Let’s face reality. I’m persona non grata everywhere, including the country of my birth—Russia—where they took a dim view of my ‘defecting’ even though I was a child in arms at the time and all the rest of my family had been liquidated in the purges. Relatives smuggled me out over the Finnish border and finally got me here to America.”

The commissioner said, “What I should have said was, ‘Are you basically pro-American or anti-Communist?’ ”

The international troubleshooter took him in. “I thought they meant the same thing.”

“Not necessarily.”

Paul Kosloff was getting tired of this routine. He said, “All right. I’ve been ordered to contact you secretly. What do you want me to do?”

“Stop a revolution.”

“That’s my specialty. That’s what you people have been having me do for… as long as I can remember. Why the buildup? Do I have to assassinate some present-day Trotsky or Mao, or what?”

“The revolution is to take place, or is taking place, in North Africa, all of North Africa, but we are particularly concerned with Algeria, Tunisia and Libya.”

Paul Kosloff stared at him before saying, “They’ve already got Marxist governments there. Perhaps not totally commie, but awfully close to it.”

“That’s what I’ve been building up to. The revolution we’re talking about is against the socialist-communist-anarchist, call them what you will, governments in North Africa. It would also involve the Sudan, which considers itself socialist, and Mauretania, also supposedly left wing. A certain El Hassan and his followers wish to overthrow them all, not to speak of the right-wing military dictatorships to the south.”

“Why not let him?” Paul Kosloff growled.

“His ultimate aim is to unite all of Africa north of the Congo.”