Bottom Line — Warren Murphy; Richard Sapir

RATS!
The President was calling. Dr. Harold W. Smith, head of the secret agency known as CURE, took the phone from the bottom left drawer of his desk and answered with a sigh, "Yes, sir."

The president of the United States could not directly assign CURE to do anything, he could only suggest. The one and only order any president could give CURE would be for its immediate dissolvement. And five presidents now hadn't quite done that. Though all five were often tempted.

"What do you know about the Lippincott case?" the Southern voice asked. Smith regurgitated a two-page, single-spaced capsule of hard information.

"Uh, huh. Well, I hear there's a plot to kill all the Lippincotts, and it has something to do with animals. Weird experiments, like."

"I see," gagged Smith.

"Yeah, and I think it involves my having the Lippincotts use their clout to open up new trading markets in China."

The hint was clear. The White House would like the Destroyer to take a look at the situation.

"You'll be using those two, I suppose?"

Smith rolled his eyes upward, "I imagine so."

"Whatever you say," he drawled, "just, er, um, tell them to keep the deaths down."

It would be a tricky assignment, mused Smith. Keep the dollar up, the deaths down.

Better have Ruby Gonzales join 'em on this one....