Part 3 (2/2)
Oswald came back on the phone.
”Can you keep it out of the papers?” Randolph asked.
”It's already on every newscast, and the papers'll have it by noon--it's on the wires,” Oswald said.
Randolph coughed nervously, but Oswald didn't wait for him to speak.
”I'm working on something to counteract this,” he said. ”We're being witch-hunted,” Oswald said. ”I'll get the whole firm to work on it and call you back.”
In Was.h.i.+ngton, meantime, another conference was going on, far more intent, far more critical.
”It's more than just a pest plane that crashed in Formosa, Mr.
President,” the CIA Chief was saying. ”It carried bacterial bombs, and they exploded.
”There's been no attempt to hide its source. It's, of course, of enemy make. No identification on the bodies aboard, they're in civilian clothes. But again, the make is Moscow.
”It shouldn't be long before we know the worst.”
”Will they clean this one up as they did the last one, or will they demand surrender terms on this one?” the President asked.
The Secretary of State and the Secretary of War started to answer together, but it was State that got the first word in.
”I think they'll clean this one up,” he said. ”It would be a direct threat on which they'll demand surrender terms. That's just a guess, of course.
”The best teams of doctors are being organized and jetted over. The best bacteriologists the nation has at its command. Every antibiotic available is being sent.”
”Will that make a dent?”
”No.”
”How long can we keep it under wraps?”
”A week. Ten days, perhaps, with top security.”
”Give it everything you've got. But keep it quiet until we know what the next move is. Twenty-four hour alert, of course, immediately.”
”Even if the alert itself endangers the security wraps?”
”Yes. A week to ten days of security isn't enough to pay for taking a chance the other way.”
By 4:00 p.m. Oswald was on the phone to Randolph. ”We've got the antidote,” he said jubilantly.
Randolph was quiet for a minute, chewing his lip. Then: ”I'm being vilified in the press as the creator of a hoax that even those who stood to benefit by it couldn't take,” he said. ”The few who have decided that a real miracle occurred have also decided that I'm in league with the devil, and that witches are for burning. Mostly Witch is the b.u.t.t of every joke that can be dreamed up by every cub reporter in the nation. Saxton has started laying the groundwork for making Witch a political issue. There is talk of an FCC investigation.”
[Ill.u.s.tration]
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