"Senator, it's not that easy.  Give us some time.  At the moment we may not even want to know.  To summarize, somebody has laid a colossal piece of disinformation on the Soviet Navy.  It was probably aimed at merely shaking them up, but it has clearly gotten out of hand.  How or why it happened, we do not know.  You can bet, however, that whoever initiated this operation is working very hard to cover his tracks."  Ritter wanted the senator to get this right.  "If the Soviets find out who did it, their reaction will be nasty—depend on it.  In a few weeks we might know more.  The Israelis owe us for a few things, and eventually they'll let us in on it."

"For a couple more F-15s and a company of tanks," Donaldson observed.

"Cheap at the price."

"But if we're not involved in this, why the secrecy?"

"You gave me your word, Senator," Ritter reminded him.  "For one thing, if word leaked out, would the Soviets believe we're not involved?  Not likely!  We're trying to civilize the intelligence game.  I mean, we're still enemies, but having the various intelligence services in conflict uses up too many assets, and it's dangerous to both sides.  For another, well, if we ever do find out how all this happened, we just might want to make use of it ourselves."

"Those reasons are contradictory."

Ritter smiled.  "The intelligence game is like that.  If we find out who did this, we can use that information to our advantage.  In any case, Senator, you gave me your word, and I will report that to the president on my return to Langley."

"Very well."  Donaldson rose.  The interview was at an end.  "I trust you will keep us informed of future developments."

"That's what we have to do, sir." Ritter stood.

"Indeed.  Thank you for coming down."  They did not shake hands this time either.

Ritter walked into the hall without passing through the anteroom.  He stopped to look down into the atrium of the Hart building.  It reminded him of the local Hyatt.  Uncharacteristically, he took the stairs instead of the elevator down to the first floor.  With luck he had just settled a major score.  His car was waiting for him outside, and he told the driver to head for the FBI building.

"Not a CIA operation?"  Peter Henderson, the senator's chief aide, asked.

"No, I believe him," Donaldson said.  "He's not smart enough to pull something like that."

"I don't know why the president doesn't get rid of him," Henderson commented.  "Of course, the kind of person he is, maybe it's better that he's incompetent."  The senator agreed.

When he returned to his office, Henderson adjusted the venetian blinds on his window, though the sun was on the other side of the building.  An hour later the driver of a passing Black & White taxicab looked up at the window and made a mental note.