*  *  *  *  *

As Eve was arriving at the Century Plaza Hotel, Burgess Whitcomb was sitting in his office, so angry he could imagine red clouds of steam sizzling from his ears.  He took the flask of bourbon out of his bottom drawer and took a large gulp; uncharacteristic behavior for him this early in the morning.  He waited for the tendrils of searing heat to take effect and tried to breath slowly, contemplating the ruins of his investigation.

First, the complete files had been shredded, stolen, or both.  Then, this morning, Sergi Malcovich had changed his story.  He would not press charges against Sabrina Miller, saying a dog had bitten him.  He had written up a report with that statement, which was in direct conflict with his previous report, which was, of course, missing.  Ivar Cousin was backing him up.  To top it all, the computers were coming up with astounding changes, showing that there was a person named Eve Miller with a paper history.

This morning, when two of his agents had gone to Sabrina's Fashions to pick the women up for questioning, three huge Japanese men had taken one of them, practically from under their noses.  They had taken each women separately to some suite at the Century Plaza Hotel.  There was no way to find out what was going on inside there.

Ferd Steinbrenner was still in the hospital and could not be questioned.  He had brain damage from the stroke.

The bourbon and deep breathing was making Burgess calmer.  He would wait until the women came out of the hotel room, but he vowed he would pick them up then.

Burgess was still awaiting the investigative results in Washington for possible incrimination of Willard Modert, Sergi Malcovich and Ivar Cousin as KGB spies.