Part 3 (1/2)

But there was none, only a click as the connection was automatically broken. The line was dead; he hung up and sighed. It was all very unsatisfying.

Manchek expected to be called back within a few minutes by Was.h.i.+ngton; he expected to receive many calls in the next few hours, and so remained at the phone. Yet he received no calls, for he did not know that the process he had initiated was automatic. Once mobilized, the Wildfire Alert would proceed ahead, and not be recalled for at least twelve hours.

Within ten minutes of Manchek's call, the following message clattered across the scrambled maximum-security cable Five minutes later, there was a second cable which named units of the nation: the men on the Wildfire team: ***

=UNIT=.

TOP SECRET.

CODE FOLLOWS.

AS.

CBW 9/9/234/435/6778/90.

PULG COORDINATES DELTA 8997.

MESSAGE FOLLOWS.

AS.

WILDFIRE ALERT HAS BEEN CALLED. REPEAT WILDFIRE ALERT HAS BEEN CALLED. COORDINATES TO READ NASA/AMC/NSC COMB DEC. TIME OF COMMAND TO READ LL-59-07 ON DATE.

FURTHER NOTATIONS.

AS.

PRESS BLACKFACE POTENTIAL DIRECTIVE 7-L2 ALERT STATUS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.

END MESSAGE.

=== DISENGAGE.

This was an automatic cable. Everything about it, including the announcement of a press blackout and a possible directive 7-12, was automatic, and followed from Manchek's call.

=UNIT=.

TOP SECRET.

CODE FOLLOWS.

AS.

MESSAGE FOLLOWS AS THE FOLLOWING MALE AMERICAN CITIZENS ARE BEING PLACED ON ZED KAPPA STATUS. PREVIOUS TOP SECRET CLEARANCE HAS BEEN CONFIRMED. THE NAMES ARE+.

STONE, JEREMY ..81.

LEAVITT, PETER ..04.

BURTON, CHARLES .L51.

CHRISTIANSENKRIKECANCEL THIS LINE CANCEL.

TO READ AS.

KIRKE, CHRISTIAN.142.

HALL, MARK.L77.

ACCORD THESE MEN ZED KAPPA STATUS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.

END MESSAGE END MESSAGE.

In theory, this cable was also quite routine; its purpose was to name the five members who were being given Zed Kappa status, the code for ”OK” status. Unfortunately, however, the machine misprinted one of the names, and failed to reread the entire message. (Normally, when one of the printout units of a secret trunk line miswrote part of a message, the entire message was rewritten, or else it was reread by the computer to certify its corrected form.) The message was thus open to doubt. In Was.h.i.+ngton and elsewhere, a computer expert was called in to confirm the accuracy of the message, by what is called ”reverse tracing.” The Was.h.i.+ngton expert expressed grave concern about the validity of the message since the machine was printing out other minor mistakes, such as ”L” when it meant ”1.”

The upshot of all this was that the first two names on the list were accorded status, while the rest were not, pending confirmation.

Allison Stone was tired. At her home in the hills overlooking the Stanford campus, she and her husband, the chairman of the Stanford bacteriology department, had held a party for fifteen couples, and everyone had stayed late. Mrs. Stone was annoyed: she had been raised in official Was.h.i.+ngton, where one's second cup of coffee, offered pointedly without cognac, was accepted as a signal to go home. Unfortunately, she thought, academics did not follow the rules. She had served the second cup of coffee hours ago, and everybody was still there.

Shortly before one a.m., the doorbell rang. Answering it, she was surprised to see two military men standing side by side in the night. They seemed awkward and nervous to her, and she a.s.sumed they were lost; people often got lost driving through these residential areas at night.

”May I help you?”

”I'm sorry to disturb you, ma'am,” one said politely. ”But is this the residence of Dr. Jeremy Stone?”

”Yes,” she said, frowning slightly. ”It is.”

She looked beyond the two men, to the driveway. A blue military sedan was parked there. Another man was standing by the car; he seemed to be holding something in his hand.

”Does that man have a gun?” she said.

”Ma'am,” the man said,” we must see Dr. Stone at once.

It all seemed strange to her, and she found herself frightened. She looked across the lawn and saw a fourth man, moving up to the house and looking into the window. In the pale light streaming out onto the lawn, she could distinctly see the rifle in his hands.

”What's going on?”

”Ma'am, we don't want to disturb your party. Please call Dr. Stone to the door.”

”I don't know if--”