“Nor me.” Shaw frowned and lit a cigarette. “Look,” he went on after a moment, “did they all come from places really far apart — not what you could call reasonably adjacent to that hide-out of Tucker’s?”
“They came from all over. The only ones to come out of Kansas state were the first two. Why do you ask, Commander? See a pattern emerging?”
“It just occurred to me that Tucker could be using that mobile sound broadcasting unit I told you about, the one in a truck. That way, the monitors wouldn’t pin him down. But I doubt if he could tote around equipment powerful enough to raise Peking, not without attracting too much attention with aerials, anyway. Just where do these other transmissions come from?”
Kirkham got up and went over to a section of the wall to the right of his desk. He pulled back a curtain and revealed a large map. Small flags were stuck in, covering a wide area but chiefly in the bigger population centres. San Francisco, New Orleans, Dallas, Nashville, Norfolk, Boston, New York… Pittsburgh, Chicago, Omaha, Cheyenne. Kirkham said, “The transmissions from those places followed mostly within an hour of actual time of the second transmission from Kansas. I guess you can see a pattern in that, all right?”
“Yes, I can.” Shaw’s gaze swept over the map. “That first short-wave transmission might certainly have been to Peking, the other could have been fresh internal orders going out from Tucker to change the plan — orders that were then repeated from cities or towns that are central to pretty large areas. Those flags could in effect represent Tucker’s area command posts. And those posts could have radio links on varying wavebands for contacting their subordinate section leaders out of town.”
“That’s it, Commander. Our communications branch has reported unidentified transmissions roughly from those same areas before now, I’ll admit, but they’ve never all come on the air together so far as we’ve ever known.” Kirkham turned away from the map and resumed his seat. “Unidentified transmissions are not rare occurrences and previously we’ve not been alarmed, though as a matter of simple routine we always check the area concerned for a while after — with no result in the cases I mentioned.” He shrugged. “Well, after all, Tucker’s mob can’t be fools. Hindsight makes it clear they’ll have been shifting their transmitters after each broadcast, right along.”
“Quite.” Shaw’s breath hissed through his teeth. “This doesn’t look too healthy, I’ll admit. If things were going according to plan, I doubt if Tucker would have any more orders to pass, with only around thirty-six hours to go. He’d surely have planned to keep the air clear at this stage, rather than take a big risk of being pin-pointed at the last by opening up with a powerful transmitter… he wouldn’t be taking any chances at all unless the message was vital. And—”
“And a vital message at this stage has the ring of changed orders about it?” Kirkham rubbed at his eyes. “I’ll say it has! So what now?”
Frowning, Shaw ran a hand through his hair. He got to his feet. He went back to the map and studied it thoughtfully, then took a few turns up and down the room. He stopped by Kirkham’s desk and said levelly, “We have to assume there’s definitely been a leak, that’s the first thing. Obviously, in the circumstances we can’t do anything else. Now, on that assumption, Tucker’s certainly not going to appear in the Little Canyon studio the day after tomorrow. He’s not going to walk into a prepared trap. He may be crazy, but he’s not that kind of crazy! So — what does he do?”
Kirkham said worriedly, “You tell me!”
“Right, I will! We know — or rather we assume — that he’s called an addressee on short wave and we agree the chances are it was Peking. If he wasn’t using that radio truck, then he’s got another and more powerful transmitter in his Kansas headquarters, which quite clearly he wouldn’t use except in emergency. Now, he still won’t realize the location of his headquarters has leaked, because he still won’t believe anything other than that I’m in that rift in the ground. To him, I’m still as dead as ever — remember there’s as good as eye-witness evidence on that—”
“Then where, for God’s sake, does he think the leak came from to make us alarmed enough to start big-scale defensive measures?”
Shaw lifted his shoulders. “Tucker must always have had a leak in mind, General. Some Negro, someone partially in the know somewhere, could always have talked, either indiscreetly or with the full intention of stopping Tucker’s game. I’m damn sure he hasn’t got all his race with him — they won’t all want to be under Red China! Naturally, only his fully trusted top men would know the details and he’ll know we haven’t brought in any of his brass — but just the same I don’t suppose for a moment Tucker will find a leak any more surprising than in fact we’ve found the leak the other way round. The point is, to him it can’t make all that much difference now. The hide-out’s believed to be 100 per cent watertight — and thus, safe for Tucker. As I see it, Tucker will cut the television appearance and accept the loss of impact that’s bound to entail. He’ll have radio-ed Peking to send the air strike force in as planned and I’d guess the attack’ll come after the real President finishes what will now be an uninterrupted speech. Tucker will simply use the President as his signal for action instead of himself, which seems in fact the obvious thing for him to do now. And he’ll have told his local leaders to go into action, again just as planned, at the same time. The one thing lacking will be that personal appearance of his. He’ll stay safe in the hide-out till the revolt has started — and while he’s there he may for all we know be able to speak to the world on radio. It depends on what sort of equipment he has, I know — but he may be able to link himself in to some world-wide hook-up on the same scale as he would have done on television. All this is guesswork, I admit, but I’m pretty sure it won’t be all that far from the facts. And,” he added, “I think we have to go ahead on that basis now.”
“Uh-huh.” Kirkham stubbed out a cigarette. “Just which way do you switch the counter-plan, then?”
Shaw said, “In my opinion it’s still absolutely essential Tucker should make that television appearance so we can exhibit his failure to the widest possible audience. If it’s the last thing I do, I mean to put that little drama on the air! So what I’m going to do is to take that Kansas hide-out, General, with Tucker in it, before the President goes on the air. I’m going to inhibit Tucker’s broadcasting system—”
“Inhibit it?”
“Smash it up,” Shaw said succinctly. “And I’m going to take Tucker himself to the Little Canyon studio to act out his piece. If he’s already told his supporters he won’t be appearing after all, as by my way of thinking he most probably has, then the mere fact of his appearance — just that alone — is going to throw them into confusion right from the start.”
“This all depends on if you can be sure of getting control of his H.Q.,” Kirkham pointed out. “If you can — fine! I call that a pretty big if.”
Shaw grinned. “Not so big it worries me too much! If you can fix me a team of army engineers and a helicopter, I’ll go in after dark tonight.” He glanced at his watch. “Meanwhile, I’ll catch up on some sleep. Then, before attacking the hideout, I’ll be keeping my appointment with Thorssen at the Pan American Associated building. Oh, and let me have your coach-load of phoney food men as arranged — I’ll still need them at the studio. There’s one more thing I’d like fixed,” he added, “so I can talk to you when necessary, and that’s a scrambler line put into Thorssen’s office by tomorrow morning.”