Fail-Safe Page #5

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They'll freeze to death

before they get their chutes off.

Colonel, get on the horn

and give that order.

Every second you wait

takes them farther away.

We're killing them.

They haven't got a chance.

This is Fighter Direction.

We are in voice communication

with Tangle-Abel-One.

You can talk to them on Channel 7,

single side band.

Do I tell them in code

or in the clear?

In the clear.

Tangle-Abel-One, this is

Colonel Cascio at Ultimate One.

This is Tangle-Abel-One.

I read you five-by-five.

Group Six has flown through

the fail-safe point...

and is on an attack course

towards Moscow.

It is a mistake.

Go to afterburners and overtake

and attack Group Six.

Roger.

Go to afterburners and overtake

and attack Group Six.

Did you all hear that order?

Overtake the Vindicators?

Who are they kidding?

All we got is a 50-mile-an-hour edge.

They're half way to Moscow already.

You heard the man.

We go to afterburners.

And use spit

to run this airplane?

By the time we run out of gas,

they'll only be 1,000 miles away.

- Man, that's organization.

- Cut the chatter.

We're wasting time.

On the mark, go to afterburners.

Five, four, three, two, one, mark.

Shall I alert Air-Sea Rescue, sir?

No point. Bring up the fighters

on the board in tight scale.

Yes, sir.

Beautiful.

Fighters on their way, sir.

Thank you.

Buck, let's hope this all blows over

in the next few minutes.

But if it doesn't,

we'll get to know each other very well.

Listen to every conversation I have,

try to get to know how I think.

- It might come in handy.

- Yes, sir.

- How did General Bogan sound to you?

- Sir?

Did he sound worried?

Confident? Scared?

Not scared.

A little worried, I guess.

Bogan's an old-time flier...

but he's not afraid

of all this new equipment.

If he's worried, I'm worried.

Do you know Mr. Swenson,

the secretary of defense?

I've read about him, sir.

You won't be able to tell much

from his voice. He's hard as a rock.

But we listen to him, Buck.

If he gives advice, we take it.

Yes, sir.

Put the war conference room

at the Pentagon...

and General Bogan in Omaha

on a conference line with me.

Yes, sir.

Ready, sir.

- Mr. Swenson?

- Yes, Mr. President.

If our fighters have to shoot down

the Vindicators, the worst is over.

For us, anyway.

I want your people now to consider

what we do if we can't shoot them down.

I'm putting you on the intercom

so you can be heard here and in Omaha.

General Bogan has Mr. Knapp

of Amalgamated Electronics...

and Congressman Raskob with him.

They have my permission to listen in

and say anything they want.

Right, sir.

Gentlemen, we've got four questions

to answer and not a lot of time.

First:
What happened?

Second:
What do we do about it?

Third:
What are the Russians

going to think about all this?

And fourth:

What are they going to do about it?

Please keep the discussion

to those points.

Mechanical failure.

- That's what happened.

- A double mechanical failure?

- Do you know the odds against that?

- Maybe someone went berserk.

It doesn't matter.

Something failed: A man, a machine.

It was bound to happen,

and it did.

Maybe we'll never know why or what.

It doesn't matter now.

- Mr. Secretary.

- Yes, General Bogan.

Mr. Knapp here knows as much

about electronic gear as anyone.

Hed like to say something.

The more complex

an electronic system gets...

the more accident-prone it is.

- Sooner or later, it breaks down.

- What breaks down?

A transistor blows.

A condenser burns out.

Sometimes they just get tired,

like people.

Mr. Knapp overlooks one factor.

The machines are supervised

by humans.

Even if the machine fails, the human

can always correct the mistake.

I wish you were right.

The fact is,

the machines work so fast...

they are so intricate...

the mistakes they make

are so subtle...

that very often,

a human being just can't know...

whether a machine is lying

or telling the truth.

Maybe this time

there wasn't any failure.

Maybe the Russians have masked

the real position of Group Six.

Maybe Group Six is flying back

to the States this minute.

Then what's on the board?

Northern lights?

Maybe a group of Soviet planes,

up there to convince us...

we've accidentally launched

a bomber group.

- For what purpose?

- As an excuse to retaliate.

If they wanted to do that,

they wouldn't need an excuse.

- They'd simply attack.

- This way, we commit our fighters...

our first line of defense,

and made us kill our own men.

I disagree with that analysis!

We have to assume it is our accident

and not their plan.

I agree, General.

Yes, Saunders?

A report that the Russians

have seven bomber groups in the air.

- Is that unusual?

- That's normal for them.

- About like us.

- What kind of course are they on?

Normal patrol patterns

inside their own borders.

They have an abnormally large number

of fighters in the air, sir.

Almost half their fighter strength.

They're having the same problem

with Group Six that we had with the UFO.

They don't know what it is,

why it's there or who it belongs to.

My guess is that

they know all about Group Six.

They saw it fly to the fail-safe point.

They've seen that happen before.

They know the procedure.

- So far, no sweat.

- And when they saw it fly past...

They sent up their fighter planes

just in case.

I don't think they'll take any action

unless their border is crossed.

Agreed.

That puts it up to the fighters.

In my opinion,

they will take no action at all.

They won't just sit there.

I think if our bombers get through,

the Russians will surrender.

Who is the professor, Mr. Secretary?

What's he doing there?

Professor Groeteschele is a civilian

advisor to the Pentagon, General.

Will you explain your statement,

Professor?

The Russian aim is

to dominate the world.

They think that Communism

must succeed eventually...

if the Soviet Union is left

reasonably intact.

They know that a war would leave

the Soviet Union utterly destroyed.

Therefore, they would surrender.

But suppose they feel

they can knock us off first?

They know we might have

a doomsday system:

Missiles that will go into action days,

even weeks, after a war is over...

and destroy an enemy even after

that enemy has already destroyed us.

Maybe they think even capitalists

aren't that insane...

to want to kill after they

themselves have been killed.

These are Marist fanatics,

not normal people.

They do not reason the way

you reason, General Black.

They're not motivated by human emotion

such as rage and pity.

They are calculating machines.

They will look at the balance sheet,

and they will see they cannot win.

Then you suggest doing what?

- Nothing.

- Nothing?

The Russians will surrender...

and the threat of Communism

will be over forever.

That's a lot of hogwash.

Don't kid yourself.

There will be Russian generals

who would react just as I would:

The best defense

is a good offense.

They see trouble coming up, they'll

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