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"I think, for the moment," said the President, "we had best leave it at that. Let's forget other countries for the moment and look to our own. There have been a few minor flare-ups. Small riots, some looting and burning in such places as Chicago, New York, St. Louis. Is there anything new on all of this, Dave?"
"Nothing big," said Porter. "And in this we have been lucky. We should have prepared the country. We should have called in the press when we first found the swarm was begi
"You're still smarting over that?"
"You're damned right I am, Mr. President. We botched it. To let NASA issue that skimpy little a
"Dave, we talked it over.
"Yes, I know. And you were wrong.
"You went along with it."
"I didn't go along. I protested and there were a few who sided with me.
"But only a few."
"Sir, you can't run a news operation on a majority vote. The rest of you know your business, but I know mine. Right now we've been lucky. I hope we can say the same thing at this time tomorrow. The thing I'm afraid of is the cult outbreak. Every crackpot in the country is up on the stump and shouting. All the evangelists are calling big prayer meetings. Every little backwoods church is filled with clapping, stomping, singing people. Out in Mi
"I don't think we need to worry too much about things like
that," said Hammond.
‘‘There's a lot of emotion boiling around, ' Porter told him, a lot of it still beneath the surface. I hope it can be kept from boiling over. Mixed emotions of all sorts. Latent fears that can easily boil up to the surface. Hallelujah emotions that can get out of hand. We're on the edge of something that could produce violent street encounters. Let a bunch of beer drinking hardhats get fed up with the antics of the mille
"You're exaggerating," said Hammond.
"I hope I am," said Porter.
"I don't like this watchful waiting," said Sullivan. "I think we
should act in some positive ma
know we are involved, that we, at least, are taking some action."
"We've called out the National Guard," said the President.
"We have investigators in the field."
"That's passive action," said Sullivan.
"The trouble is," said the President, "that anything we did
probably would be wrong."