"You're in trouble." Gotch spoke like a man carefully choosing his words. "Intelligence informs us that another rocket's been fired from east of the Caspian. BuNav's got a track on it." Crag waited. "There are two possibilities," Gotch continued. "The first and most logical assumption is that it's manned. We surmise that from the fact that their first manned rocket was successful--that is, as far as reaching the moon is concerned. The assumption is further borne out by its trajectory and rate of acceleration." His voice fell off. "And the second possibility?" Crag prompted. "Warhead," Gotch said succinctly. "Intelligence informs us that the enemy is prepared to blow Arzachel off the face of the moon if they fail to take it over. And they have failed--so far." Crag tossed the idea around in his mind. He said fretfully, "I doubt if they could put a warhead down on Arzachel. That takes some doing. Hell, it's tough enough to monitor one in from here, let alone smack from earth." "I think you're right, but they can try." Gotch's voice became brisk. "Here's the dope as we see it. We think the rocket contains a landing party for the purpose of establishing a moon base. In Arzachel, naturally, because that's where the lode is." "More to the point, you expect an attack on Pickering Base," Crag interjected. "Well, yes, I think that is a reasonable assumption...." Crag weighed the information. Gotch was probably right. A nuclear explosion on the moon would be detected on earth. That was the dangerous course--the shot that could usher in World War III and perhaps a new cave era. Attack by a landing party seemed more logical. They batted ideas back and forth. The Colonel suggested that just before the landing phase of Red Dog--the code name assigned the new rocket--Crag post armed guards at some point covering the Aztec. "Might as well get some use out of Bandit's automatic weapons," Gotch dryly concluded. Crag disagreed. He didn't think it likely that any attack would take the form of a simple armed assault. "That would give us time to get off a message," he argued. "They can't afford that." Gotch pointed out that neither could they launch a missile while still in space. "A homing weapon couldn't differentiate between Aztec, Baker and Bandit," he said. "But they'd still have to have some sure fire quick-kill method," Crag insisted. "You may be right. Have you a better plan?" Crag did, and outlined it in some detail. Gotch listened without comment until he had finished. "Could work," he said finally. "However, it's going to shoot your schedule, even if you could do it." "Why can't we?" "You're not supermen, Commander," he said tersely. "The psychiatrists here inform us that your crew--as individuals--should be near the breaking point. We know the cumulative strain. To be truthful with you, we've been getting gray hair over that prospect."