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to seek; a photographic film strapped next to my ski would cloud in twenty minutes. I was sufferingfroi
cumulative minimal radioactive poisoning. Nowel defined cancer that could be operated on, but asytemic
deterioration of function and tissue. There w~ no help for it, and there was work to be done. I ve a ways
attributed it mainly to the week I spentsittir on those canisters before the raid on Berlin.
February 17, 1951. I missed thetelevue flashaboi the plane crash that killed the President because I
w~ lying down in my apartment. Manning, by thattim was requiring me to rest every afternoon afterlunc
though I was still on duty. I first heard about it fro:
mysecretary when I returned to my office, and atom hurried into Manning s office.
There was a curious unreality to that meeting.seemed to me that we had slipped back to that d~
when I returned from England, the day thatEstelKarst died. He looked up. Hello, John, he said.
I put my hand on his shoulder. Don t take it hard, chief, was all I could think of to say.
Forty-eight hours later came the message fromti newly sworn-in President for Manning to report him.
I took it in to him, an officialdespatch which decoded. Manning read it, face impassive.
Are you going, chief? I asked.
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Eh?Why, certainly.
I went back into my office, and got my topcoat, gloves, and briefcase.
Manning looked up when I came back in. Never mind, John, he said. You re not going. I guess I
must have looked stubborn, for he added, You re not to go because there is work to do here. Wait a
minute. He went to his safe, twiddled the dials, opened it and removed a sealed envelope which he
threw on the desk between us. Here are your orders. Get busy.
He went out as I was opening them. I read them through and got busy. There was little enough time.
The new President received Manning standing and in the company of several of his bodyguards and
intimates. Manning recognized the senator who had led the movement to use the Patrol to recover
expropriated holdings in South America and Rhodesia, as well as the chairman of the committee on
aviation with whom he had had several unsatisfactory conferences in an attempt to work out a modus
operandifor.reinstituting commercial airlines.
You re prompt, I see, said the President. Good. Manning bowed.
We might as well come straight to the point, the Chief Executive went on. There are going to be some
changes of policy in the administration. I want your resignation.
I am sorry to have to refuse, sir.
We ll see about that. In the meantime, Colonel Manning, you are relieved from duty.
Mr. Commissioner Manning, if you please.
The new President shrugged. One or the other, as you please. You are relieved, either way.
I am sorry to disagree again. My appointment is for life.
That s enough, was the answer. This is the United States of America. There can be no higher
authority. You are under arrest.
I can visualize Manning staring steadily at him for
along moment, then answering slowly, You a physically able to arrest me, I will concede, but I a vise
you to wait a few minutes. He stepped to thewidow . Look up into the sky.
Six bombers of the Peace Commissionpatrolh over the Capitol. None of those pilots isAmeric ~ born,
Manning added slowly. If you confineni none of us here in this room will live out the day. There were
incidents thereafter, such as theunfctunate affair at FortBenning three days later, and t] outbreak in the
wing of the Patrol based in Lisbon au its resultant wholesale dismissals, but forpractic purposes, that was
all there was to the coupd etat . Manning was the undisputed military dictator the world.
Whether or not any man as universally hated Manning can perfect the Patrol he envisioned, make
self-perpetuating and trustworthy, I don tkno and because of that week of waiting in a buried Enlish
hangar I won t be here to find out.Manninl heart disease makes the outcome even moreuncc tam he
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may last another twenty years; he mayke over dead tomorrow and there is no one to take F place. I ve
set this down partly to occupy the she time I have left and partly to show there isanoth side to any story,
even world dominion.
Not that I would like the outcome, either way. there is anything to this survival-after-death busine5 I am
going to look up the man who invented thebc and arrow and take him apart with my barehanc For
myself, I can t be happy in a world where any ma or group of men, has the power of death over youai
me, our neighbors, every human, every animal, eve living thing. I don t like anyone to have that kind
power.
And neither does Manning.
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