"Safe!" stormed Vzryvov. He clambered awkwardly to his feet in the curved mouth of the lock. "If you have gone crazy or have got cold feet, I will go and blow up the dust compartment alone." "Wait!" snapped Kane. "Listen, Igor. You don't seem to realize that luck--and the sacrifice of two of our best men--have given us a better chance than we ever hoped for. The _Siegfried_ is just waiting for the crew to come aboard. If we lie low until the ship's in space--then take care of the crew and seize control--Well, the invisibility unit will be in German hands, sure. But what good will that do them if there isn't any Germany?" * * * * * They could hear each other's breathing in the airlock. Then Vzryvov said, "I see. Forgive my stupidity." Manning asked carefully, "You mean to turn the dust against Germany? Wipe out the whole country?" "Certainly. It'll be easy, once we take over the ship; a few degrees change in course--" "Even your allies there?" "Germans are Germans," growled Vzryvov. "At best, they are confused dreamers who think they could repay their debt to the world with a gesture." Manning could not see Kane's face; but the other's voice held solemn earnestness. "We'll only be doing to them what they're trying to do to America.... Oh, hell, that's no valid argument. But, Manning, you come from an age when there weren't any atomic weapons, and such things were unthinkable because they were impossible. You can't think as we do, who've lived all our lives with the knowledge of what is possible--of how little human life is worth. "And you don't have a hundred years of slavery behind you. We were as great a people as the Germans in your day, I think, but we've been trampled into the mud until we've not got much civilization or pride or decency left. And we won't have, for a long time, even if Germany is destroyed. But if it isn't we, and the other nations of the world, will never have those things again--the things that make human beings worth something. "I sometimes wonder what would happen if history had taken a different turning--if we, instead of the Germans, had been the ones to discover atomic energy. Would we have been any better than they were? Or would we have used the power to make ourselves the masters of Earth and to monopolize civilization, just as Germany did?" "You would have," snorted Vzryvov. "Russia would have. Any nationalism of that time, given such a power, would have behaved the same." "I don't know," faltered Manning. "You may be right, but I can't imagine...." "Anyway," Kane's tone grew bitter, "the Germans have made the world into what they wanted, and they've made us what we are. And now we're going to smash their world. Maybe something better will come out of its destruction. Maybe not. If not--revenge will have to be enough for us." VI