w York and Washington and Detroit and Mobile and
San Francisco to worry about. Then what had happened to Auburn wasn't
important, any more. We were trying to get evidence to lay before the
United Nations. We kept at it for about twelve hours after the United
Nations had ceased to exist."

"I could never understand about that, Lee. I don't know what the truth
is; I probably never shall. But I know that my government did not launch
that missile. During the first days after yours began coming in, I
talked to people who had been in the Kremlin at the time. One had been
in the presence of Klyzenko himself when the news of your bombardment
arrived. He said that Klyzenko was absolutely stunned. We always
believed that your government decided upon a preventive surprise attack,
and picked out a town, Auburn, New York, that had been hit by one of our
first retaliation missiles, and claimed that it had been hit first."

He shook his head. "Auburn was hit an hour before the first American
missile was launched. I know that to be a fact. We could never
understand why you launched just that one, and no more until after ours
began landing on you; why you threw away the advantage of surprise and
priority of attack--"

"Because we didn't do it, Lee!" The Russian's voice trembled with
earnestness. "You believe me when I tell you that?"

"Yes, I believe you. After all that happened, and all that you, and I,
and the people you worked with, and the people I worked with, and your
government, and mine, have been guilty of, it would be a waste of breath
for either of us to try to lie to the other about what happened fifteen
years ago." He drew slowly on his pipe. "But who launched it, then? It
had to be launched by somebody."

"Don't you think I've been tormenting myself with that question for the
last fifteen years?" Pitov demanded. "You know, there were people inside
the Soviet Union--not many, and they kept themselves well hidden--who
were dedicated to the overthrow of the Soviet regime. They, or some of
them, might have thought that the devastation of both our countries, and
the obliteration of civilization in the Northern Hemisphere, would be a
cheap price to pay for ending the rule of the Communist Party."

"Could they have built an ICBM with a thermonuclear warhead in secret?"
he asked. "There were also fanatical nationalist groups in Europe, both
sides of the Iron Curtain, who might have thought our mutual destruction
would be wor