Briggs discovered early that people bigger than life are more readily accepted than ordinary people. That's why he became an extraordinarily successful con man. And that is why, when the government needs someone special, someone with the gift of gab, with the ability to blend in with any surroundings, someone with an intimate knowledge of the cold world of the espionage agent, they call for Briggs. He can be who he needs to be, when he needs to be. And he knows the Russian mind and language as if they are his own.