James Fitzpatrick MacIlheny, Operational Vice-President of Circum-Global Communications, was one of those dynamic men who can allow their subordinates to call them by a nickname and still retain their respect. His wife called him "Jim"; his personal friends called him "Fitz"; and his subordinates called him "Mac." He knew his own job, and the job of every man under him; if one of the men slipped up, he heard about it in short order, but, on the other hand, if the work was well done, he heard about that in short order, too. MacIlheny was as free with his pats on the back as he was with the boot a little lower down. As a result, his men respected him and he respected them.
MacIlheny liked his work, so he was quite often found in his office or in the monitoring rooms long after his prescribed quitting time. On the evening of 25 March 1978, he had stayed overtime nearly four hours to watch the installation of a new computer unit. As a matter of cold fact, since the day was Saturday, he needn't have been in the office at all, but—well, a new computer isn't put in every day, and MacIlheny liked computer work.
It was exactly 1903 hours when the PA system clicked on and an operator's voice said: "Is Mr. MacIlheny still in the building, please? Mr. MacIlheny, please call Satellite Beam Control."
MacIlheny stood up from the squatting position he had been in, handed a flashlight to one of the technicians standing nearby, and said: "Hold this, Harry; I'll be back in a minute."
The installation crew went on with their work while MacIlheny went over to a wall phone. He picked it up and punched the code number for Beam Control.
"This is MacIlheny," he said when the recog signal came.
"Mac? This is Blake. Can you come down right away? We've lost Number Four!"
"What happened?"
"Don't know. She was nearly overhead, going along fine, when we lost contact all of a sudden. One minute she was there, the next minute she was gone. We've lost the beam, and—just a second!" There was a pause at the other end, then Blake said: "We just got a report from some of the ground stations within range. Satellite Number Four has quit broadcasting altogether—there's no signal from her at all!"
"I'll be right down," MacIlheny snapped. He hung up the phone and headed for the elevator.