the other hand, Mr. Ambassador," Thrombley said, keeping his gaze
fixed on Hoddy's hands and apparently ready to both duck and shut up if
Hoddy moved a finger, "you will recall, I think, that Colonel Hickock
did do everything in his power to see that these Bonney brothers did not
reach court alive. And, let me add," he was getting bolder, tilting his
chin up a little, "it's a choice as simple as this: either Colonel
Hickock told them, or we have--and this is unbelievable--a traitor in
the Embassy itself."

That statement rocked even Hoddy. Even though he was probably no more
than one of Natalenko's little men, he still couldn't help knowing how
thoroughly we were screened, indoctrinated, and--let's face
it--mind-conditioned. A traitor among us was unthinkable because we just
couldn't think that way.

The silence, the sorrow, were palpable. Then I remembered, told them,
Hickock himself had been a Department man.

Stonehenge gripped his head between his hands and squeezed as if trying
to bring out an idea. "All right, Mr. Ambassador, where are we now?
Nobody who knew could have told the Bonney boys where Mr. Cumshaw would
be at 1030, yet the three men were there waiting for him. You take it
from there. I'm just a simple military man and I'm ready to go back to
the simple military life as soon as possible."

I turned to Gomez. "There could be an obvious explanation. Bring us the
official telescreen log. Let's see what calls were made. Maybe Mr.
Cumshaw himself said something to someone that gave his destination
away."

"That won't be necessary," Thrombley told me. "None of the junior clerks
were on duty, and I took the only three calls that came in, myself.
First, there was the call from Colonel Hickock. Then, the call about the
wrist watch. And then, a couple of hours later, the call from the
Hickock ranch, about Mr. Cumshaw's death."

"What was the call about the wrist watch?" I asked.

"Oh, that was from the z'Srauff Embassy," Thrombley said. "For some
time, Mr. Cumshaw had been trying to get one of the very precise
watches which the z'Srauff manufacture on their home planet. The
z'Srauff Ambassador called, that day, to tell him that they had one for
him and wanted to know when it was to be delivered. I told them the
Ambassador was out, and they wanted to know where they could call him
and I--"

I had never seen a man look more horror-stricken.

"Oh, my God! I'm the one who told them!"

What could I say? N