Joe continued to nod.
Holland was increasingly irritated. "Then why, good heavens, do you say your mission was unnecessary?"
"Because they had already sent a mission over here to contact us," Joe told him, evenly.
Had he suddenly got up from his chair, walked up the wall, across the ceiling, then down the other wall, they could not have stared at him the more.
The telly-mike on Phil Holland's desk squeaked something, and he took time enough to snap, "No. I told you, Miss Mikhail, I was not to be disturbed by anyone."
But Joe said, "If that's Colonel Lajos Arpád, I suggest you have him in. I took the liberty of phoning him and asking that he meet us here."
Frank Hodgson was the first to recover. "Arpád! That spy! I've just about gathered enough dope on him to have him declared persona non grata and ship him back to Budapest."
"As I was shipped back to Greater Washington," Joe said dryly. "Colonel Arpád and I seem to duplicate each other's activities in almost everything."
Phil Holland said crisply into the communicator, "Ask the colonel to come in, Miss Mikhail."