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"Good night"

Nichols slipped his pipe between his teeth but didn't pack or light the bowl He set his attache case off to the side of his desk, and, still wearing his overcoat, he sat down and examined Yazid's file

Farquar had not exaggerated It was slih the last six years were heavily reported, Yazid's life before his rapid rise froraph His debut in the newsa sit-in de masses inside the lobby of a luxury tourist hotel He had distinguished hi in the worst slum areas of the country

Akhmad Yazid stated he was born in squalid poverty in aarbage duin between survival and death until his two sisters and father died fro conditions

He had no for his adolescent years by Islamic holy men, none of ere found to back up this assertion Yazid clai divine revelations to the faiffiffil and urging theypt to a utopian Islamic state

Yazid possessed a resonant speaking voice He had the skilled mannerisms and delivery to enrapture a crowd of listenets, slowly building them to a fever pitch at the finish He insisted Western philosophy was incapable of resolving Egypt's social/economic problems

He preached that all Egyptians are h his moral vision

Though he vehemently clai terroris the eneral, a truck explosion outside the Soviet E of four university teachers who spoke out in favor of Western ways, were traced to Yazid's doorstep Nothing was proven but through sketchy inforained from Musli a masterstroke to eli wave of public acclaim

Nichols laid down the file and finally filled and lit his pipe

A tiny, indefinable thought tugged at him from the far reaches of his mind

Souely fa malevolently at the camera

The answer suddenly struck Nichols It was si

He picked up his telephone and punched the coded nu the desk top with his fingers until a voice answered on the other end

"This is Brogan"

"Martin, thank heavens you're working late This is Dale Nichols"