le. Himself included."
He nodded again. "If he does that, we can protect his reputation, after
he's dead."
"I don't really see how," Sir Neville objected. "When the Counter
Espionage people were brought into this, the thing went out of our
control."
"Why, this chauffeur was the spy, as well as the spy-courier," MacLeod
said. "The information he transmitted was picked up piecemeal from
different indiscreet lab-workers and students attached to our team. Of
course, we are investigating, mumble-mumble. Naturally, no one will
admit, mumble-mumble. No stone will be left unturned, mumble-mumble.
Disciplinary action, mumble-mumble."
"And I suppose he got that microfilm piecemeal, too?" Lowiewski asked.
"Oh, that?" MacLeod shrugged. "That was planted on him. One of our girls
arranged an opportunity for him to steal it from her, after we began to
suspect him. Of course, Kato falsified everything he put into that
report. As information, it's worthless."
"Worthless? It's better than that," Kato grinned. "I'm really sorry the
Komintern won't get it. They'd try some of that stuff out with the big
betatron at Smolensk, and a microsecond after they'd throw the switch,
Smolensk would look worse than Hiroshima did."
"Well, why would our esteemed colleague commit suicide, just at this
time?" Karen Hilquist asked.
"Maybe plutonium poisoning." Farida suggested. "He was doing something
in the radiation-lab and got some Pu in him, and of course, shooting's
not as painful as that. So--"
"Oh, my dear!" Suzanne protested. "That but stinks! The great Adam
Lowiewski, descending from his pinnacle of pure mathematics, to perform
a vulgar experiment? With actual _things_?" The Frenchwoman gave an
exaggerated shudder. "Horrors!"
"Besides, if our people began getting radioactive, somebody would be
sure to claim we were endangering the safely of the whole establishment,
and the national-security clause would be invoked, and some nosy person
would put a geiger on the dear departed," Sir Neville added.
"Nervous collapse." Karen said. "According to the laity, all scientists
are crazy. Crazy people kill themselves. Adam Lowiewski was a scientist.
Ergo Adam Lowiewski killed himself. Besides, a nervous collapse isn't
instrumentally detectable."
Heym ben-Hillel looked at MacLeod, his eyes troubled.
"But, Dunc; have we the right to put him to death, either by his own
hand or by an Army firing squad?" he asked. "Remember he is not only
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