Deployment would still go on as
scheduled. That's about two minutes from now."
The visitors were stunned. "Why, that's terrific!" stammered Commander
Lewis. "No one else knew about this? Not even the President?"
"No one," said Richard. "Only Robert and I. And it's a good thing we
did it that way, too. Without the decoy, the launch would have gone as
planned with everyone knowing about it. As it is, we're safe now."
"Not only that-" contributed John Rwakatare in his deep bass voice,
"we've learned something of immense value. There is a leak somewhere.
Someone informed the pirates of the launch from NME."
"Yes, there's that," said Robert Nolan with a sigh, finally speaking
up. "But for now, deployment of the probes will take place
successfully. We'll have to check for the leak, and I initiated a
careful search as soon as we received news of the attack."
Richard turned back toward the screen. "Computer," he said. "Give me a
tie-in to the master control aboard the Tempest." The screen showed a
scene in space.
"There is a delay, of course, but the feed is continuous. Deployment of
the probes is taking place about now, but we won't see the results for
about ten minutes." Time passed.
"Coming up on the time now," announced Richard a little later, breaking
into the light conversation that was going on around the table.
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