"American newspapers and commentators began to call Major Julius Lollabrigida 'Julius Caesar.' Italy became big overnight. The Big Three became Russia, the United States, and Italy. Lollabrigida appealed to America--sometime in there they made him a Colonel, but he was actually telling the Generals and the Italian government what to do--for aid in going ahead aggressively. "And America turned him down. They were still playing 'wait and see.' They waited. They waited too long. The Commies got tired of waiting around and sent a couple of jet bombers with A-bombs." "Now you're telling me things," Ilaria interrupted. "I'm pretty shady on that period myself." Jay shrugged. "It was after my time. All I know is what the films show. Two planes, each with a seven-man crew, and each carrying one atomic bomb, were dispatched from an airbase somewhere near Juneau." Jay stopped. "And?" The man from 1954 choked. It was hard to be objective about this. It wasn't so easy for him to pass off as the film had done. "And--" he hesitated. "It's over, Jay. It's done with. It doesn't even concern you anymore. It belongs to a past era." "One was headed for New York. The other struck farther inland ... for Washington. The first one was shot down by an F-117 border patrol plane. The other one got through. It--it levelled the capitol. Almost completely. The White House and the Pentagon were destroyed." Ilaria sat quietly and waited. Jay didn't go on. "Thus removing the United States of America, as such, from a prominent position in the world picture," Ilaria said. "Yes. I can't understand it. Everything just folded up. SAC didn't even get off the ground. And Colonel Lollabrigida, by then Commander-in-Chief of the UN forces, sent fifty planes, each with one A-bomb, over the Kremlin. One was shot down over Vladivostok, but the bombardier pulled the firing pin as the ship crashed and most of Vladivostok was destroyed. Six other planes made it to their destinations and dropped their loads. I can't remember the cities ... one was a new super airbase near Moscow. Five of the planes returned. None had managed to reach Moscow. Half the world was in ruins. The Pope begged that the War be stopped." Ilaria snorted. "He knew they'd hit Rome!" Jay looked at him. "Is that what you think?" Ilaria shrugged and flashed that quick, winning smile. "There are no other motives, are there?" Jay stared. What changes had taken place in religious philosophy in this hard-bitten world of 2054? Kevin Ilaria shrugged, smiling. "That's unimportant. Let's go on with the history lesson. Then what?" "Uh--oh, yes. As I remember Julius Lollabrigida, to be trite, launched an 'all-out offensive' against Communist forces everywhere. People were afraid of Russia, but they were afraid of Lollabrigida and Rome, too. So they joined him. Aid poured into the UN. Czechoslovakia was taken and Poland and Hungary and finally only the old Russia of pre World War II days was left. And in they went.