"That you, Major Cheek?"
"Yes, General. You said you wanted to hear the minute we confirmed anything."
"Yes," said General Leiber. "But speak carefully, man. This line may be tapped."
"Yessir, General," Major Cheek said. "Now, what have you got?"
"Confirmation, sir."
"Outstanding! Outstanding, Major. Confirmation of what?"
"The object we discussed, sir."
"Yes, yes, I know. But what is it? Come on, out with it. "
"A bell."
"A what?"
"I can confirm that the mashed brass object is definitely a bell."
General Leiber looked at the receiver clutched in his whitening hand and his eyes got sick. His mouth moved, but nothing came out. Finally he got control of himself.
"A bell?" he asked in a hoarse voice.
"Total confirmation. We even got it to ring. Listen." From the background came a discordant sound like a sick buoy.
"A bell," General Leiber repeated. "You've been at it half the day and all you have is a bell. What about the zillion tons of scrap you pulled out of that hole, mister?"
Mostly iron, sir. Scorched and pitted. Some of it has fused into slag. We do have several less-damaged sections we are still analyzing, but they're a real mess. This could take days."
"Days," General Leiber said. His voice cracked. Then he pulled himself together. His voice became tight. "We don't have days, mister. The security of the United States of America is at stake here. Do you understand the seriousness of this situation?"
"I think I do, General."
"Think! I know! I know how damn serious it is!"
"We'll need better equipment."
"Anything. I can procure anything you need. What? Name it. Spectroscopic analyzers. Metallurgic equipment. I can probably rustle up an electron telescope if necessary."
"I think you mean microscope, General. There's no such thing as an electron telescope."
"Don't split hairs with me. Just give me a list."
"First we'll need anvils."
"ANVILS, right." General Lieber started a list. "Refresh my memory. That's an acronym for what?"
"Nothing, sir. An anvil is a block blacksmiths use to hammer metal on. We've got a lot of mangled iron here. The only way to deal with it is to heat it up and try to restore the parts to their original forms."
"I understand, but we won't call them anvils. Well call them Metallurgical Component Restoration Bases."
"With all due respect, General, I think you could get them faster if you simply asked for anvils."
"How much would you guestimate an anvil would cost?"
"Oh, less than a hundred dollars each."
"If we call them Metallurgical Component Restoration Bases, I can add an extra zero to the end of that figure."
The major sighed. "I understand perfectly, sir."
"Now, what else?"
"Hammers."
"High-Impact Reshaping Implements. Hi-Rimps for short."
"Something to heat the metal pieces for reforming. I don't know what they call those things."
"Free-Standing Tripodal Heating Stations," the general said, thinking of a blue-tag special on barbecue grills he had seen at a hardware store. He could buy those himself, jack up the price, and pocket the difference. He wrote it down.
"Tongs."
"Manual Securing Tools," said General Leiber, adding Mansees to the list. "Anything else?"
"The work would go a lot faster if we had experienced blacksmiths. "
"Metallurgical Consultants!" the general shouted, his eyes lighting up. "Now you're talking! Consultants are a big budget item."
"Yes, sir," said the major, who wondered where national security fit into all of this.
"You'll have all this stuff by midday." And the general hung up. He quickly made a series of phone calls. His years of wheeling and dealing as a procurement officer had built up a network of contacts and suppliers. If it could be bought or bartered, General Leiber could get it.
An hour later, he had everything but the blacksmiths and the barbecue grills. The latter items he intended to pick up himself. But the blacksmiths were tough. His regular network of suppliers did not deal in such people. There wasn't even a listing for blacksmiths in the yellow pages. They were hard to track down.
This called for extraordinary assistance, General Leiber told himself. He asked the Pentagon operator to put in an overseas call to Zurich, Switzerland.
A flat, emotionless voice answered in the middle of the first ring.
"Friendship, International," it said.
"Hello, Friend."
"Hello, General Leiber. It is good of you to call."