"Did you get it?" Radioman First Class Howard Ansel asked. The radio
room at Gournes had been particularly hectic the last few hours, but he
was glad he had thought of scanning single-sideband. Ansel was twenty-
eight and had eyes that reminded people of the German shepherds he
raised back home in Nebraska.
"It's on the tape," Big Al replied, lifting off his headphones and
scratching at his crew cut. "But I don't have the goddamnedest idea
what it means."
"Doesn't matter. It was somewhere off Andikythera. Which means it's
automatically classified Top Secret. Whatever the hell's going on, it
sounds like some bad shit. What was that about a launch? Going in? Is
this some kind of priority exercise?"
"Who the hell knows? But we've got orders."
He picked up the phone and punched in the number for his supervising
officer.