The phone rang at one in the morning,

"The Man Downstairs wants one-hundred-

percent cooperation," said a raspy, uniden-

tified voice. "You ve been mouthing around

about not giving it The Party don t

stand for city workers that aren t loyal.

You follow me?"

Don Ellison followed him only too well.

He had been working for the city for six

months, and he and his new wife were hav-

ing a hard time making ends meet. Then a

memo came around saying the Party

wanted a "voluntary contribution" from all

city workers. Don s share came to a stag-

gering $260, and there was nothing "volun-

tary" about it. You either gave or the Man

Downstairs---the Party s powerful political

boss--sent up your walking papers.

But Don had been brought up with rigid

ideas about honesty, and it offended him to

become part of a corrupt system. Little by

little, first stalling, later angered by the

pressures put on him, he resisted--and the

political boat began to rock.

Urban politics at their worst are realisti-

cally portrayed in this fast-moving, crisply

written novel about a young city employee

who wasn t afraid to be the only man to say

No.