
BY MARK PHILLIPS
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In the chill of 1971, a seasoned FBI director summons a rising agent to the heart of a baffling investigation. The case is framed in the language of old American fears—enemy aliens, radicals, subversives—yet it points toward a mystery that feels more sci‑fi than spy thriller. As the director’s desperation grows, he pushes the agent to dig into conference tapes, old childhood reads, and a cryptic nickname that haunts the files: “that sweet little old lady.”
The narrative follows the agent’s uneasy plunge into a labyrinth of government paranoia, covert meetings, and a looming sense that humanity may be standing on the brink of something far larger than any Cold‑War threat. With atmospheric dialogue and a dry, wry humor, the story captures the uneasy blend of bureaucracy and wonder, leaving listeners eager to hear how the first clues unfold and what the “sweet little old lady” might really represent.
Language
en
Duration
~3 hours (202K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Greg Weeks, Bruce Albrecht, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
Nov 29, 2007
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1927–1987
A prolific American science fiction and fantasy writer, Randall Garrett is best known for the clever Lord Darcy mysteries, where magic functions as a rigorous science in an alternate twentieth-century world. His energetic short fiction and collaborations helped make him a memorable voice of mid-century speculative literature.
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1933–2002
A prolific American science fiction writer, he published for decades under his own name and several pseudonyms, bringing a brisk, witty style to novels, short fiction, and collaborations. He is especially remembered in the field for his long career and his work on popular series with psi-powered detectives and other offbeat speculative ideas.
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