the desk, he saw that it too had disappeared, without a trace. General Morganson was the newest product of the Atomic Age, half soldier, half scientist—shrewd and perceptive, an intellectual giant. He listened carefully, without comment or change of expression, as Forster doggedly went through his story in chronological order. Half way through, he held up his hand and started pushing buttons on the console built into his desk. Within a few moments men began filing into the room, and sat down around Forster. Then the general motioned to the clerk seated in the corner by a tape recorder. "Gentlemen, listen to this playback and then I'll have Dr. Forster here go on from there." What was left of Forster's confidence leaked away as he heard his own diffident voice filling the room again. It was like being awake in the middle of a weird dream. But when the tape recorder hissed into silence, he went on, staring straight ahead of him in quiet desperation. When he ended his story, there was silence for a moment. Everyone sat motionless. Then Morganson looked up and around. "Well gentlemen? Mr. Bates, C.I.A. first." This was no longer a story told by one man; it had become a problem, a situation to be evaluated objectively. "Well, sir ... the only part of the thing I can comment on at this point is the stuff about O'Connor and Walters. That checks. They both disappeared without a trace. It was treated as a maximum security situation, and we did give out the story they had been assigned to special duty." He glanced briefly at Forster. "Up until now, we assumed that only the directors at Aiken and Oak Ridge knew the real situation—outside of the Atomic Energy Commission and C.I.A., of course. This represents a very serious leak—or...." His voice trailed away. "Colonel Barfield, Intelligence?" The young colonel tried to sound flippant, unsuccessfully. "General, acting on the assumption the story is true, it would answer about two hundred question marks in our files. Maybe more, with further study." The C.I.A.
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