matter, how did you get inside the Kremlin walls?

Under his breath he cursed Sheridan Hennessey. Why had he allowed
himself to be dragooned into this? By all criteria it was the
desperate clutching of a drowning man for a straw. He had no way to
know, for instance, if he did reach the space emissaries, that he
could even communicate with them.

He caught himself wishing he was back in Peru arguing with hesitant
South Americans over the relative values of American and Soviet
complex commodities--and then he laughed at himself.

There was a knock at the door.

Hank came wearily to his feet, crossed and opened it.

She still wore too much make-up, the American sweater and the flared
heel shoes. And her eyes were still cool and alert. She slid past him,
let her eyes go around the room quickly. "You are alone?" she said in
Russian, but it was more a statement than question.

Hank closed the door behind them. He scowled at her, put a finger to
his lips and then went through an involved pantomime to indicate
looking for a microphone. He raised his eyebrows at her.

She laughed and shook her head. "No microphones."

"How do you know?"

"We know. We have contacts here in the hotel. If the KGB had to put
microphones in the rooms of every tourist in Moscow, they'd have to
increase their number by ten times. In spite of your western ideas to
the contrary, it just isn't done. There are exceptions, of course, but
there has to be some reason for it."

"Perhaps I'm an exception." Hank didn't like this at all. The C.I.A.
men had been of the opinion that the KGB was once again thoroughly
checking on every foreigner.

"If the KGB is already onto you, Henry Kuran, then you might as well
give up. Your mission is already a failure."

"I suppose so. Will you have a chair? Can I offer you a drink? My
roommate has a bottle of Stolichnaya vodka which he brought from the
boat."

There was an amused light in her eyes even as she shook her head.
"Your friend Paco is quite a man--so I understand. But no, I am here
for business." She took one of the armchairs and Hank sank into
another opposite her.

[Illustration]

"The committee has decided to assist you to the point they can."

"Fine." Hank leaned forward.

"Tomorrow your Progressive Tours group is to have a conducted tour of
the Kremlin museum, Ivan the Great's Tower, and the Assumption
Cathedral."

"In the _Kremlin_?"

She was impatient. "The Kremlin is considerably l