running a source under cover
it has been my good fortune to meet your adolescent friend, Mr. Orin J. Incandenza, and to have become intrigued with the possibilities of a profile of the Incandenza family and its accomplishments
Context
An intelligence officer works a childhood source by mail, from behind full cover apparatus: the letterhead "From the Desk of Helen Steeply / Contributing Editor / Moment Magazine," the Tucson bureau address, the disarming pretext of a warm family "profile." Every element is legend — the fabricated name, the fabricated job, the fabricated editorial interest — deployed to open a correspondence with Marlon Bain and mine him for Incandenza intelligence under the guise of soft journalism. The soft-profile cover that failed to reach Hal in person is here posted through the mail to reach a source who "dislike[s] to meet people outside your home and office."