ar place at a
particular time, with no advance warning, to transmit a picture of
something he had never seen before. I arranged this test myself, and I am
positive that there could be no trickery."

"Never seen before?" the Secretary repeated bewilderedly. He gestured at
the sketch. "Why, that's obviously Bill Donovan, of the Moscow delegation.
Poe could have seen a photograph of him somewhere before."

"Even so," the President pointed out, "there would be no way of knowing
that he would be at that spot. But that's beside the point. Look at that
necktie!"

"I had noticed it," the Defense Secretary admitted.

It was certainly an outstanding piece of neckwear. As drawn by Leonard
Poe, it was a piece of brilliant chartreuse silk, fully three and a half
inches wide at its broadest. Against that background, rose-pink nude girls
were cavorting with pale mauve satyrs.

"That tie," said the President, "was sent to me fifteen years ago by on of
my constituents, when I was in Congress. I never wore it, of course, but
it would have been criminal to have thrown away such a magnificently
obscene example of bad taste as that.

"I sent it to Donovan in a sealed diplomatic pouch by special courier,
with instructions to wear it at this time. He, of course, has no idea why
he is standing there. He is merely obeying orders.

"Gentlemen, this is completely convincing to me. Absolutely no one but
myself knew what I had in mind. It would have required telepathy even to
cheat.

"Thank you very much, Mr. Poe. Colonel Spaulding, you may proceed with
Operation Mapcase as planned."

* * * * *

"Dr. Malekrinova, will you initial these requisition forms, please."

Dr. Sonya Malekrinova, a dowdy-looking, middle-aged woman with unplucked
eyebrows and a mole on her chin, adjusted her steel-rimmed glasses, took
the proffered papers from the clerk, ran her eyes over them, and then put
her initials on the bottom of each page.

"Thank you, Comrade Doctor," said the clerk when she handed back the sheaf
of papers.

"Certainly, Comrade."

And the two of them went about their business.

Not far away, in the Cathedral of St. Basil, Vladimir Turenski, alias
Raphael Poe, was also apparently going about his business. The cathedral
had not seen nor heard the Liturgy of the Russian Orthodox Church or any
other church, for a good many decades. The Bolsheviks, in their zeal to
protect the citizens of the Soviet Unions