"Somehow, somewhere, someone must have gotten a line on the Nipe. He must
have a base for his operations, and someone should have found it by this
time.

"If there is such a base, then it must be possible to blast him out of it
without resorting to the kind of work it took to produce--me.

"I may be faster and more sensitive and stronger than the average man, but
that doesn't mean that I have superhuman abilities to the extent that I
can do in two or three years what the combined forces of the Government
couldn't do in ten. Certainly you wouldn't rely too heavily on it.

"And yet, apparently, you are.

"To me that can only mean that you've got another ace up your sleeve. You
_know_ we're going to get the Nipe before I die. You either have a sure
way of tracing him or else you already know where he is.

"Which is it?"

Colonel Mannheim sighed. "We know where he is. We've known for six years."

IV

INTERLUDE

The woman's eyes were filled with tears, for which the doctor was
privately thankful. At least the original shock had worn off.

"And there's nothing we can do? Nothing?" There was a slight catch in her
voice.

"I'm afraid not. Not yet. There are research teams working on the problem,
and one day ... perhaps...." Then he shook his head. "But not yet." He
paused. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Stanton."

The woman sat there on the comfortable chair and looked at the
specialist's diploma that hung on the doctor's wall--and yet, she didn't
really see the diploma at all. She was seeing something else--a kind of
dream that had been shattered.

After a moment, she began to speak, her voice low and gentle, as though
the dream were still going on and she were half afraid she might waken
herself if she spoke too loudly.

"Jim and I were so glad they were twins. Identical twin boys. He said--I
remember, he said, 'We ought to call 'em Ike and Mike.' And he laughed a
little when he said it, to show he didn't mean it.

"I remember, I was propped up in the bed, the afternoon they were born,
and Jim had brought me a new bed jacket, and I said I didn't need a new
one because I would be going home the next day, and he said: 'Hell, kid,
you don't think I'd just buy a bed jacket just for hospital use, do you?
This is for breakfasts in bed, too.'

"And that's when he said he'd seen the boys and said we ought to name them
Ike and Mike."

The tears were coming down Mrs. Stanton's cheeks heavily now, and grief
made her look ol