Manning met his eyes squarely. "A hundred years ago, we were fighting a war. It seems we lost it--how or why, I don't know. I don't think we lost it in the fighting, but probably before it ever began, when we were complacent and let the Germans get a head start in preparation and invention. Anyway, for us that's still unfinished business." "And we'd like the chance to finish it!" stated Dugan bluntly. Kane smiled with a touch of sadness. Vzryvov said explosively, "The end may be soon!" and his eyes burned. In Manning's memory flashed the vision of a mocking face. He asked abruptly: "What did Schwinzog mean: 'A message for America--one week to live'?" The shadow on Kane's face deepened, but he did not show surprise. "I guess he meant just that. That the Germans are about ready to do to America what they did to Russia fifty years ago.... But of course you don't know anything about the history of the last century. If you want to catch up on the missing chapters, I've got a fair-sized collection of books on the subject. All the ones dealing with events since the War of the Conquest are German, of course--English has just about stopped being a written language--and you'll probably find they don't even agree on what you know. You said, didn't you, that you were with an American army advancing into Germany?" "That's right--and it was only one of several." Kane grinned wryly. "The books don't even whisper that Germany was ever invaded in that war. They must have been a lot closer to defeat than they've ever admitted since. But--" he shrugged, "they won in the end, so what's the difference?" "How could they win?" scowled Dugan. "Hell, we had them on the run!" * * * * * Kane gave him a pitying look. "You must have left some time before the Germans suddenly rose from the ashes and struck back at us. They attacked us with a new weapon--a radioactive dust, by-product of several big piles--atomic power plants--they had secretly got going by 1949. The occupation forces were wiped out--along with a million or so of their own people. In no time Western Europe was overrun again. The whole of Soviet Russia seems to have collapsed about the same time." He looked down at his hands, clasped on the table in front of him; his voice went on with the dispassionate recital of the dead past. "There was an attempt to defend England that folded up when London was dusted off the map. I haven't been able to find much information on the war in Asia, but I think they had a long tough fight putting down guerrilla resistance in Siberia and later on in China.