r the
university.

They listened to him calling, but could not hear the station he finally
raised.

"What good will that do?" Maria asked. "If we can't hear the station in
Berkeley...."

"He may be working on a relay deal through the small rig. It's better
than nothing, but I'd prefer a station we can contact directly."

In a few minutes, the San Francisco operator called them back. "W6WGU
knows a ham with a 1000-watt phone near the university," he said. "He
thinks he'll go for your deal, but he's not set up for battery. In fact,
he's about ready to evacuate. Maybe he can be persuaded to stay. I'm
told he's a guy who will do the noble thing if he sees a reason for it."

"There's plenty of reason for this," said Ken.

"Let's set a schedule for 9 p.m. I ought to have word on it by then."

They agreed and cut off. In another hour they had managed a contact with
a Chicago operator, and explained what they wanted.

"You're out of luck here," the ham replied. "This town is falling apart
at the seams right now. The whole Loop area has been burned out.
There's been rioting for 18 hours straight. The militia have been trying
to hold things together, but I don't think they even know whether
anybody is still on top giving the orders.

"I'll try to find out what the eggheads at the university are doing, but
if they've got any kind of research running in this mess, it'll surprise
me. If they are still there, I'll hang on and report to you. Otherwise,
I'm heading north. There's not much sense to it, but when something like
this happens a guy's got to run or have a good reason for staying put.
If he doesn't he'll go nuts."

The Chicago operator agreed to a schedule for the following morning.

Maria and Ken sat in silence, not looking at each other, after they cut
off.

"It will be that way in all the big cities, won't it?" Maria asked.

"I'm afraid so. We're luckier than they are," Ken said, "but I wonder
how long we'll stay lucky." He was thinking of Frank Meggs, and the
people who had swamped his store.

At 9 p.m., W6YRE came back on. The Berkeley 1000-watt phone was
enthusiastic about being a contact post with the university people. He
had promised to make arrangements with them and to round up enough
batteries to convert his transmitter and receiver.

They had no further success that night.

Ken's father shook his head sadly when told of the situation in Chicago.
"I had counted on them," he said. "Their people