"Now then," Tracy snapped. "I want the names of your higher ups, and the address of your central office, Flowers. Frankly, you're in the soup. As you possibly know, our hush-hush department has unlimited emergency powers, being answerable only to the President." "I ... I've never even heard of it." Flowers stuttered. "But--" Tracy held up a contemptuous hand. "Many people haven't," he said curtly. * * * * * Frank Tracy hurried through the outer office into LaVerne Sandell's domain, and bit out to her, "Tell the Chief I'm here. Crisis. And immediately get my team together, all eight of them. Heavy equipment. Have a jet readied. Chicago. The team will rendezvous at the airport." LaVerne was just as crisp. "Yes, sir." She began doing things with buttons and switches. Tracy hurried into the Chief's office and didn't bother with the usual amenities. He snapped, "Worse than I thought, sir. This outfit is possibly openly subversive. Deliberately undermining the economy." His superior put down the report he was perusing and shifted his bulk backward. "You're sure? We seldom run into such extremes." "I know, I know, but this could be it. Possibly a deliberate program. I've taken the initiative to have Miss Sandell summon my team." "Now, see here, Frank--" The bureau head looked at him anxiously. Tracy said, impatience there, "Chief, you're going to have to let your field men use their discretion. I tell you, this thing is a potential snowball. I'll play it cool. Arrange things so that there'll be no scandal for the telly-reporters. But we've got to chill this one quickly, or it'll be on a coast to coast basis before the year is out. They're even talking about going into automobiles." The Chief winced, then said unhappily, "All right, Tracy. However, mind what I said. Curb those roughnecks of yours." * * * It proved considerably easier than Frank Tracy had hoped for. Adam Moncure's national headquarters turned out to be in a sparsely settled area not far from Woodstock, Illinois. The house, in the passe ranch style, must have once been a millionaire's baby, what with an artificial fishing lake in the back, a kidney shaped swimming pool, extensive gardens and an imposing approach up a corridor of trees. "Right up to the front door," Tracy growled to the operative driving the first hover-car of their two-vehicle expedition. "The quicker we move, the better." He turned his head to the men in the rear seat. "We five will go in together. I don't expect trouble, they'll have had no advance warning. I made sure of that. Jerry has equipment in his car to blanket any radio sending. We'll take care of phones in the house. No rough stuff, we want to talk to these people." One of the men growled, "Suppose they start shooting?" Tracy snorted. "Then shoot back, of course. But just don't you start it. I shouldn't have to tell you these things."