The Big Eye Read Free Page B

not
worth a nickel now."
     
     
"Maybe they'll open it again some day," suggested David hopefully.
"Maybe they'll still be able to get together."
     
     
"You mean that conference the Secretary of State's having over in Russia
right now?"
     
     
"Yes."
     
     
"Nuts," the driver snorted. "Not a chance. It's too late. People have
gone crazy. They're set on blowing themselves up, and nobody's going to
stop them. It's like watching a car without brakes rolling down a hill
toward a clifi. Everybody's standing around, hollering 'Stop,- stop,' but
nobody's doing anything to stop it. The only question is, who's going to
blow up who?" The beefy man lowered his voice. "And between you and me,
mister, the Russians have already started it. They've already started
to give us the business right now."
     
     
"What do you mean?"
     
     
"You know what I mean. The stories that are going around. The Reds are
supposed to have something extra, something that we haven't been able
to figure out yet, and they're using it right now. Look at all the funny
things that are happening all of a sudden. The earthquake in Dallas and
another in Montreal. The way the television and radio has been blacking
out all of a sudden."
     
     
David was silent for a moment. "And you think the Russians are
responsible?"
     
     
"Who else?" The driver looked at him, a little incredulous. "Things like
this don't happen all of a sudden, out of left field. The Reds have got
something bigger, maybe better, than the bomb. That's what everybody
is saying. What about that atom bomb that went off down in Texas? Blew
three towns right off the map. You can't tell me that was any accident,
mister. The Russians are jabbing at us now, trying to panic us and throw
us off balance. And they'll be winding up for their Sunday punch any
minute now."
     
     
David listened, fascinated. This air-line driver didn't know it, but he
was putting his finger on the reason why he, David Hughes, was in New
York right now with a locked and bulging brief case.
     
     
"And that ain't all, mister," said the man, leaning toward David
confidentially. "I'll tell you something else, and it's straight from
the horse's mouth. The Reds have found a way to stop our rockets and
jets the minute they're airborne."
     
     
David stared at him. "That's just rumor."
     
     
"Yeah." The driver almost snarled at him. "Listen, mister. I'll let you
in on a little secret. I drive this car for the air line. And naturally,
once in a while, I drive pilots and some of the crews in to town. I've
heard 'em talking in the back seat, and what they've said is enough to
make a guy's hair stand on end."
     
     
"What do you mean?"
     
     
"I mean that the instruments on the stratocruisers have been going
haywire, crazy. The radar, too. Some of the boys have had to navigate
as blind as a bat. You think those crashes you've been reading about
just happened? Nuts! The Reds made 'em happen. They've got some kind of
magnetic gimmick in the air, and they've been turning it on and off.
What do you think's going to happen to our jets and rockets if we let
'em go? They're all operated by instruments, aren't they? If we let a
few go and the Russians use this gimmick, our plane will land in Siberia
instead of in Moscow. Hell, maybe the Reds can make 'em turn right around
and come back!"
     
     
David listened, stunned by what he heard. His face was impassive, but
his mind was racing furiously. This air-line employee knew. He didn't
realize how much he knew. David hadn't known it himself until early
that evening. He had heard it from a source on a much higher level,
and he would hear more about it tomorrow morning, at a meeting place he
did not yet know.
     
     
He shuddered to think of the reaction, the panic, that would sweep the
country if the information volunteered by the garrulous driver suddenly
became widespread and public knowledge.
     
     
The man wheeled his limousine west, up Forty-second Street, and finally
brought the car to