re wrong there, Kirill. I've heard
about him in half a dozen places. Very mysterious figure. Nobody seems
to have seen him, but word of his program is passed around from
Ethiopia to Mauretania."

The Russian was shaking his head negatively. "That I know. It's a
rather strange story and one rather hard to believe if it wasn't for
the fact that one of my operatives was in on the, ah, _manufacturing_
of this Saharan leader."

"Manufacturing?"

"I'll give you the details later. Were you acquainted with Abraham
Baker, the American comrade?"

"Were? I _am_ acquainted with him. Abe is a friend as well as a
comrade."

The Russian shook his head again. "Baker is dead, Anton. As you
possibly know, his assignment for the past few years has been with a
Reunited Nations African Development Project team, working in the
Sahara region. We planted him there expecting the time to arrive when
his services would be of considerable value. He worked with a five-man
team headed by a Dr. Homer Crawford and largely the team's task was to
eliminate bottlenecks that developed as the various modernization
projects spread over the desert."

"But what's this got to do with _manufacturing_ El Hassan?"

"I'm coming to that. Crawford's team, including Comrade Baker, usually
disguised themselves as Enaden smiths. As such, their opinions carried
little weight so in order to spread Reunited Nations propaganda, they
hit upon the idea of imputing everything they said to this great hero
of the desert, El Hassan."

"I see," the man called Anton said.

"Others, without knowing the origin of our El Hassan, took up the idea
and spread it. These nomads are at an ethnic level where they want a
hero to follow, a leader. So in order to give prestige to their
teachings the various organizations trying to advance North Africa
followed in Crawford's footsteps and attributed their teachings to
this mysterious El Hassan."

"And it snowballed."

"Correct! But the point is that after a time Crawford came around to
the belief that there should be a real El Hassan. That the primary
task at this point is to unite the area, to break down the old tribal
society and introduce the populace to the new world."

"He's probably right," the man called Anton growled. He finished his
drink, got up from his chair and on his own went over and mixed
another. "More vodka?" he asked.

"Please." The Russian held up his glass and went on talking. "Yes,
undoubtedly that is wh