Cold is the Sea Read Online Free PDF

you by anyone, or for any reason. You will be there for one purpose, and one purpose only: to learn what they can teach you. Is that clear?”
    â€œYes, sir,” said Richardson again.
    â€œBe in Idaho Falls tomorrow morning. There is a flight you can catch tonight, and I’ll have the plane met on arrival in Idaho.”
    Richardson’s elation evaporated. Even under wartime pressure, he had known of no case of such peremptory treatment of officer or man. Abandoning Laura and Jobie without warning could not be vital to any training course. Surely he merited more considerate treatment than this! “Admiral,” he began, “the moving van is about to pull away, and our car is packed. We’re within an hour of starting to drive to New London. May I have the weekend to get my family safely up there? I can be in Idaho Monday morning—” But Laura was frantically shaking her head and putting both hands over her mouth, as the flat voice cut in.
    â€œRichardson, if you want nuclear power training, you’ll be landing at Idaho Falls airport tomorrow morning. An officer as resourceful as you should have no trouble having his orders modified and arranging his personal affairs.” The telephone clicked dead.
    Laura was hugging him and kissing him, nearly crying her relief and delight. “Of course I can handle the rest of the move myself,” she said. “Friends will help me if I need them. Jobie and I will repack you a suitcase right now, while you telephone Deacon Jones and get the paperwork started. Then we’ll drive you to the airport. Jobie and I won’t have any trouble driving through Baltimore to the motel tonight, and we’ll roll into New London tomorrow just as planned.”
    There was an interval of furious activity. The car had to be partially unloaded and the two largest suitcases packed for a lengthy stay in Idaho. Deacon Jones had to be tracked down by the BuPers duty officer and asked to return to his desk to prepare the new orders. Airline reservations had to be made and ticketspurchased. Admiral Scott’s administrative aide had to leave a party and return to the bureau to sign the modification in orders drawn up by Jones. Finally the Richardsons set off in their loaded automobile, not for the road to Baltimore and the motel planned for their overnight stop, but for Washington National Airport.
    It was not until hurried good-byes had been said and Rich was strapped in his seat in the airplane that he was able to unwind enough to admit the thoughts which had been knocking at the door of his consciousness for the last hour.
    What was it that had caused Admiral Brighting to change his mind? What had happened the last few days? What could lie behind the extraordinary order to leave all rank behind—could this be a reaction against whatever it was that had brought about the reversal?
    Foremost of all the confused ideas spinning through Richardson’s head was one simple question which, he sensed, might well remain forever unanswered. Could Joan have had a hand in this? He had at least managed to ask Laura this during a moment’s breathing space. But Laura’s answer was totally unsatisfactory. “What makes you think anyone had anything to do with it? Maybe old man Brighting just had a change of heart.”
    All the same, it was the first time, so far as Richardson knew, that Brighting had ever changed his mind, and he wondered.

3
    A dmiral Brighting’s empire, carved out of an unlikely combination of Navy, industry and science, was the most complete and efficient Richardson had ever seen. A car met him very early Saturday morning at the Idaho Falls airport and took him immediately to “the site,” as his driver-escort referred to it. The site was nearly one hundred miles away, and the station wagon hurtled along at top speed, accelerator pressed to the floor, over a flat, hard-baked plain which stretched in all directions, as