The Radiant Shell

And that, gentlemen, said the Secretary of War, is the situation. Arvania has stolen the Ziegler plans and formulae. With their acquisition it becomes the most powerful nation on earth. The Ziegler plans are at present in the Arvanian Embassy, but they will be smuggled out of the country soon. Within a month of their landing in Arvania, war will be declared against us. That means —he glanced at the tense faces around the conference table— that we have about three months to live as a nation—unless we can get those plans!
There was a hushed, appalled silence, broken at last by General Forsyte.
Nonsense! How can a postage-stamp country like Arvania really threaten us?
The day has passed, General, said the Secretary, when a nation's power is reckoned by its size. The Ziegler heat ray is the deadliest weapon yet invented. A thousand men with a dozen of the ray-projectors can reduce us to smoking ruins while remaining far outside the range of our guns. No! I tell you that declaration of war by Arvania will be followed by the downfall of the United States inside of three months!
Again the hushed, strained silence descended over the conference table, while one white-faced man gazed at another and all speculated on the incredible possibility of a world in which there was no United States of America.
We must get the plans, nodded Forsyte, convinced at last. But how? March openly on the Arvanian Embassy?
No, that would be declaration of war on our part. The World Court, which knows nothing of the Ziegler plans, would set the League at our throats.
Send volunteers unofficially to raid the place?
Impossible. There is a heavy guard in the Arvanian Embassy; and I more than suspect the place bristles with machine guns.
What are we to do? demanded Forsyte.
The Secretary seemed to have been waiting for that final question.