The President's voice crackled in MacIlheny's ears.
"Fitz! Detonate that bomb! We can't take any chances!"
MacIlheny half grinned. "Major," he said, "set off the H-bomb."
The major pressed a red button on the control panel.
Twenty minutes later, the screen came on again, showing the same scene as before. No one was surprised. By then, reports had come in that the satellite was still visible, still in its orbit. The H-bomb had failed to go off; the signal had never reached the detonation device.
The alien was standing in front of the camera, holding a large piece of mechanism in his hands. On Earth, the thing would have been almost too heavy to lift, but the gravitational pull of Satellite Number Four was almost negligible.
"He's got the H-bomb!"
MacIlheny recognized the President's voice in his ears.
The alien bowed toward the camera, then straightened and went back to his own ship. He clambered up the side of it with magnetic soles as easily as he had walked on the hull of the space station. Near the end of his ship, he opened a small door in the hull. Within was utter blackness.