He said: " This is all fully urgent."

It was the big signal, then. 'Fully Urgent' was Control's phrase for covering most of the other ones from ' Top Secret ' through ' Action at Once ' to ' Priority Red.'

He could keep it.

"Find someone else," I said. "I'm homeward bound."

I felt better now. The big signal wasn't for monkeying with, and I'd monkeyed.

The words came softly out of his cupped hands:

"KLJ was found dead last night."

It caught me like a blow in the face and I began sweating immediately because years of training had kept my eyes and mouth and hands expressionless as the shock of the words hit me, and the body, denied instinctive reaction, has to do something at a time like this; so I sat facing him with calm eyes and a quiet mouth and motionless hands, and felt the sweat coming.

He said: " We want you to take his place."

2: THE HOOK

I told him they couldn't expect it of me.

He said it was a request, not an order.

Talking was difficult most of the time because the music would break suddenly now and then in a good imitation of the West Side Story style, and a word we had pitched against the volume of the orchestra would explode in a gap of silence. It was easier during the two intervals; we locked the door of the box and sat on the carpet with our backs to the balcony, unviewable even from the highest box on the other side of the auditorium; the murmur of the people gave good background cover for our voices.