“Lucky,” Taylor muttered.
If Bliss heard what he said, he chose to ignore him. “The Goodrich company will soon be delivering the pressure suit you’ve designed, and I want Lloyd there to make sure the breathing mixture is correct when our pilot tries it on for the first time. He’ll also be working with Harry on further tests of the main engine once it’s built and been sent to New Mexico.”
Mike was in the midst of pulling out his briar pipe when the colonel said this. He stopped tamping tobacco in the bowl and peered at Bliss. “Come again? I thought the engine was going to be built down there.”
“Yes, well”—Bliss hid his apparent discomfiture by coughing in his fist—“there’s been a change of plans. The engine’s going to be built and static-tested here in New England.”
This caught the team flat-footed. The five remaining members of the 390 Group stared at Bliss in shock, their mouths falling open. For months, Goddard had been campaigning to have the main engine assembled somewhere close enough for them to have firsthand participation in its construction and testing, only to hear the same arguments against it repeated again and again. Now, all of a sudden, the colonel had apparently changed his mind.
“Why are you…?” Henry began.
“Dr. Goddard wouldn’t let us relocate the project unless we were willing to make certain concessions. He pointed out that, if we came all the way up here, we’d be even more isolated than we were before, and that could cause significant delays. He and Lieutenant Jackson had been pushing for the Wyman-Gordon Company to be hired as prime contractor since that would put the engine R&D phase in Worcester, and the Pentagon has been considering this for a while. Recent events just… um, speeded up the decision-making process a bit, that’s all.”
“I don’t care if they made it by flipping a coin,” Taylor said, a grin stretching across his face. “That’s great news!”
“Does Bob know yet?” Ham asked, and Bliss shook his head. “Well, this ought to cheer him up.”
“Yeah, but now we’ve got another problem,” Henry said. “Where are we gonna test the damn thing once it’s built? I mean, you can’t just light up an engine that size anywhere near a city and not have someone notice.”
“Yes, well… that’s one more thing for you characters to figure out.” Bliss frowned. “Speaking of which, how are you coming with the missiles?”
Henry, Taylor, and Gerry shared a look; developing the X-1’s armament was their job. “Not so good,” Henry admitted. “The missiles themselves are no problem… a couple of solid-fuel rockets launched from under the wings, that’s all… but we’re still trying to figure out how our pilot’s going to get a dead bead on Silver Bird when both ships are traveling at different relative velocities.”
“It’s like trying to hit a bullet with another bullet,” Mike added. “Or like trying to shoot a car from another car that’s moving at a different speed.” He shrugged. “Give us five or ten years, and we might be able to give you some kinda guided missile, but we just don’t know how to do that yet.”
“I understand,” Bliss said, “but we don’t have five or ten years. I’m not sure we even have five or ten months. British intelligence has reason to believe that the Germans have moved Silver Bird from Peenemünde…”
“Hey, when did that happen?” Ham was as surprised everyone else. “How did the Brits figure out…?”
“I can’t tell you because I don’t know either. All I know is that MI-6 has some way of knowing what the Germans are doing. According to them, the Nazis have transferred Silver Bird from the Baltic coast to an inland location.” Bliss looked at Henry. “Appears that one of your guesses might be correct. MI-6 thinks the new site is somewhere in the mountains, possibly near a town called Nordhausen.”
“Ah, so…” Ham gave Henry a wink. “All that time you’ve spent in the library has paid off. Besides sparking with a certain librarian, I mean.”
Henry cast him a foul look as the others chuckled. All except Bliss. “If I’d known about that…” the colonel began, then he sighed and shook his head. “Never mind. That’s something I don’t have to worry about anymore… is it, Henry?”
“No, sir,” he said quietly. “It isn’t.”
“Good.” Bliss stood up and stretched his back. “Very well, then. If no one has any other immediate business, I suggest we get back to work.”
“Anyone want to help with the file cabinets?” Taylor asked as he got up from the couch. “They’re pretty heavy, and Gerry and I could use a hand.”
“Sure, I’ll pitch in,” Ham said, and Mike nodded as well. “Henry, you want to…?”
“No, I don’t.” Without another word, Henry stood up and marched out of the living room. The porch screen door squeaked on its hinges as he opened it and banged into its frame when he let it slam shut behind him.
No one spoke; everyone looked a little embarrassed. But as they filed out of the living room, Taylor came up beside Ham. “I think you might’ve rubbed him the wrong way,” he said quietly. “He’s pretty serious about Doris.”
“Sorry. Didn’t know.” Through the front porch’s screen windows, they could see Henry walking down to the beach. “I’ll go apologize to him.”
“Give him a chance to cool down first,” Taylor suggested, then he slapped Ham on the shoulder. “C’mon. Let’s get those file cabinets inside.”
Henry was still down on the beach when Ham came to see him. He’d found a couple of weather-beaten Adirondack chairs near the water and was watching the sun as it began to touch the trees on the other side of the lake. He looked around at Ham as he sauntered over to him, but he didn’t say anything.
“Hey, I’m really sorry about that crack I made back there.” Ham sat down beside him. “I mean, what goes on between you and Doris is your business, and I was way out to line to…”
“Forget it. I know it was a joke. Just a bad one, that’s all.” Henry reached into his shirt pocket, pulled out his cigarettes, shook one out, and offered the pack to Ham. “What bugs me is Igor and those FBI goons telling me I can’t see her anymore. I mean, it’s bad enough that I didn’t even get a chance to say good-bye before we were hustled up here…”
“You didn’t?” Ham asked, taking a cigarette from him, and Henry shook his head. “Oh, man… are you in the doghouse!”
“Maybe. I sure hope not.” Henry lit his cigarette. “Doris is pretty smart. I didn’t tell her what we’re doing, but she figured out on her own that it’s some sort of hush-hush government project. She…”
He was interrupted by a raucous honking sound from above. Both men looked up to see a flock of Canadian geese above the lake, forming a ragged double-V formation as they flew toward the south.
“That’s pretty,” Ham murmured.
“Yeah, it is,” Henry said. “Anyway, the grad-student bit didn’t fool her for a minute. So suddenly disappearing like this… well, I don’t think she’s gonna think I dumped her. But she’s going to be worried, and that’s what…”
All of a sudden, they heard sharp, distant bangs from the opposite shore. The geese honked louder as the shotgun blasts echoed across the lake, then a goose near the front of the formation abruptly fell downward, its wings flapping uselessly as it plummeted toward the water.
“Hunter got one, looks like,” Henry murmured. “He must be hiding over there in the trees.”
“Wherever he is, he’s a good shot.” Ham searched for his matches, and Henry handed him a box. “Thanks. I tried it once but gave up. There’s a trick to bringing down geese that I never got the hang of.”
“Oh, yeah? What’s that?”
“Well, you don’t aim for the birds themselves. They’re too high up, and you’ll miss ’em if you fire at them while they’re above you. What you need to do is figure out where they’re going to be a second or two later and shoot at that instead.”