gathered up the sheaf of
papers from the desk. "All right," he said. "Is there anything else?"

The espionage chief shook his head. "You do not need a step by step
blueprint, Anton, that is why you have been chosen for this
assignment. You are strongly based in Party doctrine. You know what is
needed, we can trust you to carry on the Party's aims." After a pause,
the Russian added, "Without being diverted by personal feelings."

Anton looked him in the face. "Of course," he said.

* * * * *

Fredric Ostrander was on the carpet.

His chief said, "You seem to have conducted yourself rather
precipitately, Fred."

Ostrander shrugged in irritation. "I didn't have time to consult
anyone. By pure luck, I spotted the Cunningham girl and since I knew
she had affiliated herself with Crawford, I followed her."

The chief said dryly, "And tried to arrest the seven of them, all by
yourself."

"I couldn't see anything else to do."

The C.I.A. official said, "In the first place, we have no legal
jurisdiction here and you could have caused an international stink.
The Russkies would just love to bring something like this onto the
Reunited Nations floor. In the second place, you failed. How in the
world did you expect to take on that number of men, especially
Crawford and his team?"

Ostrander flushed his irritation. "Next time ..." he began.

His chief waved a hand negatively. "Let's hope there isn't going to be
next time, of this type." He took up a paper from his desk. "Here's
your new job, Fred. You're to locate this El Hassan and keep in
continual contact with him. If he meets with any sort of success at
all, and frankly our agency doubts that he will, you will attempt to
bring home to Crawford and his followers the fact that they are
Americans, and orientate them in the direction of the West. Above all,
you are to keep in touch with us and keep us informed on all
developments. Especially notify us if there is any sign that our El
Hassan is in communication with the Russkies or any other foreign
element."

"Right," Ostrander said.

His chief looked at him. "We're giving you this job, Fred, because
you're more up on it than anyone else. You're in at the beginning, so
to speak. Now, do you want me to assign you a couple of assistants?"

"White men?" Ostrander said.

His higher-up scowled. "You know you're the only Negro in our agency,
Fred."

Fredric Ostrander, his voice still even