ABSTRACT
Three a.m. at the intercept desk deep in the bowels of CIA headquarters was not usually a time of great activity. While the constant chatter of signals traveling to and from distant capitals continued at its normal pace, the quality of the intercepts in the early morning hours was generally not sufficient to justify the presence of a highly regarded cryptanalyst. Rayna Laszlo, recently arrived at Langley from Bismarck, where she had undergone her training, was on duty. Knowing that there probably would not be anything significant in the transmissions, she felt reasonably secure in passing the time studying for her comprehensive examination in Biochemistry, one of the few obstacles remaining between her and the Ph.D. she sought. As fate would have it, had anyone but Rayna been on duty, it is unlikely that there would ever have been a solution to the case that came to be known only by the code name “38 Trip 2 Tire”. The name, sounding like a quarterback’s signal, seemed appropriate in a town in which the Redskins dominated the news six months out of the year.
