At the Kingston airport, Joe Mauser rejoined Max Mainz, his face drawn
now.
"Everything go all right?" the little man said anxiously.
"I don't know," Joe said. "I still couldn't tell them the story. Old
Cogswell is as quick as a coyote. We pull this little caper today, and
he'll be ready to meet it tomorrow."
He looked at the two-place sailplane which sat on the tarmac.
"Everything all set?"
"Far as I know," Max said. He looked at the motorless aircraft. "You
sure you been checked out on these things, captain?"
"Yes," Joe said. "I bought this particular soaring glider more than a
year ago, and I've put almost a thousand hours in it. Now, where's the
pilot of that light plane?"
A single-engined sports plane was attached to the glider by a fifty-foot
nylon rope. Even as Joe spoke, a youngster poked his head from the
plane's window and grinned back at them. "Ready?" he yelled.
"Come on, Max," Joe said. "Let's pull the canopy off this thing. We
don't want it in the way while you're semaphoring."
A figure was approaching them from the Administration Building. A
uniformed man, and somehow familiar.
"A moment, Captain Mauser!"
Joe placed him now. The Sov-world representative he'd met at Balt Haer's
table in the Upper bar a couple of days ago. What was his name? Colonel
Arpàd. Lajos Arpàd.
The Hungarian approached and looked at the sailplane in interest. "As a
representative of my government, a military attache checking upon
possible violations of the Universal Disarmament Pact, may I request
what you are about to do, captain?"
Joe Mauser looked at him emptily. "How did you know I was here and what
I was doing?"
The Sov colonel smiled gently. "It was by suggestion of Marshal
Cogswell. He is a great man for detail. It disturbed him that an ...
what did he call it? ... an _old pro_ like yourself should join with
Vacuum Tube Transport, rather than Continental Hovercraft. He didn't
think it made sense and suggested that possibly you had in mind some
scheme that would utilize weapons of a post 1900 period in your efforts
to bring success to Baron Haer's forces. So I have investigated, Captain
Mauser."
"And the marshal knows about this sail plane?" Joe Mauser's face was
blank.
"I didn't say that. So far as I know, he doesn't."
"Then, Colonel Arpàd, with your permission, I'll be taking off."