other chances to kill you?"
"Plenty!" snapped Coburn. "And easy ones. One of them came into myoffice as my secretary. She could have killed me. The man who passed forMajor Pangalos could have shot us all while we were unconscious. I don'tknow why they didn't get the transport plane, and I don't know whattheir scheme is. I'm telling the facts. They're contradictory. I can'thelp that. All I have are the facts."
The loud-speaker said crisply: "The attack on the transport plane--anypilots present who were in that fight?"
Someone at the back said: "Yes, sir. Here."
"How good was their ship? Could it have been a guided missile?"
"No, sir. No guided missile. Whoever drove that ship was right on board.And that ship was good. It could climb as fast as we could dive, and nohuman could have taken the accelerations and the turns it made. Whoeverdrove it learned fast, too. He was clumsy at the beginning, but helearned. If we hadn't gotten in a lucky hit, he'd've had us where hewanted us in a little while more. Our fifty-calibres just bounced offthat hull!"
The loud-speaker said curtly: "If that impression is justified, that'sthe first business to be taken up. All but flying officers are excused.Mr. Coburn can go, too."
There was a stirring everywhere in the room. Officers got up and walkedout. Coburn stood. The Greek general came over to him and patted him onthe shoulder, beaming. Janice went out with him. They arrived on thecarrier's deck. This was the very earliest hour of dawn, and theconference had turned abruptly to a discussion of arms and tactics assoon as Washington realized that its planes were inadequate forfighting. Which was logical enough, but Coburn was pretty sure it wasuseless.
"If anybody else in the world feels as futile as I do," said Coburnbitterly, "I feel sorry for him!"
Janice said softly: "You've got me."
But that was less than complete comfort. It is inborn in a man that heneeds to feel superior. No man can feel pride before the woman of hischoice while there is something stronger than himself. And Coburnespecially wanted to feel that pride just now.
There were very probably discussions of the important part of whatCoburn had reported, of course, during the rest of the morning. Butthere was much more discussion of purely military measures. And ofcourse there were attempts to get military intelligence. Things werereported in the sky near South Africa, and from Honolulu--where nobodywould ignore what a radar said again, especially the juiced-up equipmentjust modified on orders--and from other places. Not all the reports wereauthentic, of course. If there were any observations inside the IronCurtain, the Iron Curtain countries kept them to themselves. Politicswas much more important than anything else, in that part of the world.
But Coburn need not have felt as futile as he did. There was just onereally spectacular occurrence in connection with the Invaders that day,and it happened where Coburn was. Almost certainly, it happened becauseCoburn was there. Though there is reason to believe that the newspapercampaign on shore, declaring that the American fleet risked the lives ofall Naples by its mere presence, had something to do with it too.
It was very spectacular.
* * * * *
It happened just after midday when the city and its harbor were at theirmost glamorous. Coburn and Janice were above when it began. There was anensign assigned to escort Coburn about and keep an eye on him, and hetook them on a carefully edited tour of the carrier. He took them to theradar room which was not secret any longer. He explained reservedly thatthere was a new tricked-up arrangement of radar which it was believedwould detect turtle-shaped metal ships if they appeared.
The radar room was manned, of course. It always was, with a cold war inbeing. Overhead, the bowl cages of the radars moved restlessly andrhythmically. Outside, on deck, the huge elevator that brought planes upfrom below rose at the most deliberate of peace-time rates.
The ensign said negligently, pointing to the radar-screen: "That littlespeck is a plane making for the landing field on shore. This other oneis a plane coming down from Genoa. You'd need a good pair of binocularsto see it. It's a good thirty-five miles away."
Just then, one of the two radar-men on duty pushed a button and snappedinto a microphone: "Sir! Radar-pip directly overhead! Does not show onnormal radar. Elevation three hundred thousand feet, descendingrapidly." His voice cut off suddenly.
A metallic voice said: "Relay!"
The ensign in charge of Coburn and Janice seemed to freeze. Theradar-man pressed a button, which would relay that particularradar-screen's contents to the control room for the whole ship. Therewas a pause of seconds. Then bells began to ring everywhere. They werebattle gongs.
There was a sensation of stirring all over the ship. Doors closed withsoft hissings. Men ran furiously. The gongs rang.
The ensign said politely: "I'll take you below now."
He led them very swiftly to a flight of stairs. There was a monstrousbellowing on the carrier's deck. Something dark went hurtling down itslength, with a tail of pale-blue flame behind it. It vanished. Men werestill running. The elevator shot into full-speed ascent. A plane rolledoff it. The elevator dropped.
An engine roared. Another. Yet another. A second dark and deadly thingflashed down the deck and was gone. There was a rumbling.
The battle gongs cut off. The rumbling below seemed to increase. Therewas a curious vibration. The ship moved. Coburn could feel that itmoved. It was turning.
The ensign led them somewhere and said: "This is a good place. You'dbetter stay right here."
He ran. They heard him running. He was gone.
They were in a sort of ward room--not of the morning conference--andthere were portholes through which they could look. The city which wasNaples seemed to swing smoothly past the ship. They saw other ships. Acruiser was under way with its anchor still rising from the water. Itdripped mud and a sailor was quite ridiculously playing a hose on it. Itascended and swayed and its shank went smoothly into the hawse-hole.There were guns swinging skyward. Some were still covered by canvashoods. The hoods vanished before the cruiser swung out of the porthole'sline of vision.
A destroyer leaped across the space they could see, full speed ahead.The water below them began to move more rapidly. It began to pass bywith the speed of ground past an express train. And continually,monotonously, there were roarings which climaxed and died in thedistance.
"The devil!" said Coburn. "I've got to see this. They can't kill us forlooking."
* * * * *
He opened the door. Janice, holding fast to his arm, followed as he wentdown a passage. Another door. They were on the deck side of the islandwhich is the superstructure of a carrier, and they were well out of theway, and everybody in sight was too busy to notice them.
The elevator worked like the piston of a pump. It vanished andreappeared and a plane came off. Men in vividly-colored suits swarmedabout it, and the elevator was descending again. The plane roared, shotdown the deck, and was gone to form one of the string of climbingobjects which grew smaller with incredible swiftness as they shot forthe sky. Coburn saw another carrier. There was a huge bow-wave beforeit. Destroyers ringed it, seeming to bounce in the choppy sea made by somany great ships moving so close together.
The other carrier, too, was shooting planes into the air like bulletsfrom a gun. The American Mediterranean fleet was putting out to sea atemergency-speed, getting every flying craft aloft that could be gottenaway. A cruiser swung a peculiar crane-like arm, there was a puff ofsmoke and a plane came into being. The crane retracted. Another plane. Athird.
The fleet was out of the harbor, speeding at thirty knots, withdestroyers weaving back and forth at higher speeds still. There werebarges left behind in the harbor with sailors in them,--shore-parties ordetails who swore bitterly when they were left behind. They surged upand down on the melee of waves the fleet left behind in its hastydeparture.
On the fleet itself there was a brisk tenseness as it sped away from theland. Vesuvius still loomed high, bu
t the city dwindled to a mereblinking mass of white specks which were its buildings. The sea wasaglitter with sunlight reflected from the waves. There was the smell ofsalt air.
Men began to take cryptic measures for the future. They strung cablesacross the deck from side to side. Arresting gear for planes which wouldpresently land.
Their special ensign found Coburn and Janice. "I'm supposed to stay withyou," he explained politely. "I thought I could be of use. I'm reallyattached to another ship, but I was on board because of the hassle lastnight."
Coburn said: "This would be invader stuff, wouldn't it?"
The ensign shrugged. "Apparently. You heard what the radar said.Something at three hundred thousand feet, descending rapidly. It's not ahuman-built ship. Anyway, we've sent up all our planes. Jets will meetit