Paul grimaced. "This is why I called. You've got to make--or someone's
got to make--one hell of an important decision in the next couple of
days. It's not up to me. For once I'm not to be brushed off with that
'don't bother me with details,' routine."
"Decision? What decision? You said everything was all ready to go,
didn't you?"
"Look," Paul Koslov said, "remember when you gave me this assignment.
When you told me about the Germans sending Lenin up to Petrograd in
hopes he'd start a revolution and the British sending Somerset Maugham
to try and prevent it?"
"Yes, yes, man. What's that got to do with it?" Even over the long
distance, the Chief's voice sounded puzzled.
"Supposedly the Germans were successful, and Maugham failed. But looking
back at it a generation later, did the Germans win out by helping bring
off the Bolshevik revolution? The Soviets destroyed them for all time as
a first-rate power at Stalingrad, twenty-five years afterwards."