The Best Alternate History Stories of the 20th Century by Harry Turtledove Page A

that whether his plan worked or not he was still in trouble. In trouble! It was worse than that. Bitterly he cursed the Japanese, he even wished for a moment that he had dropped it on them. Wearily he let his despair empty him.
    A long while later he sat up straight. Once again he was a trapped animal. He began lunging for escape, casting about for plans. One alternative after another. All during the long grim flight home he considered it, mind spinning at the speed of the props and beyond. And when they came down on Tinian he had a plan. It was a long shot, he reckoned, but it was the best he could do.
     
    The briefing hut was surrounded by MPs again. January stumbled from the truck with the rest and walked inside. He was more than ever aware of the looks given him, and they were hard, accusatory. He was too tired to care. He hadn’t slept in more than thirty-six hours, and had slept very little since the last time he had been in the hut, a week before. Now the room quivered with the lack of engineer vibration to stabilize it, and the silence roared. It was all he could do to hold on to the bare essentials of his plan. The glares of Fitch and Shepard, the hurt incomprehension of Matthews, they had to be thrust out of his focus. Thankfully he lit a cigarette.
    In a clamor of question and argument the others described the strike. Then the haggard Scholes and an intelligence officer led them through the bombing run. January’s plan made it necessary to hold to his story: “.. . and when the AP was under the crosshairs I pushed down the switch, but got no signal. I flipped it up and down repeatedly until the tone kicked in. At that point there was still fifteen seconds to the release.”
    “Was there anything that may have caused the tone to start when it did?”
    “Not that I noticed immediately, but—”
    “It’s impossible,” Shepard interrupted, face red. “I checked the switch before we flew and there was nothing wrong with it. Besides, the drop occurred over a minute—”
    “Captain Shepard,” Scholes said. “We’ll hear from you presently.”
    “But he’s obviously lying—”
    “Captain Shepard! It’s not at all obvious. Don’t speak unless questioned.”
    “Anyway,” January said, hoping to shift the questions away from the issue of the long delay, “I noticed something about the bomb when it was falling that could explain why it stuck. I need to discuss it with one of the scientists familiar with the bomb’s design.”
    “What was that?” Scholes asked suspiciously.
    January hesitated. “There’s going to be an inquiry, right?”
    Scholes frowned. “This is the inquiry, Captain January. Tell us what you saw.”
    “But there will be some proceeding beyond this one?”
    “It looks like there’s going to be a court-martial, yes, Captain.”
    “That’s what I thought. I don’t want to talk to anyone but my counsel, and some scientist familiar with the bomb.”
    “ I’m a scientist familiar with the bomb,” Shepard burst out. “You could tell me if you really had anything, you—”
    “I said I need a scientist!” January exclaimed, rising to face the scarlet Shepard across the table. “Not a G-God damned mechanic.” Shepard started to shout, others joined in and the room rang with argument. While Scholes restored order January sat down, and he refused to be drawn out again.
    “I’ll see you’re assigned counsel, and initiate the court-martial,” Scholes said, clearly at a loss. “Meanwhile you are under arrest, on suspicion of disobeying orders in combat.” January nodded, and Scholes gave him over to the MPs.
    “One last thing,” January said, fighting exhaustion. “Tell General Le May that if the Japs are told this drop was a warning, it might have the same effect as—”
    “I told you!” Shepard shouted. “I told you he did it on purpose!”
    Men around Shepard restrained him. But he had convinced most of them, and even Matthews stared at him with surprised