One was Blake, the Swifts’ Washington, B.C., telecaster. He introduced the other man, a calm-faced, balding individual in a dark suit.
“This is John Thurston of the Central Intelligence Agency, Tom,” Blake said.
“He thought it might be better to discuss this with you face to face.”
Tom, Bud, and Ames were also visible to the pair in Washington.
“Glad to know you, sir,” Tom said, and introduced his companions.
“We’ve identified the man you captured this morning,” Thurston began. “He’s in the United States on a French passport under the name of Jacques Renard.
But we’ve just learned from the International Police Organization that he’s actually a Brungarian. His name is Samson Narko.”
REPORT FROM INTERPOL 27
Tom and Ames exchanged startled glances. In the past, certain Brungarian factions had been responsible for some of the most fiendish plots ever perpetrated against the Swifts.
“Unfortunately, that’s not all,” Thurston went on. “Interpol believes that Narko is also a member of the same rebel outfit with whom you’ve had trouble before.”
Tom was dismayed by the news. “I sure thought that group had been smashedl” he said. Soon after Tom had balked their attempts to seize the satellite Nestria, the rebel ringleaders had reportedly been arrested and tried for treason.
“It now appears,” Thurston explained, “that only one segment was quelled.
Other members of the antigovernment movement are active again and are said to be strongly organized.”
The CIA man related even more sinister news. It was suspected that a larger nation-by aiding the rebels-was planning a coup to take over Brungaria. They had already subverted various government agencies and were sending their own professors to staff the Brungarian technical schools. It was all part of their insidious fifth-column pattern.