Almost immediately through the nation, from coast to coast, in great cities and small communities, Americans talked excitedly about the broadcast and told those who had not heard what had been said. The lights burned long into the night. In some areas there was minor violence and the men of the occupying forces for the most part wisely remained out of sight. It was a turning point, the first great dawning of hope that all was not permanently lost. People openly wept, and a great many sought the sanctuary of their churches. Impromptu services were organized, on street corners and in cathedrals.
In the synagogues the sounds of thanksgiving were heard and then all was still once more. For the enemy force was fearfully powerful and one single submarine was all that challenged it. It was well that in that time of great emotional feeling only a very small handful of Americans knew that there was a good chance that the U.S.S. Ramon Magsaysay was manned only by a crew of dead men and that she lay rusting somewhere on the bottom of an unnamed Arctic sea.
24
There was not a resident of Washington who did not know that he was sitting on top of a time bomb. The enemy operated from Washington and his presence there was in constant, inflexible evidence. The challenge to his power, and his authority, could be met with submission, but the people of Washington did not expect that. They had seen too much, and had heard too much more, to believe in any such utopia. The enemy would answer, they knew that, and the only question that held them in suspense was made up of three parts: how, when, and where.
Colonel Rostovitch did not leave them long in doubt. He had anticipated, very closely, what his opposition would do, and when the message did come, his response was planned and ready. The operational orders had been given out; his people had been alerted. All of them had been carefully chosen for their work and down to the last man none of them wanted in any way to cross, or even displease the fearsome man who was now effectively in charge of the country.
All during the following day announcements were made over every radio and TV station broadcasting to the general public that the answer to the Thomas Jefferson ultimatum would be given that evening at seven. Throughout the country some few dared to hope, but none in Washington. At a little after ten in the morning a squad of men sped through the streets toward Senator Fitzhugh’s home. With speed and expert technique they set it afire and burned it to the ground; before midafternoon the brick walls that had remained standing after the blaze had been knocked down. His office, too, was systematically gutted and the woman who had served as his secretary for some fourteen years was seized together with her husband. More enemy personnel than had ever been seen before patrolled the streets; people stayed in their homes. Those who had gone to work slipped away and came home early. The time bomb that was Washington ticked on toward its inexorable deadline.
In the hospital Feodor Zalinsky continued to receive the careful medical attention that his condition merited. Several times messengers came to his room, but he summoned none and required only that the television set with which he had been provided be kept continuously on. He was still in considerable pain and his recuperation was progressing more slowly than had been expected.
The White House staff kept as far from the Oval Office as possible and, when they had to go anywhere, they walked as quietly as they were able. Not everyone in the city knew the name of Colonel Gregor Rostovitch, but those who did trembled. With agonizing deliberation the hands of clocks throughout the capital marked the slow passage of time and measured off the hours and minutes remaining before the answer would be given.
When the time at last came near, in every home, apartment, and place of business the TV sets were on and glowing, the radios were set to hear what would be said. Regular TV programming was suspended, only test patterns appeared on the screens with, in many cases, the faces of a clock cut in at one comer. The tension mounted, minute by minute, as people stopped talking and waited. What Fitzhugh had said had been told and retold until it was already threadbare; what the enemy would say became all paramount, and nothing else, no matter what it might be, appeared to matter.
At precisely the time that had been set, the face of the enemy came on the screen of the TV sets. It was a specific face that few Americans had ever seen before. They did not know who he was, but they understood that he was a spokesman, nothing less and nothing more. His English was stilted and forced, but painfully accurate and precise. He enunciated clearly and not a word that he spoke could be misunderstood in any way.
“It is not necessary that much time be consumed by this matter,” he said. “I speak on behalf of the greatest military power that the world has ever seen, a military power which is intact and of which the people of the United States have seen and experienced only the smallest fraction. It is a power which could utterly destroy, to the last tiny hamlet, this entire former nation in a matter of minutes. In such an attack no one would survive, no single structure would be left standing. The area that was once the United States would become a barren, radioactive, desert wasteland — and it would remain so as a lesson to the rest of the world until such time as we chose to make use of it.
“Yesterday a misguided, senile, totally incompetent former member of the humiliated American government dared to make a statement at the command of his masters. He will be dealt with. He dared also to lay down certain conditions to which we were supposed to yield. Those conditions will be met, but not as this utter fool proposed to us.
“He told you about a submarine which was supposed to be in the hands of a nonexistent navy. If you believed him, do not do so any longer. I told you of the power of our military forces; for us it was a simple exercise to find this submarine long before she reached even close to the range of our homeland. She was sunk many days ago and the bodies of some of those who attempted to take her to sea have been recovered and examined. Their names will be published.
“You have no submarine at sea, you have nothing but memories of an imperialistic, fascist, decadent government which was destroyed by the vengeful people from without and within. From now on the people will rule and we are the people.
“Hear this now carefully; there does exist an underground which, over a period of several months, has managed through desperation to kill a half dozen of our people. They, the people who comprise this conspiracy, will now surrender. They will do so at once. If they have not done so by this exact time tomorrow, and have not handed over the place where they are living, we will shoot one thousand hostages who have already been chosen. We will begin to collect them very shortly. For each day that the surrender is delayed, an additional one thousand will be shot. Their bodies will be left to rot and it will be forbidden to touch them until they decay.”
Suddenly the speaker’s face flamed into a fanatical intensity. “When ten thousand have died this way, if the total surrender of the imperialistic underground is not complete to the last man, we shall resume our nuclear testing and your cities will serve as our practice areas. This now lies ten days away. We will listen to no rebuttal, no counterproposals; we will speak no more of this matter until the surrender has been completed. If it is not completed by tomorrow night the first thousand hostages will die. You will now submit, totally and absolutely, to our will, or you will not survive. That is all.”
Admiral Barney Haymarket listened, his chin resting in the palm of his hand. When it was over he turned to the assembled men around the table and asked, “Any comments?”
After a few seconds Walter Wagner responded. “I see two possibilities. One: get to their top people and hit them individually with everything we’ve got. That’s the long shot — it might work but I have serious doubts. The other is obvious.”