"Buzz Sayer."

"Be serious!"

"I am. Sayer, not Sawyer. He worked with dad in Alaska. Some sort of electronic genius. I think he is a civilian consultant on the Distant Early Warning Line. After my mother died dad took up ham radio as a way to make it through lonely nights. Buzz helped hook an antenna powerful enough to pull in Japan, and other places Dad had friends."

"Kilpinski said Buzz had been a captain. In what?"

"In WW 2, he was in the Army. That's where the nickname came from. Buzz Sawyer, in the comic strip was a Navy pilot, but as Sayer was in the air force, even though he wasn't a flyer, that was enough..."

"Air Force? You just said Army."

"Jed. I'm surprised. How could you of all people not remember that the U.S. Air Force was not a separate service until 1947. In World War II, it was the AAF, or Army Air Force."

"Hmmm. OK, what can you tell me about 'Hoot-something'? A place name."

"In Alaska?"

"Yes."

"Hootalinqua. It's an Air Force radar station sitting on the side of a mountain, just north of the Kuskokwim River. I've been there once, well, almost, actually only to the airstrip, as the main camp and installation is a 205-15 project."

"What does that mean?"

"One step above top secret."

"Why?"

"Don't know."

"Is the only access by air?"

"That, and cat train in the winter across frozen muskeg from McGrath."

"Keep petting Big Enough. Good. Is there any other airport in the area?"

"A bush strip in an Indian village about five miles away."

"Could we slip in after dark without being noticed?"