to get his shirts for you?”

“No. Stay away from him and anything he has touched. He has things to do, and apparently he hasn’t done them yet. I’m pretty sure he has an appointment to meet someone. That needs to go ahead. You’ve done your job.”

“What job is that?”

“You rattled him. That can be fatal for someone like your brother. He can’t afford that sort of emotion. He has too many enemies.”

“We argued, if that’s what you mean. That’s what we usually do when we bump into each other. I don’t think it rattled him at all.”

“I think it did. I think he’s off stride. At this point, it’s a question of waiting to see how much. I’m almost sure he’s operating on his own right now. When things are still small like this, I might be able to stop them. After that, the decisions are out of reach. People take sides, they draw big pictures. They get budgets.”

“Perhaps you could be more cryptic for me.”

“Later. We’ve got work to do.”

“Me? My work here is done.”

“Before I went to your hotel, I paid a call on the ambassador. He was surprised to see me.”

“I’ll bet.”

“Actually, I thought he was going to have a stroke. No such luck. When he could finally talk, he picked up the phone and told his aide that they were leaving immediately for Zurich. A meeting, he said. I saluted him from the front steps as his car went out the gate, but I don’t think he was mollified. So I went back to his office to write him a note.”

“You went into his office?”

“I sat at his desk, actually. He shouldn’t leave some of those documents lying around like that. The wrong people might read them. Apparently, the situation is fluid.”

“Are we back to cryptic? Because if we are, I’m going to my hotel.”

“Before that, you’ll have to do some shopping. There are new instructions from the Center for everyone working overseas. They can be summarized as follows: Collect vegetable seeds and food, food, food. Fertilizer if it is to be had, but the first priority is food. So is the second priority. And so is the third. On ships, on trucks, on bicycles—it doesn’t make any difference. For the moment, we grovel, we pander, we lick the boots of anyone who will deliver. You won’t believe the catchphrase that excuses this madness.” Sohn took a pen out of his pocket. “You need a pen?”

“That’s the ambassador’s. I saw him use it. You took the ambassador’s pen.”

“Don’t worry, I left him his pencils, most of them, anyway. What you need to worry about is the new instructions.”

“What happened to ‘crazy’?” I asked. “The last time you and I spoke, that was to be my message. It was delivered, incidentally.” I didn’t mention to whom.

“Scratch ‘crazy.’ According to the new, improved thinking, it will only scare people off. ‘Quietly desperate’—that’s where things are now. If you already told people we’re crazy, you’ll have to go back and undo it.” He unscrewed the pen and looked at the parts. ‘They’ll eat us up,” he said absently. “This is exactly what the wild dogs at our door have been waiting for. It’s suicide, admitting we’re weak.”

“I’m going to ask you a question.”

“Let me ask you one first. Your brother—do you know what a menace he is, Inspector? People like him think their time has come. The Center is distracted. Every day there is more to worry about. I think we may actually be coming out of the worst of it, but there is still plenty that can go wrong. Your brother and his friends were busy last year when the sky was darkest. They used the time well, and I’m a year behind. It might as well be a lifetime.”

“Do you want me to nod knowingly, Sohn? Or will you tell me what you are talking about first?”

“Imagine this. They’ve been digging, and planning, and putting together the pieces. A piece here. A piece there.” He moved the parts of the pen around on the table. “In a month or two, if they are left alone, they’ll be ready to walk into the Center and present what they’ve done. Then it will be too late. They’ll lay out plans, sketch out scenarios. And at that point, when I am asked what I think, it’s too late. Should I say: ‘No! Don’t do everything possible to protect the Fatherland.’ Or how about: ‘No! It is dangerous to go down