"By thunder!" the words burst involuntarily from his lips.
"What is it, Kurt?"
"They put a manual control on the warhead. It's got to be that. It can't be anything else." He pointed to the red button. "Why do you suppose they did that?"
"Test purposes, probably, to check the firing mechanism before the warhead was installed. What difference does it make?" Nedra's voice was listless.
"Maybe we can go to heaven."
"What do you mean?"
He explained very carefully what he meant.
"Explode the rocket here in space?"
"Sure," he said. His tone of voice said this was nothing, that anybody could do it. West's voice clamored in his mind again. He ignored it. His hand moved toward the red button.
"There's one thing I want you to know," he said, pausing.