A new life and a new chance for the Smith family was to begin with the fall semester of 1963. But fate had charted another course for Harold W. Smith.

Smith had been summoned to the Oval Office in the summer of '63. By the time his first clandestine meeting with the President was over, Smith's life had changed forever.

The Dartmouth position was quietly declined. From that summer to fall, Smith worked on the details of a new type of crime-fighting organization. One that would operate outside the confines of the Constitution in order to preserve the very document it would habitually violate.

Smith's organizational abilities and keen mind were without equal. Strategies, funding, staffing were all set up in less than eight weeks. When it came time to name the new agency, Smith chose CURE. It was not an acronym, but a desire. "A CURE for a sick world."

The only thing left was a headquarters. Washington was out of the question. There were too many government agencies, too many prying eyes. With the new computer technology, it was possible to operate from a remote location. However, the woods of North Dakota or some hollowed-out bunker beneath the Rockies were not exactly convenient-either for himself or his family. After a two-month-long search, Smith stumbled upon the perfect location for CURE in, of all places, the New York Times.

As he drove his station wagon along the winding road, Smith allowed himself a rare smile at the memory of that back-page Times throwaway piece.

A high wall rose up from the woods. The road on which he was driving followed the contours of the wall around to a gated entrance. Two stone lines perched atop the granite columns on either side of the main gate. Above, a bronze sign was etched with the words Folcroft Sanitarium.