Program for a Puppet by Roland Perry

saying the investigation was definitely extremely dangerous, especially since the Russian gentleman and his two friends had asked for him at his hotel in Vienna.
    This greatly worried Sir Alfred. But he could see from the Australian’s determination that there would be no stopping him. He resigned himself to assisting him.
    â€œWhere do you go from here?” he asked.
    â€œI’ve found a possible way into Computer Increments,” Graham said, “but I’ll need your help.”
    â€œWhich is?”
    â€œI’m going to pretend I’m from a London paper interviewing secretaries for a Secretary of the Year award. This is given each year to secretaries from small to large companies.”
    â€œI can fix that. But be discreet and careful,” Sir Alfred said. He paused to light a cigar. “Tell me, why a secretary?”
    â€œHow much does your secretary know about you, your work and your private life?”
    â€œToo much.” Sir Alfred laughed ruefully.
    â€œIt’s a long shot,” Graham said, lighting a cigarette, “but it’s worth a try.”
    George Revel was still reeling from the events of the past week as he sat back and loosened his tie aboard a Brussels-bound 747 from Washington. Time to have a vodka martini and read the newspapers’ flattering accounts of the Justice Department’s comeback in the legal wrangle with Lasercomp. Six days earlier he had received a phone call from Secretary of State Edward Grove, who wanted to arrange a rendezvous at the U.S. attorney general’s New York office.
    Grove outlined to him President Rickard’s team—called PICS, for Probe Into Computer Smuggling—set up to examine the flow of computers into the U.S.S.R. His role would be to head corporate investigations, especially in Europe. He would file a report on the accounts and business activities of American corporations which might be involved in the smuggling of computers into communist countries.
    Revel was given twenty-four hours to think it over. From his point of view, the timing was perfect, because the Justice Department versus Lasercomp battle was over. There was, of course, always the problem of behind-the-scenes maneuvering by Lasercomp to delay the judge’s decision and influence his judgment in some way. This had happened several times. Yet this might not be a major problem. Revel’s subordinates could handle most things, and if any emergency arose, he could go back to the case.
    Revel was excited by the PICS assignment. Anything to do with curtailing the illegal power of Lasercomp interested him greatly. He accepted the appointment, and was ordered to appear in Washington three days later to meet the rest of the PICS team, and to be briefed on his assignment.
    At this meeting he learned of his official cover for his investigation.European Economic Community government prosecutors, who wanted to put more stringent legal controls on multinationals, had issued a long-standing invitation to U.S. Justice Department officials and lawers to come and help them. George Revel would accept the invitation and visit Brussels, Paris, Stuttgart, Milan and London, and would have a couple of days’ “rest” in Vienna. In all these places except Vienna he would have special EEC authority to examine the accounts and files of any multinational.
    Brussels would be his first call. It was to be fairly routine with some publicity given to his visit, to promote the idea that a highly esteemed U.S. Justice Department official had come to help EEC in their legal fight against the big multinational corporations.
    Revel would be in London in less than two weeks. There, among other things, he hoped to arrange a meeting with the journalist who had written an article on computer smuggling.
    â€œOh, and there was a call from a Mr. Huntsman of Lasercomp,” the private secretary to Sir Alfred said, sending a chill through Graham as he made his daily