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She had tried to keep her voice low. She realized she hadn't succeeded.

Price said, "It's the best I can give you."

Simmons, disturbed at this friction, began, "Now, Katy--" but it was Fromburg who broke the tension. "Major Price's answer is good enough for our purposes," Fromburg said, his dark, active eyes begging Katharine for caution. "But it's not exactly what I was trying to get at. Even if they know the ICBM is coming up, how can they risk war now? How could they win it?"

Colonel Cragey stirred. Just as Simmons knew Russia, Cragey knew China. He was China-born, the son of a missionary. He had fought in the Far East, for the Chinese against Japan, against the Chinese in Korea. He didn't look like a fighter. He looked like what he was primarily, a professor, and he wore his uniform as an amateur actor wears an uncomfortable costume. He had been lecturing on the Orient at the University of Virginia when, for the second time, the Army called him out of reserve, this time to serve on the Intentions Group where a specialist on the Orient was needed. He said, "I'll try to catch that one. Maybe the Kremlin can't help itself. The Kremlin has an unmanageable tiger by the tail. Name of China. Six hundred million people. Peiping controls twice as many people as Moscow and won't be run by Moscow. The rulers of Peiping have something they call face. It's more important to them than country, than party, than their life. They've sworn they were going to drive us out of the East. They couldn't get away with it and they lost face and they have to get their face back, even if it means war."