"Now then," Tracy snapped. "I want the names of your higher ups, and the address of your central office, Flowers. Frankly, you're in the soup. As you possibly know, our hush-hush department has unlimited emergency powers, being answerable only to the President."
"I ... I've never even heard of it." Flowers stuttered. "But—"
Tracy held up a contemptuous hand. "Many people haven't," he said curtly.
Frank Tracy hurried through the outer office into LaVerne Sandell's domain, and bit out to her, "Tell the Chief I'm here. Crisis. And immediately get my team together, all eight of them. Heavy equipment. Have a jet readied. Chicago. The team will rendezvous at the airport."
LaVerne was just as crisp. "Yes, sir." She began doing things with buttons and switches.
Tracy hurried into the Chief's office and didn't bother with the usual amenities. He snapped, "Worse than I thought, sir. This outfit is possibly openly subversive. Deliberately undermining the economy."
His superior put down the report he was perusing and shifted his bulk backward. "You're sure? We seldom run into such extremes."
"I know, I know, but this could be it. Possibly a deliberate program. I've taken the initiative to have Miss Sandell summon my team."
"Now, see here, Frank—" The bureau head looked at him anxiously.