V
There were clouds below that occasionally hid the Earth from sight. Fora minute or more they gazed in silence at the magnificent view.
"This wasn't built in a day," Jen Jervis said at last.
"I should say not," Don agreed. "Millions of years."
She looked at him sharply. "I wasn't talking about the age of the Earth.I mean this room--this lookout post--whatever it is."
He grinned at her. "I agree with you there, too. I'm really a veryagreeable fellow, Miss Jervis. Obviously, whoever built it knew well inadvance that Superior was going to take off. They also knew how much ofit was going up and exactly where this would have to be built so itwould be at the edge."
"Under the edge, you mean, with a downward view."
"That's right. From a distance I'd say Superior looked as if someone hadcut the end off an orange. The flat part--where the cut was made--is thesurface and we're looking out from a piece of the convex skin."
"You put things so simply, Mr. Cort, that even a child couldunderstand," she said acidly.
"Thank you," he said complacently. He had remembered that whoever waslistening in for Military Intelligence through the tiny radio under hisshirt could have only a vague idea of what was going on. Any little wordpictures he could supply, therefore, would help them understand. He hadto risk the fact that his companion might think him a bit of an idiot.
Of course with this Geneva Jervis it was easy to lay himself open to thescathing comment and the barbed retort. He imagined she was extremelyuseful in her role as Girl Friday to Senator Bobby Thebold.
"I don't think this is the work of those boobies at the booby hatch,"she was saying.
"I beg your pardon?"
"The Cavalier Institution of Applied Foolishness, whatever they call it.They just wouldn't be capable of an undertaking of this scope."
"Oh, I agree. That's why I let you drag me away from the meeting. It wasa lot of pseudo-scientific malarkey. Old Doc Rubach, D.V.M., was goingon about the ultimote being connected to the thighbone, way up in themiddle of the air. Tell me, who do _you_ think is behind it all?"
She was walking around the big-sided room as if taking mental inventory.There wasn't much to catalogue--six straight chairs, heavy andmodern-looking, with a large wooden table, a framed piece of dark glassthat might be a television set, and a gray steel box about the size andshape of a three-drawer filing cabinet. This last was near the bigwindow-wall and had three black buttons on its otherwise smooth top. Donitched to push the buttons to see what would happen. Jen Jervis seemedto have the same urge. She drummed on the box with her long fingernails.
"I?" she said. "Behind it all?"
"Yes. What's your theory? Is this something for the Un-EarthlyActivities Committee to investigate?"
"Don't be impertinent. If the Senator thinks it's his duty to look intoit, he will. He undoubtedly is already. In the meantime, I can do noless than gather whatever information I can while I'm on the scene."
"Very patriotic. What do you conclude from your information-gathering sofar?"
"Obviously there's some kind of conspiracy--" she began, then stopped asif she suspected a trap.
"--afoot," Don said with a grin. "As I see it, all you do is have Bobbythe Bold subpoena everybody up here--every last man-jack of 'em--totestify before his committee. They wouldn't dare refuse."
"I don't find you a bit amusing, Mr. Cort, though I have no doubt thissophomoric humor makes a big hit with your teen-age blonde. We'd betterget back. I can see it was a mistake to expect any co-operation fromyou."
"As you like, Madame Investigator." Don gave her a mock bow, then turnedfor a last look down at the vast segment of Earth below.
Geneva Jervis screamed.
He whirled to see her standing, big-eyed and open-mouthed, in front ofthe framed dark glass he had taken for a television screen. Her face wascontorted in horror, and as Don's gaze flicked to the screen he had thebarest glimpse of a pair of eyes fading with a dissolving image. Thenthe screen was blank and Don wasn't sure whether there had been a faceto go with the eyes--an inhuman, un-earthly face--or whether hisimagination had supplied it.
The girl slumped to the floor in a faint.
* * * * *
_COLUMBUS, OHIO, Nov. 1 (AP)--Sen. Robert (Bobby) Thebold landed heretoday after leading his Private Pilots (PP) squadron of P-38's on areconnaissance flight which resulted in the loss of one of the six WorldWar II fighters in a crash landing on the mysteriously airborne town ofSuperior, Ohio. The pilot of the crashed plane parachuted safely toEarth._
_Sen. Thebold told reporters grimly:_
_"There is no doubt in my mind that mysterious forces are at work when atown of 3,000 population can rise in a body off the face of the Earth.My reconnaissance has shown conclusively that the town is intact and itsinhabitants alive. On one of my passes I saw my secretary, Miss GenevaJervis."_
_Sen. Thebold said he was confident Miss Jervis would contact him themoment she had anything to report, indicating she would make anon-the-spot investigation._
_The Senator said in reply to a question that he was "amazed" atofficial Washington's "complete inaction" in the matter, and declared hewould demand a probe by the Senate Investigations Subcommittee, of whichhe is a member. He indicated witnesses might include officials of theDefense Department, the Central Intelligence Agency, and "possiblyothers."_
* * * * *
_LADENBURG, Ohio, Nov. 1 (UPI)--Little Ladenburg, former neighbor of"The City in the Sky," complained today of a rain of empty beer cans andother rubbish, apparently being tossed over the edge by residents ofairborne Superior._
_"They're not so high and mighty," one sanitation official here said,"that they can make Ladenburg their garbage dump."_
* * * * *
_WASHINGTON, Nov. 1 (Reuters)--American officials today were at a lossto explain the strange behaviour of Superior, Ohio, "the town that tookoff."_
_Authoritative sources assured Reuters that no military or scientificexperiments were in progress which could account for the phenomenon of atown being lifted intact thousands of feet into the air._
_Rumors circulating to the effect that a "Communist plot" was at workwere greeted with extreme scepticism in official quarters._
* * * * *
BULLETIN
_COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov. 1 (UPI)--The airborne town of Superior began todrift east across Ohio late today._