Satisfied with the identity of the caller, the operator said, "Just a minute, colonel, I'll see if the general will talk to you."
"Tell him it's important," Zen urged.
"They always say that," the operator sighed. "I'll put you through as soon as I can."
"Kurt, boy, where are you?" General Stacker's voice boomed into a distant microphone. The general's voice always boomed, he was always hearty, he was always sure that while things might look black right now, they would work out all right in the end. By the time the booming voice reached Zen's earphone, it had been transformed into a tinny squeak. Kurt thought he detected an uneasy note in the squeak and he wondered if the general had finally glimpsed the end, and was finding it not quite as he had supposed.
"In hell, general," Zen answered. He swiftly told where he was and what had happened. "Cuso's blooper knocked out the last pass by which we can bring an effective force against him. This whole area is loaded with radiation."
"How will we ever root that bastard out of his hole now?"
"That's for the staff to decide. I have more important news."
"Yes? Talk, Kurt, and fast. You don't mean that you—"
"Yes. I mean I think this nurse may be it. I don't know yet." Zen explained what had happened.
"Damn it, Kurt, do you mean to tell me that if she comes back alive, you will know she is immune to the radiation, and hence must be one of the new people? But if she comes back dead, or so loaded with radiation that she will die within a few days, then you will know she was just like all the rest of us?" Even through Zen's earphone, the general's voice had begun to boom.