other members of the group: Janis, "The Whore", a drug dealer and panderer; "The Warlock", a culturally sophisticated homosexual; and "The Erector Set", a highly skilled thief and burglar. Janis begs off of the mission, saying that he won't work for The Highwayman, but only for Sturdevant, whom he believes would never have killed himself. Rone finally bribes him into agreeing to participate. The Warlock joins the operation without hesitation, but The Erector Set's hands have become too arthritic to be of use. Instead, he sends his beautiful daughter, B.A., in his place, as he has trained her to be as capable as is he. The group's mission is the retrieval of a letter, written without proper authorization, that promises United States aid to the Soviet Union in destroying Chinese atomic weapons plants. The letter had been solicited on behalf of an unknown high-level Soviet official by Dmitri Polyakov, who had previously been selling Soviet secrets to the United States that he had obtained from that same Soviet official. Upon finding out about the letter, which was a de facto "declaration of war against China", U.S. and British authorities had contacted Polyakov and arranged to buy it back from him. However, Polyakov then committed suicide after being apprehended by Soviet counter-intelligence, under the direction of Colonel Yakov Kosnov. The group blackmails Captain Potkin, the Soviet head of counter-intelligence in the U.S., threatening his family to force him to allow them the use of his usually-vacant apartment in Moscow. Once they arrive in the Soviet Union, the terminally ill Highwayman sacrifices his life, attempting to divert the attention of Soviet counter-intelligence away from the remainder of the team. Rone is assigned to remain at the apartment with Ward and accept reports verbally from other team members, Rone's memory allowing them to avoid the use of written records. Janis, The Warlock and B.A. then set out to establish themselves in various parts of Russian society as they try to ascertain the identity of Polyakov's contact. Janis enters a partnership with a local brothel operator, who points him to a Chinese man known as "The Kitai" as a possible source for names of officials and others to whom he can sell heroin, with which Janis already plans to keep the prostitutes addicted. Janis later discerns that the Kitai is also a spy and further happens to spot Kosnov leaving a local night club