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"How soon can he get here?"

"He's on his way."

[FOUR]

United States Navy Base, Mare Island

The radioman second had seen the base commander only once before, and then he had been riding by in his Navy gray Packard Clipper with its three starred vice admiral's plate.

And now here he was, in the radio room, looking right at him.

"Stand at ease, son," the Admiral said, almost kindly.

"This is Chief Ellis, and he wants to ask you some questions."

"You picked up a message from somebody calling themselves MFS, right?"

"That's right, Chief."

"You heard them again?"

"They're on every day, for ten, sometimes twenty minutes," the radioman second said.

"They were on, oh, hell, twenty minutes ago."

"See if you can raise them," Ellis said.

The Vice Admiral's eyes went up, but he said nothing. He had seen the card signed by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"Go on," Ellis repeated.

"See if you can raise them."

The radioman second turned to his key and moved it quickly.

"I sent "KSF calling MFS,"" he replied.

"I read code," Ellis said, not arrogantly.

There was no immediate reply.

The radioman second tapped his key again. When the transmitter was activated, the receiver was automatically shut down. When he turned the transmitter to standby, the receiver was issuing a series of dots and dashes.

The radioman second, without thinking, tapped it out on his typewriter.

The Vice Admiral leaned over to read:

MFS STANDING BY FOR KSF

"Send this," Ellis said, and handed the radioman a sheet of paper, on which was typed

KSP TO MFS SEND ENCRYPTED FOLLOWING FIRST NAME OF PERTIG

SECOND NEXT OF KIN NAME AND DATE OF BIRTH KSF BY

"Send it twice, and the

n wait," Ellis ordered.