“I’m sure Doctor Dahlgren will say the same thing. The attitude does you both credit,” Dale replied. “We aren’t angry at either one of you, believe me. If you ever need a letter of recommendation, if you ever need any kind of favor, get hold of one of us. We’ll take care of you. And you won’t suffer financially from what you’ve done here—I guarantee you that.”

“You guys have paid me more than I thought I’d make for years and years. I’m not complaining about that. I never would,” Jerry said.

The mission director waved his words aside. “Don’t worry about it. Listen to me—I’m telling you what’s what. Oh, and there’s this.” Dale went over to his desk, opened a drawer, pulled out a small piece of paper, and gave it to Jerry.

Jerry looked at it in confusion. “A post office box in Schenectady?”

“You’re a writer. You’re going to keep on writing. This is where you’ll send your work for vetting before you submit it. You don’t need to include a self-addressed stamped envelope. We’ll spring for return postage, too. And I promise a quick turnaround—we’re only looking for things that endanger security.”

“Uh, thanks, I guess.” Jerry folded the paper and stuck it in his wallet. He threw the dice one more time: “Can I do anything to get you to change your mind?”

“We value your contribution very highly. The list of possible outcomes you gave me was outstanding. And you were the one who brilliantly discovered the way into Humpty Dumpty. You’ll get full credit for it, too,” Dale said.

All of which added up to no. Jerry understood as much. He also understood that whatever credit he got would be in a classified report no one outside this extra-secret chunk of the CIA would ever see.

Sure enough, Dale finished with, “We’re going to go in another direction now, see how that works out. If we find we need you later, we’ll know how to get hold of you, right?”

“You’re the CIA, for God’s sake. Well, you aren’t, but the people you work for are. If they can’t find me, nobody can.”

“True enough.” Dale smiled, no doubt happy Jerry was being so civilized. Jerry would have screamed and kicked something if he’d thought it would do any good. He didn’t, worse luck. Dale added, “Whenever you change your address from now on, drop a line to that PO box in Schenectady.”