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such as the group based on Okinawa, can get to their Fail-Safe point very quickly so they jink around a good deal. The idea is to have all of the planes arrive at the Fail-Safe point at the same moment. The one which has the farthest distance to travel is Group Six, which is the one over the Bering Strait. As you can see, it is moving fast and straight toward the green cross over St. Matthew Island, which is just about at longitude 80 degrees. That is its Fail-Safe point."
    "Seven minutes to Fail-Safe," a loud dear voice suddenly said in words that could be heard throughout the whole War Room. It was a tape-recorded voice that was geared to one of the calculating machines.
    "That is a recorded voice and it goes on automatically at seven minutes and starts a countdown," General Bogan said. "It is very unlikely that the planes will actually get to the Fail-Safe point. That happens very rarely. Usually the UFO or the radar disturbance is identified well before the bombers get to the FailSafe point. When that happens we simply raise the Vindicators on a predetermined radio frequency and order them back to their bases, or to a refueling point. I would say that in only one in twenty Conditions Blue do the planes reach the Fail-Safe point."
    "But assume that they reach the Fail-Safe point and the unidentified object is still unidentified, then what?" Raskob asked.
    "Just one helluva lot," Knapp said unexpectedly.
    All three of the men looked at him.
    "Mr. Knapp's firm manufactures some of the equipment that goes into operation at that point," General Bogan explained. "The first thing that happens is that automatically we go to Condition Yellow. Even if the situation has not changed materially, the passage of time constitutes a danger. Secondly, a number of supporting light jet bombers equipped with defensive gear and groups of fighter planes would start to fly toward the Fail-Safe point in support of the entire operation."
    "Six minutes to Fail-Safe," the mechanical voice said.
    One of the doors in the side of the War Room opened and four officers walked in and sat down at various desk-consoles.
    "Actually you are seeing a pretty unusual Condition Blue," General Bogan said. "Usually we have the situation analyzed and solved well before this. Just as a precaution, once we get to six minutes to Fail-Safe we start to man the various machines in the War Room."
    Both General Bogan and Colonel Cascio were looking steadily at the UFO. The two blips seemed almost to have merged. For a few seconds the larger fragmented blip -of the fighter plane obscured the blip of the UFO. General Bogan nodded his head at Colonel Cascio. Colonel Cascio walked to a machine and pulled off a piece of tape. He handed it to General Bogan.
    At this moment the UFO disappeared from the screen.
    "The unidentified object is now over the Nenieux Islands off Baffin Bay," General Bogan read. "The UFO is losing altitude rapidly. Our fighters overfiew
    and are now making a visual search. No visual contact as yet. The radar signal is erratic."
    "Five minutes to Fail-Safe," the mechanical voice said. "From now until Fail-Safe, time will be given in half minutes."
    "General, what the hell happened to that thing?" Raskob asked. "It's gone."
    "Colonel Cascio, let's go to Condition Yellow," General Bogan said briskly.
    Raskob and Knapp both swung about and stared at General Bogan. He did not take his eyes from the Big Board.
    "There is nothing to worry about, gentlemen, this is fairly orthodox," General Bogan said. "The UFO is not acting in the characteristic way and I have the option to go to Condition Yellow. I have taken that option, because the UFO has dropped from 30,000 feet and disappeared in the grass. 'Grass' is the fuzz at the bottom of a radarscope which is caused by interference from hills, some inherent defect in the tubes, and other things we don't quite understand. But once the plane is 'in the grass' it is lost to radar. It may be a plane with mechanical trouble