ngerly and stood unsteadily at its top.

Adams shifted the unit around, clasped it to his chest.

"Stand around close," he said, "and bend your knees a little. It
may be quite a drop."

"Go ahead," said Cooper. "Press the button."

Adams pressed the button.

Nothing happened.

The unit didn't work.

IX

The chief of Central Intelligence was white-lipped when he
finished talking.

"You're sure of your information?" asked the President.

"Mr. President," said the CIA chief, "I've never been more sure of
anything in my entire life."

The President looked at the other two who were in the room, a
question in his eyes.

The JCS chairman said, "It checks, sir, with everything we know."

"But it's incredible!" the President said.

"They're afraid," said the CIA chief. "They lie awake nights.
They've become convinced that we're on the verge of traveling in
time. They've tried and failed, but they think we're near success.
To their way of thinking, they've got to hit us now or never,
because once we actually get time travel, they know their number's
up."

"But we dropped Project Mastodon entirely almost three years ago.
It's been all of ten years since we stopped the research. It was
twenty-five years ago that Hudson--"

"That makes no difference, sir. They're convinced we dropped the
project publicly, but went underground with it. That would be the
kind of strategy they could understand."

The President picked up a pencil and doodled on a pad.

"Who was that old general," he asked, "the one who raised so much
fuss when we dropped the project? I remember I was in the Senate
then. He came around to see me."

"Bowers, sir," said the JCS chairman.

"That's right. What became of him?"

"Retired."

"Well, I guess it doesn't make any difference now." He doodled
some more and finally said, "Gentlemen, it looks like this is it.
How much time did you say we had?"

"Not more than ninety days, sir. Maybe as little as thirty."

The President looked up at the JCS chairman.

"We're as ready," said the chairman, "as we will ever be. We can
handle them--I think. There will, of course, be some--"

"I know," said the President.

"Could we bluff?" asked the secretary of state, speaking quietly.
"I know it wouldn't stick, but at least we might buy some time."

"You mean hint that we have time travel?"

The secretary nodded.

"It wouldn't work," said the CIA chief tiredly. "If we really had
it, there