n only knew that they
were in the city somewhere," von Schlichten considered. "How about
midway between the Palace and the Residency for our ground-zero,
lieutenant? That looks like the center of the city."

The cutter turned and started back, having risen another ten thousand
feet. Morrison passed the word to the bombardier. The city, with the
sea beyond it now, came rushing at them, and von Schlichten, standing
at the front of the bridge, discovered that he had his arm around
Paula's waist and was holding her a little more closely than was
military. He made no attempt to release her, however.

"There's nothing to worry about, really," he was assuring her.
"Pickering's boys built this thing according to the best principles of
engineering, and the stuff they got out of that big-economy-size
shilling-shocker all checked mathematically...."

The red light on the bridge flashed, and the intercom shouted "_Bomb
off!_" He forced Paula down on the bridge deck and crouched beside
her.

"Cover your eyes," he warned. "You remember what the flash was like in
the screen, when the _Jon Smuts_ blew up. And we didn't get the worst
of it; the pickup on the _Gaucho_ was knocked out too soon."

He kept on lecturing her about gamma-rays and ultraviolet rays and
X-rays and cosmic rays, trying to keep making some sort of intelligent
sounds while they clung together and waited, and, with the other half
of his mind, trying not to think of everything that could go wrong
with that jerry-built improvisation they had just dumped onto Keegark.
If it didn't blow, and the geeks found it, they'd know that another
one would be along shortly, and....

* * * * *

An invisible hand caught the gun-cutter and hurled her end-over-end,
sending von Schlichten and Paula sprawling at full length on the deck,
still clinging to one another. There was a blast of almost palpable
sound, and a sensation of heat that penetrated even the airtight
superstructure of the _Elmoran_. An instant later, there was another,
and another, similar shock. Two more bombs had gone off behind them,
in Keegark; that meant that they had found King Orgzild's remaining
nuclear armament. There were shattering sounds of breaking glass, and
heavy thumps that told of structural damage to the cutter, and hoarse
shouts, and lurid cursing as Morrison and his airmen struggled with
the controls. The cutter began losing altitude, but she was back on a
reason