In this chapter, the narrator tells us that the U.S. Air Force is preparing for war with the Russian Air Force. The narrator says that this is the last chance for the Russians to prove that they can defeat the American Air Force in combat. He says that the Russians are using a new type of bomb, called a metallic helium bomb, that can be dropped from the sky. He compares it to the intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, that the Americans have been using against the Russians.