* * *

On the quiet bridge, the captain looked up as the Com Officer said,
"Thule Base, sir," and switched on his mike.

"Hot Rod has been sabotaged," a frantic voice on the other end of the
beam shouted in his ear without formalities. "She's running wild. Kill
her! Repeat, Hot Rod is wild! Kill Hot Rod! Kill--" the mike went dead
as Captain Andersen switched to the morgue intercom.

"Hot Rod crew," he said briefly. "Report to the bridge on the double.
Repeat. Hot Rod crew. The bridge. On the double."

As he switched off the intercom, the communications officer spoke
urgently. "Captain. I've lost contact with Thule base."

"Keep trying to raise them," Captain Andersen said. He turned to
Bessie. "Give me a display of the Hellmaker," he said; then, almost to
himself, "There's still a flare in progress out there. We've got to
kill it without sending men into that--"

He cut himself off in midsentence, as the computer displayed both Hot
Rod, swaying gently as she fought out the battle of the focus through
its final moments, and a telescopic view of Greenland, a tiny, glowing
coal of red showing at the center of her focus.

Through the door nearly catapulted the first of the Project Hot
Rodders, followed almost on his heels by twelve more.

"Where is Major Elbertson?"

"In sick bay, sir. He got a big radiation dose--"

The captain flipped the intercom key.

"Calling Major Elbertson in sick bay. Report to the bridge on the
double, no matter what your condition. This is the captain speaking."

The intercom came alive at far end.

"This is Dr. Green, Captain Andersen. Major Elbertson is unconscious.
He cannot report for duty. He was extremely ill from exposure to
radiation and we have administered sulph-hydral, antispasmodic, and
sedative."

Nails Andersen turned to the project crew.

"Which of you are Security officers?"

Three men stepped forward.

"Are all the project members here?"

"No, sir," said one. "Eight of our men are in sick bay."

"Very well," said the captain. "Now hear this, all of you. There is a
saboteur--maybe more than one, we do not know--among you. There is no
time to find out which of you it is. However, he has managed to leave
Project Hot Rod operational while unattended. You are to turn it off,
and to prevent the saboteur from stopping you. Do you understand?"

A voice in back--a rather high voice--spoke up. "Of course it's
operational," it said. "We left it ope