When he finished, he went to the door and shouted:
"All right, Smith.... Come in here and put this damn thing to work!"
Smith came in and informed him imperturbably:
"Not so fast, General! Eddie will still require a great deal more information."
"More? Dammit, I covered everything!"
"Everything you know about the X-15," Dr. Smith agreed, "but Eddie is now venturing into a new field and must have more than technical electronics and avionics data. He needs complete reports on the progress of the search to date, as well as the weather, topography, economy, history and current happenings in the entire peripheral area. I have built a supplemental circuit to accommodate this sort of material...."
General Sanders groaned.
"How the hell do I get into these things?"
During the next ten days, Eddie scanned microfilm on all the newspapers published since X-15's disappearance. Also marshalled before the scanner was every pertinent reference work available at public, private and university libraries in California.
At length, even John O'Hara Smith seemed satisfied. He shut off the scanner, turned on the selector mechanism and the vocader switch.