Читать книгу An Affair of State онлайн

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"I see," Jeff said.

"I'd stick pretty close to Matson, if I were you. I'd try to understand his viewpoint. Since he'll be your Division Chief while you're at your first post, he'll have a good deal to do with the advancement of your career. He won't be so important as your Chief of Mission, and your senior colleagues, naturally, but it doesn't hurt to have friends in the Department."

"What's Matson's viewpoint?"

"Well, just between us, Matson is a war now man. I think he was a bit alarmed by what you said about war, and you'd do well to make your peace with him."

The next day Matson found a desk for Jeff in the Balkans Division. Over this desk began to pass carbons of the incoming file of cables. An American lieutenant had been beaten by the Jugoslavs; three conservative leaders in Rumania had disappeared and were presumed dead; the Cominform in Belgrade was sending propagandists into the Caribbean countries; a Viennese doctor, escaped from a Russian bacteriological warfare laboratory, reported the Russians had been extremely successful in their experiments with anthrax and bubonic plague. Prague was excited about the stepped-up production of the uranium mines in Bohemia, and was wondering what had become of some of our agents in the area. Four Soviet tank divisions were maneuvering in Lower Austria. Budapest said a Swiss traveler had talked to a German scientist who had helped perfect an atomic bomb, in one of the factories beyond the Urals, which would fit into a suitcase. A hand grenade had been thrown at the Legation in Tirana. The Consul in Salonika was sending his wife home.