it was a quantum advance in high technology.
Nogami leaned back, his match poised. The good part, the part in English, was coming up. That's what Sir Cecil had said. The Russian segment had been for broadcast in the Soviet Union, had the local spin. The English part was for the world. And for Tanzan Mino.
Who was now in deep, deep trouble. Murder, fraud, a global conspiracy—they all were there, and even more damning for the way the story had come to light. The medium was the message.
About that time the cosmonaut who'd identified himself as Soviet Air Force Major Yuri Andreevich Androv drifted to the side, permitting a better view of the cockpit. That's when Nogami noticed two other individuals. One ap¬peared to be a woman—leave it to the Soviets, he smiled, to know about good public relations—also wearing an en¬vironment suit, her helmet momentarily turned away. The third appeared to be male, also in an environment suit and flight helmet. Sir Cecil hadn't bothered mentioning them, since Air Force Major Androv had done all the talking.
Then the male cosmonaut in the center drifted up and began opening his visor, some kind of curved glass that reflected the yellow sodium lights in the ceiling. He grap¬pled with it a moment, then in annoyance just yanked it off and tossed it to drift across—
Nogami stared at the face. Mother of God!
He was laughing so hard he almost missed his Montecristo when he finally whipped up his match. . . .
* * *
BOOKS BY THOMAS HOOVER
Nonfiction
Zen Culture
The Zen Experience
Fiction
The Moghul
Caribbee
Wall Street Samurai
(The Samurai Strategy)
Project Daedalus
Project Cyclops
Life Blood
Syndrome
all said that if we go hyper¬sonic below sixty thousand feet, we could seriously over¬heat. But maybe if we climb out fast enough . . ."
"We'll have to take our chances. We need to minimize that window of AAM vulnerability."
"I agree." Androv gestured for him to sit, then glanced up at the screens. "We have two and