"No, Franz, in this I speak the truth. Your only chance is to get down to the shelter, now, and I will forget what has passed between us." Pecci said nothing. Dobrynin knew that he must buy more time.
"It doesn't matter, does it?"
"What?" He could feel the tension of the smaller man's mind.
"It doesn't matter that since I am twenty-five I have made no serious mistake, that myself and many beside me have worked hard for thirty years to make this place our home. It does not matter that we have broken from the current. Still, we are dependent on others. We are like the stalagmite, which must be fed from above. If anything comes between us and the source, we are cut off. We cannot grow. And any puny, so-called man with a putrid hammer, can come and chisel away at our roots!" He could not contain his anger.
"I could kill you now!" cried Pecci. He raised the gun and would have shot, but at that moment Dobrynin put a hand to his ear. A faint voice, mingled with crackling static, had come suddenly into his almost forgotten ear-piece.
"Governor, can. . .hear me?" It was Stein.
"Yes, Thomas. Try to speak louder. What is it?"
"…..just received. . .information on the beam. We. . .incorrect by. . . minutes."
"How many minutes?"
"Four. Must be sooner. Thirty seconds. . .now."