"Dr. Lugovoy?"

Lugovoy's concentration was interrupted by the strange voice, and he turned, surprised, to see a stocky man with rugged Slavic features and shaggy black hair who seemingly stepped out of a wall.

"Who are you?" he blurted.

The stranger spoke very softly as though he didn't wish to be overheard. "Suvorov, Paul Suvorov, foreign security."

Lugovoy paled. "My God, you're KGB? How did you get here?"

"Pure luck," Suvorov muttered sarcastically. "You were assigned to my security section for observation from the day'you set foot in New York. After your suspicious visit to the Bougainville Maritime offices, I took over your surveillance myself. I was present on the ferryboat when you were contacted by the men who brought you here.

Because of the darkness I had no difficulty mingling with your staff and being included for the trip to wherever it is we are.

Since our arrival I've kept to my room."

"Do you have any idea what you've stuck your nose into?"

Lugovoy said, his face flushing with anger.

"Not yet," Suvorov said, unperturbed. "But it is my duty to find out."

"This operation originates from the highest level. It is of no concern to the KGB."

"I'll be the judge-"

"You'll be crap in Siberian frost," Lugovoy hissed, "if you interfere with my work here."

Suvorov appeared mildly amused at Lugovoy's irritated tone. It slowly began to dawn on him that he might have overstepped his authority. "Perhaps I could be of help to you."

"How?"

"You may have need of my special skills."

"I don't require the services of an assassin.

"I was thinking more of escape."

"There is no reason to escape."

Suvorov was becoming increasingly annoyed. "You must try to understand my position."

Lugovoy was in command now. "There are more important problems to occupy my mind than your bureaucratic interference."

"Like what?" Suvorov swept his hand around the room. "Just what is going on here?"

Lugovoy stared at him consideringly for a long moment before yielding to vanity. "A mind-intervention project."

Suvorov's eyebrows rose. "Mind intervention?"

"Brain control if you prefer."

Suvorov faced the vineo monitor and nodded at the image. "is that the reason for the small helmet?"

"On the subject's head?"

"The same."

"A microelectronic integrated circuit module containing a hundred and ten probes, measuring internal body fudetions ranging from common pulse to hormone secretions. It also intercepts data flowing through the subject's brain and transmits it to the computers here in this room. The brain's talk, so to speak, is then translated into a comprehensible language."

"I see no electrode terminals."

"From a bygone era," answered Lugovoy. "Everything we wish to record can be telemetered through the atmosphere. We no longer rely on the unnecessary bulk of wires and terminals."

"You can actually understand what he's thinking?" asked Suvorov incredulously.