et. Okay, pilot. Take her
up!"

There was a faint hiss, and then the rockets began their throbbing
roar. Acceleration pressure began to shove the passengers back in
their seats. Karnes leaned back and tried--successfully--to suppress
the smile of triumph that kept trying to come to his lips.

Brittain had finally made a mistake.

One hundred and twenty-five miles over Pennsylvania, the rockets cut
out, and the ship went into free fall. And Brittain's mistake became
evident.

With the abrupt cessation of weight, the padded acceleration seats
expanded again, pressing the passengers up against their safety
straps. But Brittain had failed to strap himself in.

* * * * *

The expanding seat shoved forward and toward the ceiling. Before he
could recover from his surprise, Karnes had undone his own seat belt
and snapped his body through the air toward Brittain. They collided
with a thump and Brittain's body slammed against the roof of the cabin
with agonizing force. The gun came out of his hand and clanged against
a wall, then drifted off harmlessly. Brittain was out cold.

Karnes handcuffed him securely and, with the stewardess' help, tugged
him back to the baggage compartment. One of the passengers was quietly
retching into a vacuum disposal chute.

With Brittain securely strapped into an empty baggage rack, Karnes
swam back to the pilot's compartment, pulling himself along the
railing that ran along the floor.

The pilot looked relieved. "Thank heaven you got the devil! He got
wise when we delayed the takeoff, and threatened to start shooting my
passengers. There wasn't a thing I could do."

"I know. Let me use your radio."

It took a couple of minutes to get UN International Investigation on
the hookup, but Karnes finally was talking to his superior in the UN
office. He reported what had happened.

"Fine, Karnes," came the tight-beamed voice. "Now, here's something
else you ought to know. Our radar net has spotted robot rockets coming
in over the Pole. So far, five of them have been hit by interceptor
rockets, but we don't have them all by a long shot.

"Evidently, the League feels that they're ready to slam us, now that
they've got Moonbase and two of our spacecraft plants out of the way.
_The war is on_, Karnes."

Karnes acknowledged, they cut the connection.

There was one thing burning hotly in his brain. Brittain had fled New
York without seeming to care how far they