Wade wanted to say then all the little things that had been building up within him during the past long months. He bit back the words. It took much effort.
He said: "Good luck, Captain. I really mean it."
Allen gave him a tight smile. "Drop dead, Colonel."
Wade dropped his outstretched hand as the big man ignored him. Ackerson turned his back and began to climb the metal rungs leading up the hull of the ship.
Tomer, Wade thought. If only it could be Tomer instead of Ackerson.
He waited until the blond man entered the hatch before he climbed into the jeep. He glanced once more at the silver hull of the Starfrost, then he jammed down on the accelerator. Hate was a word Wade seldom used. There was too much of it in the world already. But he was beginning to hate Ackerson.
He parked the jeep beside the concrete and steel structure housing Operations. The instant his hand touched the door handle he tried to cease being Wade Boeman the man. He tried to become Colonel Wadon G. Boeman, senior officer in charge of 'Operation Boomerang,' with no personal feelings. It didn't come off fully.
The four walls were lined with banks of instruments. Small lights flickered and died, only to come alive again the next instant. A man coughed.
He nodded at a communications man, a civilian, as he hurried to the small table where the television set was resting. The closed circuit showed the Starfrost resting alone on the sand with her nose pointed toward the sky.
He took off his cap, then lighted a cigarette. He checked his wrist watch with the large clock on the wall. He set the sweep second hand to coincide with the larger one.