ere supremely confident in the ultimate outcome.

* * * * *

The intelligence service analysis of his latest conversation with Ivan
gave him something to think about later however. Andrei Sorkin had been
a physicist who had done considerable work in crystal-structure before
the Big Silence had cut off knowledge of his activities from the West.
Further, the Peoplesfriend's references to industrial usage, coupled
with his remarks about specialized labor, seemed to suggest that the
East had made great strides in servo-mechanisms and auto-control
devices. But control devices were not weapons in themselves. Electronic
rocket-pilots were not weapons unless there were rockets for them to
fly. Automatic target-trackers were not weapons unless they guided a
weapon to shoot at the target. It made little sense; he concluded that
Ivan had not meant it to make much sense. Smith could only interpret it
as meaning: "Our weapons are marvelously controlled; therefore we need
fewer of them."

On the probe front, events were about as usual. The lists of suspects
and convictions grew bulky enough to keep a large office staff busy with
details. More sinister, in the President's judgment, was the small list
of suspects who vanished or committed suicide at the slightest hint of
suspicion. The list grew at a slow but steady pace. John assumed that
these were certainly guilty. And thorough, searching inquiries into
their past activities were made. These post mortem probes revealed
nothing. Their records were clean. Their families, friends, relatives,
and even their ancestors were above suspicion. If they had sold out to
the enemy, they had given him nothing in return for his wages except
perhaps a promise to be fulfilled on a Deadline Day.

He called the Secretary of Defense and demanded a screening procedure be
adopted for future personnel, a procedure which would be aimed at
selecting men with fanatic loyalty, rather than merely guarding against
treason.

"We seem to already have something," murmured the Secretary, a slender,
graying gentleman with aristocratic features. "The incidents at the
satellite-project seem to indicate that there's something they don't
like about our ordinary testing methods."

"Eh? How do you mean?"

"Three men--volunteers for the project--vanished as soon as they found
out that they had to submit to all the physicals, mental tests, and so
forth. I don't know what they were afra