Several days went by without news from the Shapieron. VISAR analyzed all the available data on the design of JEVEX and gave ZORAC a five-percent chance of electronically lock-picking its way through the layers of security checks and access restrictions protecting the enemy system. The problem was that JEVEX’s Ganymean-designed molecular circuits worked at subnanosecond speeds, enabling an enormous amount of self-checking to be interleaved with its regular operations. The odds were overwhelming that any chink in JEVEX’s armor that ZORAC managed to slip a wedge into would be detected and closed before VISAR could be brought in to drive the wedge home. In other words JEVEX could scan its own internal processes too rapidly, or as Hunt put it to Caldwell, "It’s got too much instant-to-instant awareness of what’s going on inside itself. If we could distract its attention somehow, even for a few seconds at the speeds those machines work at, ZORAC might be able to neutralize the jamming system and let VISAR in." But how could they distract JEVEX when the only channel they had to it was through ZORAC, and ZORAC couldn’t get in until JEVEX had been distracted?
And then VISAR reported a series of gravitational disturbances outside Gistar’s planetary system, followed by a steady accumulation of objects that seemed to be ships of some kind being transferred through from somewhere. Shortly afterward, the objects began moving toward Thurien. VISAR could detect no h-grid power or control beams and was unable to check their progress. They were self-powered, heavily armed Jevlenese war vessels, and there were fifty of them. As they fanned out to maneuver into positions around Thurien, JEVEX reopened contact briefly with VISAR to deliver the Jevlenese ultimatum: the Thuriens had forty-eight hours to place their entire world-system under Jevlenese control. If at the end of that period they had not agreed, obliteration of Thurien cities one at a time would commence, starting with Vranix. Those were the terms. There was nothing to discuss.
The atmosphere inside the Government Center at Thurios was strained and tense. All of the Terran group from McClusky were present with Calazar, Showm, and a selection of engineering and technical experts that included Eesyan’s deputy, Morizal. They were already six hours into the ultimatum period.
"But there must be something you can do," Caldwell protested, stamping backward and forward across the center of the room in frustration. "Couldn’t you try using remote-controlled ships to ram them? Couldn’t VISAR make a few black holes to suck them into or something? There has to be a way."
"I agree," Showm said, looking at Calazar. "We should try. I know it’s distasteful, but the Jevlenese have made the rules. Have you considered the alternatives?"
"They could pick off ramships long before they even got near," Morizal said. "And they could detect a black hole forming and evade it long before it could trap them. And even then you could only hope to get a few at the most. The rest would incinerate Thurien then and there without waiting for the deadline."
"And besides, that’s not the way," Calazar said at last, throwing up his hands. "Ganymeans have never sought solutions by war or violence. I couldn’t condone anything like that. We will not descend to the level of Jevlenese barbarism."
"You’ve never faced this kind of threat before," Karen Heller pointed out. "What other way is there to meet it?"
"She’s right," Showm said. "The Jevlenese force is not large. There’s a good chance that it’s all they possess right now. Six months from now that could change. Earth’s logic is harsh, but nevertheless realistic in this kind of situation: losing some people now could buy the time to save many more later. It’s a lesson they have learned, and we may have to as well."
"It’s not the way," Calazar said again. "You’ve seen Earth’s history. That kind of logic always leads to escalation without limits. It’s insane. I won’t allow us to start down that road."
"Broghuilio is insane," Showm insisted. "There’s no other way."
"There must be. We need time to consider."
"We don’t have any time."
A heavy silence descended. On one side of the room, Hunt caught Lyn’s eye and shrugged hopelessly. She raised her eyebrows and sighed. There was nothing to say. The situation didn’t look good. A short distance away Danchekker was becoming restless. He removed his spectacles, squinted through them while he twisted them first this way and then that in front of his face, then replaced them and began pinching his nose with his thumb and forefinger. Something was going through his mind. Hunt watched him curiously and waited.
"Suppose . . ." Danchekker began, thought for a second longer, then swung his head toward Calazar and Morizal. "Suppose we could induce the Jevlenese to postpone their offensive intentions and switch their force to the defensive . . . in other words take it back to Jevlen," he said. "That would gain us some time."
Calazar looked at him, puzzled. "Why should they do that? To defend against what? We have nothing to threaten any attack against them with, and neither have you."
"Agreed," Danchekker said. "But perhaps there is a way in which we could persuade them that we do." The Ganymeans stared back at him nonplussed. He explained, "Lyn and Vic were talking recently about an idea to simulate an all-out assault on Jevlen inside VISAR and inject it into JEVEX, assuming ZORAC gains access of course. And by suitably manipulating JEVEX’s internal records, we could, perhaps, then instill in JEVEX the conviction that the existence of such forces was consistent with what it has been observing for years. You see my point? Such a ruse might create enough confusion inside the Jevlenese camp for them to withdraw their forces. And given a sufficient level of uncertainty, they would probably not risk firing upon Thurien until they had determined the true situation. What we would do then I have no idea, but it would at least gain us some respite from the current predicament."
Showm was listening with a strange look on her face. "That would be almost identical to what they did to us," she murmured. "We’d be turning their own tactic right back at them."
"Yes, it does have a certain appeal of that nature about it," Danchekker agreed.
In response to some questions from Morizal, Danchekker went on to describe the idea in greater detail. When he had finished, the Ganymeans looked at one another dubiously, but none of them could pick out a fatal flaw in the argument. "What do you say, VISAR?" Calazar asked after they had talked for some time.
"It might work, but it still rests on a five-percent probability at best," VISAR replied. "It’s still the same problem: the only way I could get into JEVEX is if ZORAC can switch off its jamming system, and so far ZORAC doesn’t seem to be having much luck. I still haven’t heard a thing from it."
"What else can you suggest?" Calazar asked.
A few seconds went by. "Nothing," VISAR admitted. "I could get to work and manufacture the information with some help from the Terrans and have it ready to beam through on the off-chance ZORAC does get me in, but it’s still five percent. In other words don’t bank on it."
A faraway look had been coming into Hunt’s eyes while the discussion was going on. One by one the heads in the room turned toward him curiously as they noticed. "It’s this problem about distracting JEVEX’s attention again," he said, "isn’t it? If we could just freeze its self-checking functions for the couple of seconds ZORAC would need to switch off the jamming routines and open an h-link, VISAR would be able to hold that link open permanently and do the rest."
"True, but what’s the point?" VISAR said. "We’ve already been through all this. We can’t do anything like that because the only way in is through ZORAC in the first place."
"I think maybe we can," Hunt said in a distant voice. The room became very still. His eyes cleared suddenly as he gazed around at the others. They waited. "We can’t create a diversion through ZORAC because ZORAC is outside the system trying to get in," he said. "But we’ve got another channel that goes straight through to the inside—direct into the core of JEVEX."
Caldwell shook his head and looked puzzled. "What are you talking about? What channel? Where?"
"In Connecticut," Hunt told them. He glanced at Lyn for a second and then looked back at the others. "I’m betting that what’s inside Sverenssen’s house is a complete communications facility into JEVEX—probably one with its own neural coupler. What else could it be? We could get at it through that."
A few seconds elapsed before what he had said registered fully. Morizal seemed mystified. "Get at it and do what?" he asked. "How would you use it?"
Hunt shrugged. "I haven’t really thought about it yet, but there has to be something. Maybe we could use it to tell JEVEX all the things that VISAR’s inventions will corroborate—Earth is fully armed and has been for years; an attack is on its way to wipe Jevlen out now . . . supporting evidence, that kind of thing. That ought to shake it up for a second or two."
"That’s the craziest thing I ever heard." Caldwell shook his head helplessly. "Why would it believe you? It wouldn’t even know who you were. And anyhow, would you sit down in that thing and let JEVEX inside your head?"
"No, I wouldn’t," Hunt said. "But JEVEX knows Sverenssen. And it would believe what he told it. That would really shake it up. . ."
"Why would Sverenssen ever do something like that?" Heller asked. "What makes you think he’d want to cooperate?"
Hunt shrugged. "We put a gun to the bastard’s head and make him," he replied simply.
Silence fell once again. The suggestion was so outrageous that nobody had a ready comment to offer. The Ganymeans were looking at each other in amazement, all except Frenua Showm, who seemed ready to go along with the scheme without further ado. "How would you get in?" Caldwell asked dubiously at last. "Lyn said it’d take an army."
"So use the Army," Hunt said. "Jerol Packard and Norman Pacey must know some people who could pull it off."
The idea was taking root as they thought about it. "But how do you know you could force him to do something like that without JEVEX knowing you were there doing it?" Heller asked. "I mean, VISAR can see somebody in the perceptron at McClusky even before they sit down in a recliner. How do you know Sverenssen’s place isn’t the same?"
"I don’t," Hunt conceded. He spread his hands appealingly. "It’s a risk. But it’s a hell of a lot less of a risk than the one you were asking Calazar to take. And besides, the Ganymeans have taken enough of the risks already."
Caldwell nodded curtly as soon as Hunt said this. "I agree. Let’s do it."
"VISAR?" Calazar inquired, still somewhat dazed by the sudden turn of events.
"I’ve never heard of anything like it," VISAR declared. "But if it increases the odds above five percent, it’s worth a try. How soon can I start working on the movies?"
"Right away," Caldwell said. He moved to the center of the group and suddenly felt the old, familiar feeling of being in command once again. "Karen and I will stay here to help out with that side of it. You’d better stay too, Chris, to explain the whole idea again. Vic needs to go to Washington to tell Packard what we want, and Lyn had better go with him because she knows the layout of the house."
"It sounds as if we should consider you in charge of this operation," Calazar said.
"Thanks." Caldwell nodded and looked around the room. "Okay," he said. "Let’s go through the whole thing in detail from the beginning and work out as much as we can to synchronize the two ends of it."
Hunt and Lyn arrived in Washington late that afternoon. Caldwell had already called Packard from Alaska, so they were expecting to find Packard, Pacey, and Clifford Benson of the CIA waiting for them. What they were not expecting to find was a contingent of Soviet military officers there too, headed by Mikolai Sobroskin. To their further and total amazement they learned that a Jevlenese defector in the form of the scientist Verikoff was also present in another part of the building.
Most of the Russians were too stunned by what they heard from Hunt and Lyn to be capable of contributing very much to the proceedings. Sobroskin, however, digested their story quickly and confirmed from what Verikoff had already told him—that the office wing of Sverenssen’s house did indeed contain a full communications system into JEVEX, including a neural coupler. In fact Verikoff himself had used it on numerous occasions to make quick visits to Jevlen. This led Sobroskin to propose a means of simplifying considerably the plan that Hunt and Lyn had described. "As you say, the big risk in forcing Sverenssen to do it is that JEVEX might be able to observe what is happening," he said. "But perhaps there is no need for that at all. If we could just gain access to the device, Verikoff might be persuaded to do what is required voluntarily. JEVEX already knows Verikoff. It would have no reason to see anything amiss."
Ten minutes later they all left the room and descended one story of the building to enter a door that had two armed guards stationed outside it. Verikoff was inside with two more of Sobroskin’s officers. At Sobroskin’s request, Verikoff sketched a plan of Sverenssen’s house on a mural display, indicating the location of the communications room and the access door into the wing in which it was located, as well as describing the building’s protective features. "What’s your verdict?" Pacey asked, looking at Lyn, when Verikoff had finished.
She nodded. "One-hundred-percent accurate. That’s it, just the way it is."
"He seems to be telling the truth," Packard said, sounding satisfied. "And everything else he told Sobroskin checks with what Vic Hunt has told us. I think we can trust him."
Verikoff’s eyes widened in surprise. He waved a hand at the sketch he had drawn, and then at Lyn. "She knows this already? How could that be? How could she know about the coupler?"
"It would take too long to explain," Sobroskin said. "Tell us what kind of visual sensors JEVEX has around the house. Are there some in all rooms, outside, inside the communications room, or what?"
"Only inside the communications room itself," Verikoff answered. He was looking from side to side uncomprehendingly.
"So JEVEX would not know about anything that was happening in the rest of the house outside that room," Sobroskin said.
Verikoff shook his head. "No."
"How about conventional intruder alarms around the grounds?" Pacey inquired. "Is the place equipped with anything like that? Would it be possible to get in over the walls and fences without being detected?"
"It’s extensively wired," Verikoff replied. His expression became alarmed as he realized the implication of the questions. "Detection would be certain."
"Is the place watched from orbit by Jevlenese surveillance?" Hunt asked. "Could it be assaulted without it being reported?"
"As far as I know it is checked periodically, but not continuously."
"How frequently?"
"I don’t know."
"How about Sverenssen’s domestic staff?" Lyn asked. "Are they Jevlenese too, or just help that he hires locally? How much do they know?"
"Specially picked Jevlenese guards—all of them."
"How many?" Sobroskin demanded. "Are they armed? What armaments do they have?"
"Ten of them. There are always at least six in the house. They are armed at all times. Conventional Terran firearms."
Packard looked over at the others. One by one they returned slow nods. "It looks as if we could be in with a chance," he said. "It’s time to bring in the professionals and see what they think."
Verikoff suddenly seemed apprehensive. "What is this talk of an assault?" he asked. "You are going in there?"
"We are going in there," Sobroskin told him.
Verikoff started to protest but stopped when he saw the menace in Sobroskin’s eyes. He licked his lips and nodded. "What do you want me to do?" he asked.
An hour later a VTOL personnel carrier flew the whole party across the Potomac to the army base at Fort Myer. They were met by a Colonel Shearer, who commanded a Special Forces antiterrorist unit that had already been called to alert and was standing by. The planning and briefing session that followed went on until the early hours of the morning. The first gray light of dawn was showing in the east as an Air Force transport took off from Fort Myer and followed the coast toward New England. It landed with a whisper less than thirty minutes later at an out-of-the-way miiitary supply depot situated among wooded hills twenty miles or so outside Stamford, Connecticut.