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Nor had any creature coned indivinual sleeping quarters with private bathrooant dining room that was serviced by an excellent Korean chef and taiters

Furnishings, including kitchen freezers and ovens, office fixtures and the data control roo in cool blues and greens The design and execution of every detail was as exotic as it was complex

And yet the self-contained habitat also served as a luxurious prison Lugovoy's staff was not pero The elevator doors were closed at all times and there were no outer controls He made a compartment-to-compartment search but detected no s or visible crack of an exterior exit No sounds filtered in from the outside

Further investigation was cut short by the arrival of his subjects

They were semi-conscious fros All four had been prepared and lain inside separate cubicles called cocoons The padded insides were sea no reference point for the eye to dwell on Diht, tinting the cocoon ray Specially constructed walls shielded all sound and electrical current that could interfere with or enhance brain activity

Lugovoy sat at a console with two of his assistants and studied the row of color vineoin their cocoons Most remained in a trancelike state of limbo One, however, was raised to a near level of consciousness, vulnerable to suggestion and s were injected that nu any body movement His head was covered by a plastic skull cap

L,ugovoy still found it difficult to grasp the power he held He trereat experiments of the century What he did in the next days could affect the world as radically as the developy

"Dr Lugovoy?"

Lugovoy's concentration was interrupted by the strange voice, and he turned, surprised, to see a stocky y black hair who seely stepped out of a wall

"Who are you?" he blurted

The stranger spoke very softly as though he didn't wish to be overheard "Suvorov, Paul Suvorov, foreign security"

Lugovoy paled "My God, you're KGB? How did you get here?"

"Pure luck," Suvorov ned to my security section for observation from the day'you set foot in New York After your suspicious visit to the Bougainville Maritime offices, I took over your surveillance myself I was present on the ferryboat when you were contacted by the ht you here

Because of the darkness I had no difficultyincluded for the trip to wherever it is we are

Since our arrival I've kept to my room"