haggy,
overhanging brows, and his face was almost expressionless except for a
faint scowl that crossed it from time to time. In spite of the fact that
a Canadian education had wiped out all but the barest trace of German
accent, his Prussian training, of the old Junkers school, was still
evident. He demanded--and got--precision and obedience from his
subordinates, although he had no use for the strictly military viewpoint
of obsequiousness towards one's superiors.

He was sitting behind his desk, scowling slightly at some papers on it
when Houston stepped in.

"You wanted me to report straight to you, Mr. Reinhardt?"

Reinhardt looked up, his heavy face becoming expressionless. "Ah,
Houston. Yes; sit down. You did a fine job on that London affair; that's
what I call coming through at the last moment."

"How so?"

"Your orders to return," he said, "were cut before you found your man.
We have a much more important case for you than some petty pilfering
Controller. We are after much more dangerous game."

Houston nodded. "I see." Inwardly, he wondered. It was almost as if
Reinhardt knew that Houston had found out that the recall had come
early. Houston would have given his right arm at that moment to be able
to probe Reinhardt's mind. But he held himself back. He had, in the
past, sent tentative probes toward the Division Chief and found nothing,
but he didn't know whether it would be safe now or not. It would be
better to wait.

* * * * *

Reinhardt stood up, walked to the wall, and turned on a display screen.
He twisted a knob to a certain setting, and a map of Manhattan Island
sprang onto the screen in glowing color.

"As you know," Reinhardt said pedantically, "no Controller can do a
perfect job of controlling a normal person. No matter how much he may
want to make John Smith act naturally, some of the personality of the
Controller will show up in the actions of John Smith. Am I correct?"

Houston nodded without saying anything. The question was purely
rhetorical, and the statement was perfectly correct.

"Very well, then," Reinhardt continued, "by means of these
peculiarities, our psychologists have found that there is widespread,
but very subtle controlling going on right in the UN General Assembly
itself! The amazing thing is that they all bear the--shall we
say--trademark of the same Controller. Whoever he is, he seems to have a
long-range plan in mind; he wants to chang