of the NewWaldorf--the President and Vice President of the United States, bothrunning for re-election, and other high members of the incumbent party.
The other group, consisting of Candidates Cannon and Fisher, and thehigh members of _their_ party, were occupying the only slightly lesspretentious Bridal Suite of a hotel within easy walking distance of theWaldorf.
Senator James Cannon read through the news release that Horvin hadhanded him, then looked up at the PR man. "This is right off the wire.How long before it's made public?"
Horvin glanced at his watch. "Less than half an hour. There's an NBCnews program at five-thirty. Maybe before, if one of the radio stationsthink it's important enough for a bulletin break."
"That means that it will have been common knowledge for four hours bythe time we go on the air for the debate," said Cannon.
Horvin nodded, still looking at his watch. "And even if some people missthe TV broadcast, they'll be able to read all about it. The deadline forthe _Daily Register_ is at six; the papers will hit the streets atseven-fifteen, or thereabouts."
Cannon stood up from his chair. "Get your men out on the streets. Get'em into bars, where they can pick up reactions to this. I want as gooda statistical sampling as you can get in so short a time. It'll have tobe casual; I don't want your men asking questions as though they wereregular pollsters; just find out what the general trend is."
ILLUSTRATED BY SCHOENHERR]
"Right." Horvin got out fast.
The other men in the room were looking expectantly at the senator. Hepaused for a moment, glancing around at them, and then looked down atthe paper and said: "This is a bulletin from Tass News Agency, Moscow."Then he began reading.
"Russian Luna Base One announced that at 1600 Greenwich Standard Time(12:00 N EDST) a presumed spacecraft of unknown design was damaged byRussian rockets and fell to the surface of Luna somewhere in the MareSerenitas, some three hundred fifty miles from the Soviet base. Thecraft was hovering approximately four hundred miles above the surfacewhen spotted by Soviet radar installations. Telescopic inspection showedthat the craft was not--repeat: not--powered by rockets. Since it failedto respond to the standard United Nations recognition signals, rocketswere fired to bring it down. In attempting to avoid the rockets, thecraft, according to observers, maneuvered in an entirely unorthodoxmanner, which cannot be attributed to a rocket drive. A nearby burst,however, visibly damaged the hull of the craft, and it dropped towardMare Serenitas. Armed Soviet moon-cats are, at this moment, movingtoward the downed craft.
"Base Commander Colonel A. V. Gryaznov is quoted as saying: 'There canbe no doubt that we shall learn much from this craft, since it isapparently of extraterrestrial origin. We will certainly be able tooverpower any resistance it may offer, since it has already provedvulnerable to our weapons. The missiles which were fired toward our basewere easily destroyed by our own antimissile missiles, and the craft wasunable to either destroy or avoid our own missiles.'
"Further progress will be released by the Soviet Government as itoccurs."
Senator Cannon dropped the sheet of paper to his side. "That's it. Matt,come in the bedroom; I'd like to talk to you."
* * * * *
Matthew Fisher, candidate for Vice President of the United States,heaved his two-hundred-fifty-pound bulk out of the chair he had beensitting in and followed the senator into the other room. Behind them,the others suddenly broke out into a blather of conversation. Fisher'sclosing of the door cut the sound off abruptly.
Senator Cannon threw the newssheet on the nearest bed and swung aroundto face Matthew Fisher. He looked at the tall, thick, muscular mantrying to detect the emotions behind the ugly-handsome face that hadbeen battered up by football and boxing in college, trying to fathom thethoughts beneath the broad forehead and the receding hairline.
"You got any idea what this _really_ means, Matt?" he asked after asecond.
Fisher's blue-gray eyes widened almost imperceptibly, and his gazesharpened. "Not until just this moment," he said.
Cannon looked suddenly puzzled. "What do you mean?"
"Well," Fisher said thoughtfully, "you wouldn't ask me unless it meantsomething more than appears on the surface." He grinned ratherapologetically. "I'm sorry, Jim; it takes a second or two to reconstructexactly what _did_ go through my mind." His grin faded into a thoughtfulfrown. "Anyway, you asked me, and since you're head of the Committee onSPACE Travel and Exploration--" He spread his hands in a gesture thatmanaged to convey both futility and apology. "The mystery spacecraft isours," he said decisively.
James Cannon wiped a palm over his forehead and sat down heavily on oneof the beds. "Right. Sit down. Fine. Now; listen: We--the UnitedStates--have a space drive that compares to the rocket in the same waythat the jet engine compares to the horse. We've been keeping it underwraps that are comparable to those the Manhattan Project was kept under'way back during World War II. Maybe more so. But--" He stopped,watching Fisher's face. Then: "Can you see it from there?"
"I think so," Fisher said. "The Soviet Government knows that we havesomething ... in fact, they've known it for a long time. They don't knowwhat, though." He found a heavy briar in his pocket, pulled it out, andbegan absently stuffing it with tobacco from a pouch he'd pulled outwith the pipe. "Our ship didn't shoot at their base. Couldn't, wouldn'thave. Um. They shot it down to try to look it over. Purposely made anear-miss with an atomic warhead." He struck a match and puffed the pipealight.
"Hm-m-m. The Soviet Government," he went on, "must have known that wehad something 'way back when they signed the Greenston Agreement."Fisher blew out a cloud of smoke. "They wanted to change the wording ofthat, as I remember."
"That's right," Cannon said. "We wanted it to read that 'any advances in_rocket engineering_ shall be shared equally among the Members of theUnited Nations', but the Soviet delegation wanted to change that to 'anyadvances in _space travel_'. We only beat them out by a verbal quibble;we insisted that the word 'space', as used, could apply equally to thespace between continents or cities or, for that matter, between any twopoints. By the time we got through arguing, the UN had given up on theSoviet amendment, and the agreement was passed as was."
"Yeah," said Fisher, "I remember. So now we have a space drive thatdoesn't depend on rockets, and the USSR wants it." He stared at the bowlof his briar for a moment, then looked up at Cannon. "The point is thatthey've brought down one of our ships, and we have to get it out ofthere before the Russians get to it. Even if we manage to keep them fromfinding out anything about the drive, they can raise a lot of fuss inthe UN if they can prove that it's our ship."
"Right. They'll ring in the Greenston Agreement even if the shiptechnically isn't a rocket," Cannon said. "Typical Soviet tactics. Theytry to time these things to hit at the most embarrassing moments. Fouryears ago, our worthy opponent got into office because ouradministration was embarrassed by the Madagascar Crisis. They simply tryto show the rest of the world that, no matter which party is in, theUnited states is run by a bunch of inept fools." He slapped his handdown on the newssheet that lay near him. "This may win us the election,"he said angrily, "but it will do us more harm in the long run than ifour worthy opponent stayed in the White House."
"Of what avail to win an election and lose the whole Solar System,"Fisher paraphrased. "It looks as though the President has a hot potato."
"'Hot' is the word. Pure californium-254." Cannon lit a cigarette andlooked moodily at the glowing end. "But this puts us in a hole, too. Dowe, or don't we, mention it on the TV debate this evening? If we don't,the public will wonder why; if we do, we'll put the country on thespot."
Matt Fisher thought for a few seconds. Then he said, "The ship must havealready been having trouble. Otherwise it wouldn't have been hovering inplain sight of the Soviet radar. How many men does one of those shipshold?"
"Two," the senator told him.
"We do have more than one of those ships, don't we?" Fisher askedsuddenly.
"Four on Moo
n Base; six more building," said Senator Cannon.
"The downed ship must have been in touch with--" He stopped abruptly,paused for a second, then said: "I have an idea, Senator, but you'llhave to do the talking. We'll have to convince the President that whatwe're suggesting is for the good of the country and not just a politicaltrick. And we don't have much time. Those moon-cats shouldn't take morethan twelve or fifteen hours to reach the ship."
"What's