Wade shook his head. "You know I can't do that. I've got another job I have to take care of first." "Tomer?" "Of course." "I thought we settled on that. Someone else can take over in your place and handle that. You can supervise if you wish. But not until after you've had a rest." "You know better, Harry. This is my baby and I'll handle it. It isn't that I haven't tried to keep him out of my mind. I have. Yet he always comes back to haunt me. If not because of my own feelings, then it's Ackerson reminding me. It's no use. I can't rest with him on my mind." "Not even when you've had orders?" Wade snuffed out the cigarette. "I'm finding out that feelings can sometimes rebel against orders." "That isn't a good trait for an Army Officer to acquire." Wade's face took on a sardonic expression. "No. It isn't, is it?" he said softly. * * * * * The time piece on the wall was broken. It had to be. Wade had been watching it for hours and it hardly seemed to move. The _Starfrost_ had disappeared behind the dark side of the Moon and a press release had been duly passed on to the anxious public. The world was electrified. Man had ventured into space. The public hadn't been told that there was no communication with the _Starfrost_. It was better that way. Wade fished for another cigarette as he followed the sweep second hand with his eyes. It was ironic, in a way. Man had ventured to the Moon and could not land. He dared not. To set foot on the cold, dead satellite when there was no possible way of return would be inviting suicide. The test rocket fired at the silent world, and the _Starfrost_ had eaten up the last of the appropriations and it would take a battery of ships to carry the supplies necessary for the building of take-off facilities. That was what Wade wanted, an installation on the Moon before another nation could make it. It was no secret that the nation that controlled the Moon in the next war would be in the driver's seat. It would be a fortress in the sky. And it was no secret that another nation was almost ready to launch a ship. Wade wanted to get there first. Wade could feel the sweat on his hands. They felt cold and clammy. The _Starfrost_ should have reappeared on the radar set an hour ago. He dared not think of what would happen to Ackerson if the big blond man miscalculated while in orbit. To shoot off alone into black, empty space, hurtling out into a void of nothing, where there was only a cold, quiet death awaiting was no way for a man to die. Damn it. Where was that silver cocoon? Ackerson had to make it. Everything depended on the success of the _Starfrost_. "I think I've got something," Major Gormely cried. Wade came out of his dream world with a rush. His swift steps covered the distance to the radar set in a matter of seconds. Gormely was bending over working with Piluis. And it was there ... a tiny speck that could only be one thing. Wade heard himself mutter: "Thank God!"