"Step up our plans. They'll have this thing in a few weeks. Hm-m-m. They order a transmitter-terminal tube. Have you got any in stock?"
"Naturally. Not in stock, but available for the Northern Landing power-line order."
"You have none, then. You will have some available within a few days. That half-promise will stall them from making their own, and every day that they wait for your shipment is a day in our favor. To keep your own nose clean, I'll tell you when to ship the tube. It'll be a few days before I strike."
"Why bother?" asked Kingman. "They won't be around to call names."
"No, but their friends will, and we want to keep them guessing."
"I see. Those tubes are huge enough to excite comment, and there will be squibs in all the papers telling of the giant going to Venus Equilateral, and the Sunday Supplements will all break out in wild guesses as to the reason why Venus Equilateral wants a two hundred megawatt tube. Too bad you couldn't keep your escape a longer secret."
"I suppose so. But it was bound to be out sooner or later anyway. A good general, Kingman, is one whose plans may be changed on a moment's notice without sacrificing. We'll win through."
The days wore on, and the big turret on the top of the Black Widow took shape. The supertubes were installed, and Murdoch worked in the bowels of the ship to increase the effectiveness of the course-integrators to accommodate high velocities and to correct for the minute discrepancies that would crop up due to the difference in velocities between light and sub-electronic radiation.
