A sickening pall has fallen over the city - a new and horrifying disease called sturnusemia. Birds, apparently its carrier, are being gassed by municipal death squads. Lately, official word is that cats and dogs are also carriers - and the deadly yellow vapor of the D-Squads becomes an everyday sight. Only one lone civil servant - called Smith Jones in Kurtz's file - has voiced his suspicions about the new plague. But he seems to have disappeared.