"Well, there's Suzanne," Kato began. "She had to clear out of France
because of political activities, after the collapse of the Fourth
Republic and the establishment of the Rightist Directoire in '57. And
she worked with Joliot-Curie, and she was at the University of Louvain
in the early '50s, when that place was crawling with Commies."
"And that brings us to Sir Neville," MacLeod added. "He dabbles in
spiritualism; he and Suzanne do planchette-seances. A planchette can be
manipulated. Maybe Suzanne produced a communication advising Sir Neville
to help the Komintern."
"Could be. Then, how about Lowiewski? He's a Pole who can't go back to
Poland, and Poland's a Komintern country." Kato pointed out. "Maybe he'd
sell us out for amnesty, though why he'd want to go back there, the way
things are now--?"
"His vanity. You know, missionary-school native going back to the
village wearing real pants, to show off to the savages. Used to be a
standing joke, down where I came from." MacLeod thought for a moment.
"And Rudolf: he's always had a poor view of the democratic system of
government. He might feel more at home with the Komintern. Of course,
the Ruskis killed his parents in 1945--"
"So what?" Kato retorted. "The Americans killed my father in 1942, but
I'm not making an issue out of it. That was another war; Japan's a
Western Union country, now. So's Germany----How about Heym, by the way?
Remember when the Komintern wanted us to come to Russia and do the same
work we're doing here?"
"I remember that after we turned them down, somebody tried to kidnap
Karen," MacLeod said grimly. "I remember a couple of Russians got rather
suddenly dead trying it, too."
"I wasn't thinking of that. I was thinking of our round-table argument
when the proposition was considered. Heym was in favor of accepting. Now
that, I would say, indicates either Communist sympathies or an
overtrusting nature," Kato submitted. "And a lot of grade-A traitors
have been made out of people with trusting natures."
MacLeod got out his pipe and lit it. For a long time, he stared out
across the mountain-ringed vista of sagebrush, dotted at wide intervals
with the bulks of research-centers and the red roofs of the villages.
"Kato, I think I know how we're going to find out which one it is," he
said. "First of all, you write up your data, and falsify it so that it
won't do any damage if it gets into Komintern hands. And then--"
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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