Sight Unseen by Brad Latham Read Free Book Online Page A

Czechoslovakia?”
    “Come on. Don’t start that liberal stuff.”
    “Do you think Franco’s going to be satisfied bombing Barcelona into ruins? The papers last week had interviews with refugees
     coming from there into France—wholesale executions again. The Japanese have tasted blood in China. They won’t stop till the
     minnow has swallowed the whale—
we’ve
had one world war and
we
had to fight in it, even though we struggled to stay out. It’s going to happen again. If Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, or Hirohito
     get Baby, they’re not only going to use it on Paris, London, and Stockholm, but on Washington, New York, and Philadelphia.”
    “You get worked up over all this, don’t you?” Lockwood said. “Europe has always had its internal quarrels, and the Orientals—who
     can understand what goes through their yellow minds?”
    Color rose in Myra’s cheeks, and she threw her napkin onto the table. “I don’t know if I can enjoy your company further, Mr.
     Lockwood.”
    “Hey, what’s got you so riled up?”
    “Your ignorance of world affairs.”
    “Politics hasn’t got anything to do with my job out here or our having a good time tonight. Let’s go back to where we were
     before you got so het up.”
    “No,” she said in a voice that fell like an axe between them. “I care about this world, Mr. Lockwood. It’s the only world
     I have. I care about the civilization in Europe—it’s our mother continent. I care about the civilization in China—it reaches
     back five thousand years through some of the most gorgeous turns man’s civilization has ever taken. What do you think the
     Japanese will leave of it? What do you think the Japanese will do with that bombsight?”
    For a few seconds, he pictured a stubby object with a lot of wires sticking out of it in Japanese hands.
    “Make more of them,” he answered.
    “And do what with them?”
    “Bomb something, I guess.”
    “And do you think they’re likely to stop at our shores if they’re not
made
to stop—people who’ve slaughtered thousands, millions of innocent people over the past three or four years? Why should they?”
    “Because we’re an ocean away.”
    Her sarcasm hit him like a slap across his face. “Have you ever heard of the airplane, Mr. Lockwood? Can’t you get it through
     your little Babbitt mind that this country is the richest prize these barbarians could grasp? And that once they’ve grasped
     everything and everybody else in the world, even we’ll be no match for them?”
    The waiter brought their main course, and what had seemed so appetizing in prospect, seemed lumpish to Lockwood with the turn
     the conversation had taken. He had heard other arguments like this—too many—over the past few months; this was the first time
     he had found himself embroiled in one. All he had bargained for had been a dinner companion, some information about the missing
     instrument, and possibly a roll in the hay if she too felt inclined. Still, her arguments and heat moved him. What if the
     world situation
was
as serious as she said, and what if he didn’t take it seriously and neither did other Americans? Would he wake up one morning
     to the sound of bombs hitting the Empire State Building? But wasn’t this all far-fetched? Wasn’t Europe 3000 miles away? Not
     even German bombers could fly the entire Atlantic Ocean with fuel for both directions and a load of bombs.
    Lockwood said, “I read that the British were stopping Hitler in Czechoslovakia.”
    Myra hissed a low-voiced, urgent reply, “Just weeks ago Great Britain reversed itself and refused to guarantee the Czechs
     against Hitler! That was the number one point in the Chamberlain agreement.”
    Lockwood threw his hands up. “I give up. I should pay more attention to world politics. Maybe you can give me pointers.”
    “I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t want to spoil the evening. There aren’t many men out here for me to go out with to ruin a
     perfectly