The Deadly Orbit Mission

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Van Wyck Mason. The Deadly Orbit Mission

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For those dear and loyal friends Bill and Lu Hitchcock who were there when needed most.

There are a number of things about Washington, D.C., at eight-thirty in the morning which arc as predictable as cherry blossoms in April. When you want more hot coffee and you want it now the waitress is still lost in her private world of last night’s date and you can’t catch her eye. The tall, thin lady at the next table leans over and diffidently inquires whether you know where the Washington Monument is located. The morning paper reveals authoritatively that the Federal budget will be either expanded or reduced.

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“The back-up system is a radio-telegraph circuit,” Gregory informed. “Same codes, same decoding keys, but a flick of a switch at both ends kills transmissions along the cables and swings them through the air. We test that circuit every day, too, and we’ve never had any trouble.”

North could understand that. He knew that Tangier’s “radio power” was legendary. Deservedly it was one of the great wireless crossroads of the world partly because of its location on the tip of the African continent but mostly because of its enviable equable climate. Tangier suffers practically no radio interference; good transmission is possible twenty-four hours a day, twelve months a year. Sundays thrown in free.

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