Theory

A call came in one afternoon from an Admiral's office at the War College.....someone had gone missing, a theorist with access to the most secret aspects of current strategic thinking.  He had been on a short vacation, to deal with personal matters he had said....so some days had passed before anyone at his office even realized that he was out of contact.  He was unmarried....his known friends and relations did not know where he might be.....did the Agency have any file on him?

Our only entry under his name was a confirmation that his security clearance was of the highest level.....all we could do was speculate.....  Speculation sometimes leads to some good result.  Talking with his close associates at his office, one of our Field Officers ascertained that the gentleman in question had been morose of late.....distracted and glum, out of sorts .....personal matters?  In his rooms we found a book....The State of Man: Metaphysics of the Modern Age....a work of a fairly radical foreign philosopher, who freely disparaged the traditional ideals of established human society.

Of course the leadership of the War College were concerned that perhaps the theorist had been abducted by some clandestine intelligence organization, or had gone over to another government with his insights into our military thinking seeking profit, or for some other reason....perhaps he had other loyalties.....But some of us involved in the matter began to speculate that this lonely and seemingly depressed individual might have decided that the modern condition of humanity was something inherently unbearable.  He had last been seen on a tram that went to a resort area by the sea.....eventually his remains were found.....he had walked into the water with heavy rocks in the pockets of his overcoat.....a victim of metaphysical theory?