"They just destroyed Sandia Base."
Goldstein gaped at him. "What.... What are you telling him?" He moved for the mike, but Walter Stanton shook his head.
The speaker crackled. "Destroyed? Sandia destroyed?"
"Entirely."
"The—The dependents' quarters too?"
Walter Stanton forced out the words. "Everything, Mel."
There was a long silence, and then Mel Cramer spoke, and his voice was tired. "Vector me, Goldie."
Goldstein said: "To White Sands, Colonel?"
Behind the tiredness and the sadness Walter Stanton caught a hint of strength in the voice that came back.
"To the missile...."