Blue Smoke and Mirrors

At Grand Forks Air Force Base’s LCF-Fox, jeans, steaks, and missile components disappear in locked rooms. Robin Green, a civilian OSI agent, enlists Risko’s help and reports a glowing figure. CURE director Harold W. Smith sends Remo and Chiun to investigate after the President asks for their involvement. At Fox-4, a near-launch begins before the team arrives. Robin drives the jeep into the exposed silo, where it wedges against the missile’s reentry vehicle and cables; after they leave, the jeep explodes. Technicians separately find the missile’s BITE firmware and the control console’s launch-inhibit module missing. The faceless figure is seen again, and the investigators recover stolen items at a hotel, but it escapes.

A flashback reveals the thief as KGB Captain Rair Brashnikov, using a Japanese vibration suit stolen by the KGB. The suit lets him pass through solid matter; the Soviet officials’ account of how it works remains an in-story technical theory. Smith connects recovered RAM samples to the Northrop Plant Forty-two facility and sends Remo and Chiun to stop another theft. Brashnikov steals more tiles and escapes; during the pursuit, Robin crashes but survives. Chiun follows Brashnikov to a motel and recovers the tiles, while the thief vanishes into a phone receiver. Smith and the team set a trap at Pease AFB’s Bunker 445, using a hologram and mirrors.

Brashnikov becomes trapped again and enters the telephone network by an apparent accident. Smith disconnects the destination phone before Brashnikov arrives. The Epilogue first lets two telephone callers hear his plea, then returns to Brashnikov’s point of view as he rushes endlessly through a tunnel, fears he may truly be dead, and wonders why the voices are American. His continuing consciousness is depicted, while the physical mechanism and outcome remain unresolved.