"How was it up in that satellite?" Zen asked. "Lonely, as hell, colonel," Grant answered. "Do you want to go with me to Asia?" "There's no place on Earth I'd rather go. And, the way things stand now I don't have much choice. If they get that bomb into the air--" He left the sentence unfinished. Then Nedra was standing in front of Zen. At the sight of her, it seemed to him that the world stood still. He shook his head. "Why?" she challenged. "Because I love you," he answered. "Then that is the real reason why you should take me with you," she answered. "I don't follow," he said. "If you fail, there will be no tomorrow," she answered. To her, the statement had no answer. "Besides, I am a nurse," she continued. "If there are wounded, I can help with them." "But--" "The fact that you love me does not enter into this situation. It is a thing apart. It is a very wonderful thing," she added hastily, the star light shining in her eyes. "And I wish we could bring it to fruit the ways it used to be. But those days are gone. And I am going to Asia with you." Watching, West smiled. Zen spread his hands in a gesture of defeat. He turned to the craggy man. "This sleep thing: I don't know how you do it and don't much care, but you obviously have a portable generator of some kind that you used to put the lieutenant out in the ghost town." "Yes," West agreed. "I'd like to borrow the unit," Zen said. "Gladly, colonel. I wish we had other weapons." "We'll make do with what we have," Zen answered. XIV "Zero minus one hour," the loudspeaker droned, in a Chinese dialect. In a deep cavern in the hinterlands of Asia, men responded to the command coming over the speaker system. Already driven to the point of exhaustion, they were working harder than they had ever worked before. The moment of victory, for which all true Asians had lived, was near at hand. The launching of this bomb would make the Asian Union master of the world. Orders had come through to launch this bomb immediately. "Zero minus forty-five minutes," the speaker said. The drone had gone from the voice of the officer watching the time. A rising excitement appeared in the tones as if he, too, had caught the scent of fear rising in the vast underground depot. So much was left to be done. The atomic warhead was already in place, waiting for the day of launching, otherwise the task would have been impossible. The driving engines were complete, but had to be fueled. The steering equipment was almost ready, only the installation of the left gyroscope was necessary. This was at hand waiting to be installed. Five technicians constantly got in each other's way as they tried to slip the delicate instrument into place. "Zero minus thirty minutes!" The gyroscope was eased into place and tested. It was found to be in perfect working order.