The President stared. "In the suitcase? What are we sending? A dwarf?"
"Hardly," said the Secretary, snapping up the hasps on the suitcase and opening it upon the table. "This," he said, lifting something from under tissue-paper padding, "is Agent X-45."
The President's gaze was returned by two shiny black eyes, set on either side of a little brown muzzle with a gentle, stitched-on smile. Agent X-45 was clad in flight helmet, miniature jacket and tiny boots, with a baggy pair of brown canvas trousers belted at the waist with a bandolier holding a dozen small wooden bullets, and dangling a patent-leather holster containing a plastic water pistol. And he wore a small parachute and harness.
"But that's a teddy bear!" cried the President.
"Precisely," Professor Blake said.
"I think I'll sit down," said the President, and did so, visibly looking like a man who believes he is surrounded by lunatics.