{"product_id":"2940014031370","title":"ONE-SHOT","description":"On the day that the Polish freighter _Ludmilla_ laid an egg in New York\u003cbr\u003eharbor, Abner Longmans (\"One-Shot\") Braun was in the city going about\u003cbr\u003ehis normal business, which was making another million dollars. As we\u003cbr\u003efound out later, almost nothing else was normal about that particular\u003cbr\u003eweek end for Braun. For one thing, he had brought his family with him--a\u003cbr\u003ecomplete departure from routine--reflecting the unprecedentedly\u003cbr\u003elegitimate nature of the deals he was trying to make. From every point\u003cbr\u003eof view it was a bad week end for the CIA to mix into his affairs, but\u003cbr\u003enobody had explained that to the master of the _Ludmilla_.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI had better add here that we knew nothing about this until afterward;\u003cbr\u003efrom the point of view of the storyteller, an organization like Civilian\u003cbr\u003eIntelligence Associates gets to all its facts backwards, entering the\u003cbr\u003etale at the pay-off, working back to the hook, and winding up with a\u003cbr\u003esheaf of background facts to feed into the computer for Next Time. It's\u003cbr\u003erough on the various people who've tried to fictionalize what we\u003cbr\u003edo--particularly for the lazy examples of the breed, who come to us\u003cbr\u003eexpecting that their plotting has already been done for them--but it's\u003cbr\u003einherent in the way we operate, and there it is.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCertainly nobody at CIA so much as thought of Braun when the news first\u003cbr\u003ecame through. Harry Anderton, the Harbor Defense chief, called us at\u003cbr\u003e0830 Friday to take on the job of identifying the egg; this was when our\u003cbr\u003erecords show us officially entering the affair, but, of course, Anderton\u003cbr\u003ehad been keeping the wires to Washington steaming for an hour before\u003cbr\u003ethat, getting authorization to spend some of his money on us (our\u003cbr\u003eclearance status was then and is now C\u0026amp;R--clean and routine).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI was in the central office when the call came through, and had some\u003cbr\u003edifficulty in making out precisely what Anderton wanted of us. \"Slow\u003cbr\u003edown, Colonel Anderton, please,\" I begged him. \"Two or three seconds\u003cbr\u003ewon't make that much difference. How did you find out about this egg in\u003cbr\u003ethe first place?\"","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079864467696,"sku":"2940014031370","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940014031370_p0.jpg?v=1763599385","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014031370","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}