“Or even cities. You know, just the threat of a firestorm retaliation for any attack—who could ignore that?”

“That’s just MAD all over again, Dan,” McPherson snaps. He tries to control himself. “It wasn’t what they bought this system for, so really, it’s irrelevant. We just have to try to track and hold the boosters long enough to cook them, that’s all there is to it. We’ve done everything possible to the power plant—let’s work on tracking and on phased-array to increase the brightness of the beam, and just admit to the Air Force that the kill process will take longer than expected. Call it a boost phase/post–boost phase defense.”

Dan shrugs. “Okay. But the truth is that every defense system we’ve got works even better at suppressing defenses. Or at offense.”

“Just don’t think about that,” McPherson says. “Strategy isn’t our area.”

And they get back to it. Software design, a swamp with no bottom or border. With the deadline closing in on them.

Dennis is in Laguna when he gets the next call from Louis Goldman. “The GAO report is out.”

“And?” Heartbeat accelerating at an accelerating rate, not good for him.…

“Well, it concludes that there were irregularities, and recommends the contract be bid on again.”

“Great!”

“Well, true. But it’s not really as gung-ho as I expected, frankly. The word is that the Air Force really put the arm on the GAO in the last couple of weeks, and they managed to flatten the tone of the report considerably.”

“Now how the hell can they do that?” McPherson demands. “I mean, what sort of power could the Air Force have over the GAO? Isn’t GAO part of Congress? They can’t possibly threaten them, can they?”

“Well, it’s not a matter of threatening physical violence, of course. But you know, these people have got to work with each other in case after case. So if the Air Force cares enough, they can say, Listen, you lay off us on this or we’ll never cooperate with you again—we’ll make sure any dealings you have with us are pure torture for you, and you won’t be able to fully function in this realm anymore. So, the folks at GAO have to look beyond this particular case, and they’re realists, they say, this one is top priority for them, but not for us. And so the report gets laundered a little. No lies, just deemphasizing.”

McPherson doesn’t know what to say to this. Disgust makes him too bitter to think.

“But listen,” Goldman goes on, “it isn’t as bad as I’m making it sound. In the main the GAO stuck to their guns, and after all they did recommend a new bidding process. Now we’ll just have to wait and see what Judge Tobiason decides in the case.”

“When will that take place?”