Bismarck, North Dakota, or the housewife in Tampa, Florida, the disappearance of the satellite meant nothing more than a slight irritation. If the program they were watching happened to be one that was shunted through Number Four, their screen had simply gone dark for a moment. Then, with apologies for "technical difficulties beyond our control," another program had been switched into the channel.

For the businessman in San Francisco and the government official in New York, the situation was worse. Important intercontinental conferences were cut off in mid-sentence, and vital orders were left hanging in the air.

For seven transcontinental stratoliners, the situation was almost tragic. The superfast, rocket-driven, robot-controlled ships, speeding their way through the lower ozonosphere, fifteen miles above the surface of the Earth, were suddenly without the homing beams they depended upon to guide them safely to their destinations. Their beam-detection instruments went into a search pattern while alarm bells shattered the quiet within. Passengers in the lounges and in the cocktail rooms looked suddenly wide-eyed.

On one of the ships, there was a near panic when one fool screamed: "We're going to crash! Get parachutes!"

Not until the flight captain caught the hysterical passenger on the chin with a hard right uppercut and explained that everything was in good order did the passengers quiet down. He didn't worry them by explaining that there were no parachutes aboard; at eighty thousand feet of altitude and a velocity of over forty miles per minute, a parachute would be worse than useless.

Each of the stratoliners had to be taken over by the flight captain and eased down manually.

MacIlheny had a pretty good idea of what was going on all over the United States, and he didn't like it. He pushed open the door of the Beam Control Section and strode in. Blake met him halfway across the room.

"Nothing yet, as far as contact goes," he said. "We've heard from the spotter station in Topeka; they missed it at the same time we did—1702 hours, two seconds."

MacIlheny glanced at the chronometer on the wall. The satellite had been missing for nearly four minutes now.

"Get the Long Island Observatory; tell 'em to keep an eye peeled for Number Four. It ought to be out of Earth's shadow," MacIlheny ordered. "And start a sweep search with the radar. Cover the whole area. Get a 

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