fully. "The point is well taken, I suppose.
However, so was the one expressed by Mr. Jackson. We do what we must,
and what we can." His eyes went over the assembly. "Is there any other
group from which we haven't heard?"

When there was silence, he added, "No group from the Soviet Complex?"

Ostrander, the C.I.A. operative, snorted. "Do you think they would admit
it?"

"Or from the Arab Union?" Crawford pursued. "Whether or not the Soviet
Complex has agents in this part of Africa, we know that the Arab Union,
backed by Islam everywhere, has. Frankly, we of the African Development
Project seldom see eye to eye with them which results in considerable
discussion at Reunited Nations meetings."

There was continued silence.

Elmer Allen came to his feet and looked at Ostrander, his face surly. "I
am not an advocate of what the Soviets are currently calling communism,
however, I think a point should be made here."

Ostrander stared back at him unblinkingly.

Allen snorted, "I know what you're thinking. When I was a student I
signed a few peace petitions, that sort of thing. How--or why they
bothered--the C.I.A. got hold of that information, I don't know, but as
a Jamaican I am a bit ashamed of Her Majesty's Government. But all this
is beside the point."

"What is your point, Elmer?" Crawford said. "You speak, of course, as an
individual not as an employee of the Reunited Nations nor even as a
member of my team."

"Our team," Elmer Allen reminded him. He frowned at his chief, as though
surprised at Crawford's stand. But then he looked back at the rest. "I
don't like the fact that the C.I.A. is present at all. I grow
increasingly weary of the righteousness of the prying for what it calls
subversion. The latest definition of subversive seems to be any chap who
doesn't vote either Republican or Democrat in the States, or
Conservative in England."

Ostrander grunted scorn.

Allen looked at him again. "So far as this job is concerned--and by the
looks of things, most of us will be kept busy at it for the rest of our
lives--I am not particularly favorable to the position of either side in
this never-warming cold war between you and the Soviet Complex. I have
suspected for some time that neither of you actually want an ending of
it. For different reasons, possibly. So far as the States are concerned,
I suspect an end of your fantastic military budgets would mean a
collapse of your economy. So far as the Soviets are conc