When they were alone in the General's staff car, Amos Busch exhaled and said,
"I'll be damned."
"I gather," observed Cowles drily, "that something called an X-15 has turned up missing."
"A week ago," sighed General Sanders. "Somewhere in the Mojave Desert near Lancaster.... It was a very elementary prototype—the actual X-15 won't be ready for another three years...."
"Any idea what happened to it?"
"It was on a routine test flight and ran out of the tracking screen—headed northwest.... We haven't found a splinter from it! But there's a lot of rough country around there."
"Who knows it was lost?"
"Just the local base and our headquarters staff. The Pentagon, too, of course."
"And Dr. Smith," added Amos Busch, incredulously.