 However, as the U.S. Army has the only machine, Ed expects other powers will attack preemptively before America can use its decisive advantage.He pleads with Joe to retrieve letters containing plans for the machine from their safe-deposit box—he has left Joe a key—and send them to their addressees around the world.The story ends with military dispatches showing that Ed and Mike are dead, the bank and its contents have been destroyed by a direct hit with a nuclear weapon, and Washington, D. C. has been attacked with nuclear weapons.