FullReads

Horvin nodded, still looking at his watch. “And even if some people miss the TV broadcast, they’ll be able to read all about it. The deadline for the Daily Register is at six; the papers will hit the streets at seven-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 good a statistical sampling as you can get in so short a time. It’ll have to be casual; I don’t want your men asking questions as though they were regular pollsters; just find out what the general trend is.”

“Right.” Horvin got out fast.

The other men in the room were looking expectantly at the senator. He paused for a moment, glancing around at them, and then looked down at the 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 by Russian rockets and fell to the surface of Luna somewhere in the Mare Serenitas, some three hundred fifty miles from the Soviet base. The craft was hovering approximately four hundred miles above the surface when spotted by Soviet radar installations. Telescopic inspection showed that the craft was not–repeat: not–powered by rockets. Since it failed to respond to the standard United Nations recognition signals, rockets were fired to bring it down. In attempting to avoid the rockets, the craft, according to observers, maneuvered in an entirely unorthodox manner, which cannot be attributed to a rocket drive. A nearby burst, however, visibly damaged the hull of the craft, and it dropped toward Mare Serenitas. Armed Soviet moon-cats are, at this moment, moving toward the downed craft.

“Base Commander Colonel A. V. Gryaznov is quoted as saying: ‘There can be no doubt that we shall learn much from this craft, since it is apparently of extraterrestrial origin. We will certainly be able to overpower any resistance it may offer, since it has already proved vulnerable to our weapons. The missiles which were fired toward our base were easily destroyed by our own antimissile missiles, and the craft was unable to either destroy or avoid our own missiles.’

“Further progress will be released by the Soviet Government as it occurs.”

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 been sitting in and followed the senator into the other room. Behind them, the others suddenly broke out into a blather of conversation. Fisher’s closing of the door cut the sound off abruptly.

Senator Cannon threw the newssheet on the nearest bed and swung around to face Matthew Fisher. He looked at the tall, thick, muscular man trying to detect the emotions behind the ugly-handsome face that had been battered up by football and boxing in college, trying to fathom the thoughts beneath the broad forehead and the receding hairline.

“You got any idea what this really means, Matt?” he asked after a second.

Fisher’s blue-gray eyes widened almost imperceptibly, and his gaze sharpened. “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 meant something more than appears on the surface.” He grinned rather apologetically. “I’m sorry, Jim; it takes a second or two to reconstruct exactly what did go through my mind.” His grin faded into a thoughtful frown. “Anyway, you asked me, and since you’re head of the Committee on SPACE Travel and Exploration–” He spread his hands in a gesture that managed to convey both futility and apology. “The mystery spacecraft is ours,” he said decisively.