The first-person narrator, Simon “Si” Morley, works as an illustrator for an advertising company in 1970s New York City. He is bored with his work, which currently is illustrating soap bars. Si says, “It was an ordinary day, a Friday, twenty minutes till lunchtime, five hours till quitting time and the weekend, ten months till vacation, thirty-seven years till retirement” (2). Then, Si is informed that he has a visitor.

The visitor starts by demanding that Si recite his Army serial number. Si does so without thought, after which the visitor introduces himself as Major Ruben “Rube” Prien. The two go to lunch, during which Rube explains that he wants to recruit Si for a secret government project. It is so secret that he cannot tell him anything else about it until Si agrees to join, but he promises that it is “more important than all the nuclear, space-exploration, satellite, and rocket programs put together” (5). During this conversation, Rube also proves that he (and by extension the government) knows a shocking amount about Si’s personal life.

Curious but unconvinced, Si asks why they are interested in him. Rube explains that the project has been looking through test records of anyone who once served in the military and says that based on those tests, Si is precisely the kind of person they need.