can it. Anyhow it gave us just time to of you out of that she blew."
What he said very important. Under other circumstances, Zen he would have it important. But other more now. "Did she blow?" he asked.
"All of ten minutes ago," West said exultantly. "Do you know what this means, Kurt? Do you know what it means?"
"Yeah," Zen answered. "I won't have to be an eel." There was still this other thing that was important. "Say—"
"An eel?" For an the man was puzzled. Then he the meaning. "You're right, Kurt. No eels—for any of us."
"That's good," Zen said. "Nedra—"
"She's right here you, still out from exhaustion. But she will be all right."
"Good," Zen said again. This other was still in his mind. As he to think what it was, the answer came to him. He looked up at the man. "You're not Sam West," he said.
"No?" the man said, the of a on his lips. "Then who am I?"
"You're Jal Jonner. Nobody but Jal Jonner have done all the you have done."
"You're right, Kurt. I'm Jal Jonner. And you're Kurt Zen. And this is Nedra—" Zen saw the on the of the man. It was a very good smile, the best he had seen. Then it away as he into the of exhaustion. He did not Jonner place Nedra's hand in his as he to sleep.
