“I think he wants to know how to build a spacedrive,” Druit said as he turned to his two companions. “Think we ought to tell him what we know?”
“I imagine you’re right about the spacedrive part,” Drul put his candied pear down as he spoke, “but I also think we should keep our big mouths shut till we can get together with the others—or at least until we can find out if the others are still alive.”
He approached the blackboard, which one of the Russians quickly erased, and picked up a piece of chalk. First he drew the symbol that represented his group near one corner of the board; then he scattered four other similar symbols over the face of the blackboard. From each isolated symbol he drew an arrow to the center of the board. At the junction of all five arrows he put down the symbol that stood for the rendezvous point on the aliens’ map. He then sketched the spaceship around the rendezvous symbol.
“There,” he sighed with relief as he put down the chalk and returned to his companions, “I hope they understand from that that we have to join the rest of our crew at rendezvous point before we can give them the information they want for a spacedrive.”
Actually the Russians had inferred from Drul’s message that the aliens’ spaceship had actually landed at rendezvous point. At any event the aliens got the desired result. The Russians became very grave as they reached the conclusion that the Americans had the master share of the loot, as they had feared. One of them flipped a switch on an intercom and growled into the instrument.
“Instruct Ambassador Vladimir to start negotiations at once. Also alert the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Bomber Wings as per plan G—in case the negotiations fail. We must get to those other aliens before it’s too late!”
The President sat back comfortably in his tall leather chair. He smiled, his first smile in several days, as he examined the paper in his hand.
“We’ve won!” he chuckled triumphantly. “We bluffed them, Halwit. We bluffed them out!”
The secretary of state’s mouth curled a little at the corners in a tired imitation of the President’s grin.
“I truly hope so. They’re so sly I sometimes wonder who wins when we cross diplomatic foils with them.”