THE COSMIC COMPUTER

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When their controllers, back at the volcano, couldn't see the ship in
their screens, the missiles bunched together. Immediately, Jorisson sent
his missile up to join them and detonated it. Including his own, eight
nuclear weapons went off together in a single blast that shook the
ground like an earthquake and churned the air like a hurricane. Klem
Zareff came on-screen at once.

"Now what did you do?" he demanded. "Blew the whole place up, didn't you?"

Rodney Maxwell told him. Zareff laughed. "They might just think they got
the ship; all the pickups would be smashed before they could see what
really happened. You're about ten miles south of that? Be with you in a
few minutes."

They got a screen on for his rearview pickup. Zareff had with him a
dozen recon-cars, some of them under robo-control; six gunboats
followed, and behind them, to the horizon, other craft were strung