Latest / Suspense / Suspense - 58-08-03 The Voice Of Company A

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Suspense - 58-08-03 The Voice Of Company A · Suspense

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: And the producer of radio's outstanding theater of thrill, the
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: master of mystery and adventure, William N. Robeson. During its
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: long and distinguished career on the air, suspense has never
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: taken an editorial stand, until now. Now we state unequivocally
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: that this program is against murder. Oh, we play around
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: with the more titillating and entertaining aspects of murder from
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: time to time, but fundamentally, we're against it.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: As a personal, national.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: or international policy. Only those in favor of murder will
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: find anything objectionable or controversial in the next half hour.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: The story you are about to hear is but a
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: tiny word of protest.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Perhaps it is too little. But please, God, let it
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: not be too late.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Listen. Listen, then, as Everett Sloan stars in The Voice
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: of Company A, which begins in just a moment. And now,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: the voice of Company A, starring Everest Sloan. A tale
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: well calculated to keep you in suspense.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: I sat in my.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Lab at Cape Canaveral near the giant missile that would
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: launch our transmitter. I looked at the powerful sending set,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: knowing that soon we'd toss it into space to scream.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Crazily year after year at a crazy world. We tried
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: to keep the lab quiet, isolated. But in the.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Last few days, the tension of the mess outside had
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: somehow trickled in.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: I was bushed.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Doctor?
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: Yes, Colonel? I think it's coming.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Here, read this. Top priority from defense to me. From
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Secretary of Defense to Commander Operation Screamer. International situation deteriorating.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Commence countdown 0500 Zulu.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: Midnight, our time? That's right. Is your section ready? Yes,
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: we're ready. Here's the little monster. I just loaded the tape.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: You want to hear it? Yes. Brother.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: Yes, when we get all six of these in orbit,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: you might as well throw away your radio and TV.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: This is all you'll hear. But this is what we wanted. Well,
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: turn it off. Okay.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Well, I guess we can do without the soap operas
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: if it jams their military frequencies.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: The soap operas will lose their audience anyway.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: When the ballistic missiles hit. You know, this thing will
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: probably survive us, Colonel.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: You ever think of that? Screaming away up there when
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: there's nobody left to hear it? It's kind of funny
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: in a way. George, you're tired. Were you in London, Colonel,
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: in World War II?
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: No.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Burma.
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: Why?
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: I was in London when the V-2s first hit. 2nd Louis,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Company A, 16th Infantry. I was on a 72-hour pass
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: with some of my guys. We thought the V-2s were
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: the last word, Colonel. A regular bomb you could hear coming.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: You had somebody to be sore at that last few seconds.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Some pilot risked his tail to drop it anyway. Somebody
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: up there hated you. At least you knew that. It
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: wasn't humane, but at least it was human.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: But a V2, Colonel, it goes so fast you don't
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: hear it. And there's nobody to hate.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Except some guy sitting at a control panel a couple
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: hundred miles away. And now we've got ICBMs.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: 5,000 miles through space. Oh, yes. We've come a long way.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: A long way.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Yes. Yes.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: Well, I'll report that we're ready. The colonel looked at
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: me strangely as he left. I knew he thought.
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: I was cracking.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: Maybe he was right. Almost hating to do it, I
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: flicked on the radio knowing what I'd hear.
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: Under the age of 50 were called to the colors
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: in France today. Germany has mobilized the reserve components of
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: the new Wehrmacht. Ambassador Lippincott arrived this afternoon at Washington
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: National Airport and said that he saw no hope of
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: averting war.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: I turned it off. Once I thought it could never
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: happen again. Lying in the broken plaster and spilled beer
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: in a London pub with the sergeant's body pinning me
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: down and Pinky yelling for his mother, botched and groaning
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: in a corner.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: I knew it could. But it was happening again.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: And there seemed to be nothing I or anybody else
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: could do to stop it. I turned to the transmitter
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: to unplug it from the test console. That's when I
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: saw him looking at the fence.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: Hey, how did you get.
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: Who are you?
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  Speaker 2: Hello, Lieutenant. Or it's Doctor.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Now, ain't it?
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: Botchner.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: Is it Botchner? Yeah, Lieutenant.
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  Speaker 3: It's me, Sad Sack Botchner.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: But you were killed. You got killed in that pub.
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: Well, in a manner of speaking.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: No, no, I must be cracking up.
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: No, Lieutenant, relax. I got a message for you is all.
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: Me and Pinky and the Sarge and Pete, we drew
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: cards to see who'd come back.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: I won.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: But I don't... So you're going.
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: To toss this thing into space?
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: And it's got like a tape that plays over and over,
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: follows up the radios all over the world?
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: Yes, except our military frequencies.
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: Now, ain't that clever? Me and Pinky and Sergeant Pete,
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: we get creamed in that crummy pub in London, and
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: you come out smelling like a rose. And for what?
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: So you can figure out something like this?
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Now, look, Botchner, it wasn't only me, the Defense Department
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: and the.
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I know. I've been down that road, Lieutenants. Well,
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: me and Pinky and the Sergeant Pete figure you ought
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: to put something better than what you got on that
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: tape before it's too late.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: Something better? Like what?
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: Well, I'll tell you, Lieutenant. Pinky thought it up. Remember,
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: he was always kind of screwy on religion.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: So he told me, standing gray-faced and sloppy as ever
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: in my lab. I knew I was dreaming. I had
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: to be. He told me what to put on the tape.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: And I laughed. What is this, a joke?
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: We don't do much joking, Lieutenant. Mostly we sit around thinking...
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: Ten million guys in different uniforms... thinking of the dames
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: we didn't get to meet.
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: And the summer evenings we didn't get to smell.
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: And the kids we never got to have. Well, you
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: better do.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: What we say, Lieutenant....
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: Because tough as it is at times, it's better here.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: Then it is there.
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: We know, Lieutenant. We know.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: In a moment, we continue with the second act of.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: And now, starring Everett Sloan, act two of The Voice
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: of Company A. I sat for a long time wondering
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: if I'd really seen Pachner. Wondering if I was losing
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: my mind. And this idea of Pinky, or whosoever it was.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: It was crazy. But I knew suddenly that I had
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: to try it. I had to try it, but I
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: had to move fast.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: Once the installation crew arrived to pick up the jammer,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: it would be too late. There were almost a hundred
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: technicians working in my section. Like any group of Americans,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: they came from every background. Some, like von Terhoff, were
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: newly naturalized citizens. I buzzed my secretary on the intercom.
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: Yes, Doctor?
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: Get von Terhoff up here right away, Carolyn. And Pierre Duval,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: he speaks French, doesn't he? And that new technician, Barbara Chang,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: does she speak Chinese?
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: Yes, I think so. Send her up. Who speaks Russian?
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: Russian?
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: I don't know. Ah, Poznanski. A lot of Poles know Russian.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: Send him in, too. And, uh, Carolyn.
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: Yes, Doctor?
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: I want to see them one at a time.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: It was easy with Yuval and Poznanski. They accepted my
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: story without a question.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: But von Kirchhoff looked at me strangely. I did not
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: know you were a religious man, Herr Doktor. You say
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: that this is for your minister? Yes, it's just an
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: idea he had for next Sunday's sermon, Lon. If you'll
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: just speak into the mic.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: Well, it seems to me a strange time to be... Well,
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: it'll only take a minute. All right. Ready? Ready.
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: To solstice turn.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: Pretty Chinese microwave expert was so enthusiastic, I hated myself
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: and I lied to her.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: I haven't been to church since World War II. He
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: couldn't matter to his congregation, Doctor, but A native Chinese
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: wouldn't understand the religious significance. Oh, why not? Well, Confucius
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: put it another way. Well, recite that then. When she left,
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: I held the mic in my hand for a long while. Finally,
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: feeling strangely humble, I recorded the English version myself.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: When I was through, I spliced the tape into a
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: loop like the jamming tape so that it would repeat
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  Speaker 1: over and over.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: Over and over, year after year.
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  Speaker 1: I took the jamming tape out of the transmitter and
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: started to put in my new one.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: Was I crazy?
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Then I remembered the twisted bodies in the London pub,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: and Pinky and the Sergeant.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: Pete, and of course, Sad Sack Botchner. They seemed suddenly
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: very close. I finished.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: The installation crew arrived and took the transmitter away, and
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: soon it was midnight and the countdown began. My launching
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: station was in the blockhouse, but if I got there
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: too soon, I'd have to ground test the screamer and
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: the colonel would learn what was on the tape. And
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: if I didn't get there at all, they might not launch.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: So I waited and waited, watching through the lab window
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: while the last man left the missile gleaming.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: In the Florida moonlight. It was the longest.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: Half hour in my life.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: They were looking for me now. It was time to go.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: Running across the sand, I looked up at the missile. There,
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: high in the nose, rode the sphere that carried the jammer.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: Had I cut it too close?
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: As I reached the concrete blockhouse, the missile seemed to
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: be straining at an invisible leash.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: Vapor from its liquid oxygen was curling about its base. Hey! Hey,
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: let me in! It's Dr. Green! I looked at the
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: huge rocket. I could hear the pumps beginning to deliver
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: fuel to the nozzle.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: In less than a minute, a quarter of a million
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: pounds of fiery thrust would blast the area, and I
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: shriveled like an ant on a hot coal.
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: Hey!
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: Hey! Dr. Green, holy cow, don't get in here! 38 seconds.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: There's the colonel. Right here. Where have you been? This
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: thing hasn't been ground tested. Well, it isn't necessary. It'll transmit.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: Countdown procedure says do it and we'll do it. Now move, doctor.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: But I checked it on the console. I tell you,
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: it'll transmit. I want to hear that signal. It'll work,
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: I tell you. Oh, help me, doctor. If you don't
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: get going, I'll stop the launch. Now tune it in.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: I had to do it. As slowly as I could.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: I twisted the knobs on the test procedure.
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: 12, 11, 10, 14, 9, 10.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: What's that?
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: What's going on?
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: Hold that bird!
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: Corporal!
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: Put this man under arrest! He's crazy! Or he's an
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: enemy spy! Thou shalt not kill! Thou shalt not kill!
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: Who is the enemy, Colonel? Who is the enemy?
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: In a moment, we continue with the third act of Suspense.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: And now, starring Everett Sloan, act three of The Voice
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: of Company A. They treated me all right in the
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: detention cell at Cape Canaveral. They gave me a radio, the.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: Morning paper, all the coffee I could drink.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: They sent for a psychiatrist to see if I was crazy.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: Two men from the FBI questioned me to see if
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: I was a spy. Then I was alone until God
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: brought in breakfast.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: Hey, Doc. What's going on? You tell me. Well, my
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: wife and I, we sit down to eat this morning.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: We turn on the radio to find out if we
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: ought to be digging a hole somewhere. And this voice
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: comes out saying, Thou shalt not kill.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: And in all foreign languages.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: My wife, she thinks it's the end of the world. Well,
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: she may be right. What are they going to do
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: to you? Cry me for espionage, they tell me. If
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: they don't figure I'm nuts. Doc? Yes? We don't figure
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: you're nuts.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: When the guard left, I turned on the radio to
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: hear the worst. And it was the worst.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: And launched a.
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: Formal protest against what they called U.S. celestial propaganda. From Washington,
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: no word yet on what is intended by the strange
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: Screamer satellite, only instructions. Instructions on what to do if
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: its passage jammed shuttle rats frequently during a ballistic missile bombardment.
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: Suddenly, I heard it, blanking out the announcer. I looked
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: at my watch. Yes, that was it.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: It was due overhead.
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: Tu ne tueras pointe. Thou shalt not kill. I switched
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: off the set.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: I hadn't fully realized the power of our transmitter until
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: that moment. And I hadn't realized the power of the message.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: A shiver raced up my spine. I felt suddenly that.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: I was not alone. Then I saw him, slouching at
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: the window. Bachner?
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: Hello, Lieutenant. In the guardhouse, huh? Remember when you tossed
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: me in the stockade for being AWOL?
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: Well, this ought to square it.
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: Pinky and the Sarge and Pete and me, we've been
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: watching things. It's working out great.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, just fine.
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: There's an awful lot of people who don't want to
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: fight this war, Lieutenant. You ought to see them in
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: Europe and China. Don't you fret, Lieutenant. Things are going
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: to turn out all right. You see, Lieutenant, we know.
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: Slowly he disappeared. Slowly fading. It was weird.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: I knew that he only existed in my mind, but
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: as the day wore on and the next day and
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: the next, I wondered if he were right. Every four hours,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: the satellite broke in with that simple message. But in
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: the interval, the radio began to talk of reports of
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: a mutiny in the Hungarian army, a revolution against the
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Czech regime, small religious revivals starting in Germany.
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: The Defense Department is mom about what.
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: Was actually intended in the satellite launch Monday.
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: Results are clear.
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: Iron Curtain countries are busy battling anti-war sentiment. International tension
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: has eased. Ambassador Lippincott flew an hour ago to a
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: hastily planned conference in Geneva. More news after the 9 p.m.
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: Passage of the satellite. And the fourth night, the cell
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: door opened for the colonel. Hello, George. Hello, Colonel. You
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: bring the firing squad? George, I got a dispatch from defense. Yes?
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: You're to be released. Released? That's right.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: And we're not launching the rest of the screamers. They
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: decided that the crisis has passed. Now that the thing's
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: in perfect orbit, they want us to stop them.
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: But we can't. I know, I know, George. It's solar
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: power that could broadcast for the next 20 years. 50.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: And when it quits, Colonel, maybe we'd better launch another one.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: Hmm?
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: Oh, yes. I see what you mean. Uh, George. Yes?
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: One question. We know about Duval and the Chang girl
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: and Posnansky... Who recorded the English? Is that your voice?
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: I thought of the smashed bodies of my men in
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: that London pub. Pinky and the Sarge and Pete and
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: Sad Sack Bunchner.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: My voice, Colonel? No. Let's just say that's the voice
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: of Company A. To Zorstis Turton. To Zorstis Turton. Thou
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: shalt not kill. Thou shalt not kill. in which Everett
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: Sloan starred in William N.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: Robeson's production of The Voice of Company A by Michael Frost.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: In just a moment, the names of the supporting players
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: and a word about next week's story of suspense. Supporting
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: Everett Sloan and The Voice of Company A were Lillian Biaffe,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: John Daner, Barney Phillips, Jack Crucian, and Sam Pierce. Listen. Listen.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: Listen again next week when we return with The Diary
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: of the Phonia Winters, starring Mercedes McCambridge. Another tale well
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: calculated to keep you in... Suspense.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: Get the complete news first on the CBS radio network.