to
Homer Crawford. "The question becomes, why do you think that _you_ are
the man for the job? Who gave _you_ the go-ahead?"

Bey, who had settled down into a folding camp chair, now came to his
feet, his tired face angry.

But Homer waved him to silence. "Hold it," he said. Then to Ostrander.
"It doesn't work that way. It's not something you decide to do because
you're thirsty for power, or greedy for money. You're pushed into it.
Do you think Washington, a retired Virginian planter wrapped up in his
estate and his family, wanted to spend years leading the revolutionary
armies through the wilderness that was America in those days? He was
thrust into the job, there was no one else more competent to take it.
Men make the times, Ostrander, but the times also make the men. Look
at Lenin and Trotsky. Three months before the October Revolution,
Lenin wrote that he never expected to see in his lifetime the
Bolsheviks come to power. Within those months he was at the head of
government and Trotsky, a former bookworm who had never fired a gun in
his life, was head of the Red Army and being proclaimed a military
genius."

Ostrander was scowling at him, but his face was thoughtful.

Homer said quietly, "It's not always an easy thing, to have power thrust
into your hands. Not always a desirable thing." His voice went quieter
still. "Only a short time ago it led me to the necessity of ...
killing ... my best friend."

"And mine," Isobel said softly, almost under her breath.

Dave Moroka said, "Abe Baker," before he caught himself.

Kenny Ballalou looked at him strangely. "Did you know Abe?"

The South African recovered. "I've heard several of you mention him
from time to time. He was a commie, wasn't he?"

"Yes," Homer said without inflection. "And a man. He saved my life on
more than one occasion. As long as we worked together with only Africa
in mind, there was no conflict. But Abe had a further, and, to him,
greater alliance."

He turned his attention back to the C.I.A. man. "A man does what he
must do," he finished simply. "I did not ask to become El Hassan."

Ostrander said, "Your motivation is possibly beside the point. The
thing is that the battle for men's minds continues and your program,
eventually, must align with the West."

"And get clobbered in the stampeding around between the two great
powers," Kenny said dryly.

"You've got to take your stand," Ostrander said. "I'd rather die under
the neutron bomb