In A.D. 2043 the world seemed doomed to suffer the impact of total war on a hitherto undreamed-of scale. The horrors of titanic bombardment and the searing ravages of electronic ray assault were slowly simmering up to a point when the Controllers themselves could not turn back. But it was only a handful of men and women, living and working in the underground dumps of destructive force, who fully appreciated the danger. They feared for their fellow beings; but when the war itself was due to start the blow came, not from a mortal enemy but from a far more terrible foe...