Ohashi said: "Stay here, please. I will have a look around to see what...." The door banged open and a flashlight beam stabbed into the room, momentarily blinding them. "Everything all right in here?" boomed a masculine voice. They made out a white MP helmet visible behind the light. "Yes," said Ohashi. "What is happening?" "Somebody blew up a tower to the main transmission line from McNary Dam. Then there was an attempt to breach our security blockade on the south. Everything will be back to normal shortly." The light turned away. "Who?" asked Francine. "Some crazy civilians," said the MP. "We'll have the emergency power on in a minute. Just stay in this room until we give the all clear." He left, closing the door. They heard a rattle of machinegun fire. Another explosion shook the building. Voices shouted. "We are witnessing the end of a world," said Ohashi. "Our world ended when that spaceship set down here," she said. Abruptly, the lights came on: glowing dimly, then brighter. The projector resumed its whirring. Ohashi turned it off. Somebody walked down the corridor outside, rapped on the door, said: "All clear." The footsteps receded down the hall, and they heard another rapping, a fainter "All clear." "Civilians," she said. "What do you suppose they wanted so desperately to do a thing like that?" "They are a symptom of the general sickness," said Ohashi. "One way to remove a threat is to destroy it--even if you destroy yourself in the process. These civilians are only a minor symptom." "The Russians are the big symptom then," she said. "Every major government is a _big_ symptom right now," he said. "I ... I think I'll get back to my room," she said. "Let's take up again tomorrow morning. Eight o'clock all right?" "Quite agreeable," said Ohashi. "If there is a tomorrow." "Don't _you_ get that way, too," she said, and she took a quavering breath. "I refuse to give up." Ohashi bowed. He was suddenly very Oriental. "There is a primitive saying of the Ainu," he said: "_The world ends every night ... and begins anew every morning._" * * * * * It was a room dug far underground beneath the Ordnance Depot, originally for storage of atomics. The walls were lead. It was an oblong space: about thirty by fifteen feet, with a very low ceiling. Two trestle tables had been butted end-to-end in the center of the room to form a single long surface. A series of green-shaded lights suspended above this table gave the scene an odd resemblance to a gambling room. The effect was heightened by the set look to the shoulders of the men sitting in spring bottom chairs around the table. There were a scattering of uniforms: Air Force, Army, Marines; plus hard-faced civilians in expensive suits.