She didn’t think at first that Shearson had noticed her, but as they followed him down the walkway to the aeroplane, the senator said loudly, without turning around, ‘Who’s the girl, Peter?’

‘Karen Fortunoff,’ said Peter. ‘My head girl. Very efficient.’

‘Good,’ rumbled Shearson. ‘I like to have pretty girls around me. I congratulate your taste.’

Peter took Karen’s elbow as they boarded the plane. ‘See?’ he whispered. ‘He likes you.’

Karen gave him an uneasy grin. ‘As long as he doesn’t want me, I don’t mind.’

*

Dr Benson yawned as he walked along the corridor to his office in the Kansas Agricultural Research building. He could hear his telephone ringing but he wasn’t going to hurry. He was too tired after driving all the way back from the experimental agricultural station near Hays, and all he wanted now was a cup of hot coffee, a bath, and six hours’ sleep.

The phone was still ringing as he pushed open the door of his untidy office and threw his dogeared briefcase into a corner. He took off his car-coat, hung it up on the back of the door, and then shuffled through the heap of papers on his desk to see if the telephone was anywhere within easy reach. He found it at last, sniffed, and picked it up.

‘Yes?’ he asked, non-committally.

‘Is that Dr Nils Benson?’ asked an intent voice.

‘Who wants him?’

‘Professor Protter, from the Federal Agricultural Research laboratory in Washington.’

‘Oh, I see. Then this is he. How do you do, Professor. I’m glad you called.’

Professor Protter sounded anxious. ‘I’m glad you answered,’ he said. ‘I was just about to hang up.’

Dr Benson lifted his eyeglasses with his left hand and pinched the bridge of his nose to relieve the pressure of tiredness. ‘I went out to the state experimental farm at Garden City, and then over to the experimental agricultural station at Hays. It’s been a pretty exhausting couple of days. I only just walked into the office.’

‘Have your state research people found anything out?’

‘Not a lot,’ said Dr Benson. ‘But they confirmed the blight is a virus of some kind – which is what I originally guessed it to be. They’re running more tests over the weekend.’

‘Listen,’ said Professor Protter, ‘they’re absolutely right when they say it’s a virus. We took it to the chemical warfare people, and they identified it almost straight away as a new strain of Vorar D.’

‘Vorar D? I read about that. So, I wasn’t so far off target after all. I told one of our farmers here that the blight was probably started deliberately.’

‘I’m not hazarding any guesses about how it was started,’ said Professor Protter. ‘That’s up to the FBI. But I am worried about the lack of concrete help I’m getting from the Agriculture Committee in general and Senator Shearson Jones in particular.’