To Smith it was like remotely assembling a jigsaw puzzle. The map he had drawn early on for the proposed telephone line was updated as progress was made. It was spotty at first. After three years it was little more than a long dotted line. But over the course of the past two years, that dotted line had slowly, laboriously closed up. Until all that remained was the final connection in New Roehelle.

A man of lesser patience would never have lasted so long at such a project. But, among his other sterling attributes, Dr. Harold W. Smith had patience in abundance. He was also single-minded of purpose. When he began a task, he didn't stop until it was completed.

Which was part of the reason he was chosen for his current position as the man who would save America.

"A cure for a sick world." That was what the man who hired Smith for this impossible task had said. "America is in trouble, Smith," the young President of the United States told him during one of the handful of early, fateful meetings that set Smith on his new life's mission. "We can no longer handle crime. Government is living within the boundaries of the Constitution while organized crime continues to turn the Constitution on its head. It's a losing battle that the thugs are winning."

That conversation took place eight years ago. Right now, as he drove along the autumn-shaded New York road, it seemed like another lifetime.

At the time Smith had been a CIA analyst nearing early retirement. He had logged more time for king and country than most. As his youth darkened under the looming shadow of middle age, Smith decided to opt out for a more settled life. He was offered and had accepted a professorship at Dartmouth, his alma mater.

His wife was thrilled. Maude Smith couldn't wait for her Harold to assume the role of normal father. At the time, their daughter, Vickie, was in the early stages of some sort of teenage rebellion. Maude didn't much like to talk about it. When she did, she blamed it on the crazy times they lived in. It would be good for all of them for Harold to be at the dinner table like a traditional husband and father.