Produced by Greg Weeks, Bruce Albrecht, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net REVOLUTION By MACK REYNOLDS _Before you wish for something--or send agents to get it for you--make very, very sure you really want it. You might get it, you know...._ Illustrated by Gardner Preface ... _For some forty years critics of the U.S.S.R. have been desiring, predicting, not to mention praying for, its collapse. For twenty of these years the author of this story has vaguely wondered what would replace the collapsed Soviet system. A return to Czarism? Oh, come now! Capitalism as we know it today in the advanced Western countries? It would seem difficult after almost half a century of State ownership and control of the means of production, distribution, communications, education, science. Then what? The question became increasingly interesting following recent visits not only to Moscow and Leningrad but also to various other capital cities of the Soviet complex. A controversial subject? Indeed it is. You can't get much more controversial than this in the world today. But this is science fiction, and here we go._ * * * * * Paul Koslov nodded briefly once or twice as he made his way through the forest of desks. Behind him he caught snatches of tittering voices in whisper. "... That's him ... The Chief's hatchetman ... Know what they call him in Central America, a _pistola_, that means ... About Iraq ... And that time in Egypt ... Did you notice his eyes ... How would you like to date _him_ ... That's him. I was at a cocktail party once when he was there. Shivery ... cold-blooded--" Paul Koslov grinned inwardly. He hadn't asked for the reputation but it isn't everyone who is a legend before thirty-five. What was it _Newsweek_ had called him? "The T. E. Lawrence of the Cold War." The trouble was it wasn't something you could turn off. It had its shortcomings when you found time for some personal life. He reached the Chief's office, rapped with a knuckle and pushed his way through. The Chief and a male secretary, who was taking dictation, looked up. The secretary frowned, evidently taken aback by the cavalier entrance, but the Chief said, "Hello, Paul, come on in. Didn't expect you quite so soon." And to the secretary, "Dickens, that's all." When Dickens was gone the Chief scowled at his trouble-shooter. "Paul, you're bad for discipline around here. Can't you even knock before you enter? How is Nicaragua?" Paul Koslov slumped into a leather easy-chair and scowled. "I did knock. Most of it's in my report. Nicaragua is ... tranquil. It'll stay tranquil for a while, too. There isn't so much as a parlor pink--" "And Lopez--?" Paul said slowly, "Last time I saw Raul was in a swamp near Lake Managua. The very last time." The Chief said hurriedly, "Don't give me the details. I leave details up to you." "I know," Paul said flatly.