“Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers in the Pacific—MacArthur’s boys in Tokyo. It doesn’t hurt to tell you. During the war, you had the OSS and the MIS and later the CIG and what have you, but now there’s a need for a new, prevailing agency. Because of the Red Menace, you see—this Cold War of ours could get hot any time, especially in Asia. Now, there’s another new gang calling themselves the CIA. They want to absorb us all, but we’ll see. We might well end up on top. If we can help it. Don’t make the claim if you don’t got the aim!”

Lett was getting as used as he could to Lansdale’s impromptu slogans. He had learned just to nod and smile, as if Lansdale had offered words both profound and entertaining. But he couldn’t just laugh. It wasn’t a joke. Just laughing made Lansdale glower and leave the room, which he did once, and he took too long to come back. As Lansdale came and went, Lett noticed he had the slightest stoop, and his left arm tended to dangle with his left hand twisting slightly. At first Lett thought this pointed to a disability. That was far off the mark. It was just Lansdale. He had his own way.

“I can’t believe you had me sent here from halfway around the world,” Lett asked at one point.

“That was Colonel Selfer’s doing, getting the ball rolling. But it was your own keen initiative that started it. You’re quite the go-getter! As far as transport goes, well, we do that all the time. No matter if it’s for the right goal or for the right man. The right man is so hard to find, especially one who’s been proven in the field. And you’re definitely the right man.”

“What’s an intelligence agency doing in the healing business? I mean, this isn’t part of a VA program, yet you want to cure combat fatigue?”

Lansdale grinned and kept grinning, showing Lett plenty of yellow teeth. He held up a finger. “We want to understand better how men reason, and don’t reason. Isn’t that what intelligence is all about? Yes? Yes. Besides, it gives our new agency a damn fine edge. Because it’s the future. Strike that—you’re the future!”

At one point, Lett gestured at the two men in coveralls out in the corridor and asked Lansdale, “Do they need to be here?”

Lansdale shrugged.

“When they first came?” Lett said. “By the looks of them I was a little worried you were going to replace my carburetor or tinker with my ticker or something worse.”

“Say no more,” Lansdale said, and the men only ever returned to bring him his chow.

***