ce of the Cold War." The
trouble was it wasn't something you could turn off. It had its
shortcomings when you found time for some personal life.

He reached the Chief's office, rapped with a knuckle and pushed his way
through.

The Chief and a male secretary, who was taking dictation, looked up. The
secretary frowned, evidently taken aback by the cavalier entrance, but
the Chief said, "Hello, Paul, come on in. Didn't expect you quite so
soon." And to the secretary, "Dickens, that's all."

When Dickens was gone the Chief scowled at his trouble-shooter. "Paul,
you're bad for discipline around here. Can't you even knock before you
enter? How is Nicaragua?"

Paul Koslov slumped into a leather easy-chair and scowled. "I did knock.
Most of it's in my report. Nicaragua is ... tranquil. It'll stay
tranquil for a while, too. There isn't so much as a parlor pink--"

"And Lopez--?"

Paul said slowly, "Last time I saw Raul was in a swamp near Lake
Managua. The very last time."

The Chief said hurriedly, "Don't give me the details. I leave details up
to you."

"I know," Paul said flatly.

His superior drew a pound can of Sir Walter Raleigh across the desk,
selected a briar from a pipe rack and while he was packing in tobacco
said, "Paul, do you know what day it is--and what year?"

"It's Tuesday. And 1965."

The bureau chief looked at his disk calendar. "Um-m-m. Today the Seven
Year Plan is completed."

Paul snorted.

The Chief said mildly, "Successfully. For all practical purposes, the
U.S.S.R. has surpassed us in gross national product."

[Illustration]

"That's not the way I understand it."

"Then you make the mistake of believing our propaganda. That's always a
mistake, believing your own propaganda. Worse than believing the other
man's."

"Our steel capacity is a third again as much as theirs."

"Yes, and currently, what with our readjustment--remember when they used
to call them _recessions_, or even earlier, _depressions_--our steel
industry is operating at less than sixty per cent of capacity. The
Soviets always operate at one hundred per cent of capacity. They don't
have to worry about whether or not they can sell it. If they produce
more steel than they immediately need, they use it to build another
steel mill."

The Chief shook his head. "As long ago as 1958 they began passing us,
product by product. Grain, butter, and timber production, jet aircraft,
space flight, and coal--"

Paul leaned for