Coburn said, "I've no idea how to set about it, but I'll try on one
condition. There's one thing we haven't tried against them. Set up an
atom-bomb booby-trap, and I'll sit on it. If they try to contact me, you
can either listen in or try to blow them up, and me with them!"
There was buzzing comment. Perhaps--Coburn's nails bit into his palms
when this was suggested--perhaps this was a proposal to let the Invaders
examine an atomic bomb, American-style. It was said in earnest
simplicity. But somebody pointed out that a race which could travel
between the stars and had ships such as the Mediterranean fleet had
tried to shoot down, would probably find American atomic bombs rather
primitive. Still--
* * * * *
The Greek general again spoke mildly. If the Invaders were to be made to
realize that Coburn was trying to contact them, he should return to
Greece. He should visibly take up residence where he could be
approached. He should, in fact, put himself completely at the mercy of
the Invaders.
"Ostensibly," agreed the Secretary.
The Greek general then said diffidently that he had a small villa some
twenty miles from the suburbs of Salonika. The prevailing winds were
such that if an atomic explosion occurred there, it would not endanger
anybody. He offered it.
"I'll live there," asked Coburn coldly, "and wait for them to come to
me? I'll have microphones all about so that every word that's said will
be relayed to your recorders? And there'll be a bomb somewhere about
that you can set off by remote control? Is that the idea?"
Then Janice spoke up. And Coburn flared into anger against her. But she
was firm. Coburn saw the Greek general smiling slyly.
They left the conference while the decision was made. And they were in
private, and Janice talked to him. There are methods of argument against
which a man is hopeless. She used them. She said that she, not Coburn,
might be the person the Invaders might have wanted to take out of
circulation, because she might have noticed something important she
hadn't realized yet. When Coburn pointed out that he'd be living over an
atomic bomb, triggered to be set off from a hundred miles away, she
demanded fiercely to know if he realized how she'd feel if she weren't
there too....
Next day an aircraft carrier put out of Naples with an escort of
destroyers. It traveled at full speed down the toe of Italy's boot,
through the Straits of Messina, across the Adriatic, and rounded the
end of Greece and went streaking night and day for Salonika. Special
technicians sent by plane beat her time by days. The Greek general was
there well ahead. And he expansively supervised while his inherited,
isolated villa was prepared for the reception of Invaders--and Coburn
and Janice.
And Coburn and Janice were married. It was an impressive wedding,
because it was desirable for the Invaders to know about it. It was
brilliantly military with uniforms and glittering decorations and
innumerable important people whom neither of them knew or cared about.
If it had been anybody else's wedding Coburn would have found it
unspeakably dreary. The only person present whom he knew beside Janice
was Hallen. He acted as groomsman, with the air of someone walking on
eggs. After it was over he shook hands with a manner of tremendous
relief.
"Maybe I'll brag about this some day," he told Coburn uneasily. "But
right now I'm scared to death. What do you two really expect to happen?"
Janice smiled at him. "Why," she said, "we expect to live happily ever
after."
"Oh yes," said Hallen uncomfortably. "But that wasn't just what I had in
mind."