The Project Gutenberg EBook of Minor Detail, by John Michael Sharkey

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Title: Minor Detail

Author: John Michael Sharkey

Release Date: February 23, 2009 [EBook #28156]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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_General Webb had a simply magnificent idea for getting ground
forces into the enemy's territory despite rockets and missiles and
things like that. It was a grand scheme, except for one_

MINOR DETAIL

By JACK SHARKEY

The Secretary of Defense, flown in by special plane from the new Capitol
Building in Denver, trotted down the ramp with his right hand
outstretched before him.

At the base of the ramp his hand was touched, clutched and hidden by the
right hand of General "Smiley" Webb in a hearty parody of a casual
handshake. General Webb did everything in a big way, and that included
even little things like handshakes.

Retrieving his hand once more, James Whitlow, the Secretary of Defense,
smiled nervously with his tiny mouth, and said,

"Well, here I am."

This statement was taken down by a hovering circle of news reporters,
dispatched by wireless and telephone to every town in the forty-nine
states, expanded, contracted, quoted and misquoted, ignored and
misconstrued, and then forgotten; all this in a matter of hours.

The nation, hearing it, put aside its wonted trepidations, took an extra
tranquilizer or two, and felt secure once more. The government was in
good hands.

* * * * *

Leaving the reporters in a disgruntled group beyond the
cyclone-fence-and-barbed-wire barriers surrounding Project W, General
Webb, seated beside Whitlow in the back of his private car, sighed and
folded his arms.

"You'll be amazed!" he chortled, nudging his companion with a bony
elbow.

"I--I expect so," said Whitlow, clinging to his brief case with both
hands. It contained, among other things, a volume of mystery stories and
a ham sandwich, neatly packaged in aluminum foil. Whitlow didn't want to
chance losing