"Well, let me warn you," said Peter, "and urge you to stay out of this."

     "No, that's not what you should do. You should help me. Go to Moscow and try to find out what this new US weapon is all about. If it poses no immediate threat, I will come to Moscow myself to get the project re-activated."

     "I suppose, I could try," Peter gave in.

     "Not just try, Peter! You must go and do all you can to find out what the US is up to. You have worked at the foreign office, you know a number of people there, and some have connection to the Bureau. Surely someone must know. It's probably just a myth, another justification to shut my project down."

     "I can't believe that," protested Peter. "Did it ever occur to you that the Americans may really have a new weapon which could make everything we have built, obsolete?"

     "Ah, and did it ever occur to you if such a weapon really worried them, I would have been informed about it?" Sergei told Peter that he suspected there might be a plot involved by some underground organization. He felt the situation was serious enough that Peter should leave on the first train the next morning. He even said he would drive him to the train station himself. "We can't get the Air Force to fly you, everyone would immediately suspect that we are snooping. It has to be done quietly, with finesse. It is less obvious to travel by train. Tell everyone you are visiting friends in Moscow."

     It was a clear morning as the two men set out for the two-hour drive to the railway station. A cool breeze swept off the lake. Some stands of foxglove by the road provided a deer its morning meal. The deer sensed that the familiar bus posed no threat. It continued feeding as the two men drove by.



     Nothing had changed at the ranch that reflected in any way the political tensions Sergei worried about. Nothing projected the reality that in fact everything had changed.

     Now, he realized, this change had affected the world. All he could do now, was stare at the screen that indicated that the targeting was not reset and a missile was on its way. In the background he could hear Peter talking to Boulder.

     "Here it comes," Peter announced, "the target list is released and cued for transmission. You should have it in a few seconds, NORAD!"

     "I have linked it to Ralph Weissenberg," said Peter to Sergei.

     Sergei, his eyes glued to the screen, didn't answer.

     "Is not modern technology marvelous," Peter said to Ralph, who was still waiting. "It's great to have this computer link-up so that we can transfer information between us, to avoid these.... Oh my God! Sergei! Look!" Peter interrupted his conversation as the summary page of the file appeared on his screen.

     "Have you gone mad," Ralph shouted into the telephone almost at the same instant. "You son-of-a-bitch!"

     Sergei heard it and took the receiver again.

     "Is that what you call reset?" Ralph shouted at him. "Look at it: Seattle and Bellevue! Tacoma! Olympia! Everett! Aberdeen! Montesano! Bellingham! Oak Harbor, our naval-air-base! And Bangor, our Trident nuclear submarine base! And Pasco, the Hanford Works! God help us, you're blowing up the world's biggest plutonium plant and reactor fuel re-processing facility, and the country's largest nuclear waste dump! If that goes up the whole country will be polluted!"

     "I see it!" Sergei responded, "but I can't believe what I seem to see! I swear it wasn't there two days ago. I checked every file...."

     "The Bureau must have changed them," Peter butted in. "The Bureau are the only ones authorized to make changes."

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Stories about  Sex from novels by Rolf A. F. Witzsche